We're Brownie Guides

Mhairi became a real Brownie on her birthday when she made her promise. She was so excited to have Grandma Crook there with us too. She's in the badger six and is here with her friend Elena getting her promise badge from her Brown Owl.

Happy 8th Birthday Mhairi

Mhairi wanted to celebrate her 8th birthday by taking a friend horseriding and then on to Urquhart Castle at Drumnadrochit.


Mhairi, Elena and Joe all had a ride and then we had the fastest ever visit round Urquhart Castle...Elena has an older brother and is obviously used to trying to keep up with him.





Afterwards we went down to Loch Ness and the kids had a splash about before going home via Drumnadrochit ice cream shop.

Happy Birthday Mum

Mhairi chose this birthday cake to make for Christine's birthday and Dave and Mhairi spent most of the day making it. Mum was banned from the kitchen while the secret baking was in progress, which was a good excuse to avoid the washing up. It took them most of the day but the result was worth the wait. Thanks for all the calls from family who were thinking about me on my special day. I won't tell you how young I now am! The foot in the picture is Fin's; he wanted a closer look.

A little bit of dune sliding or jumping from our trip to Oldshoremore.

We took a quick trip North to Oldshoremore beach on a blustery winter's day. It was cold and windy but we had the beach to ourselves and the children used all the space they could find!

This is Joe on St. Andrews night performing an address to a haggis in honour of Rabbie Burns, a great Scottish Poet.

Here's Grandad, Dodo and Joe all caving at Ardmair in December probably the last time Dodo visiting before moving to America. We're glad we got a few photos of him before he left!

First try

Every time I go looking for a good snap of the family, I always realise we're not very good at trusting other people with our camera, so the first shot on our new blog is this one of Mhairi, Joe and Finlay, on a wee trip to Eilean Donan in
October.