Machina

Miss Catriona Mitchell.

We've been best friends since we were 11yrs old.

I can't tell you how much I love her.

We laugh so hard when we're together.

I miss her all the time.

It just wasn't long enough.

Family BBQ at Castle Semple

Sunday 12th we attended Stake Conference in Glasgow. It was nice to see some familiar faces and the talks were really good. Afterwards we headed over to Castle Semple, where my grandparents and cousins, the Hales, live. My cousin, Olivia, had been married there just the month prior for her civil ceremony before heading down to the Preston Temple. The marquee they used for the cutting of the cake, and eating of the cake was still up and it was so it was there that we had our family BBQ. These are my favourite times when I go home...I love getting to see everyone all in one go.

My cousin, Larissa, also had a gorgeous wee girl not long before we got there...wee Islay was passed around quite a bit throughout the day, we were all desperate for a hold. Here she is with my sister, Rachel.

Enjoying some yummy chocolate orange cupcakes that my cousin, Nevada, made. Brilliant face in this one Dane.

The two American's in the background..Ryan and my uncle Larry.

Ben (Olivia's new husband), Larissa, Olivia, and Nevada.

I have been in desperate need of a hair cut for quite some time....luckily my cousin, Madeline, kindly offered to cut it for me. Thank you so much...I love it.

And then it was my turn again to hold wee Islay. I just loved her. I need a wee girl.

Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Bo'ness

Today the wee ones and I are loaded with the cold, so maybe while they sleep I'll be able to bust out a couple of posts from our trip to Scotland....we shall see.

My dad attended Glasgow University for his law degree....pictured below. It's such a cool looking building. In 2004, Ryan and I went for a wee mini-tour around it with my dad. We weren't able, however, to go into the Kelvingrove art galleries at that time, which is located just minutes away, as it was under renovation. Ryan was pretty anxious to get a look inside this time around.

The Art Gallery is stunning, but compared to when I was little the permanent exhibitions aren't as cool. They used to have an amazing dinosaur gallery, and an 'under the sea' room which I remember being incredible. Maybe they weren't really that great, but that's how I remember them. My granny and my aunt Joy (my mum's younger sister) met us there.

Here's a picture of the enormous organ located just inside one of the entrances. For half an hour each day a wee lady comes out and plays it...and all the old biddies sit fascinated and give her a standing ovation when it's over...I loved it.
Ryan and I looked through some of the permanent exhibitions, but we spent the majority of our time looking through the visiting exhibit 'Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900'. There were some really lovely paintings. We got a nice surprise when my cousin, Nevada, appeared as we exited the exhibit. Later after Nevada and my mum reused our tickets for the 'Glasgow Boys', we went to the 'Uni cafe' ( I think that's what it was called) and had some yummy lunch. Ryan got his first irn bru( Scottish drink) since arriving and had a wee pork pie and beans....I think he liked it? Ryan has some issues with some of the things we eat in Scotland...it's funny to watch him try new things.

The following day, we got together with my brother and his family again. We took a 45 min drive to a wee town called Bo'ness. This is where the real 'Thomas the tank engine' lives...oh and Percy.....and the annoying Fat Controller.They charge an arm and a leg to get into this place, and really there isn't a whole lot to it, but it was still worth it for the wee ones sake. They, at least, had a fun filled day.

The train(pictured below) takes you on a 30 min ride through some pretty countryside, and then dumps you in a fairly isolated area with a few kiddy rides and a tent with a guy doing a 'punch and judy' puppet show. Ryan and Jack actually loved the puppet show....jack laughed the loudest every time 'Judy' smacked 'punch' in the face with a mallet....great.

Me (holding Peter), my brother, John, Isaac, Samuel, and Jack.

Ryan with Peter, Jack, and Percy.

We stood in a queue for a few mins to get a look inside Thomas' engine. The men that work here and are pretending to be Thomas' drivers take their job VERY seriously.

Another wee train we got to ride on....it simply went back and forward a few times...and was powered by our smiles!!! haha

Jack (and some random overly excited girl) enjoying the swing ride.

Jack got his face painted as he watched the puppet show....he wanted #4 for Gordon.

Just before we left the wee ones saw this little carousel of cars, etc.

Oh how I wish they hadn't. Jack, Samuel, and just about every other kid in the vicinity wanted to ride on the bloomin' double decker bus. Specifically the top of the bus. It turned into utter chaos and the woman in charge of the ride started screaming like a nutter that there was no way she was coming back to work tomorrow. She was even heard exclaiming " I don't care if you're related to God himself, you are not getting on the top of that bus unless I say so!" Baaahhaa

I was extremely happy it was time to leave after that.

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!

I love you Cannon Beach

Since summer began Jack has been asking to go to the beach. I would love to be courageous enough to take the wee ones by myself during the week, but I just don't think I'm cut out for that kind of stress....so we planned on going on a Saturday when Ryan could come along too. PROBLEM--we have come to realize that Ryan's calling/title should actually be Ward Mover coordinator rather than Elder's quorum president....just about every single week he's had to help someone move into the ward or out of it. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's important to serve one another and I can't help but admire Ryan's positive attitude and his willingness to help( I complain about it WAY more than him), but it's been a little hard having him gone so often.

Well, I thought for sure our scheduled beach trip would be cancelled due to another move last Saturday, but Ryan, being the good dad that he is, didn't want to disappoint and we went anyway even though a little later in the afternoon. We've been to Lincoln City a number of times, and it is the closest, which is always appealing to me....I hate long car trips. But I really wanted to go to Cannon Beach. We've never been and it just looked so beautiful in all of the photos I'd seen. I wasn't disappointed....well, I guess it was a little sad that it was overcast, but really is wasn't bad at all as it was still a warm day.

Jack was beyond ecstatic to have finally arrived at the beach of his dreams. Both boys spent the majority of time in the water despite the fact that it was pretty bloomin' cold. After a late lunch, a captivating rescue( we don't actually know what happened, but 6 paramedic and lifeguard rescue cars came down onto the beach and zoomed past us), and plenty of sand castle building, both boys were frozen to the bone from being in the water for so long and were ready to head home. It was worth the 2 hour drive each way and I will definitely take my sister and brother-in-law there when the come in October...even though it'll be even colder.

Little Petey had finally had enough and sat quite content with a towel around him watching his brother continue to build castles.

When we got home it was pretty late, but since both boys had slept in the car we let them watch a movie for a little while. Jack is currently obsessed with the old Winnie the Pooh collection(which I love). I adore that wee Peter sat with his hand on Jack's lap.

Here is one last random photo of Jack and his new favourite past time.....thankfully he put another cushion in front of him before he launched himself into the air...I am happy to report that so far there have been no injuries.