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It's an adventure. Our family of five is taking a year off from... the normal. Less work. More travel. Even (gasp!) homeschooling! We invite you to come along with us as we head West. Then on to Europe. Even grand times at home in between! Our goals: Rest. Connect. Experience. We hope to grow closer as a family and gain a deeper appreciation of all that God is, does, gives. Scaled back commitments. Scaled up adventure. Come along with us as the story unfolds!

Edinburgh

For our first full day in Edinburgh, we woke up to a typical cold, cloudy, and drizzly Scottish day.  But we couldn't let that hold us back!  So, with our layers on, we set out.  
Anna didn't have a raincoat, so we had fun (ok, Anna and I did) picking out a cute one!


We walked to the hop on/hop off bus, and rode it through part of the town on the way to Edinburgh castle.  But before we got the bus stop, we could hear the call of the pipers!
We rode the bus through part of the town on the way to Edinburgh castle.  There was quite of bit of road work in the town, because they're in the process of building a trolley.  So the bus wasn't able to drop us right at the castle, and we got a little turned around on trying to find it.  You'd think it wouldn't be that hard!  But thankfully we found it.

It was so cool to be in a real castle!!  After hearing the kids learn about arrow loops and a portcullis and parapets, we saw those things for real.  It was amazing to imagine the events that went on there so long ago (centuries!).

Justin is readying his bow to shoot an arrow. 
Here are a few more pictures at the castle.





 We had a long full day at the castle and walking around town, so the kids were happy to have some hot chocolate at a dessert place. 
 I'm embarrassed to say that for our second dinner in Scotland, we ate at an American restaurant.  We were cold and tired, and a lot of the pubs don't let children in, something to do with their liquor license doesn't cover having underage, blah, blah.  So we were a little desperate.
On that note, here's a few food items.  For breakfast, the kids were excited to have bacon, even though we had warned them that it would be more like Canadian bacon.  They still wanted to try it, and well, they still prefer American style bacon!
 
Kevin and I are getting in the habit of ordering hot tea with our breakfast....so warm....

 

 
The kids were drooling over the desserts.
 


These were like little moon pies - chocolate covered marshmallow creme with graham cracker crust.
There's so many other details that I wish I could include, but there's just too many to write!  I'm so thankful we're here with the kids (most of the time!).  We're keeping pretty busy, with lots of stuff planned.  I hope they don't get sick of castles!  

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And we're off!

Our grand trip has begun!   I still can't believe it!   But I'm so happy to be done with packing and getting the house clean and all those details running through my head. And it's nice to be starting the trip that we've spent over a year and a half planning.  Wow!  So here's lots of pictures to show our first two days. 

About to leave for the airport

Here's all our luggage - one suitcase and backpack each.  It was a challenge to pack light, but I think we did it!
 
We took an eight hour trip to London.  We didn't get much sleep, but we're getting closer to our destination.
 When the kids weren't sleeping, they loved watching movies on the back of the seat in front of them.
 Finally arrived in London!  Our flight landed about 30 minutes late, due to fog.  And then our flight to Edinburgh was delayed about an hour, so we had plenty of time to hang out at the airport. 
 
 
 Grandma Wade, we found Nessie!  Anna really wanted to buy the pink one, but we convinced her to hold off until we go to actual Loch Ness!


After about three or four hours at the London airport, our flight left for Edinburgh.  Then we took a taxi to our Bed and Breakfast there.  Love the taxis!


 The place we're staying is right in the "new town" of Edinburgh (which means places are ONLY 150 years old).  We had to go up about three flights of stairs to get to our room.

 Yay, we're here!
 After we got settled into our room, we walked around town a little bit.  It's definitely chilly - 40s or 50s I think.   Temperature is measured in Celsius here, so I have to figure out what 3 degrees means in Fahrenheit....not quite as cold as I think!  Anyway, I took a few pictures along the our walk.  

 

It's hard to see, but Edinburgh Castle is up on the hill in the background. 



 

We ate dinner at this place, 1780,  recommended by the B&B owner.  It's a typical Scottish pub - small and cozy....
 ...and of course a wide range of beers!



 I got chicken and asparagus pie with "mash" - mmm great comfort food on a chilly Scottish evening
 Kevin got the fish and chips - DELICIOUS
 Anna said she loved her "typical Scottish meal."  Whatever!

After our yummy meal, we headed back to our room to crash!  We're all exhausted, but so happy to be here.

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Looking back and looking ahead

It's been a while since we've updated the blog, and we've had a lot of people ask what we've been up to since our trip out west in the fall.  Well, not much, but a whole lot.  I know, that doesn't make sense.  What I mean is that we haven't done much traveling since then, but we've been doing a ton of planning for our trip to Europe!  And now that trip is coming closer and  closer!!  It's amazing how much details there are to figure out!  Thank goodness Kevin has been handling most of that, while I've been homeschooling the kids.

We have done a little bit of traveling since October - beach trip to Florida in November, trips to see a couple of my college friends, and Universal Orlando in February.  Here's a few pictures from the beach and Universal.

BEACH:

Beautiful sunsets!


There was hardly anyone else on the beach.  The kids each had their
 own private section of sand.

The water was beautiful and clear, but too cold for me.  The kids loved it though!


Alas, this was a working vacation for Kevin.  At least he's smiling!


UNIVERSAL:

 Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Similar to last picture and not great of the kids, but I think you can 
see the Hogsmeade background better.


Mmmm, butter beer 

Justin's souvenirs - chocolate frog and Gryffindor keychain

We didn't have many lines to stand in, but when we did, here's how the kids entertained themselves:




Getting soaked standing by the water rides


 Yes, we have a teenager.


 Anna on the Caro-seuss-el

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish ride

Daniel wishes he could take this many books to Europe!


Notice Anna, Justin, and Daniel in the back.  They loved this  roller coaster! 

Now notice Justin and I in the second to last row, on the Rip, Ride, Rock it roller coaster.
Not sure Daniel and Justin loved this....It was very intense!

Only the finest in cuisine!




Next stop, Europe!!







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Winding down

Sixteen days.  That's how long we've been away from home.  So now we're getting ready to wind down this part of our adventure year.  We're looking forward being back home Monday evening.  We've had a relaxing few days hanging out with my brother and his family in California.  Before getting to their house, we spent a couple of nights in Las Vegas so that we could see the Hoover Dam.   It was hot, hot, hot!  Our car thermometer registered the outside temperature as 104 at one point!

In front of the huge turbines at Hoover Dam


We loved seeing the dam, but arriving in Las Vegas was a bit jarring, after spending so much time in National Parks and small towns.  We stayed at Excalibur in Vegas, and the kids were amazed at all the sights and sounds!  Don't worry, no sights that were too risque, since Excalibur is one of the more family friendly places to stay.  The two highlights of the hotel for the kids were the cool water slide at the pool and the amazing breakfast buffet.  The buffet was pricey, but we wanted to treat the kids, and we had actually spent less on food for the whole trip than we had planned.  Probably the less said about the buffet, the better, but I should tell you that the kids had a couple desserts after their meals (keep in mind this was BREAKFAST!).  Oh, and another highlight of Las Vegas was eating dinner at the Rainforest Cafe!  That was so fun.  The restaurant is set up as a jungle, and about every 30 minutes, there's a "storm," and all the animals make noise!
Please don't judge us for this picture.  We promise to not continue this behavior at home!
Justin coming down the water slide.  The kids continually went down the slide for almost two hours!
We left Las Vegas Friday morning, and we've been at my brother's place for the weekend.  It's been so nice to be in a house, and to be able to stay for three nights in one place!  Plus, it's just been great to see family and just hang out.  When we pulled in to my brother's place, the first thing he said was, "Hey, we thought we'd go on a hike and have a picnic for dinner, and maybe we can find a cool canyon somewhere!"  Haha!   That's my brother!

Fun time with the cousins in the hot tub and pool


Some closing reflections on our trip:

I've loved it!  I felt like we were in a family bubble, where it's just us, and that felt special.  Everyone got a long a lot better than I thought we might.  That's not to say that there were no fights, but overall everyone did well.  I loved seeing the kids interact with each other and have little inside jokes with each other.  

As for the parks, we asked the kids (and ourselves) which parks we liked best, and here's what everyone said:
Anna:  Yellowstone, because we saw the most animals there
Justin:  Yellowstone, and maybe Grand Teton, because of the animals, and the geysers of course!
Daniel:  Yellowstone, because of the animals, and because it was so pretty
Kevin: Yellowstone (sensing a theme here!), because there was such variety in the park - waterfalls, geysers, mountains, it seemed like it had everything
Kelly:  sorry to break the theme, but Capitol Reef, because I was so surprised by the beauty of it.  Also, I loved our walk through the canyon, when it was just our family, and the kids seemed so free and excited as they explored.  I liked Yellowstone too :).

I'm not sure when we'll post again.  Kevin might post one more time, we'll see.

Thanks for following our journey with us!   Check back in the spring when we'll be in Europe for two to three months!










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