Trip to Scotland and Adele's Baptism

It's finally here! The post you've all been waiting for! Well, probably not, but I feel we couldn't just let a trip to Scotland go by without immortalizing it in blog form.

In the beginning of May (so we could get there and back before Fiona turned 2) the four of us traveled to Scotland to visit and have Adele baptised. There's a lot to cover, so I'm planning to use bullet points and pictures to get though it all.

1. Flight out.

*Checking in very stressful. Delta dreadful. Lost booking for girls. Almost missed flight.

*Flight great. No problems. Girls very good. Fiona very tired on arrival.

2. Time adjustment. Scotland 6 hours ahead of Minneapolis.

* Not awesome, but could have been worse. Had a few crabby zombie days. Fiona crabby. Me zombie. Also, crabby. Adele did much better. Good baby :-)

3. Trips to Louise's childhood parks and local beach.

* Fiona: "TRAIN!!!!!!!!"

* Fiona: "A BOAT!!!!!!!!"

* Fiona: "SWING!!!!!!" (swing not pictured).

4. Trip to Macduff Aquarium with Grandpa!

*Fiona: "FISH!! FISH! FISH! FISH! STARFISH! BLUE FISH! TINY FISH!"

*Fiona gathered all her courage and touched a starfish

* Fiona: "BOAT!!!" Yep, we found another boat! (It's out there somewhere!)

5. Going on THE BUS!!!

*Fiona loves all kinds of transportation, and her dreams came true the day Ben and I (and Adele) took her on a real live Aberdeen bus. I wish I'd found these half as exciting as she does...

6. Visiting with Family and friends!

*We spent time with some lovely people in Aberdeen, and a lot of people visited to celebrate Adele's baptism day with us. Fiona and Adele really enjoyed hanging out with you all!!

7. Adele's Baptism.

This was a really nice day. My brother Robert and my lovely friend Anna are Adele's Godparents. I wasn't able to take many pictures on the day, so I "borrowed" most of these from Uncle Michael. Hopefully he won't mind :-)

*Adele was very good and was happy and did not cry!

8. Grannie!

* Fiona loves Grannie so much! And Grannie loves tea! (And Fiona, of course). Fiona loved getting to spend so much time with Grannie, and in addition to that on this trip, she got to have her first "cuppietea" (as Fiona calls it) with her while colouring a picture of a teapot. Perfect!

There was so much more that we did, and you can see many more pictures and videos on our flickr page, but for now I should wrap up this epic holiday post extravaganza. The final part was the trip home, which went well despite having to be at the airport at 4am.

*Adele: "This sucks. I hate you. What kind of crazy time is this? Grrrrrrr"

* Fiona: "PLANE!!!!!!!!!"

The End!

More fish!

Mum and Dad left on Monday and since then I haven't had a chance to update with the adventures we had at the end of their visit... it would be nice to have a permanent live-in babysitter so I can do the things I got used to doing when they were here - like taking daily showers, frequent blog posts, and making dinner from ingredients!

On Saturday we attempted to take a walk downtown across the Stone Arch Bridge. Saturday was super cold, and for whatever reason Fiona decided to have a hysterical fit almost as soon as we got there, so we left Mum and Dad downtown to have their own adventure and we took her home instead. On Sunday Mum and Dad went to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts while Ben and I did some grocery shopping. In the evening Bill and Ginger came over for dinner and I exhibited my "food made with real ingredients", which seemed to go over well :-)

On Monday we decided that there was just enough time to go to another fishy site - Underwater Adventures, the aquarium at the mall... if anyone is ever looking for a tour of all the fish and turtles in the Twin Cities, let me know, we went to them all!

Fiona had a great time with Granny, though she rushed through so fast that we decided to go round a second time... here are some of the highlights...

Fiona and Granny check out fish...

Giant ugly snouty turtle... (ok, according to the website this is "Brutus" the Alligator Snapping Turtle)

Sharks!

Seahorses...

Fascinated with something...

This aquarium is a lot of fun because you walk through a tunnel for most of it that is surrounded by the water and fish so it feels like you're actually under the sea. Seeing the fish swimming above your head is really cool, and kind of weird!

After that Mum and Dad had to go home again. Sad! Thanks for coming, we had LOTS of fun! Come back soon!!

Minnesota Zoo

On Monday Fiona and I took Granny and Grandpa to Minnesota Zoo. It was a good thing we went yesterday because today the rain is pouring down again.

Fiona, as you have probably gathered, is a huge fan of animals, fish, and all creatures in between. MN Zoo is her idea of heaven! First we walked through the cold Russian area where we saw Otters frolicking, and some very sleepy bears.

Here's a video...

From there we walked round the long trail past the tigers and all the woodsy creatures. Fiona was very entertained by the Prairie Dogs, which would pop their heads up every so often and squeak.

After that we toured the farm, and Fiona got up close and personal with a Goat. The farm animals are used to being handled by children (unlike the Tigers, or the Komodo Dragon, for instance) so they get right up in your face, and Fiona found this to be quite frightening! After the goat made her cry, we moved on, and saw some sweet little bunnies and other less threatening creatures.

Next we took the Minnesota trail, which is where you will find animals native to Minnesota such as Beavers, Coyotes and Wolverines. Yes, Wolverines! And here I was thinking they were some kind of crazy vicious X-Men type animal... Wolverines are so cute!!

Then we headed to the Tropical area. This is Fiona's favourite part... they have Gibbons, which are always amusing, Warty Pigs, which Fiona LOVES for some reason...

And there's a huge tropical aquarium full of beautiful fish and sharks...

This part is more enclosed, so Fiona can run around more safely here, and enjoyed having Granny chase her from one thing to the next, and demanded to be lifted up so she could see things more clearly.

Fiona loved every second... Granny was tired by the end of the day ;-)

After that we spent some time in discovery bay, where there are other aquariums and you can see dolphins, sharks, and a giant turtle.

Then luckily there was nothing left to see because it was closing time and we were forced to go home. We had a lovely day, and Fiona and I have a Zoo membership now, so we can go back every day if we want to!