Overdue Update 2/3: Nat & Esther's visit, Dunrobin Castle, etc (end June/early July)

As promised, I'm back working on my 2nd post today, to try and get this blog back up to date! :-) One of the advantages of having a nursing baby (well, 1yo) is that I get to sit down every now and again to give him a feed, so snatching a few minutes to work on my blog while he's feeding & asleep! :-)

At the end of June, my brother Nathanael (Nat) came to Scotland to meet up with his lovely

fiancée Esther, from New Zealand. They're waiting to get their marriage visa and while it's in process, it wasn't a good idea for her to enter USA. So they decided to meet up in the UK to see each other, which I thought was a *wonderful* idea, as it meant we got to meet her and see Nat again! [yay!] They came up here and stayed with us a few nights, which we really enjoyed. The children had been poorly, so weren't in top form (which was a shame), but we managed a day out to Dunrobin Castle while they were here.

Me and Elijah! :-) Oh, and btw, in this photo I'm 57lbs lighter than I was in December! :-) In British terms, I've lost over 4 stone! (As an American, I'll *never* think in "stone", but just thought I'd give the weight in that too! LOL) I've never felt better (even younger & more energetic!) - it's *wonderful*. I never thought it would be possible to deal with my weight problem, and I got the heaviest ever at the end of last year, :-( but thanks to the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan, I'm getting there! Maybe in my next post I'll share a bit more about my weight loss journey! :-) For now, back to our visit at Dunrobin Castle ...

The children always love the falconry display at Dunrobin

The birds fly *just* over your head! :-)

The falconer and his owl! :-)

Clement fell in *love* with this beautiful owl

Lunch time! ;-)

Poor Deborah still wasn't feeling very well and got a bit worse (feverish) while we were out, so her daddy had to carry her about a lot. It was a shame I didn't bring a second sling that day - would have been handy!

Nat & Esther! :-D

Clement & Uncle Nat

Benjamin & Nat. Benjamin didn't want to stop for a photo, as *all* he had been thinking about that morning was showing me a Pictish Stone that was hidden in the trees at the Castle. There's a local "Pictish Trail" with signs all over the area for the landmarks, and with Benjamin's obsessions with logos/brands (any sort of picture/image to connect things together),  the idea of this stone having a "Pictish Trail sign" to mark it was very important to him. So he couldn't wait to show me the stone! :-)

At least Deborah was still able to smile, even though she wasn't feeling well! :-)

Looking out at the sea, beyond the castle gardens

Dunrobin Castle

Clement looking rather small next to these massive leaves!

At last - the Pictish stone!! :-) As you can see, my dear Benjamin is very excited to show it to me - I love the look on his face here - pure happiness! He visited the castle last year with his daddy, Abigail and a Dutch girl who was staying with us. So he'd been telling me about the stone for a while, but I had never seen it myself (and he knows his mama is rather fond of ancient stones!) :-) Those of us who are "neurotypical" don't always find it easy to understand the importance of certain things to those who have autism. But I always find it so wonderful & special when something makes Benjamin *really* happy and I can share/be a part of something like that which means so much to him. Often it's just little things, but requires the time, patience, and observation to notice them.

 

 

Biggest boys again, with the Pictish stone.

Elijah and Nat

Youngest 3 having fun in the garden. We are REALLY enjoying the warm weather over the past few weeks - it's wonderful. After cool & wet summers the past few years, it's truly exciting to have warm days (and nights), and the children playing in the garden for hours & hours with bare feet! :-) It's only been about 22c today (around 71F) and the warmest we've had so far was 25c last week (77F), so a cool autumn day for Texas! ;-) But when it's *very* common to have temperatures of only around 12c (not even 54F) in the summer here, you can understand how welcome these "warm" days are!

Our front garden has still been rather chaotic since the extension was built! :-/ It's finally been cleared of the rubble and left over building materials, but not yet back to normal. The boys *did* enjoy playing in the pile of soil outside the front door, but I didn't like the dirt coming inside the house, of course! Soo....

I've been working on trying to contain the pile of dirt, and make a flower bed out of it. I put some plants in after this photo was taken, but it's not quite finished yet - still a work in progress, as is the rest of the garden!

Clement decorating cookies the other week. I made a batch of sugar cookies and gave them each a stack of them and a bowl of icing & decorations and let them do whatever they wanted with it. They had *lots* of fun, as you might imagine! :-)

Benjamin working on his cookies

Abigail and her Russian doll cookies - and wearing a Chinese dress while she does! ;-) She's taken a keen interest in China after reading a book about Gladys Aylward. You'll often find her buried in a "Teach Yourself Chinese" book and hear her practising words and phrases! :-) It might be the "summer school holidays", but these kids are always learning!

Deborah's cookies - not bad for a 2.5yo - done all by herself! :-) She actually made the least mess out of all 4 of them!

So, I did it - update #2 is finished, and just one more blog post to do (maybe later?!) and I'll be up to date!