Mike had a birthday!!! We just had a small little celebration because Mike was preparing for a little trip to Utah--so we counted that as part of his birthday gift list :)
Mike and Carter love making paper airplanes, and so this instruction book was ideal to expand on the skills Mike already has!
Apparently this is how scary it is to turn 35! Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband and father!! We love you so much and are grateful for everything you do to support our family.
As much as I don't really like swimming in the water, I have found that I love sitting by the seaside and just watching the waves come in. Carter and Taylor were out of school for half term in June for a week. We did a few different things, and one of them was running up to the seaside for a few hours. It was colder than an ideal seaside day, but it was not busy and we had a lovely picnic. The kids eventually decided the cold didn't matter and spent the day throwing rocks in the sea, collecting shells, and trying to jump the waves.
I forgot about these pictures. After the Natural History Museum we ran into a couple Elders leaving the museum, they had been there on their Preperation Day and saw us as we were headed out the exit. We didn't realize that we were around the corner from the Hyde Park Chapel, so the guys showed us where it was. When we got there we found out that the missionaries had had a meeting that day and there were a group of them still there. Luckily, some of our favorites were there as well! It was so good to see Elder Hales and Elder Machen, and I think the kids thought that was the perfect end to a great day!
More often than not we are just home relaxing, cleaning, playing on the trampoline, and making more chaos than is normal for one family.
We finally took the plunge and took all the kids down to London for the day, using the tube and all. It actually went just fine and we didn't lose anyone! Brennan was little nervous at first, but he loved it after a while and finally was getting out of his stroller to enjoy the ride even more. We decided it would be fun to go and spend the day at the Natural History Museum, and spend the day we did! The Schmidt's and ourselves spent about 6.5 hours in there and only saw a fraction of what they have in the museum. So the kids definitely want to go back and explore some more!
We did learn that the whale bones they have hanging from the ceiling there were from whales that they buried on site of the museum in the 30's and then after decomp they dug them up and put them in the museum. 
All the kids (and Toni) had a great time playing with the weighing machine. You chose an animal and it told you how many of you it would take to make one of which ever animal you had selected. Taylor and Carter could have spent all day on there, and I just loved Toni's face in this one :) 
You had to go through the Dinosaur section of the museum and after the robotic T-Rex we had the kids take a picture by the big head. Brennan was pretty nervous, but finally touched it for about half a second. I don't know how I caught the moment he touched it--but it worked out. Justice was not having any of it! She wouldn't even pretend to smile from 5 feet away, it was pretty funny and gave us parents the chance to torture the poor wee one while trying to get a picture.
Next was a small model that you had to move like a dinosaur's legs would have moved. It was actually pretty hard to move the things, and Carter wasn't going to leave until he was an expert walker! Good thing he figured it out, we would have been there even longer.
The kids loved the human body section of the museum as well, Carter especially loved that they had from the beginning of life ie sperm and egg, and then had huge displays showing exactly how it all works, and then the growth of the fetus to giving birth. Then it was on to the memory section, and us grown ups may have had more fun playing the games than the kids did.
Overall this was a great and fun day and we all learned a lot of new information, I think that we may be going back here again--it's free, so why not!?
A few pictures I took from my mom's camera. I think Grandma and Grandpa had a good time walking around our area and finding little treasures along the way.
A local garage was just pulling in with a Bentley that Grandpa hardly dared touch, but had to get a picture with. He and Grandma chatted for a bit with the garage owners and learned about all the restoring they do there. That is one thing about my parents--they can make friends with anyone and have lovely conversations with them!
Fox and Hound is the local pub down the road, and while we haven't eaten there yet we have heard it is quite tasty. However, we are waiting for the day we finally go on a date.
I have no clue what is happening here other than the guys in the garage at our house.
These couple of pictures were taken when we stopped at Menwith Hill, which is a base midway to Scotland and home, we were racing around a little track to help burn off some energy. After filling the tank with petrol we were on our way again!
The kid had a great time having Grandpa int he back of the car with them on the way home from Scotland.
Grandpa was sharing a little Dr. Pepper with Brennan and I loved that Brennan just stared at me and dared me to take it away with his little mischievous face :)
Carter and Grandpa playing Lego's Grandpa was the heat seeking missile apparently. It was fun to watch what a great time the kids were having with Grandpa and Grandma.
A small game of cornhole with Grandpa and Carter pulling off the win in the end.
The time had finally come that Grandma and Grandpa had to go home. It was such a fun trip and it went way to fast! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for making the journey and spending time with us, we had an awesome time!!
The day after the marathon we thought it would be great to take advantage of our location and see the William Wallace Monument before heading home. Well, let me just say, if it is windy they are going to advice you not to go to the very top of the monument, however like most people some of us did it anyway. We did the small hike to the top and then made our way up the 249 stairs to the top.
Grandpa and Brennan (top) and Mike and Taylor with the Wallace sword.
Hollie, Grandpa, Grandma, Carter and Brennan braved going to the top of the monument and while this is normally a great time to look over the vast gorgeous landscape, this time it was time enough to take a couple pictures and get off of there before the wind blew you off of there!
The finish was awesome, mostly because I knew I was done. However, I couldn't find Mike, my dad or the kids, didn't see them anywhere and didn't know where to go to find them. So I was just texting Mike and asking him where they were. I was all alone so I took my own picture at the finish line :) gorgeous I know. I also wanted to wait and see my mom finish. We had passed each other when I had made the turn and she was headed towards the finish still. So that was a neat moment on the course, just to stop for a minute and give each other a big hug. It raised my spirits a lot to see her still going and gave me extra motivation to finish myself.
Finally found them!!! I decided to head up to where they give the medals and shirts and found these guys waiting there. For some reason they couldn't get down to the actual finish line...it was weird and complicated. So needless to say we ignored the race officials and went down to see if Grandma was in yet. We got there just in time to cheer her on as she crossed the finish line!!
when the kids finally saw me they were super excited and they also ran to greet Grandma when she was coming through. My mom said she had never been so happy to see those little kids in her life!!
So proud of the both of us for finishing this race, and actually I am even more proud of what my mom has accomplished in the last year--she is amazing!