Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty...

Well, there are a lot more pictures than I realized so this is going to be even more broken up than I planned. This is one of our road trips to St. Andrews (who is, by the way, the patron saint of Scotland and even the reason for the cross on the flag) at the ruined abbey. It was right off the coast and just an amazingly beautiful day to boot! The sky was so blue and the grass (all over Scotland, really) is so bright green. Hope you like the pictures!

This is such her personality!

Gotta love those cheeks!

Our picnic lunch

Take me down to Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty...and the little boys are cute!

Edinburgh and Glasgow

Edinburgh

Here are my girls in Edinburgh Castle peeking around one of the cannons.

Here is a view from the top of the castle with my big girl. We walked the Royal Mile from the Holyrood Palace to the castle. We also hung out on Grasmarket Street for a bit and enjoyed some music.

This is just a fun jumping picture of Hannie.

And here's Hannah again by a thistle bush in the Princes Street Gardens. I guess Isaac and Genna were in the strollers or strapped to us while we took all these pictures. We did a ton of walking in this city in particular so that we didn't have to drive or park. The Fringe Festival was going on and there were tons of street performers and little plays for free. We went to two kid's plays and that was the highlight of the trip for the girls. Isaac even enjoyed them a bit.

Here's a couple of father-son pictures from the backyard of our apartment.

Glasgow

The Glasgow Cathedral is the only cathedral that survived the Reformation, as I mentioned before. The way it managed this was by conforming to Protestant standards. So there is a statue of John Knox, one of the reformers outside the church. St. Mungo's tomb is in the cathedral as well.

Across the way was St. Mungo's Museum of religious art. We popped in for a look and Genna became art, herself...

Across the street from the museum was the oldest house in Scotland. Here is Genna eating her PB&J while watching the movie about the house.

The garden outside of the house inspired me to get more photos of the kids. Brian took tons of pictures of all the sites, but without my cuties in them I don't get as much enjoyment out of them. If you want a post of just sites and such, please, leave a comment and I will get on it. Otherwise, I will just put the important ones up.

Isaac, of course got his sleeves pretty wet in this fountain. :)

Genna's got her cute Scotland shirt on here. I got each of the kids little souvenirs, and that was Genna's. Isaac got a stuffed crocodile that he is now sleeping with (in addition to his horse), and Hannah got a heart that holds photos for her wall. We are hoping to get that up this week and I will post pictures of it.

Once again, more to follow of Scotland!

The things I do for love!

Don't get me wrong, Scotland was beautiful and wonderful, but 8 days of walking and driving the countryside with three small children was a little difficult. My husband will say I am a party pooper for even suggesting this trip was less than idyllic, and that is why we went. The joy it brings him is worth the temporary exhaustion for the kids and me. Besides, the kids really are good travelers for their ages, especially the girls. And my wonderful husband rented us an apartment that had a swing set in the backyard for the kids. Now I know the secret to getting them outside. They never want to go outside at home, but even after being totally exhausted from traveling around all day they heard the swing set calling their names every evening. Here's a group photo in the backyard.

The apartment was in Edinburgh, a little over a mile from the city center. Here is the famous Edinburgh Castle behind this fountain. This is what I was walking up to while carrying a sleeping Genna in the sling and a hefty backpack on my back (pictured at the top of this post) and it was no easy trek. Brian pushed a sleeping Hannah in the stroller and toted a sleeping Isaac (see a trend here?) on his back in the Snugli. We made it, but barely. This was harder than the trips uphill when I was pregnant, like to the Prague Castle or this castle fest after my due date. However, I got to unload the weight eventually!

This is also the Edinburgh Castle, but it shows the setting for the famous Military Tatoo, which Brian witnessed, but it was too late for the kids and I to make it.

Then we explored the countryside on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Beautiful fishing areas, wonderful towns with more castles, cathedrals (unfortunately, mostly in ruin though) and abbeys were everywhere. We went to St. Andrews, Perth, Kelso, Dun, Brechen, Stirling, and Glasgow. My favorite town was St. Andrews, favorite castle was Stirling Castle (maybe you remember it from Braveheart), and my favorite cathedral was Glasgow Cathedral (because it was the only one saved from the Protestant Reformation.) That is the very shortened version of our exploration of Scotland. We took tons of pictures of the kids at the castles, abbeys, and cathedrals. I will do a seperate post with those since there are so many. Brian did a great job driving on the wrong side of the road. We only found ourselves going the wrong way twice, if I recall correctly. :) The weather was great! Very little rain for Scotland! My favorite eating experiences were all the cream teas, AND afternoon tea at the world reknowned Willow Tea Rooms in Glasgow.

While trampsing the countryside, this is what we often found in the backseat...

I learned a lot about the history of Scotland on all the tours, since I obviously did not pay close attention in history class. And one other thing I learned was the thistle is the flower of Scotland! Here it is, straight from Princes Street Gardens, up close and personal...

More on our trip to follow!

Woohoo!!!!!

My internet is back! This, of course, is not as exciting as my husband being back, but it is still wonderful. Three weeks without internet is difficult when you're a blogaholic, like myself.

Anyway, this came right as we are preparing to leave on our vacation. Tomorrow night is Isaac's one year birthday party (a little over a week early,) and then we are off to Scotland for 8 days. I can hear the bagpipes already! So, I am signing off to spend time with my sweetheart and travel for the next week or so. See you again when we get back and settled! Pray for a peaceful trip for us!

The king of the castle is back!

(Picture above is of Brian showing the kids a ladybug...at least until Isaac smashed it to pieces.)

At least he is the king of our little castle! Brian got back today and is home for 15 more days! It is so great to have my husband home; I can not even begin to tell you! It has been about seven and a half months since we’ve seen him. The girls were stuck to him like glue all day. If he so much as went to the bathroom, they were asking where he was and if they could go. Genna kept saying, “But I don’t want my daddy to leave!” Bless her heart. She just doesn’t understand this at all.

Brian took them to the Backeri first thing when I got brought him home from the airport this morning. Then we went to the lake that is down the road from our house with a picnic lunch. It was a lot of fun! Isaac ate quite a bit of sand despite all my attempts to keep it out of his mouth. I just could not figure it out; he didn’t like the taste but he kept on putting it in there and then trying to spit it out. Not the brightest boy on the beach! He loved getting all covered in the wet sand and splashing around. He was a mess!

How did Hannah do with this reunion? First she surprised me by putting on her tennis shoes without complaining about how they feel. She really wanted to impress her dad. Then we were all dressed and ready to go to the lake and we were just waiting on Isaac to wake up from his nap so we could head out. The girls were both asking every five seconds when we were leaving. When they were told we were waiting on Isaac to wake up, Hannah replies, “Well, mom doesn’t have to go. She can stay with Isaac.” Ouch.

How did Genevieve do with the daddy she has missed so much? She would not let him out of her sight! At dinner, she told him the funniest sweetest thing ever, “Daddy, in my bed, I am going to pray inside my face for you because you are the most wonderful daddy ever!” It took me a second to figure out that she meant “pray inside her head,” as in silent prayer. I am laughing even now! What a character she is!

How did the little guy do with his daddy? He took to Brian so quickly. He rode on his shoulders at the lake, hung out with him outside while I cooked dinner (Spaghetti Carbanara, Brian’s favorite,) and was even giving him cuddles and hugs.

And me? I feel like we are newlyweds on our honeymoon, except for all the kids! LOL! I just can not believe he is really here and that he has to leave again!

***Still no internet at home, I am just typing posts at home and publishing them, post-dated, whenever I am near a connection. They are supposed to come to fix it this week sometime.

A horse is a horse, of course!

Isaac has been notorious for rejecting all objects offered to him for comfort, like pacifiers, snugglis, and blankets. However, he finally decided cuddling with something might be worth a try. He asked for his stuffed horse on the shelf while we were reading by doing his signature growl that he does for nearly all animals and pointing. I gave it to him, and he has been tucking it under his arm ever since at bed time. Now he is even saying the word “Horse” and the words “Up bup bup” for “Giddy up” while making the horse gallop. I first noticed his love of horses when we turned on Black Beauty for the girls. He went nuts over the horses! Some day, he’ll figure out that the horses don’t growl, they neigh.

St. Genevieve

That’s who she was named after, but lately she has been acting, umm, less than saintly. Sweet girl is really struggling with her feelings lately and really missing her daddy. She’s been acting out in uncharacteristic ways for a while now. Now she is missing her Mimi too. I have been trying to identify ways that help her to deal with her feelings and also trying to give her more one on one time. One thing I have learned about my Genna is that touch is very important to her to help her get over anger or hurt feelings. Hugging, kissing, or even just holding hands with her sister seems to suddenly set her right after an argument.

We read a story about St. Therese of the Child Jesus the other day early on in the day. As I was tucking her into bed after a long and difficult day with her, she says to me, “Mom, St. Therese wants to help us get to Heaven.” Thank you, God, for ending our challenging day with such a beautiful piece of hope!