You never know what you're gonna get.

We took the boys to a huge public park just outside of town, called "Camperdown". We thought it would be fun to go to the "Wildlife" area and see such exotic animals as ... goats, chickens and guinea pigs? Hmm, not exactly what I had in mind.

Afterwards, we discovered that there is also a HUGE, super fun, free kids playground. We should have have skipped the animals and just played there instead. Oh, well Thomas and Nate enjoyed the day anyways.

Stirling

On Saturdays, When Ryan is home, we have been trying to take longer day trips than mom and I would venture to take on our own. This week we didn't really have a plan, we just headed to the bus station. A little under two hours on the bus and we found ourselves in the town of Stirling. Because we are cheap and didn't want to take the tour bus...we were in for quite the hike.

"Castle and toliets" the most important things to find in a town, don't you think?

The long and steep walk up to the castle. (Of course, once we got to the top we realized that there was a much easier way on the other side...needless to say we took that way back down.) It was very beautiful though.
Just as we thought we had made it...stairs. Oh, well up ya go. You can imagine the looks that we got.
Made it !! And definitely worth the hike. Now it is time for some ice cream:)





Amazing gardens.
Ryan's grandpa Lorin told me before we left that they can follow his family line back to Scotland, the Stuarts. Well, grandpa...this castle belonged to the Stuarts!! (I thought it was appropriate to get a picture of the rightful heirs on their thrones ;)

As we were leaving the castle, a wedding party arrived. All the men, young and old were wearing kilts, the bride was beautiful and it was just so cool to see it all set to the bagpipe music
.
And of course they had Thomas as their personal interpretive dancer!

You decide...

The next "Braveheart" or celtic dancer?



There couldn't be a more excited little boy about getting a kilt! It has been so fun seeing guys in various places wearing kilts, that we just had to get one for the boys. Since Thomas loves to dress up, (including in the princess dresses with his cousins,) he didn't have a problem putting on the kilt, in fact he thought it was pretty darn great!
Scotland is the only place where it is cool for a guy to wear a skirt.

An American meal...sort of.

As we were looking for the right bus stop the other day, we ran across this "American" fifties style diner. We stoped in for a little break. "Fast Eddies" wasn't exactly fast, the food was close to right, but the milkshakes were sure good!

Broughty Ferry

BroughtyFerry is a cute little town just up the coast from where we live. (About 15 min. bus ride. That's once you figure out the right bus to ride, which took us much longer!)

Unlike the castle at St. Andrews, we were actually able to walk right up, over the drawbridge, up the tower and around the grounds. This place was very kid friendly. The boys had fun running around.

It's not often that we go to a playground with a castle in the background! It was a bit cold, and very windy, but we still had a great time.


This was Nate's first time at a beach. He loved it. Everytime I set him down, he headed staight for the water, which made me a little nervous because there were a few washed up jelly fish.

The boys collected seashells and ran around. It was a perfect place for them to get all their wiggles out before it was back in the stroller.

St. Andrews

We took a bus across the bridge to a town called St. Andrews, which is known worldwide as the "home of golf." (Ryan had the chance to golf nearby Scotscraig last week with some coworkers.)

Thomas was so excited to ride on the bus, exclaiming to the amusment and wonderment of all those on board, "I've never been on a bus before." I can't remember if that is true or not...it probably is.
We wandered through the old streets and went in a few shops. It was amazingly beautiful.

We walked by the picturesque ruins of St Andrews Castle which stand on the rocky seashore. I kept thinking to myself how lucky we are to be here.






I don't know why I thought this was so funny, but this is the women's bathroom!

Everyone here has these neat plastic covers for their strollers. We need to invest in one for sure. The umbrella trick can only last for so long I'm sure!
St. Andrew's Cathedrial
In the evening it began to rain, just in time for dinner. We found a great little pizza place that let us wheel the stroller in next to our table since Thomas had fallen asleep.
After dinner they brought Nate a kids "cappichino" warm frothy milk dusted with chocolate minus the coffee!

Longest Day Ever...

My mom, the boys and I left for Scotland Wednesday morning. We flew to New York where we had a six hour layover and then got back on a plane for another seven hours. We finally arrived Thursday morning in Edinburgh. The kids did as good as can be expected for their ages. Nate was a wiggle bum, but Thomas was happy as long as he had a movie to watch.

Neck pillow or awesome hat?


Reading the saftey manuals, hmmm very interesting.


Nate catching some ZZZs.


I am so happy that Thomas is such a social little boy. He loved the layover in New York. He made friends with everyone waiting and I am sure he thought they were all there just to entertain him. He even befriended two teenage boys from Scotland on their way to Texas!!

They both did sleep almost the entire flight to Scotland, which was nice. There was an extra seat next to us, so Thomas was able to layout. Nate slept as long as I held him and didn't move (making it hard for me to get any sleep, but what do you do?!)

The CEO's personal driver of Ryan's company picked us up from the airport. Which was great because I don't think that after that long day of traveling we would have been able to get on a train or bus with all of our luggage and get ourselves to Dundee. We are all extremely tired and jet lagged, but SO HAPPY to see Ryan and finally be in Scotland!! It's beautiful from what we have seen so far!