Stirling and Doune

After 2 days of severe jet-lag, hanging out at home with my family, and enjoying some local parks with my brother and his kiddos, we decided to go see some castles! We got really lucky with the weather that day....it was beautiful and so warm. When Ryan and I went to Scotland in 2004, prior to having any children, we went to a bunch of castles. I wasn't sure if we'd get to see as many this time around, but we had a couple in mind that Ryan for sure wanted to visit. Growing up we'd go to castles for school trips, on days off with my extended family, and I even went to a couple on youth trips with the church. Despite being to so many, I never tire of the experience....there is always breathtaking scenery to enjoy and it was really cool to take Jack inside a real life castle.

Our first stop was Stirling Castle. That's a statue of Robert the Bruce that sits outside the entrance, and in the distance you can just barely see the Wallace Monument.

Jack got fairly excited about this "big water gun"(as he called it) and sat on it for quite some time while Ryan walked around trying to figure out where in the castle he was supposed to be according to his audio tour...very amusing.

Here's a nice wee photo of Jack and I in the courtyard of the castle grounds. This kid has become a pro-poser...that's what happens when your mum is a nutter like me and takes hundreds upon hundreds of photos.
I love Jack's wee tiny self gazing at the side of the castle in this one. And in case you were wondering, Peter stayed outside roaming the grounds with my mum. He managed to spill an entire cup of juice down himself and when we returned from our wander around the inside he was wearing a "Nessie" t-shirt that my mum bought in the castle shop.
After a spot of lunch and a "luxury Scottish ice cream" (at least that's what the ice cream van claimed) we headed off to Doune Castle, only 20 mins away. Heard of Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Well, this castle was primarily used in the movie and apparently they actually have an annual Monty Python day at the castle...interesting, I'm sure there are lots of weird and wonderful people that attend that!
We took both boys for a look inside this castle and they loved it. I did too. This one, to me, had a "true" old castle feel, it really was something else.

The way there

We have returned! It was the loveliest trip home and because we packed so many wonderful things into our two week visit to Scotland, I'm planning on writing a series of short posts on each.

On Sunday the 5th we arose at around 3:30am. I thought the boys would be a disaster waking them up at that time in the morning, but both were strangely cheerful...fine with me! Ryan's sister, Callie, had come on Saturday and took us to the airport. We arrived and actually had quite a bit of time to kill before our plane boarded. Thankfully they had a t.v near our gate showing kids programes, so Jack was plenty satisfied...he really likes to watch his morning cartoons.

Our first fight was just under 5 hours. Both boys were pretty tired by the time we got on the plane and conked out just after we took off. Jack loved the take off, although his ears bothered him quite a bit until he zonked out. Peter slept for about 2 1/2 hours on this flight, but was still behaving himself and manageable for the remainder of the time. We only had an hour and a half in the Philadelphia airport, so we let them play in this pretty cool 'Please touch museum' that was also close to our gate until boarding time.
The second flight to Glasgow was just under 6 hours...not bad I thought before we took off....oh how wrong I was. Jack was amazing...REALLY amazing. Peter, however, was a living nightmare. He looks so cute and innocent in this picture below...he's good at deceiving people like that..ha.
He only slept for about an hour at the start of those 6 hours and then he was non-stop into EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE for remainder of the time. Then just as we were about to land the kid conked out again....hmmm. I hadn't had a single wink of sleep and by the time we landed in Glasgow the tears began to flow. I was so grateful to be home, but more grateful to get off that plane. We arrived at 7am(Scotland time) Monday 6th. My family were all waking up to start their day and all we wanted to do was go to bed. As hard as we tried to hold off and go to bed when we should, none of us managed and we each took extremely long naps throughout the day. Here's Peter meeting my brother, Daniel for the first time. Daniel had never met either of my boys before because he was on his mission each time I was over with Jack.
Even when we'd wake Jack up from taking a nap he'd end up this like after a few minutes...poor kid.
Later in the evening my grandparents came over for a delicious dinner and they brought a fun 'Thomas the Tank Engine' cake for Jack and Peter.
That first night both boys had a rough time adjusting to their new time schedule, but that's jet-lag for you....it took about 3 days for them to really get on Scotland time. The second day we were so excited to see my brother, John, his wife Margaret, and my two gorgeous wee nephews, Samuel(3) and Isaac(almost 2).

Here's Jack giving Samuel(below) his belated birthday present, he had just turned 3 the week before we came.

The wee cousins got on really well and to be honest that was one of the hardest things for me to see...it's so sad that they don't get to see them all the time; I know they would be the best of friends and they were while we were there.

Oh flower of Scotland

At 4am tomorrow we will be on our way to Scotland. I have butterflies in my stomach. I'm excited, and very very nervous.....it's going to be a LONG flight with my busy boys, but it'll be so worth it. Back in 2 weeks with lots of photo's!