Yes, this is not a mirage, this is not a trick your eyes are playing or an advertisement. This is really a post that has taken way too long. It could only mean that I was not well all this time, I could not remember my password OR we have had such a great, busy summer. It was too hard to stop, sit down and write a post so I thought I would catch y'all up. If Blogger would make a better phone app, this would not have been a problem...but here we are.
Our biggest adventure this year was going to the United Kingdom from 6/29 - 7/13. We were fortunate from a $$ perspective because we left only days after Brexit. That saved us $700 just on the car rental we reserved a month before. We spent 2 1/2 days in London before heading to Scotland the rest of the trip. We stay at a friend's house in Leven, Scotland near the beach and then rented a car to explore Scotland for over 1,900 miles. What a beautiful country! Each day, we planned some fun for Collin which included seeing a local circus, watching
Pets, visiting an aquarium, riding a ferry to see a castle surrounded by a moat, watch two Highland Games, visit an amazing zoo in Edinburgh and walk along the beach almost every night. The boys loved looking at the castles so we saw 19 of them. Finding where the kings, queens and noblemen went poop was the highlight of the tour. I should have known better. Even though it rain most days, that did not both us as we toured the country. The rain lasted hours or just a few minutes. We were prepared with our light rain jackets. Otherwise, the weather was a nice change at low to mid 50s at night and low 60s during the day.
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| Beefeater at the Tower of London |
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| Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guard |
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Hampton Court. I was in such awe touring the palace. |
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| London Eye |
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| London Bridge |
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| Stonehenge and Collin |
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| Chris having some fun. Seeing Stonehenge was high on his list of places to see. |
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| Starting our 5 hour journey to Edinburgh |
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| Love these guys! I got to read while they napped on played games on the iPad |
Some pictures of our favorite castles.
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| Glamis Castle |
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| Dunnottar Castle - on the edge of a cliff. |
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| The cliffs and rocks around Dunnottar castle |
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| Loch Leven castle - We had to take a small boat to get here |
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| We had the entire castle to ourselves. A little rain did not keep us away. |
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| Rainy day at Loch Leven |
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| Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness |
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| The ruins of Urquhart Castle |
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| More Urquhart Castle |
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| Lovely rainbow over Loch Ness |
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| Doune Castle |
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| Add caption |
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| One of the many pictures of Collin trying out the latrine |
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| St. Andrews Castle |
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| Underground tunnel at St. Andrews Castle |
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| Underground tunnel at St. Andrews Castle |
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| Balmoral Castle - the Queen's Holiday Residence |
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| Balmoral Tower |
Here is where we stayed and rested every night. Because we were there in the summer, it got light at 3:45am and not dark until after 10pm. So, even after a full day of driving and exploring, we could come back to the apartment and still have time to play on the beach.
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| Front of the apartment in Leven |
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| Back of the apartment. Hey, we had to blend in so we washed and dried our clothes like our neighbors did |
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| Park by the beach in Leven |
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| Leven Beach |
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| Collin got to see the difference tide made. Here, it's in and..... |
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| .....here, the tide is out at least 100 feet! We could not believe how much of a difference there was. Along our journey, we saw boats on the beach and this made more sense now. It was because it was low tide at the moment. |
I was able to capture a few great pictures of Collin. He found some trees to climb at several of the castles. Instead of making him get down so we could hurry to the next castle or the next sight on our list, we let him climb around. He did so great in the car so I knew this guy needed to get some of that energy out. What also happened was I got some pictures that will likely stay on my favorite list. Don't you agree?
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| Collin at Blair Castle gardens |
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| Collin did this pose all on his own. Love him! |
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| Collin on a tree growing on the inside of Craigmillar Castle |
We spent a day driving around the Isle of Skye. It was a rainy/overcast day but we were still able to get some amazing pictures. Plus, the roads were clear from other drivers so we felt like we had the island to ourselves.
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| At the most northern part of Isle of Skye |
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| One of many waterfalls all over the island |
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| Sheep were everywhere! They crossed the roads and did not care that cars were near. |
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| ....and there was cattle too. We thought it odd there were not many cattle guards like you would see back home. |
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| Kilt Rock |
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| Waterfall near Kilt Rock |
We wished we would have spent more time exploring the Highlands and the surrounding islands but we just ran out of time. That means, we will have to go back some day. These are only the highlights. I did take over 600 pictures and journaled about every day. Maybe one day, I will post that here. Gotta move on to the next topic before the family wakes up.
When we got back home, we dropped Collin off at Pine Cove camp for the week. He went last year for the first time and was excited to go again. This time, he knew 3 other boys assigned to his cabin and he liked that. We learned from last time that he needed to be in more of the pictures so Daddy and I could see how much fun he was having. He was in a picture or two almost every day. Thank you Collin! He said the zip line was his favorite and he loved swimming every day. Unlike last time, he came back with less clothes but he brought back a few things we did not recognized. There was no name on the items, so we could not return them. I guess that's part of the camp experience. I was more upset than he was mainly because one of the shirts was is Texas shirt that matched one I have.
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| Ready for a week without the Boy |
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| Scooter Squad - Looks like trouble. Hey! There's that Texas shirt I will not see again...Ok, I will try to get over it. |
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| Rustler Cabin Crew. Collin is the 2nd from the right on the bottom row. |
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| Looks like he is having fun |
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| Zipping lining with a smile |
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| Picking up the smelly, happy boy after a week of camp |
Collin has been trying out several racing events this year. He did a duathlon (run, bike run), an aquathon (swim, run) and a triathlon (swim, bike, run). After all of these, he said he really liked triathlons. In July, he did his second triathlon. This was a 50m pool swim, 2 mile bike ride and 1/2 mile run. He looked great out there! Dad and I love watching him race, trying new things, pushing himself a little, and having fun.
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| Transition set and he is ready! |
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| ...or not. What is that look for? |
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| Oh, he needed to sing the National Anthem first! |
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| Lined up for the swim. He is the shorter guy...#2060 |
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| Out of the pool and headed to transition to get his bike |
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| That was fast! He is off to start the 2 mile bike ride. |
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| Looks like he is doing great on the bike |
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| Running to the finish line |
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| ...and he finished!!! So awesome Collin! |
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| Proud parents with a hot and hungry boy |
For the last few weeks of the summer, Collin has:
- Attended Parisi Speed school for 4 nights a week for two weeks. He liked coming home to show us how fast he was. He is in the front row on the right...showing the guns.
- Attended golf camp. He learned how to hold the club and hit it farther and farther each day. Dad stayed after one of the sessions to see what Collin learned but Collin wanted to goof off more than be serious.
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| Not a bad place for golf lesson huh? Poor Collin! |
- He had maintenance appointments: Dentist, eye exam and hair cut. Getting ready for 3rd grade. His eyes looked good. He needs to floss more and brush his gums better. However, the areas that were getting close to forming cavities cleared up. Not surprised about the other comments because he does brush fast and hates to floss. Blood pressure was good and he weighs 60 lbs.
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| E, N, O, F, L.... |
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| Looking good here |
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| Let's update the teeth X rays |
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| He loves his dentist which is helpful when it's time to go to the dentist |
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| Short hair cut for the football helmet |
- Football camp was supposed to be for four days but the rain made it two days and both were delayed practices. He did not care at all. He loves the football gear and what he is learning at practice. Each night, he has wanted to practice tackling with Dad and show him the differences between defense and offense tackling. I did not know there was a difference so we are all benefiting from this. Also, at least right now, he loves wearing all of the gear. He is happy to put it all on and only asks for help putting his jersey on over the pads. He love it so much that he wore the pads most of the day and wanted to sleep in them. The coach did say he should wear his helmet to get used to it and build up his neck muscles.
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| Trying on all of the football gear for the first time |
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| Showing me that it's not too uncomfortable to sleep in the gear |
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| Ready for the first practice. |
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| Not sure if he is happy about practice... |
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| ....or not. Maybe it's because his chin guard is so tight he cannot talk. Hmmmm....this is not necessarily a bad thing especially if I am asking him to do chores. |
- He is not a bed wetter anymore! At a loss for what else to try, we started an online program that included talking to the doctor every two weeks, marking a calendar daily with information from the night before, and daily exercises. After 14 weeks, he has not wet his bed since he came back from camp which was 29 days! I cannot believe it! Yeah! He is really proud of himself. He wanted to not wet his bed anymore by the time he was 9 years old and he made it. Ahhhhh.....
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