Edinburgh

Over the weekend we went to the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. When we got there it was rainy and cold. But, by the time we stopped to take cover and have some lunch, the weather cleared enough for us to head up to the castle, which is the biggest one we have visited so far.

Thomas has started really enjoying going to the different castles as he now pretends that he is a knight. He even insists that we now call him "Sir Thomas." His helmet and sword accompanies us everywhere, of course.

On the bus ride over we let Thomas watch a movie on the Ipod and Nate really wanted to as well. So, I think when he got a hold of the audio tour headphones, he probably thought he was finally getting his turn. He wouldn't let us touch them! It was cute to see this little guy walking around the castle like he was taking a self tour.

From the castle, there were some beautiful views of the city.

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Nate is starting to be such a ham for the camera. We were letting him just walk around and chase the birds, then we would randomly get the camera out. He would always give us the cutest expressions. Apparently other tourists were enjoying his show, because a group of Asian girls approached me and asked if they could "take a picture with your son?" Then they proceeded to take turns getting their picture taken with Nate, like he was some kind of celebrity! How funny.





Since my mom had to fly out the next morning, we all stayed at a hotel that Saturday night. It was really nice. (Thanks mom!) At dinner, we asked just for water to drink. This is what we got, $5 a bottle. Bottoms up Nate!

Glamis Castle

Last week, my mom and I took the boys to the little town of Glamis. After walking down this very long road, you come to an amazing castle. It is where the Queen Mother of England grew up and I was amazed to find out that her nephew and his family still live there. It reminded me of the castle at Disneyland. The batteries on my camera died that day, but we loved it so much that we went back Tuesday with Ryan.

We were lucky to keep Thomas out of the fountain!

Apparently, Nate isn't as impressed with all the castles that we've seen, because his favorite part is always the rocks!

Tuesday night they had an open air theater production of Peter Pan. It was right beside the castle.

Their take on Peter Pan was definitely different. There were only six actors, who played all the parts. It was pretty funny watching the guys as the mermaids. And some of the humor must have been cultural, because I didn't get it. But, everyone else seemed to!

Before the show, they sold goody bags with props that the kids could put on and be part of the show. It was really fun as the actors changed hats to be Indians or pirates, all of the audience would do the same.

When we first saw this little boy dressed as Peter Pan, we thought that it was maybe a children's theater and he was Peter Pan. But, so many of the children came dressed up as characters of the play. There were Peter Pans and Thinker bells running around everywhere.

After the play, it was too late for us to catch a bus home so we stayed at a little bed & breakfast not far from the castle. Jean(who we stayed with) was at the play with her grandchildren anyways and drove us to her house. This is the view from her garden. It was so nice. Thomas loved playing with her grand kids, they had a crib for Nate, and we got a full Scottish breakfast in the morning. It worked out great!

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
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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.