Glamis Castle - Home of the Queen Mother

Gran and the girls on the drive to Glamis Castle.

The Heil'and coos (Highland Cows)

Sawyer in the fountain - a real hit of the day.

Romay and I took the castle tour and Granny kept the others busy in the play park and walking some of the grounds. What history in that place. Lovely to see again.

Grampa George and Marie come to visit

What can we say? The only thing that would have made our time with George and Marie any better, would have been if Ian had been with us.

Ladies who lunch and a night without kids

My school friend, Sue G and I, went for lunch at Kingennie Fishings. Lovely place and a great lunch. I love seeing her and wish that we could see each other more often however she will kill me for putting this picture up. I promised not too but, heh, I lied!.

The girls had a sleep over at Granny Sandra's house and by all accounts had a superb time. Thank you Granny. I enjoyed a very pleasant night, walked on the beach, watched TV (undisturbed!!), slept in the next day and had several hours in the town shopping. I probably wouldn't recommend shopping on a Saturday afternoon in Dundee as it was so busy. I dad forgotten how busy the stores get.

I got home just in time to find the girls naked in the garden, playing in the sprinkler. They had goosebumps because it was so cold but they were determined to stay out. Anyway, it made us late for Margaret's house. Great lasagna and strawberries and ice cream and soccer ball, and bubbles and a friendly neighborhood little boy to play soccer with and and and .........

Bye bye to the Cousins - they are off to Canada

Granny and her babes. My brother, Paul, Claire and the kids are all off to Canada so we had to say good bye (for now). Hopefully one day they will make it out to the Charlotte. Great Chinese carry out dinner, lots of jumping on the trampoline and some hair dos for the girls. Soybean looked very cute with her plaited pigtails.

Crieff Hydro - where we got married

Fun, fun, fun. A mini vacation within our vacation. The kids spent time at the children's centre and I got a wee break. Lots of swimming which the girls loved. Too much food (a problem the whole vacation - oops). We even bumped into my second cousin's wife (Emma) and my friend Sally, and her daughter, came up for one day of fun. All in all a busy little vacation.

This was a picture of the girl's room. Apparently the whole hotel has had a refurbishment since we got married (well, it has been 8 years) and I really liked the color schemes. The room with the big mirror and the girls standing in front of it, was the room we got married in. I think it is a totally different color but I'll have to check the wedding video when we get back home because I really can't remember.

We did some walks up the hill and visited the horses but didn't manage a horse riding session. The view in the background of the picture was just like the one from our room - beautiful.

Last time I was at Crieff, Romay was a little 18 month old and I was 7 months pregnant with Sawyer and Ian was with us. Maybe next time it will be a whole family event?

Sunday at Polly Pocket's house

Cor Blimey, dinner was good. Beef, yorkie puds and all the trimmings all cooked by my school friend Sally.

The girls all played well together and I got a kick out of Soybean calling Polly - "Polly Pocket" all the time.

They have a heated pool - way hey! All three girls had a blast jumping in and playing with all the pool toys. A warm shower, dinner and then they were good to go for another hour on the trampoline.

Off to Crieff tomorrow for a couple of days.

Haggis and Blackpudding for dinner

The butcher's window with my haggis and black pudding in it. Before I bought them. There are also a couple of dead cows hanging in the back. If you know what haggis and black pudding are made of and are disgusted - don't be. They are delicious. The girls wolfed down their dinner with a generous helping of turnip (neeps) and potatoes (mash) and of course - ketchup!

Eat your heart out golf lovers - The Old Course

The girls playing at the Old Course - they played, but it just wasn't golf.

Also, took 10 minutes out of our day to visit the family business there.

The Clean face dirty face trick

Which one would you kiss?

Number 8

The tide was out when I took these pictures today, but you can just see the little sailboats taking part in a race on the river. The first picture is a view up river and the others show the front yard, path from the road and a view across the water to Fife. I guess it is too small to see the lighthouse just on the other side. But that was my view every day of the first 19 years of my life. Yes, I still love the beach but I enjoy it most when it is warm and sunny and I have a dog to walk with me.

Daddy's visa did not come

Ian's visa did not come so he is not making it over to Scotland. Naturally, we are all a bit upset and were annoyed to find out that the immigration people had actually lost the re-application. That is right - we had to reapply because they originally issued it with an incorrect date - way back in November. Ian applied for the third time last week and to date it has still not arrived. That put paid to all visits and stuff that I was planning on making so I'm taking the girls to Crieff Hydro for a few days vacation. It will give my Mum a break from us and let the girls see somewhere else in Scotland. It's where Ian and I got married so it holds some great memories. Hope they like it!

Meanwhile, back home, Daddy is working his way through the Honey Do list and spending some quality time with the dogs.

Friday Dinner Picnic

After the morning at Auntie Anne's house (walking, playing and exploring) we played all afternoon at Granny's house. Cousin Jack was round and helped us make a den in the trees and the Wendy house. It was natural for us to want a summer picnic dinner outside. Romay set the table, Jack placed the chairs and Maren and Sawyer just ate loads. Note: The girls had pasta but Jack didn't like pasta - he had to have a ham bagel (toasted!).

Uncle Mike came round for dinner, Uncle Paul stayed for dinner as well and Granny Sandra and Miss Helen dropped round with the most divine shortbread cookies.

Carnoustie beach aka "Car snooty"

Thursday morning at the beach and play park at Carnoustie (they had some sort of major golf event there the other year!). As always the beach was deserted apart from a couple of dog walkers.

We followed our beach trip with a slap up lunch at Goodfellow and Stevens coffee shop.

On Wednesday night I went to the movies with my friends David and Margaret - we saw Sex and the City - which I enjoyed but could not get over how awful the outfits looked. There were some really laughable ones.

Happy news: D and M are coming out to Charlotte again - in September. Yeah!! They still win the best guests award and obviously my cooking skills, during their trip last year, did not scare them off.

Down the Fish

I spend a couple of hours at a local pub called the Fisherman's Inn. Went there with my bridesmaid / old school friend Sue G to meet her new boyfriend. In case he or Sue reads this - I'll give him a good 10 out of 10!
My cousin Neil was there with a couple of other people that Sue and I both knew. I forgot the Ferry is like that "A little village in a big town".
I got home and Granny had put the kids to bed. Yeah Granny.

Umbrella rental - Are we expecting rain?

This was a sign I spotted at the Wildlife Park - they are obviously prepared for the good old Scottish summer. Anyway, it made me laugh.

Camperdown Wildlife Park

The picture of me was taken by Romay (Maren's version only showed my feet!).

The tepee - well, I'm not sure that I know why they have it because it is not exactly a normal Dundee type tent, but the girls and a group of school kids had great fun playing in it.

The girls are pictured in front of the new bear enclosure. There is a bit of a story about the bear(s) who were always called "Jeremy". A few years ago, a boy broke into the Bear's old enclosure and had his arm bitten off. Ok, that was not great but the boy's family actually sued the council. There was a public outcry because people felt that the bear should really be suing the boy because of the trauma that he put the bear through. (That and the risk of food poisoning from eating his arm). I think I left the country before there was any outcome but these are new bears and are not fed on boy's arms.

Afternoon at Camperdown Park

Boy that sand kept them busy - at least two hours of "making cookies" at the park. This was a huge playpark at a local country park called Camperdown where I used to go horse riding as a kid. The sun was out and live is good.

Molly and Co

After lunch out at Visocchis ice cream shop (OK, not exactly healthy but .... we are on vacation), we spent the afternoon at Granny Sandra's with Granny, Auntie Linda and cousin Molly. Molly and Mum made the trip up from England for a charity race tomorrow so it was great seeing them. We won't get to meet up again until next month in Hilton Head, when they come to the USA.

Finished our time together with a play session at the Castle Green play park and rushed back to get ready for our first ever sleepover at Auntie Claire and Uncle Paul's house. Pizza, movie and the promise of popcorn - what more could a kid want?

Along the road at Broughty Ferry Castle

Yes, it was cold and a bit windy. When is it not windy in Broughty Ferry?

The girls and I climbed the rocks, ran along the sandy beach, played on the ramparts, and climbed the four flights of really narrow stairs in the castle. We learnt about the castle being build originally in the 14th Century and being added to throughout the years. The concrete was added at some point this century. Kind of spoils it.