Edinburgh at last!

Driving with the kids isn't half bad because for the most part they are good travellers with few complaints besides a brother or sister getting to close to them. With this in mind we were happy to reach our hotel and just chill for a night, luckily there was a little pasta place across the street for some take out so we didn't have to travel far. Good thing it was pasta, because some of us were wanting a few extra carbs in our diet. Mike flew into Edinburgh that night because he couldn't get out of work until his big inspection was done. So after passing with flying colours because he is awesome--he flew out to meet us for our weekend adventure!

Saturday we didn't want to spend a huge amount of time on our feet--just enough to keep those muscles loose. We walked around in Edinburgh and needed to go to the Edinburgh Marathon Festival headquarters for Grandma to pick up her number for the big race the next day. Because I live in the UK I was able to have mine shipped to me prior to getting there, so that was good.

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Carter somehow got snagged as a willing participant in one of the many street shows that happen while you are in Edinburgh. The guy was funny, but the show was so much longer than we expected--so that was annoying. However, Carter enjoyed himself and was the star of the show--something Carter also enjoys.

We had plans to go through Edinburgh Castle as well, but we spent more time walking around than we thought we would and wanted to get back to the hotel for some rest. We got there as they were doing a changing of the front guards, so that was neat and then the kids somehow convinced us that ice cream was needed as well. Let's be honest, it doesn't take much to convince Hollie that ice cream is needed. In this case we had to face into the wind to eat our ice cream, because it was just the beginning of what was going to be a very windy weekend!

Alnwick Castle

The mommy duck and her ducklings, only one lagging behind, that is pretty good.

Alnwick Castle was our first stop on the way to our Edinburgh adventure! This was the location of the filming of many scenes in Harry Potter, and although my Harry Potter trivia is lacking, Carter was super stoked!

Grandma and Grandpa with Mason filling the canon up with rocks on the side. :)

The castle was a perfect place for children and also us grown ups who are still young in heart. Afer viewing the rooms inside during our learning part of the trip, it was time for the dress up and have fun bits.

The land surrounding the castle was gorgeous, the carriages on display were quite incredible, and Grandpa loved all the old HUGE doors throughout the castle.

In the left side of this picture you can see Mason running away from a porta garderobe on display. To help the children understand what went on in there you had to turn that little round bit to the side and some very exagerated sounds from a garderobe made you jump because they were so loud. Mason thought this was hilarious beyond anything else we could have offered him to do that day, so while we were doing other things in that area, he was flipping the garderobe circle and laughing until he couldn't breathe.

Yes, these were meant for the children as well. We are making our very own witchpots. Apparently when finding artifacts archeologist's would find these different pots of different sizes in strange locations in homes. Then they discovered that urine, hair, nailclippings, and other body lovely's were in them. They have assumed that this was to keep bad spirits and witches away from those in the house. So we made our own witchpots to help protect ourselves from those same evils.

The kids had a great time dressing up and doing different activities. There was a sword fighting game, a dragon, coloring of Coat of Arms, witchpot making, and also a scary room for only the very bravest of souls at the end. Although Taylor and Brennan decided that cuddling with Grandpa and Grandma was the better option during this scare room experience the older boys loved it. I scared myself in the mirrors section, which was awesome but not hard to do if those who know me well can think of how jumpy I am. Mason thought it was hilarious, and Carter wanted to go again!

What would a trip to the Harry Potter castle be without some proper flying lessons. The kids loved this portion of our visit as well, and even Mason was thrilled to grab the broom himself for most of the time.

This was a perfect day for the memory books!

Some Random

We were all ready for getting kids in bed when we had a surprise visitor knock on our door. Elder Atkinson dropped in to visit while on a work over in our area. He was here about 18 months ago and was just shy of his time to go home. It was nice to see him and hear about the rest of his mission. We have so many of our missionaries who are home now, it seems unreal we have been here this long.

I heard the lawn mower and looked out to see Grandpa teaching Carter how to mow the lawn, which at this point was mostly just sticks of weeds here and there. The rain was few and far between and our grass was dying slowly. Carter was so excited about doing this, he always loves when he gets to do things that would be considered a grown up job.

We also had an afternoon where we satisfied Mom's(Grandma) desire to get pictures of the English country side and cottages for her artistic sketching side. I think she had a lot of fun snapping pictures, and it helped that her camera is digital now, therefore she could snap as many as she wanted. Dad and I were enjoying the old gravestones and contemplating the history of those who had been buried there. In the above picture you can see a pink house behind us, it is the house I would have loved to get our hands on to live in, however it was cheap for a reason. The people that would live there were paying cheap rent while they were fixing the problems of the run down nature of the house. Run down it was!!! Ceilings caved in, roof looked like it was sliding off, etc.. So I guess my more logical side knew it wasn't meant to be.

West Stow Anglo Saxon Village

Grandma, Grandpa, Hollie, and Brennan took a little day trip to the Anglo Saxon village that we pass all the time on the way to base, but have yet to stop there. It was a nice little adventure, perfect for having Brennan run around chasing chickens, seeing the new piglets, and having little huts to explore.

Dad and I were super fascinated by the handy work of the locks for the doors and other inventions among the huts. It was cool to see how the people of that time made things(or how they think that they made things).

We were assuming that this little piece of woodwork was for holding hot pots and Dad was demonstrating pouring from the pitcher. I don't have a picture of the little tiny 'doll' made out of twigs, but it was pretty awesome.

Carter's Baptism

Carter had chosen to be baptized and wanted to wait until Grandpa could be here as well. So on May 15, 2011 Carter was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Carter has honestly been so excited for this day, he has been reading and preparing for his baptism and working really hard on being the best Carter he can be.

Carter wanted to invite some of his friends from school, and it turned out he invited all his friends from school to be there. I didn't get a picture of some of his friends that were there with him, but it was so lovely to see the few that came and the support they gave to Carter.

I failed to get a picture of Carter and Mike dressed in their whites before the actual baptism, but I think this one just shows off their personalities and excitement for the day. I think Mike may have been just as excited as Carter. ;)

We were so pleased that Grandma and Grandpa could come out and help us celebrate this time with Carter. Carter was looking forward to them being here for months before hand!

Had to get a picture with some of Carter's favorite people in the world. The Schmidt's have truly become our family here and I can't even express how much Carter loves these guys--especially Jacob. Carter thought for about two seconds when I asked him who he wanted to speak at his baptism. I had told him there is usually two talks, one on baptism and one on the Holy Ghost. He said he wanted Grandpa and Jacob to do the talking. I was thankful for what a wonderful job each of these two amazing men did at sharing with Carter the importance of the steps he was taking in his life.

Carter was also very thrilled to get his new set of scriptures. He really loves working hard at being his best, and has been such a fun and loving child to see grow into an amazing little man. He is really going to to do great things in this world. When I asked him how he felt after he got baptized he replied, " I felt like i was the happiest person in the universe."

We love you Carter!!!

Grandpa is here!

After a long flight and a whole cup of coke spilled all over him Dad/Grandpa made it to England safe and sound. It makes me so happy when my mom and dad are able to visit us and spend some time running around the country making fabulous memories--and that is just what we did!

Happy Mother's Day

This is the confused mom look and the really excited Hollie look because she knows what she is looking at. My mom has never been to a show in a proper theatre and it was far past time to get that seen too. So we went to Wicked for Mothers Day--well we got our tickets on Mother's Day. Mike knew I wanted to go, but he wasn't spilling anything about having somehow getting a day so that I could take my mom. So it was actually a surprised for me as well. My hubby is so sneaky :)

The day of the show we all decided very last minute that since the next day we were picking up Dad/Grandpa at the airport that it would be easier to stay in London instead of driving and taking the tube back and forth for two days. So we booked a hotel and off we went, Hollie got to drive in the heart of London--and despite being a little apprehensive about that, it all went well.

I think that Mom loved it more than I thought she ever would--she was so giddy about it all-- i loved it! It was like watching your kids on Christmas, she was so thrilled.

So nice of a random lady to ask if we would like help taking our picture, we were trying it ourselves so we could get the theatre name and everything in, it wasn't working. So thank you random citizen! After the show we went on a little walkabout and conveniently walked past a shop with yummy pastry's in the window. So we decided we should indulge a little while in London, right? So good, so good--and now I am thinking I should have taken a picture of our treasures--oh well, you will just have to trust me.