I just realised that I never got round to blogging about our time with Carl & Stephanie at the end of last month. It was SO good to see them again and really meant a lot to have them come up here and see us while they were in Scotland. The last time I saw *any* of my family at all was in January 2014, when Leah & Caleb were still in Scotland. :-( So it's been such a long time since we've had any family around, which made the few days we spent with cousins all the more special.
Growing up in Texas, I guess it was easy to take family for granted. They were just *always* there - you never imagined a time without them. I have such a *huge* extended family - it would be seriously hard to count the numerous cousins on both side of my family, not to mention a ton of aunts & uncles, and great-aunts and great-uncles, my grandparents. Just so many wonderful people that I am blessed to have as family. But sadly, they are ALL far away in distant lands - nearly all of them in North America, and most of them in Texas. Anyway, my children have a very different childhood to my own, and get to grow up without any family in their life - just their mum & dad! :-( So, without rambling any further, said ALL that to say, it was a wonderful blessing to have a few days with Stephanie and her 4 children. The kids really enjoyed the company - real cousins to play with, not just looking at photos of cousins on the fridge! We didn't see a lot of Carl, as he was busy with synod meetings in Inverness. But it was special to spend time with his wife and children! :-)
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| Abigail and Claire playing together - they were probably some kind of peasants weaving baskets in their hut! Just the sort of thing I loved to pretend when I was a girl! |
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| Louis, Carl Jr, and Clement riding scooters together |
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| Carl Jr and Louis |
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| Deborah fell in love with 18 month old Thomas - she loves to mother little ones! :-) |
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| While Stephanie and kids were with us, we had our normal homeschool group in Inverness, which they joined us for. And since our car only fits the 8 of us, I decided to take my 4 boys on the train, and Peter and the girls took everyone else in the car. So the boys had a day out on the train with their mama - fun times! :-) |
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| Fergus enjoyed the train journey! |
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| Biggest boys and Fergus |
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| Not to forget cute Elijah! :-) |
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| Elijah *loves* his little brother sooooo much! |
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| Sitting on the train like a big boy! |
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| After the homeschool group indoor time, we always go out to the park when the weather is dry. The kids love the space out there. Abigail and Claire are in photo above. |
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| Kids on the basket swing |
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| Sweet little Thomas :-) |
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| Stephanie! :-) It's amazing to think how God works and orders the little things in our lives. Stephanie was my pen-pal when I was a teenager - I think she was only about 13 or 14 years old (or maybe even just 12!) when she replied to a "pen pal ad" I had in a homeschooling girls magazine. She didn't even subscribe to the magazine herself - a friend gave her some old issues. And then a number of years later, she came to Scotland for my wedding, and it wasn't long before Carl asked her to marry him! :-D (She had been to see us in Texas a few years before, lest it sounds like they had just met for the first time!) Anyway, they make a wonderful couple and I'm so glad they found each other! |
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| One of Henrietta's boys with his grandma - love this photo of the two of them together. |
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| When your family is all very far away, good friends are all the more special - I feel very blessed to have Henrietta as a friend! She was up in Inverness with her two youngest children, visiting her mum (who is recently widowed) and they came along to our homeschool group for a bit. It was lovely to see them. I first met Henrietta when I had just turned 16 years old and was in London on my first trip to the UK. It feels a whole lifetime ago, and I was just a child really! :-) Henrietta was a dear friend to my late mom. |
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| Elijah *loves* big slides! |
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| How many kids can you fit on a swing?! |
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| Quite a few it seems! |
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| On our way home on the train that evening - the boys wanted me to get a picture of this barrel planter train at Beauly station. |
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| Elijah loved spotting all the animals along the way |
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| Fergus *loved* the views |
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| Excited |
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| Taking it all in :-) |
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| These last four photos, I've pinched from Henrietta! (hope that's ok!) ;-) Not the best photo of me, but nice to have one of me and Stephanie together! |
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| Henrietta's boys, Carl Jr, and Claire |
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| With Abigail |
Well, guess that's all for now. It's nearly 11pm, and there are still two loads of washing on the line to be brought in (since the baby has only just gone down for the night)! :-p At least there's plenty of daylight though, with being so far north here in Scotland. That happens to be my favourite part about summer in Scotland - that it hardly gets dark at all. Now if only it would warm up a bit, that would be wonderful! It did get to around 17c yesterday & today, which felt pretty amazing after such cold temperatures lately.
Hopefully I'll get another post up soon, as Elijah's 3rd birthday was last week, so have some photos from that, etc.
