PS

I have been meaning to post these photos ever since we returned to NZ ... 'the path way to hell is paved with good intentions!' I heard that somewhere. The further away from our trip we get the more grateful I am that we have been able to spend time with our family/whanau in the States. We love spending time with them ... they are such wonderful human beings. Our grandchildren are so full of life, adventure, fun and love.

We spent a month in the US when we returned from Scotland. By the time we got back to the States Lars and Roxcy were ready for Mum and Dad again. Our trip with them was such an adventure ... it was one of those ideas that seemed good at the time and the closer we got the more I thought this could go well or not. Our trip with them was better and more than we imagined it would be. We were all looking forward to settling back in the US for a bit and looking forward to seeing Marigold. Roxcy had big plans of what she wanted to do with her and what fun they would have. Here are the photos of our US travel.

Back to the Snapdragon Inn. We love staying here ... it is so restful and comfortable. It also gave us a bit of space so that Lars and Roxcy could have Mike & Chris to themselves and settle back into family life.

Here she is ... Marigold, our divine Miss M ... all of us have been waiting for her arrival with eager anticipation!! Our trip is complete now ...

Capturing a real Lucy moment ... a pregnant Lucy moment. How many times have we seen this look on Lucy's face over the years. It seems surreal to me to have a daughter pregnant when it feels like yesterday to me that I was holding her in my arms, having her in bed with us, holding her hand, I love holding Lucy's hand.

A pleasant Sunday afternoon walk through Saint Gaundens grounds. It is so beautiful here. There were two victims of stings during our visit ... these three have quite a bond.

Things happen when Lucy is around ... I don't know how she does it ... this is the end product of a makeup morning with Lucy, Marigold, Roxcy and I. Roxcy and I had a lot of conversations while travelling in Scotland about this makeup day with Marigold and Lucy and she was very excited for this moment.

I think you all know how I feel about Canadian Geese. Here is a posse of them walking across the field next to Lake Runemeade. These birds are menacing. They look like they are preparing to attack.

This looks so familiar to me ... a moment of bliss with Marigold. It has been a long time since we have had the pleasure of these moments with her.

We are on the road again in our RV with these three ... all packed up and ready to go into the White Mountains for some adventures.

 I bought this mat for our RV as a way of preventing dirt being walked through. I love our RV ... I think it is one of the best purchases we have made. We have had some wonderful trips with these three, across the States. I love the convenience of it ... the shape of it and I love that when we are in the States we have the freedom to pack up and go. I am imagining our next road trip in it with Lars, Roxcy and Marigold ... Southern Utah and visiting all the canyons.

We found a beautiful spot in the White Mountains. We did some fun walks here and visited Story Land. 

I could not resist capturing this moment with Roxcy and Marigold. We had a lovely evening walk through one of the White Mountain parks and we had a lot of fun climbing through the caves ... some were easier to climb through than others. I managed to keep my fear of confined spaces at bay. Nothing is impossible with these guys ... if Lars can do it so will Roxcy and if Roxcy can do it so will Marigold. 

We took the chair lift up one of the more popular and oldest ski fields in the White Mountains. While at the top we took a walk around to check out the views. Lars thought it was the perfect place to practice his werewolf howl. 

Yoga in the out doors ... Warrior 3

The view from the top ... it was certainly pretty up there. Marigold has a tutu/skirt for every adventure.

We went for a walk through The Flume Gorge ... it is so pretty through there. We did a lot of walking this day and it was hot! A moment of exhaustion and 'I am not going any further' for Marigold. It did not help that her shoes were too big and she kept tripping over them or one would just fall off her foot while she was running ... she ran everywhere. I remember moments like this with Lucy when we would go tramping as a family. Lucy would just stop and drop to the ground ... she could not go another step. This little Marigold fills our hearts with love. She fills everyones hearts with love.

Camp breakfast ... pancakes, berries, weetbix (for some), cereal. Roxcy would set our table perfectly. Hard to resist sitting at this table with these guys.

Our day at Story Land ... we got there about lunch time. I was a little concerned that Lars  would find it a bit too young for him ... I did not need to worry we had a blast here with these three. I think we were here for 5 hours ... the time just flew by.

This is the funniest photo ever of Lars ... I think we went on this ride about 4 times. It was so much fun ... Lars' face says it all.

Marigold kept saying on the climb up 'I love this ride, this is the best ride ever' ... on the way down she just froze. I love how Roxcy just puts her everything into her scream ... she looks like her whole face is screaming here not just her voice. Nothing like a rush of adrenaline to make the day. 

We went on a teacup and saucer ride and Lars just kept spinning us faster and faster ... I thought Pete was going to pass out. He looks traumatised here. He refused to go on another ride. I think it took him nearly 24 hours to fully recover his sense of gravity. He really does look sick here! Possibly a near death experience for him.

Our last night together at the park ... a Smores night. I love these memories/moments.

Back home to Windsor VT ... back to her own kitchen, our pancake queen ... Roxcy's morning go to breakfast, she's pretty good at them.

Lars' is a Mac'n Cheese man ... not just any mac'n cheese ... Annie's Organic Mac'n Cheese and you have to cook them a certain way ... they have to taste the same every time. Apparently you do not put macaroni in a pot of salted water and let it boil you place a wooden spoon over the pot like so! Yes it works ... don't ask me how but it makes a difference to how the macaroni cooks. Lars has been taught well.

Roxcy and Marigold put on a musical performance from Aladdin for us. I love the look on Marigold's face ... 'not sure what I am doing here but I will follow your lead Roxcy'. It was a very entertaining night with various musical items and costumes from these two.

Walking back to Mike & Chris' and I spied this beautiful Merc. I love the shape of this model ... I can see me in one.

Mike had a birthday while we were there. Roxcy wanted to make his day special so we baked a cake for him. Unfortunately the top slid of onto the wooden decking when Roxcy took it outside to him. Poor Roxcy collapsed into tears, while the rest of us tried to contain our laughter. This cake is the remains of what was scraped off the deck and lovingly put back together and re iced. It still tasted good ...

A scary moment ...

My best morning view ...

Our last days of Lake Runnemede. Windsor is one of the best spots in the world to rest and relax from the busyness of the world and be with family.

Our last night in VT ... we hate saying goodbye to the ones we love.

Heading out to Utah to spend time with Lucy and Josh ... Marigold's Mum & Dad. Modern technology has really changed a families travel experience. When we flew to the States in 1996 our children were lying all over the place, bored and hard to settle. Not now!

 Utah Mountains ... beautiful! I love Utah landscape. This is Lucy & Josh's view every day.

 My regular visit to Hatchers Chocolate Store ... they really do sell the best hot chocolate in the world and it is definitely worth a visit.

Practising being a Princess ...

 New shoes ... unicorn shoes ... everyone needs a pair of unicorn shoes.

We spent our last few days in the States with our very good friends in Arizona. There is nothing like the company of good friends who also happen to be good people! So refreshing and fun ... there is years of history here ... I feel very grateful to have these people in our lives.

These sisters have been a part of our lives for ever. I really love these women!

 The End! Getting ready to fly back to NZ ... home. A mixture of sadness and happiness. I never would have though that our lives would have been so intimately entwined with the US. A big part of our hearts live here! Until next time and a better camera.

Edinburgh

We were all relieved to be heading to Edinburgh and for Lars and Roxcy it was one step closer to home. We had done very well living in a small van for a month but we were looking forward to spreading out a bit and sleeping in a real bed. I had been looking forward to spending some time in Edinburgh, the last time we were there was in the 80's ... a lot has changed since then, including us.

We drove out of our way to visit this Cheese Mongers ... I love cheese! I am sure I have said this before, my favourite cheese in NZ is Blue River Sheep's Milk. I love buying cheese from our local cheese monger in ChCh who has the best selection of cheeses and great bread. 

We woke really in the morning at our Blair Castle campground and started driving to Edinburgh while Lars and Roxcy were still asleep. Pete thought that it would be a good idea to visit The National Museum of Flight outside of Edinburgh before we dropped off our van. Our Satnav got sulky and dropped off the internet just as we came into the city. It was very stressful trying to navigate our way to the museum. There was a moment of panic when we thought we would have to go analogue. We made it to the museum ok but arrived early and had to wait for about an hour so Pete decided to clean out the van before we dropped it off.

I would feel completely safe with this flight crew.

I booked an airbandb for our stay in Edinburgh. I had no idea where it was or what it was like other than the photos on the airbandb site. It is a little scary for me when booking accommodation online and I have no idea of location or proximity to where we want to go. When we pulled up outside the door Roxcy saw how old the apartment block was she became a little concerned about what might be on the other side and that possibly we might be staying in some derelict, unsafe place.

Roxcy was in love with our apartment when she saw it and went straight to setting her room up organising her wardrobe and her desk which looked out the window and onto the street. Lars just jumped on his bed and lay himself out and did not really care about where his clothes went ... which was mostly on the floor.

Our airbandb was about a 30 minute walk to all of the main sites that we wanted to see like Edinburgh Castle. It was a beautiful old building ... beautiful old stair case, lovely wood and these amazing tiles on the floor. Our apartment was almost like a home away from home and a lot more comfortable than living in a van.

We walked up to the end of our street to do some grocery shopping when we got settled. I just love these old buildings and it was so fun to sit at our window at night and watch people in their apartments living their lives.

Roxcy just loved setting up home. We were given tickets and passports to enter her room. There were notes with instructions from Roxcy all over our apartment and beside our bed. Pete and Lars went to the movies one night to see The Current War ... about the battle for electricity between Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse. I thought that the film would be boring for Roxcy and Lars had just been reading about Tesla so I thought the film might be of interest to him. Roxcy was really upset with Pete and me. She tried very hard to persuade us to take her with them but we were firm in our decision. As you can imagine there was some moments of serious distress for her. When we got back to our apartment Roxcy proceeded to take away Pete's tickets and visiting privileges to her room and said "oh and by the way, tickets to get into my room can expire. By the way Pete, your ticket has expired."

I spy with my little eye ... Lars ... I really like the idea of apartment living. There is something exciting and edgy about living in a city and the energy of peoples lives being right at your door.

Edinburgh Castle ... looks very foreboding and Gothic. I was a little underwhelmed by the Castle, but it looks very intimidating on top of the hill.

Lars our protector.

Edinburgh was the busiest city we visited in Scotland, and the only big city we visited ... people everywhere!

We loved the buskers ... Lars and Roxcy were fascinated by this elevated Dobby and spent quite a long time walking around him to figure out how he did it, we visited him several times doing a 360 view of him to figure out how he was standing above ground. There were a few buskers like this. We finally figured it out ... the staff is bolted to a platform that is under Dobby's robe and there is rod that runs along Dobby's sleeve and down his back that is attached to the platform and the staff. 

I really enjoyed watching Lars and Roxcy enjoy this busking act. They were laughing out loud at him ... he was very funny. I love the energy that buskers bring and how they draw in a crowd. This man was particularly good at it.

I found the best hot chocolate in the world here in Edinburgh ... it was delicious. We found this really yummy Italian restaurant ... I told them I like my hot chocolates strong and dark and they did it, so we went back for another one a couple of days later as well as pizza.

I booked a Harry Potter tour. Quite a lot of the Harry Potter series was written in Edinburgh so Harry Potter is BIG here and there are lots of different tours that can be taken. Our tour guide had done her Masters degree on Harry Potter and tourism. I have a whole new appreciation for Harry and his friends and JK Rowling. Lars was riveted the whole time and very engaged with our guide, he would chat away to her.

Our Harry Potter Tour took us down some really interesting streets, like this one. There is a Harry Potter museum and book store where you can buy wands and other Hogwarts magical instruments.

Apparently JK Rowling got her inspiration for character names from the Edinburgh grave yard. Her children go to a private school right next door and have their own personal security guards while at school. This is also the graveyard where Greyfair's Bobby (a Skye Terrier) sat by the grave of his dead master everyday for 14 years.  

I think Lars is a very handsome Harry Potter! Pete was often seen writing down quotes from Lars and Roxcy on his phone and wants me to include them in our posts. Movie quote from Lars ...

Pete ... "Lars this film might be a bit old for you."

Lars ... "I've seen a hundred PG13 films in my entire life."

Pete ... "A hundred Lars, are you sure?"

Lars ... "Maybe more!"

Roxcy looks very convincing as Hermione Granger. We learnt from our tour guide that anyone who had red hair was considered a witch and were either drowned, burnt or hung. If you were thrown into the river with stones chained to your feet and did not drown this meant that you were witch and would then burn you at the stake. Not a lot of positive options. I loved to remind her how lucky she is not to have been born in the 1600s. One of Pete's favourite quote from Roxcy ...

Roxcy ... "Pete, it's not fair you didn't cook my chicken when I asked you to."

Pete ... "Roxcy, it's not good for your development if I stop doing everything I am doing just because you say I'm hungry, especially when I am doing something important like reading a book."

Roxcy ... "Wait! You were reading a book!!!!"

I really love this photo of Lars ... do I have too? He was really upset that we did not buy him a wand and this was the best look I could get out of him.

We visited the Edinburgh Museum ... which is amazing for children. There are science, animals and technology sections. You could spend hours here ... I loved the light and the spaciousness of the building.

We went for a ride on a large ferris wheel on the river ... it was very high, but not as high as the one on the River Thames in London. Lars wanted to spin us very fast but I couldn't do it. We had a birds eye view of Edinburgh. Roxcy was so cute as we came down ... she said ... we are ok Liz ... don't look down.

We found a very cool Hi Fi store and stopped to have a look. There is some beautiful audio here. I loved this turn table. We walked past this store every day on our way into the city. The guy was a real enthusiast as most techno people are and it was a really nice moment stopping to look and check out his store.

Home again ... safe at last! Lars and Roxcy were so excited to be going home ... and had sent through their list of favourite foods, pizza being top of the list.