Becky and Toby's Trip Highlights

Hi there, long time no blog! I've been busy!!

We are so blessed to have our family and friends come and visit us all the way in Scotland. Kasey came last August and Faye and her mom, Donna, visited last October. Our first set of visitors of this year were Ryan's parents. We were so excited for them to come because we knew how much they would love the country side and how they would appreciate the break from the Texas heat.

One thing with visitors is you get a chance to appreciate everything you've mindlessly taken for granted. Becky couldn't get over how green it was and they both loved the beautiful hills, two things we see everyday. Sometimes we forget how breathtaking the country we live in truly is until we see it with someone 'new'. I love this about having visitors because even though the scenery, mild climate and outdoor lifestyle is what I love about Scotland, it's always good to be reminded and see an 'outsider' enjoy it too.

Toby and Becky landed early and didn't get much sleep on the plane so after a bite to eat for lunch and a cat nap, we hit the ground running for the next 8 days.

Here are the highlights of their trip from my point of view. I should have Becky guest post about their trip! :-) (My pictures are limited since I let Becky do most of the picture taking).

1. Dunnottar Castle- it's mystical no matter what time of year and no matter what the weather. You can stay here and admire it for hours whether it be on the castle grounds or looking at it from afar. It's one of those things that I never get tired of taking visitors too. With the ever changing Scottish weather, your pictures  are different every time.

2. Loch Ness Cruise/Urquhart Castle- Friday morning we headed out on a little road trip making stops along the way with our final destination being Aviemore. Our first significant stop was at Loch Ness for a river cruise to look for Nessie (loch ness monster) and for a great view of Urquhart castle. 

3. Cairngorm Reindeer- On Saturday we headed up the mountain in search of reindeer. It was a short but lovely little hill walk to see the herd that visits this part of the mountain. We were able to pet and feed them. Definitely fun for everyone at any time of year but how cool would it be to do this at Christmas when there is likely to be snow on the ground!

5. Cairngorm Mountain- after seeing the reindeer, we headed up the mountain on the funicular to have an amazing vantage point of the mountain range and loch. Ryan and I are already talking about getting back there and doing some hiking!

4. Sheep dogs- this is something I was really looking forward to. Dogs in general hold a special place for me and I am always mesmerized by the working breeds who actually work. It's incredible they know exactly what to do with just a whistle. It was so neat to see Shepard Neil 'talk' to his dogs and show us what they do. It's a must if when you go to Aviemore!

I wanted to take the puppies home so bad. At just 20 days they already start learning the commands and understanding them. Incredible!

6. Falconry Centre- on our way back to Aberdeen on Sunday we stopped in Huntly at the Falconry Centre. It was not the highlight of our weekend, it's kind of hard to top reindeer and working sheep dogs, but I'm glad we stopped. We didn't get to see the bigger birds (eagles) in action (they were scheduled for the next show) but was still pretty neat to see. And if you're not sure exactly what faloncry is, click here.

Angus the red stag

8. Blair Atholl/Pitlochry- Thursday we headed to the cute little town of Pitlochry. We enjoyed a short little walk to see the Solider's Leap. Remember, I was here in December and it was pouring and the visibility was almost zero. What a difference 6 months makes! After our walk we had lunch and then headed to my favorite (and first) castle, Blair Atholl. Since I had toured it before, I let my in-laws loose while I enjoyed my book on the lawn while listening to a bagpiper play Amazing Grace.

9. Balmoral Safari Tour- last but certainly not least we headed out to the Queen's estate for a safari tour. I use the work safari loosely, this is what they advertise the tour as but should really just be called an estate tour. It was great, regardless of the name, especially for anyone who as a limited time to see Royal Deeside. It's a great way to see the beautiful Scotland landscapes while learning the history of the estate(for you Aberdeen readers, Robert Gordon owned this land first) and family and to see a few animals along the way.

It was such a great week and between all of the activities, Becky and I managed to hang on to our title of best 42 and Shoot the Moon (domino games) team! The guys stood no chance. Thank you, Toby and Becky, for coming to see us!!

London Highlights

To say that we were devastated when we found out Debbie and Luke were moving to London would be an understatement. We have been blessed in this life with some great friends and Debbie and Luke most definitely are in that category. Only Debbie understands what's it's like to be married to someone like Ryan because she is married to someone almost exactly like Ryan. Those boys are something else and somehow we love them so. ;-)

We planned this trip the week after I was in London for the marathon. I knew Ryan would not only need to have some quality Luke time but he's been homebound for 3 months since his knee injury so it was time for him to get out and go south of the border! Here are some of my favorites from our trip from last weekend!

1. Running with Debbie- Debbie and I got up Friday and Sunday morning for a little jog through Wimbledon, the area where they live. We ran through the cute little village, the common (a huge, partly wooded area with trails) and through Wimbledon park. It's a beautiful area and it is always nice to run with a buddy! I miss our random runs together so I was glad we were able to squeeze in two while I was there.

2. Churchill War Rooms-this was one of a few touristy type things we had planned. Since Ryan's still not 100%  with his leg and not big on super touristy things anyway, we wanted to make sure the things we did do, were to his liking and something to do with WWII was right up his alley. We could have probably spent hours in the museum learning about Churchill, his influence and what was going on in the very rooms we were standing. All of the rooms were just as they were during that time and if you closed your eyes and imagined what it was like, it gives you chills. The influence Churchill had around the world was also intriguing to read and I am really glad we did this. A must see if the history of WWII is your thing or even if it's not.

He is so quotable. They had many of his quotes around the museum. I like this one, he and his wife were married for 56 years until his death. You have to go into life with a little bit of humor!

Original map with pin markings

Churchill's quarters

3. Mexican food- I knew when we booked this trip that Mexican food was a must while we were in town. Aberdeen doesn't really have a Mexican food place and we haven't been to Texas in 5 months so, needless to say we were craving some. Wahaca was recommended by my friend, Vicki, and it did not disappoint. Ryan was in heaven with his pozole, corn and tacos and Debbie and I were in heaven with our passion fruit margaritas. Yummy! I now think I'll make it til I'm back in Texas next month ;-)

Salmon tostados.

 

Boy loves his corn!

Best. tacos. ever.

4. M&M Store- this was a totally random stop. We had wandered over to Leicester Square to kill some time before dinner and came upon the huge M&M store on the corner and thought we would drop in to get a bag or two to snack on during the train ride home that evening. Instead, though, we got 4 bags or 5lbs of M&Ms valued at 45gbp /$70. I think my heart dropped at the check out counter but it got a good laugh. Who spends $70 on M&Ms?!?

The boys wanted M&M's in their respective college colors...

The girls wanted dark chocolate peanut M&Ms...my new favorite!

5. Great weather- we couldn't have asked for better weather, well maybe we could have, but for London in the Spring it was pretty great. It made for traveling by foot, train, tube and bus so much better and not having to haul around rain jackets, coats or brollies was pretty awesome too. And I wore my sunglasses for the first time since last year!

6. Borough Market- it was crowded, I mean really crowded but the food was mouth watering and I wish I could have brought more home. We only ended up with vension salami. Ryan, of course, had to get a pulled pork sammy while we were there; it was delicious. A cool spot to browse and sample foods from around the world.

7. Debbie and Luke- the majority of our time was just hanging out. We went to a handful of pubs to just catch up, reminisce, plan our next trip and shake our heads at the ridiculousness that is Ryan and Luke when they are together. A fun time is guaranteed when we are with these two and I'm thankful we were able to spend the weekend with them.

Make sure to check out Debbie's blog to get a play by play of the whole weekend! Can't thank them enough for picking us up from the airport, their fabulous hospitality and planning of the weekend!

Spring Sunshine

First of all, let me apologize for making you stare at my dirty laundry for a whole month every time you came back to check if there was an update (pretty sure that statement just pertains to my mama)! It's been a busy month, not much blog worthy stuff, but we have been busy!

We think that Spring is officially here, we've had some pretty amazing days in the last couple of weeks and we hope that they are here to stay. Spring/Summer can be used interchangeably, there really isn't much difference in the two seasons. Spring can often be warmer than summer but I'm hoping that's not the case this summer because we have lots of visitors to entertain and when Scotland is on it's best behavior in terms of weather, there is not a better place to visit and I want to be able to show our visitors why we love this place so much!

Our first set of visitors are Ryan's parents, arriving mid June. I'm in travel agent mode and I can't wait for them to get here. We have lots of fun stuff to show them! I will definitely have tons to blog about after their visit. Until then, here's what we've been up to.....

Family rehab time! Ryan is progressing wonderfully; he no longer has weight bearing restrictions so it's strengthen, strengthen, strengthen time! He still requires one crutch to walk so he doesn't develop a limp but he'll be back to 'normal' in no time and I'm hoping he's 100% by the end of the summer so we can enjoy at least one hike before the season changes.

This beautiful view on my and Angus' daily walk. No, it doesn't always look like this but when the sun is shining and the clouds are puffy, it's perfect!

We haven't been able to contain our excitement with the latest bought of sunshine! Thursday you would have thought winter was making another appearance but Friday the sun was in full force and Angus was lovin' it!

Saturday was another beautiful, cloudless day; perfect for a little BBQ. Ryan smoked a pork shoulder and we enjoyed our first spring meal on the patio. It was perfect!

We had some bonding time with our friends' pups. We were dog sitting Kady, Falene's dog, for the day and Jonathan brought over Sammy and Bailey girl to run about in the yard while we soaked up the sun and stuffed our faces!

Ryan and Sammy bonding, he was telling him it was okay to go in the water!

Bailey girl loving life

Sunday, was yet another perfect day. That's right, 3 absolutely perfect days in a row! Since Ryan's feeling better about walking distances, we took a short walk down to the river for Angus to splash around and for us to enjoy another sun shiny day. I could get used to this!!