Holiday, Birthday and Charlie Bear!

Hello folks, sorry it has been ages since the last post again! As some of you know we have been on holiday to Aviemore, well it was 2 weeks ago now, but have been busy since getting back. So I will fill you in on that!

We went up to Lossie after I finished work on the Saturday and went for a lovely walk in the evening for an ice-cream, in the POURING rain, well that's what Scottish Holidays are all about?! On the Sunday the girls caught up with some of Ian's family including Auntie Ellen (who will be reading this!) who got lots of cuddles from them. We had a BBQ with Mum and Dad in the evening, it was just about warm enough!

On the Monday we went over to Kinloss with Granny Toys to a farm which has a big indoor play area and cows etc. The girls had a great time playing on the play equipement and we all had lunch.

Before we left we went to look at the cows. Neither of the girls were keen at first, but Natalie became quite confident with them, so decided to start feeding them. Unfortunately one of the cows became a bit too friendly and licked her right in the face, I actually have the moment before captured on camera as I was trying to get her feeding the cow, you can see it's tounge going for her....

As you can imagine she was NOT happy, I don't blame her, I would hate a big black beast licking me. She still speaks about it now and tells everyone the cow licked her.

After that we went over to Grant Park in Forres which was good, then when we went back to Lossie Mum took the girls to the beach, but it was a bit cold and they wanted to go home.

So on the Tuesday we headed down from Lossie to Aviemore. We were staying in the Coylumbridge Hilton, which was lovely, we had a suite with bunk beds in one room, although neither of the beds got slept in! The hotel was very family friendly, we went swimming every day, there was a great outdoor park and indoor play centre.

On Wednesday we headed over to Landmark an outdoor forest park, which Ian has memories of as a kid (I don't remember going there, but maybe we did Mum?) Anyway there was stuff for the girls to do, although it would have been better if they were a wee bit older. They played in the parks, we went on a gorgeous tree-top walk and they played for ages in these little cars. Holly made a new friend who is now apparently one of her best friends, she just calls her the Girl from Landmark! She only met her for half an hour! So here are some pictures of that....

After our usual afternoon swim we had dinner then the girls played in the park at the hotel, which was great. We were so lucky with the weather, it was so warm, this photo was taken about 8 at night and it was still warm enough to be out in t-shirts.

On the Thursday we went on the Strathspey Steam Railway, which is a train which goes from Aviemore to Broomhill. The girls weren't that keen on the train when it first arrived but came round to it once we were on and had fun waving their Thomas flags and giving their tickets to the guard. We got off the train in Boat of Garten and went to feed some ducks whilst we waited for the train to come back.

We had our afternoon swim after that, the girls really did get quite confident in the water, we have hardly taken them swimming and on the first day they weren't sure, but Holly was soon supporting herself and jumping off the side, we were amazed. Natalie liked going in the jacuzzi or the bubble pool as she called it. In the evening we went to the lobby for a drink before dinner and the girls had fun playing with all the other kids, here is me and Nat before we ate.

On the Friday we were all pretty tired after our busy time, so we just headed home after breakfast, via half of the Scottish Highlands, due to Ian and his Sat Nav!! We did get pretty lost and came a long way home (or so it felt), so you can imagine it was a bit stressful! The girls were good though and didn't mind. Ian and I are just about speaking now!

So that was our holiday! On the Saturday I had a big night out for Angela's 40th Birthday, we went out in a HUUGGGEE Hummer with a group of friends then to the Square in town for dinner. It was a fab night, we had a great laugh and far too much champagne!! Here we are before the Hummer ride, I won't put any other photos up as she will probably murder me!

We have been back to our normal routine this week. Holly had her first ever school report on Friday, which was very good, so we are very proud parents! We have her first Parent's Night on Tuesday, I still can't believe we are doing all this, what happened to my babies! ? ?

Holly had had the nursery teddy bear, called Charlie, home this weekend for a sleepover as she calls it. We have taken him everywhere with us and Holly had loved having him. Here they all are tonight...

Well that's all, I have writer's cramp now after writing all this! We will hopefully be back soon.

Hannah XXX