Photo Catch-Up

Right, I've finally got round to uploading the best of our recent photos (yes, these are the best, you should see the worst), so please click on the pics below to see the full albums. Hope you enjoy them.

2008-07-24 Rod and Fiona Visit

2008-08-02 Visit to the Lawrie's House

2008-08-10 Andy's Birthday

2008-08-18 Harbour Festival

Big Weekend

It was Lachlan's birthday on Saturday, and we had a great day out in Aberdeen planned. Worryingly our plans were thrown into disarray by a phone call telling us that Franky and Benny's was shut because of a fire. I had visions of us wondering round looking for somewhere to eat with the kids moaning like you wouldn't believe but, as it turned out, we got in to Chiquito's before the main lunch time rush and had a nice lunch there. Lachlan got a pizza with bacon and bacon on it so he was happy and I had a margarita so I was happy too.

Then it was on to Cadona's for a ride on the Crazy Train, the big slide, and the Log Flume. All great fun, but then it was on to Transition Extreme for a climbing taster session, which was really good fun and might be something we do again.

Yesterday, I had the option of taking part in the Forfar 10K run or the 26 mile Great Stonehaven Bike Ride. So I did neither - after I got back from a 6 mile late morning run, we all went down to the harbour to see what was happening at the MRI Harbour Festival. It was the usual collection of money raising stalls (raffles, bottle stall, duck fishing, whack the rat, etc) but also a mechanical bull. The boys had a shot of the bull and lasted about 7 seconds on their best shots, then Calum practically shoved me on it. After two 8 second rides, I managed 17 seconds so could walk off with my pride intact having beat the kids times. A long way short of the 47s best time of the day, though, and feeling a little bit tender this morning.

I'm sure there are some photos somewhere, so I'll need to upload them. Maybe I'll also post the ones from the rest of the holidays at some point.

Magnus at 6 months

Magnus is 6 months old already! The time is flying by and there are so many changes to report. He isn't a fan of rolling over like his friend Rachel, but he does like to stand up and sit up. He is too big for his pram cocoon so we've changed the pram settings. Now he is paying more attention when we go out for walks instead of just falling asleep. He is also sitting up in his playnest and grabbing at the toys. He's in his highchair for his meals now and using a sippy-cup for water. Magnus does like doing that usual trick of banging the cup on the table just like his big bros did. He is still a very happy boy most of the time and is sleeping through from 8:30pm - 6 am. I think he's going to get another tooth soon as he is slavering all the time, hence the bibs in most of the photos!
I sent off his passport application yesterday as we are planning a trip to The Hague to visit Faye and Wessel next month. It's all go for Magnus! I take him to toddler groups on Tues and Thurs mornings and he goes to the cafe with me and my Mum quite often. Nearly forgot - he had his first go on a swing and enjoyed it for about 5 mins.

2008-08-09 Magnus Update at 6 months

Capital Stuff

So, as promised, some photographs from our day out in London...

2008-07-16 Trip to London

It was a long day and hot but it was generally good fun with a chance to see a lot of the buildings we had previously seen the lego versions of. We got the train in to Waterloo and did a quick bit of pedestrian sight-seeing, taking in the London Eye (although we decided not to actually go on it because it would be expensive and the boys would have been bored by about 72 degrees round), the Houses of Parliament, Whitehall, and Trafalgar Square. We got held up for a while by armed police at the end of Downing Street so that Gordon could get out for PMQs which was annoying but not as annoying as the fact that they were getting ready for some opera thing at Trafalgar so the boys didn't get to climb on the lions.

After that, we took the tube up to the Natural History Museum which is a great place to spend a few hours, especially as it's free. Lachlan was keen to see the Human Biology section for some reason - we lived in fear that the boys might start asking too many questions but the worst we got was Calum pointing to a picture and saying "you can see his willy. heehee".

Vikki decided we had time to have a look at the Tower and Tower bridge so we headed over there and visited the gift shop. It was cool to see Boris's new place of work and the HMS Belfast which features in the boys' Top Trumps. We also went to have a look at the Monument to the Great Fire which features in The System of the World which both Vikki and I have read recently. Unfortunately, my navigation (using the memory of a map viewed in the gift shop) let us down slightly and we almost missed it, and it had scaffolding round it anyway. Which all gave us just enough time to get back to Waterloo for the return train and much confusion over whether we were on the right train, and the right carriage on that train. It turned out we were and we got back without further adventure. Phew!

Stop messing about and get blogging young man.

Sorry about the lack of blob posts recently. This is partly because we've been fairly busy doing stuff (as will be explained if I just get on with it) rather than writing about it, and also because I've spent far too much time playing Battle for Wesnoth (yes, I know it's a bit sad) by myself and Mah Jong with Vikki.

Those of you who keep tabs on my Picasa Web page will have seen the photos from Christchurch and Bournemouth. Those who haven't can click on the pictures at the bottom to get there. We were in Christchurch for a week's holiday and it was very nice.

The boys got a couple of days at the beach (one after a short trip along the coast to Bournemouth) which was just as well since that's one of the main reasons for going.

Vikki and I managed a couple of runs. The second one hadn't been planned but we went to Moors Valley park (which was a really good day out for everyone) and we decided to follow the orienteering course there. On the way round, we realised that we weren't going to get to all the points and get back to meet the rest of the gang at the time we'd said. My plan was to miss out three of the points, but Vikki decided we could make it if we ran rather than walked the rest of the way. You can guess whose idea won the day.

We also had a trip up to London (will post some photos soon), went to a car boot sale and bought some books, games, and Dexter's Laboratory bobble headed figures (the last were Calum's), and Vikki and I went to see the Bournemouth Shakespeare Players outdoor production of Macbeth which was very good.

2008-07-12 Christchurch

2008-07-18 Bournemouth

Camping