Edinburgh, Scotland

The final day of our UK trip was spent in Edinburgh, Scotland. The road was long (between Preston and Edinburgh), but after seeing endless green fields of baby sheep hop right along side their momma sheep, we finally made it on Friday evening.

Blake's fever continued to persist and so Matt and I opted to stay in and take care of Blake instead of taking him out for Indian with the rest of the group. He had a good nights rest that night and his fever started the decline the next day. He had no other symptoms (other than an overly sensitive mouth) and I attribute it to teething. He still won't let us get a good look inside, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a few new teeth pop through his gums. 

Anyways, back to Scotland. Saturday morning we toured Edinburgh Castle. We were able to get in a take a look around before the mass afternoon crowd arrived. The castle was incredible considering it's 1,000 years old. We learned it was the birth place of King James, as in the King James Bible.

(It was a windy day as you can tell.)

My favorite part of the castle was a tower that was dedicated as a Scotish War Memorial. There were probably 20 or so books filled was names of soliders that had fought for their country. My mom, sisters, and I had a fun time going through all the books and writing down all the Lindley/Leighman names. It provided the name, place of birth, and date of death for each person which is golden information when it comes to family history.

Beautiful views of Edinburgh from the Castle.

Little Blake was extremely clingy to me this trip. 

There was a cemetary dedicated to the soliders dogs. I found that pretty funny.

The boys and Haley left us after touring each tower to make their way to St. Andrews (hour and a half away) for their afternoon of golf. Us girls (and babies) stayed at the castle for a little bit longer and enjoyed a delicious tea party type lunch. We had tomato soup and real English scones with cream and jam. So delicious.

We need to adopt this food over here in America. We have biscuits but they are not quite the same.

After our lunch we hit the shops of Edinburgh for some shopping. There were street performers lining the streets that kept things entertaining. 

We each came away with beautiful, soft cashmere sweaters that are popular in Scotland because of all the goats. We learned cashmere comes from the belly of the goat, which is the warmest part. 

Our day was finished off with a quick stop at the grocery store to stock up on chocolate and then dinner back at the hotel and packing to prepare to fly home early the next morning.

The boys got home later that evening (after the babies were asleep) and reported that the golfing was incredible. Matt said it was one of the best days of his life. Probably because he golfed incredibly well on a notably more difficult course. 

We had an incredible time in the UK. Everyone told us the food would be terrible, but we must have gotten lucky because everything we ate was great. Our hotels were all very comfortable, something else we were warned about. But most of all, I was so surprised at how special it felt to be in the land my ancestors came from. We made wonderful family memories that I'm sure we will cherish for a lifetime.

The 24 hours of traveling home-- that might not be so cherished. :) 

(Just a glimpse of what babies traveling for 24 hours across 4 different planes with long layovers looks like.) 

After a week away, it's always nice to be home.