girls trip | aberdeen

Continuing from our girls trip, London and Paris...

I was excited to show my friends Aberdeen, Scotland, and relax a bit.  London and Paris were great of course, we wouldn't have changed a thing, but we were on the go go go, and many days early!!  

Before the girls came over to Europe, Jason and I had been trying to figure out how we would get around, with 9 people.  Renting a car/van big enough for all of us was proving to be a challenge, well renting anything really.  Everywhere we went wanted a UK licensed driver, for at least 2 years, and we had only had ours for a couple of months.  But God answered our prayers and days before they flew over we were able to rent a big ol'van, that fit us all.... and then I found out it was a standard.  Jason seemed totally ok with the idea.  Me?  No.  I drove a standard maybe 10 years ago, but its been awhile, and this is a BIG car, and on the other side of the road.  I was terrified and cried a bit at the thought, but after a refresher lesson from Jason, I wasn't terrified.  Just scared.  :)  But it all worked out!  I revved that engine a lot but never stalled in traffic or rolled back into anyone.  Yay!

Our Aberdeen itinerary consisted of castles, girls nights, train to Inverness, to go to Loch Ness, (we did not see Nessie, but had a close call!)  ;) and a fun day of shopping and a tour of a whiskey distillery, pub night including the World Cup and karaoke... Jason took the girls out while my sis and I stayed home and relaxed a bit!  All of this with my boys hanging out with us.  It worked out well, they did pretty good on an irregular schedule, my friends helped a lot especially on the castles near cliffs, and entertaining Noah on the train.  And Noah, sweet boy.  He got his first crush on my friend Catherine, and it was both alarming, cute, and a bit sad for me!  He just said he loved her cause she was really nice.  He would always sit next to her, hold her hand, wait for her at the stairs, repeat her name over and over, want her to play with him... puppy love.  :)

What a big blessing to have my friends come and visit us.  It was really one of the best times I've ever had, and we already want to plan another trip somewhere.  I just can't say it enough, it was awesome!  I highly recommend girl trips.  (This was my first trip ever without kids!)  Even though we were great friends before, we will forever be bonded by this, and closer for it.  Love you girls!  

budapest, hungary

Right before Easter, we took a trip to Budapest, Hungary, to see the sites, but most importantly, see some of our friends who moved there at the same time we moved to Scotland, to plant churches.  Right when we got back home from our trip, we moved house, so I am just now getting to post photos!

It was such a great trip to see Terry and Christina, and their three girls.  We have really bonded since our families have both been on this side of the pond, and we laughed as we talked about the differences between here and the US, foods we missed, things we like here on this side of the world, and chatted about what both of our futures hold.  We as a family help support our friends while they are in Hungary, and it was really great to talk about how God is using them, to hear about their progress, and process, while they are here.  The girls and our boys had a great time together, and they especially loved little Asher, I think they wanted to keep him.  :)  It was nice not having to worry about the language barrier, with all 5 of them fluent in Hungarian.  I am so impressed with the girls language skills!  We went to this cool ice cream spot where they shaped the ice cream like roses, ate yummy Hungarian and American style food, enjoyed the (warmer) weather, saw the sites, and even had a date night.  --A leap for me, but I trust Christina and she trusts her babysitter, and everything worked out good!
P.S.  This was also the trip where Noah decided to make a face in most of the photos he was in.  He is the best! ;)

copenhagen, denmark

Jason is definitely a world traveler these days.  So much so, that the day we left for our trip to Copenhagen, he applied for a second passport, and got many more pages sewn into his current passport, because he was out of pages to be stamped.  Jason travels to Norway and Denmark for work sometimes, and those two countries are on my list of places I want to visit.  This past week, he had a short business trip in Copenhagen, so me and the boys tagged along.  It was extra fun, because my friend, Emily, came too and we were able to explore the city together.  (Emily's husband is Jason's boss, and they often travel together for their job.) We really only had a day and a half, to see Copenhagen, I would have liked a couple more days to be able to see more.  Our first day was rainy, but before we got caught in a downpour, where even with a plastic poncho and umbrella I was soaked, we got some dry weather to enjoy.  We walked around the pedestrian shopping streets, where I loved window shopping in some fun, modern design stores.  We went and saw what we thought was the Little Mermaid statue (we were wrong, but saw the real one by a boat tour later) and found New Hauden, with lots of places to eat by the boats and canals.  Noah got some ice cream, and I found a vintage Dansk pitcher I have been really wanting for a long time!  Imagine my excitement when we happen to pass a vintage store with FOUR in the window!  It made my day!   After we got drenched in the rain, we got back to the hotel to clean up and let the boys finish napping in their stroller (through the rain, both fell asleep on the way back!) and our husbands were finished for the day, so they got to come back out with us, and we saw some more sites, and finished up with dinner.  We had a nice short little trip, and look forward to some more sometime!  Jason's going to Milan next week... hmmm...

our cruise port days

Jason and I were excited to cruise around the Mediterranean on the Disney Cruise.  We had 4 port days, with stops in small port towns near Nice, France, Florence, Rome and Naples, Italy.  There were designated times to be back on the cruise, but other then that, you could get off and do whatever you pleased for the day, or also participate in a scheduled event (hiking, wine tasting, tour bus, tour walk, etc) that you already booked ahead of time.  We didn't book any ahead of time, because we didn't know how it would work with young ones.  Some excursions were 10 hours long!  When planning this vacation, we were aiming for a relaxing, 'do nothing' kinda trip.  I didn't even take as many pictures as I usually do!  So we walked around, ate food, got Noah his daily gelato fix, found some water to cool off in, and repeat.  The last stop, Naples, we actually went on a little excursion.  We took a bus up to the coastal town of Sorrento.  This trip was only 4.5 hours, so we figured we could swing it with the boys.  We didn't realize taking a bus up curvy mountains would make Asher car sick!  Poor little guy.  Got sick 4 times while on the bus.  Hence our family picture with Asher and Jason half dressed.  (We went straight to a souvenir shop to buy Italy shirts for them when we stopped!) Sorrento was just beautiful!  We stopped on our drive up there to take some photos too, and they really don't do it justice!  What a busy, but quaint little coastal town!  We could have stayed there exploring a little longer.  

It was a bit warmer then we were used too!  Not crazy, but warmer then 60+ degrees here in Aberdeen.  I thought Noah would have a problem with the heat, but he never commented on it.  He did come up with his own technique for staying cool.  (shirt rolled up!)  Our hats... I bought my hat before we moved to Scotland, with the intent of wearing it on our sunny, warm summer holiday's.  Done!  This is Jason's second hat he has purchased in Italy... and he picked a good one, I think.  It reminded him of his dads hat that he wore after his first brain surgery.  It makes him smile, so it makes me smile.  We also got Noah one too.  

We had a great time on our family trip, and I am already thinking of other places we want to one day visit... although we both agreed that when we have #3, vacations will minimize for sure!!  Next up, the USA!  See you soon Louisiana and Texas.  (Christmas time!)