Dingwall... at 10pm... and then 11pm

Through living room window..  

11pm.. Red sky at night...

England Trip!

This past Monday evening, Ian and I flew off to the UK. We arrived in London, England Tuesday late morning after a sleepless flight (there were several young families with cranky kids on the flight). Ishbel, Ian's sister, had a list of things for us to see while we were there waiting for her to get out of teaching in the afternoon. We ended up seeing the Buckingham Palace and then waiting around for her..

 Buckingham Palace..  

The Palace gates..

The guards.. we watched them do a shift change.

 it was drizzling after that so we ended up taking it easy till Ishbel met with us. She took us to see....

Big Ben

The Westminster Palace.. 

 On the Thames River..

The Thames River..

Lord Nelson monument..

Trafalgar's Square..

St Paul's Cathedral..

Oliver Cromwell monument..

 Ian by sermon lane..

The Westminster Abbey.. 

We were able to make the 5pm service that was on at the Westminster Chapel on Tuesday evening. The boys choir was singing as well as reading of the Scriptures.. it was interesting to be a part of.

A couple blogs I have read recently that are really good:

1. Some Reflections From A New Dad: A blog from Dr Murray after the birth of his young son, Scot Lewis. http://headhearthand.org/blog/2013/05/29/some-reflections-from-a-new-dad-age-47/  
2. The absent Minded Husband: written by Rebecca Vandoodewaard, a very well written article about how we may think our seminary/ ministerial husbands seem to be absent minded yet the work they are called to do is way more important even if they are forgetting your birthday or dinner time. http://thechristianpundit.org/2012/07/04/the-absent-minded-husband/

the long awaited cutie!!

A couple weeks ago, Ian and I decided to take a last minute trip to Wisconsin to see our new nephew. Ian had a retreat cancelled on him due to not enough young people signing up for it so in that time frame we rushed off to see my sister, Jolena, and her husband and son.. Marvin #3 & Marvin #4.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of him..

He was out!

His Detriot Tiger outfit..

Could just cuddle him all day he is so cute!! 

Apparently he doesn't like his arms/hands wrapped up in a blanket... he must have really been asleep to allow me to wrap him up like a papoose.

He was sleeping all morning and I wanted to get him to wake up for me before we left that day...I was nice.. don't worry! 

Jolena was laughing right along with me.. :)

He would open his eyes if you shielded him from the light.. it looked like he was trying to say "what are you doing to me?!?!? Let me sleep!" :)

Not sure if you can see it very well.. but his hair is in a mohawk.. he has a colic on the top/front of his head... perfect spot for crazy hair do!!

 He would hold his pacifier in his mouth as he was laying here.. so cute!

A better picture of his mohawk..lol

Completely zonked out.. sleeping so soundly that when I lifted him up from laying on my lap he would squirm and then snore on.

Over all he is a very good baby for Jolena and Marvin. He gets up once in the night and then sleeps till 7am! A growing boy!

The garden....

My new clothes line.. in my (relatively) small backyard

My strawberry plants... I haven't seen any sprouts yet.. maybe I should check on them..

 

Japanese maple tree.. I think it will go in the front of the house

My bean plants

Peas!!

Beets...

Carrots....

Flowers along the back fence..

the first plant is a new rose bush I bought this spring

Merigolds.. to  plant along the outskirts of the vegetable garden.. they are supposed to be good at keeping animals out of the garden.

My blueberry tree...