moody sunshine

Hello Again.

2010-08-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

So I know I'm very very verryyy late in posting pictures and an ending post.

The last weekend we were in the UK we went to the Lake District in England and visited Beatrix Potter's house. It was a beautiful way to end our time in the UK. The plane ride home was long and uneventful.

I'm sorry I didn't post when we got back. I had a week free and then we went to the beach. I'm finally home and trying to get my life back to normal.

I want to thank you all for keeping up with this blog while we were in Scotland. It means a lot to me knowing that you were interested in what we were doing. I loved reading your comments. And I had a blast updating you on our adventures.

May God Bless you all!!

Much Love,

CareyAnne

{here are the pictures from facebook...enjoy!!}

Thank you for following. Until we travel again...............

"What . . . the Curtains???"

2010-08-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

(saturday)

We went to Doune Castle. Why would we go to this little, rundown castle? Because parts of the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed here. And I think I can say, for most of us, that this castle was our favorite. It had an audio tour narrated by Terry Jones (Sir Bedevere) which was very funny, and you could go at your own pace throughout the castle. In this clip you can see the whole castle at the beginning and the window they are standing by, we stood by. The window was located in what was the Duchess' Hall. After walking around the castle for a bit (and trying not to kill ourselves by falling down the scary stone winding steps), we went outside and sat on a wee hill looking at the castle. Dad watercolored, Mom went on a walk, and the girls and I just read, looked at the castle, and played with Dad's iPhone. Then Mom and Dad went on a walk together and we children stayed with our things and played with the iPhone and read some more. When they came back, Mom took us on a walk and Dad watercolored even more.

After complaining about how hungry we were, we Finally convinced the parentals to leave to find food. Minnie found us this little place called "The Beech Tree Cafe". So Cute. And Yummy. It made me miss the cafes at home :( This little cafe was in Dunblane City (really it was just a village but it had a Cathedral so it was a city). We walked around the village and Mom decided that she wanted a scone. So did Ellie. So Maggie and Mom went to go find scones and other nice foods and Dad, Ellie and I went over to the cathedral. There was a wedding party just leaving, and everyone looked so smart. The gents were in kilts and the ladies were in hats. I want to wear a hat to a wedding. The bride and groom drove away in an white old fashion car. So dear. Not sure if we were allowed to go in the church, we decided to go over to the Dunblane museum, which was small but sweet.

After exploring there, we went back over to the Cathedral. It was beautiful. We all liked it so much more than St. Mungo's Cathedral in Glasgow. It is now a presbyterian church. Here a cool fact: Easter Eve 1572, John Knox preached there. This picture is from a carving of him (& other significant people as well) on the pulpit.

Then we drove home to Kirkliston. We stopped at Tesco on the way because we had totally run out of food at home! haha. oh and we got LOADS of chocolate to take back with us :D

Came home, made dinner and went to bed. Twas a nice Saturday.

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I think this will be the last post I post here in Scotland. We leave tomorrow morning (the taxi is coming at 6 o' clock in the morning! ack tooo early). Our plane leaves at 9am. I'll be home by 7ish pm tomorrow!!! I'm so excited. This trip as been wonderful but I really really really realllyyyy miss home.

I will post more when I get to Lancaster. I want to finish informing you all about this trip. And I'll post a link for pictures.

So thats all for now!!! See you in the States :D

Much Love,

CareyAnne

Just So You Know....

2010-08-02T00:21:00.001-07:00

....We're heading out to the Lake District now for today and tomorrow.. I'll blog later. And then we leave on Wednesday!! If I don't get all the blogging done here in Scotland, it will be finished in Lancaster.

Much Love,

CareyAnne

In which we do some shopping..

2010-08-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

(friday)

We slept in (finally), got up, hungout a little, then got ready to get the bus into Edinburgh.

This was shopping day.

We went to the Elephant House for lunch. Now the Elephant House is where J.K. Rowling started writing the Harry Potter books. Awesome? I think yes.

We walked the Royal Mile for a little then went down to Prince's Street. We went into the Disney store, H&M, TopShop (there is only one in the States :(..), All Saints (too dark for me), and Accessorize (there is also only one of these shops in the States :(..). We went down Rose Street, but there wasn't really any place we wanted to go into. Back at the Royal Mile we went into Ness (so adorable) and a tartan shop (for Scottish scarves.) Mom got the official Princess Diana tartan. Running around Edinburgh takes a long time! And your lunch totally leaves you. Too many hills....

Down The Mound to get Mom a wee hat on Princes Street (we lost Dad at a music store while on the way down). Then for dinner we got Pizza Hut takeway (everyone was craving pizza) and went to the West Prince's Street Gardens (remember the picture I posted of the people lying around in the grass? We went there). A picnic in the park, in the shadow of the castle! It was a perfect way to end the evening.

Bus back home.

I think I tried to catch up on more blogging. or picture editing. something like that.

Sleep!

Friday may not sound too exciting, but it was enjoyable for us. Just not much to write about.

Much Love,

CareyAnne

Concerning Pictures...

2010-08-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

... I'm sorry everyone! I'm trying to upload pictures but it's not working right now. If I'm unable to upload more here, when I get back to the states I'm putting them on Facebook and I'll post the link to the albums here. Sound good?! I'm trying, guys, I really am.

CareyAnne

List of Wee Notice-ings {part 3}::

2010-07-31T13:42:00.000-07:00

1) Everyone in Scotland goes on Holiday in Florida.

2) Chips go with everything.

3) Roundabouts are everywhere. And are totally scary.

4) You've seen one giftshop, you've seen them all.

5) They ask if you want ice with your drink.

6) No billboards.

7) Scotland is a good place to go for rainbows. Esp. if you want EPIC ones.

8) Movies release here after they have in the States.

9) Colors are more vibrant (thank you excessive amount of rain.)

10) Feels very open. Loads of fields in between towns.

11) Pizza Hut sells alcohol. And it's fancy.

12) Bagpipers are everywhere.

13) Street signs are obscure.

14) Highway signs are very clear.

15) Grocery stores sell school uniforms.

{more posts later}

And we drove some more...

2010-07-31T11:06:00.000-07:00

(thursday)

We got up. Breakfast at 8:30. oh emm gee. What a breakfast.

Fruit, yogurt, toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, fried tomatoes, hot chocolate, tea. It was a multiple course breakfast. I was so full afterwards.

After breakfast, Mom and the Blondies went on a hike up the wee hill and Dad and I went to the Columba Centre. The Columba Centre was all about the missionary (and saint) Columba who was to Scotland. He was given the property to start a monastery on Iona. It was a wee museum, very nicely laid out and just enough information on the displays. We then walked over to the general store, which was right across the street from the wee hill. We looked up and saw mom at the top, and Maggie sitting on a rock reading her book, Ellie running up the hill. It was quite a sight (in a good way :)

We left Fionnphort around 11 for the ferry off Mull. So after more driving and sleeping we got to the ferry we were supposed to get the first time (fail on Minnie's part).. This ferry was HUGE. It was like going on a cruise. We parked our car in the bottom of the boat and then went up to the top deck. It was beautiful weather and the view was lovely. We read and enjoyed the 45min trip. We got off at Oban. Oban was a cute little village/town/..place. But we drove right through, anxious to get home.

We came straight home and ordered pizza. The place we ordered from was indian and the pizza was spicy. I liked it. :)

That was Thursday!

Much Love,

CareyAnne

List of Wee Notice-ings {part 2}::

2010-07-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

1) The buses are all different colors. Our bus is #38. It isn't double decker. It's bright blue, yellow and purple inside.

2) Sheep.

3) There are loads of international people in Edinburgh. So many languages being spoken at the same time.

4) People have cool styles here.

5) Money stresses me out.

6) It's so hard to dress according to the weather. It's always changing. It's bipolar.

7) The food portions from grocery stores are tiny! but the portions at restaurants HUGE.

8) Edinburgh makes me miss Lancaster.

9) I found out what Haggis is. Totally grosses me out.

10) Tourist shops on the Royal Mile are run by Indians. Weird.

Cars, And Buses, And Sheep..OH MY!

2010-07-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

(wednesday)

We woke up a wee later than Dad wanted to, but we were on the road around 9:30ish (without having any breakfast, mind you). More driving to the ferry (which we actually rode on this time). We got ice cream right before we got on the ferry.

More driving across Mull.

More single lane roads.

Ellie got sick. It was bad.

Mull. Hills everywhere with little waterfalls running down them. Sheep everywhere and then some. They like to cross the road. So do the yaks..I mean "Highland Cows". But they are much bigger than sheep, thus more scary. Little white houses in the middle of nowhere. It's like driving through Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was on to something while he was writing them. So was Peter Jackson. Good Mental Picture From Dad: The scene in Two Towers when Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas are running to get Merry and Pippin from the Orcs. That's exactly what we were driving through. There really is no way to express how beautiful the country was (is).

OH and cars and buses (big buses) coming straight toward you. I can't even describe the roads. They are scary.

After what seemed like forever we finally got to Fionnphort. This village had a beautiful view of Iona, which was across the loch from them. We stayed at this wee bed'n'breakfast called Abbey View. The people who owned the place were incredibly sweet and understanding about us not making it the night before. They gave us cake and juice and sent us on our way to Iona.

My Mental Image of Iona before: no houses. and if there were houses..no one lived in them.

What Iona Is: The cutest little town imaginable, with whitewashed houses, a gorgeous beach, little shops with homemade items, sheep, and a gorgeous abbey.

We got off the ferry we had to take over to the island, and went into some of the little shops along the road. We then went to the old Nunnery. This was a gorgeous ruined building that you could walk through. There were little flowers growing on the walls and you could see where the rooms used to be. It would've been tiny in its day but extremely lovely. Then we walked over to the Abbey. All of us girls liked the Nunnery better...Buut the Abbey was cool too.. It is still in use and has really amazing stone, celtic crosses everywhere. And sheep.

Dad brought is watercolors on this trip, so we left him on a hill to watercolor and we went on a walk further down the road. All we found was more adorable whitewashed houses, sheep and sheep dogs (that looked exactly like the ones from Babe). After a little more looking around the island we left around 5 to go back to Fionnphort. We went to this little restaurant called The Keel Row. I had fishnchips (again). The food was super good and so was the service. I went back to Abbey View after dinner while the rest of the family went on a hike up a wee hill over looking the sea. I was exhausted and oh so thankful for the time to myself. The fam came back around 8:45 and we all got ready for bed. And what beds they were. So soft! So comfy! So nice after not knowing where we were going to sleep the night before! haha.

It was a lovely day.

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I'm still catching up...so sorry that they are coming later and not exactly on the right days

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Much Love,

CareyAnne

Wee Side Note:

2010-07-29T14:44:00.001-07:00

We are living off of chocolate and crisps.

Galaxy Chocolate: Mom and Me
Cadbury Chocolate: Ellie.
Aero Chocolate: Maggie.
Dark Chocolate Kit-Kat: Dad

Crisps •Anything really. (mostly Walkers, though)

Too Much Adventure. Oh, & Lots of Sheep.

2010-07-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

(Tuesday Continued.)

We left for Stirling Castle around 10 (although Dad wanted to leave earlier). It was about an hour drive. People had suggested going to Stirling instead of the Edinburgh Castle, and it was really cool!

When we got there Robert the Bruce was there to meet us (in his stonely form). The weather was very dreary, I have to say. So we went in and decided to take the tour (let me just remind some of you..I really don't like tours..) But our tour guide Craig was great... There were some American's in our group. They had funny accents. Funny, wonderful, I-had-forgotten-what-they-sounded-like accents. Sigh. The tour was just enough information (for me) and not to long (for me) and was perfect (for me). After the tour was over, Mom and Dad picked Craig's brain some more for what felt like...forever. The weather finally was beginning to get nice, though. We went to the Unicorn Cafe for lunch. Dad and I got this uh-mazing chicken and red pepper puff. Dad officially loves Fentiman's Victorian Lemonade. oh emm gee. "Historic Scotland" cafeteria food is so. good. Anyhoo the sky was now blue with fluffy puffy clouds and so we walked around the grounds. And. Wow. The view was amazing!!! I can't even describe it. It went on for miles and miles. The Castle was up on a hill so any way you looked the land was stretched out before you. Which was a good plan if you were a king.

Ellie wanted to see the "soldiers demonstration" on the bowling green. Today's demonstration was of "roundhead" musketeers . They were extremely funny and knew their stuff..inside and out. We talked to the one guy afterwards and he knew what the difference was between Amish and Mennonite. That was weird. I'm in the UK..not Lancaster..

There was another tour and the gift shop (which was a disappointment) all of which are really not worth mentioning. We left the castle and on our way out stopped for ice cream. They have good ice cream here.

Then we drove. An hour from Stirling we stopped at a place called The Real Food Cafe that Antonia suggested (Thank You Antonia!!). It was really good. (I had fishnchips...again.). The weather had gone bad..again..no surprise there..as we left.

And we drove.

This was all Minnie GeePeers fault. Way ta go Minnie.

The Plan: Go the Oban. Get Ferry. Go to Mull. Go to bed.

What Really Happened: Drive toward Oban. Follow Minnie's directions. Go down one lane road. That goes on forever. And then to nowhere. And then some. Where cars could hit you. Where Sheep could hit you. Yes. Sheep.

Ferry in Lochaline!(Don't ask where that is..We don't know). Yay!

Fail.

Last ferry: 6pm. Current time: 8:30pm

Problem?

Silly Daddy thought he could get a ferry at night time. Like in civilization. Silly Daddy.

Nice man in shady bar by ferry tells us to go to local hotel in Lochaline. Scratch That. Reverse It. ONLY hotel in Lochaline.

Very helpful bloke from dive centre went the extra (2)mile(s) to look for extra housing. There was no extra beds in the whole town. Town can only hold 36 extra persons. They were full.

Closest place to sleep.. 30 miles back down the scary road. Nice bloke calls 30mileawayplace to reserve room. Programs Minnie with directions. Sends us on our way.

After more sleeping (me), more (quiet) freakingout (dad), more reading (maggie), more aahhing over scenery (mom) and more oh sleeping (ellie..and me) we finally arrive at Ariundle Centre {For Good Wholesome Food}. It's Dark. It's Rainy. We were at the end of a dirt road. It's scary. This place was described as a bunk house. How good can that be? (according to mom and dad's thoughts..not so good.)

We pull up to the end of the dirt road, in the dark, and in the rain, to a lodge-like house. A sweet older lady was there and asked us if we wanted "toasted cheese and bacon". We wanted beds. She took us down to the bunk house and up to our room. Woah. It was totally "The Bustards Go Camping". It was like a place you would go to on a youth retreat. It was clean. It was fresh. It was new. (It had some spiders :( ) It was great. Maggie killed all the spiders. She's my hero.

Katie Campbell, the owner of the bunkhouse, still wanted us to go back up to get food. We decided to oblige her and went up to the restaurant part of the place. I felt like I should've been in Vermont. It made me miss Vermont. The building was open and had exposed beams running along the ceiling. It was rustic, in a Bustard way. Katie and Cassie (the help) got us chicken sandwiches, yogurt, scones, bacon, fresh raspberries, and quiche. The food was what you would've expected at a posh sandwich shop. But all home cooked! So Cozy!

Then off to bed. It was so nice to have a bed to sleep on, since we thought we were going to sleep in the car or in some shady hotel..well not the hotel. It was full of scuba divers.

God blessed us so much at the end of Tuesday, I can't even fathom. Katie Campbell is up there on the Nice List with William and Geordie.

And Now.... Two Life Lessons From Dad:

1) Never... Ever.... Ever..... go to Lochaline. Even if the GPS tells you to. Unless you're a scuba diver.

2) Always know where your towel is. (carey's two-cents: cuz we didn't have one.)

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So thats Tuesday's post. I'll update the rest of the week tomorrow. I'm tired I'm going to bed.

Much Love,

CareyAnne

ps. Mom REALLYYY wants you all to know that, even though Dad couldn't see it while driving, the scenery was lushly magnificent (carey's two-cents: even though I was asleep for most of it, I concur). Mom lost part of her heart back there somewhere..in the vegetation..and sheep..and hills..and lochs..and lonely houses..

a wee somethin for ya now..

2010-07-29T12:56:00.000-07:00

A quick link to look at while I'm typing out this next post... We listen to this song alll the time..and its so true haha.. enjoy! "Throw The R Away"

Just So You Know:::

2010-07-27T01:46:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for Mull like...now... and I'm not sure if I'll have internet there. I'm bringing the laptop but I just wanted to let yall know that there mighttt not be any posts for a few days... But we'll see what happens!

Much Love,

CareyAnne

March of the Penguins

2010-07-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

We went to the Zoo today!!! And I have to say, it's one of the best zoos I've ever been to. I really loved the layout and the view was lovely. The zoo went upward because it was on a hill, which was really cool. And even though it was raining some of the time there were loads of people around. The exhibits were very well designed and the little signs for the animals had just enough information on them-- which is coming from someone who gets bored by reading plaques.

Animal Highlights From the Whole Family:

: The Unicorn... Ok the Rhino which had one horn. {Dad and Me}

: The Zebras {Mom and Me}

: The Penguins {Everyone}

: The Bongo {Dad}

: The Pygmy Hippo {Dad}

: The Tiger {Maggie and Me}

: The Sea Lions {Ellie}

: The Secretive and Good At Hiding Animals {Dad}

: The Wild Painted Dogs {Maggie}

: The Birds Who's Names We Can't Remember {Mom}

: The Wallaby {Mom}

Eliza, we found the Lions.

The Penguins Parade (which I've been waiting for since...forever) was soo cute! A bunch of little penguins waddled out and looked so proud of themselves! It was adorable. I kinda wanted to take one home with me, except that they were smelly. :P

So that's what we did today. Now we're chilling out at home, playing outside, making food, blogging, photo editing.

Have a wonderful afternoon everyone!

Much Love,

CareyAnne

Day of Rest?

2010-07-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

It sounded simple enough. Go to Glasgow, go to church, go home.

But nooooo.

It was right outside of Glasgow that the tire blew out. And oh buddy was it a blowout. The rubber around the wheel was all off. In a perfect circle. All shredded. Completely intact but not attached. Kind of a problem when you need to be at church in 15min. So there we are, on the freeway, or the M8 as they like to call it, freezing our butts off, while cars are passing at 70 miles an hour, watching Dad fight with the spare.

It would of been entertaining if it hadn't of been so dang cold. I can't even imagine what winter is like.

Anyway, back to the freeway.

After standing in cold, wet grass for what seemed like forever, Dad beat the spare and got it on the car. So we all piled back into the car and start the engine, which is ironic to say here because the engine wouldn't start. Woohoo. Dad goes to pop the bonnet (aka the hood) but British cars seem to want to make life difficult since it was incredibly hard to find the spare (it was rusted under the car) and incredibly hard to find the button to pop the bonnet (we had to look in the instruction manuel). Shouldn't it be pretty straight forward?

*Scottish accent*: "Here you go. The button's here. Its big, red and says 'Pop the Bonnet' ". *American accent again*: No. Of course not. Cuz we're Scottish.. so we have to have not one button but two. It's the hood guys. It's not that hard.

Thennn Dad was like "Stay in the car" (there was no Chuck with me, which was sad) and started walking away. Well, there, on the freeway with cars driving at 70miles an hour, you have 4 girls with anxiety problems. Having Dad walk away was not necessarily a comforting thing. But he came back 10ish minutes later saying that some roadway help was coming. I was just about to give up hope on Scottish people, thinking that they were all going to be mean. And Mom said later that, as we were waiting for Dad to come back, she was praying that good, nice people would come help us. Let me tell you, God certainly answered that prayer.

The two roadway guys that came to help, in their bright yellow suits, were the sweetest Glaswegians we could've met. William and Geordie (guys, if I got your names wrong let me know! I don't want them to be wrong!!) tried plan A (pop the clutch). That failed. Their sweetness came out when, in spite of Big Brother watching, we went with Plan B (dragging us to a place where they could give our battery a jump). With the car running they led us to a garage to get the tires and battery fixed. Mom was so thankful to the Lord that this happened here instead of on the way to Mull, because the tire guy told us that all three tires were near destruction. William and Geordie ended up hanging around for 45 minutes, talking and telling stories while we waited. They were so funny. It was great. But, at points during their stories, I felt like Catherine Tate in this youtube clip (and speaking of the Doctor, we saw the TARDIS not once but twice today!). William and Geordie told us a whole bunch of things to do in Glasgow, programmed our GPS, and then took us (after our car was fixed) to the oldest house in Glasgow (built in 1741).. They sent us off with waves and promises to look at this blog!!

The "oldest house" was cool and we also went to the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art. Sounds promising, doesn't it? It wasn't. It was lame. We also went to Glasgow Cathedral. That was Beautiful. (Mrs. Lasala, the acoustics were amazing. I checked). We walked up to this huge necropolis that has a monument to John Knox. It's made up of winding hills and steps. Realllyyy coool but the view was dreary, no thanks to the weather. It was finally legit Scotland weather. After we were done exploring around the Cathedral, we drove over to the city center. We were heading to church (they had a 6:30 service), but, no thanks to Minnie GeePers (our sat nav), we got lost. After a lot of circling around we finallyyy made it to the church and parked. The area around St. George's-Tron was sooo awesome. Glasgow does have some really cool, really pretty parts. It's said to be the best shopping outside of London. It was kind of like Fifth Avenue in NYC. Cobble stones though, which is much cooler. And less cars.

Subway for dinner (it tastes the same here, if you want to know) and went to church.

The Tron is in the middle of posh, upscale shopping, with the Apple Store two doors down and a Starbuck's across the street. The building is a grand, old stone, church built in 1807.

Then you go inside.

You find a clean, contemporary space that feels hip, modern, and sacred. I know you some of you (*cough* morgan *cough*) are thinking "way to totally ruin a beautiful church" but it really works. It's not overwhelming or un-worshipful or cold. It seemed to me to be the perfect way to minister to the people they are around. I mean, you have people still going there have been there since it started in 1955. And they still have some of the old architecture. It's a good marriage between old and new. We sang Getty music and they played a few other Getty songs during the offertory. Mom said (and I totally agree) that it felt good, after such a long adventure, to be in a church with brothers and sisters. It was such a cool feeling to be singing music I knew, music from home, with people from a totally different country. The sermon was good. All this to say, church was really excellent.

We're alive. This day was crazy but it was a cool surprise. We're all tired, but I think it was worth it. Even if we were running around for 9 hours. :D

Total So Far:

Mean People= 4 (adding a token number of 2 to represent 70mile-an-hour-pack-o-drivers who just passed by)

Nice People= 12

Way ta go nice people!!

I'm beat, off to bed! Have a good dinner everybody :P

Much love,

CareyAnne

Muffins, Twins, and Ancient Artifacts

2010-07-25T13:49:00.001-07:00

I was looking forward to today. Like, Really Looking Forward to Today. We went to spend the afternoon at Broomhall. Broomhall is where the Bruce's live, where the Earl lives. Yes that's right. I spent that afternoon, and lunch, at the Earl's house. One of the Earl of Elgin's daughters is named Antonia Bruce. When Eliza Becker went to nanny in Edinburgh last year it was Antonia's twin boys who Liza cared for. Their names are Jack and Gabby. They are so adorable.

As you drive up their verrrry looooong drive way there are sheep on both sides. I really felt like I was in Scotland because I had finally seen sheep. And lots of them. Then, all of a sudden, you see this HUGE house. It looked like something out of Jane Austin. Or any other old British film/book, really. We went into the house and then, because it looked like it was going to rain, Antonia took us for a tour of the grounds. We walked out to this beautiful rose garden overlooking the rest of the lawn. As we were walking around, Jack and Gabby came over to meet us. They were shy. The Bruce's had two cocker spaniels, Rosie and Thistle. Jack or Gabby came over and one of them had this little toy that made you sound like a duck. The dogs freaked out. It was very funny. We went into the house and went up to Georgina's suite. Georgina is Antonia's older sister. Ginny's suite was darling and cozy. There were piles of books everywhere. We had amazing chicken and potatoes for lunch, in the cozy little kitchen. We sat around and talked for awhile. I played with Ellie, Jack and Gabby for a little. They were playing a game where someone was the cop and they had to catch everyone else... for some reason I ended up being the person they would catch. In the end it was called "Capture Carey". Either I had to find a "muffin lover" to free myself or the twins would hold on to my legs and I would drag them to the kitchen so I could go sit and eat. Let me just say, my legs got a good work out. After dessert of strawberries and cream we took a tour of the house.

*moment of silence and awe*

The house is HUGE. It goes on and on.. and on some more. There are fine paintings and statues and really old furniture everywhere. They live in a freaking museum! It's so cool. And reallyyy hard to describe here. The library has floor to ceiling bookcases and those moving ladders..and a secret door in the bookcase. There is a whole room for the marble statues and ancient artifacts. The drawing room is where they used to have balls and, in the 60s, they threw a big one. All the ladies wore high stilettos and left little circle marks on the floor. There's a museum room, a grand dinning room, floor the ceiling windows; I felt like I was walking around in a Jane Austin book. It was so. cool. Although it did make me covet. I wanna live in a house like that sooo baddd. Therefore, Antonia and I were figuring out which Bruce I would have to marry so that I could live there some day :) Jack and I played piano together. That was super cute.

I don't know what else to say about this day. It was amazing. And reallyy hard to describe. :D It was basically amazing.

Much Love,

CareyAnne

Pictures of So Far Happenings...

2010-07-24T03:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! Here are pictures from July 22nd and 23rd. I hope you enjoy! I might post the rest on facebook and then post the link here so you can see allll of the pictures I've taken so far. It takes a lot of time to load so I won't do them all here... (If you click the picture it will get bigger...jsyk)

July 22nd::

This is a "roundabout". They freak me out. Driving on the left side of the road is so scary. And weird.
Our bus is 38!

Edinburgh!

This is all Dad's been doing. Taking pictures with his new iPhone.

July 23rd::

"Ness" is a cute store. And I love these dogs. But sooo expensive..
The Royal Mile.

John Knox's House.
Cute old Bagpiper (playing Amazing Grace). :D
Our House!!

Edinburgh is cool. Literally.

2010-07-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

We did go out again last night, to keep ourselves awake. We decided to go on one of those double decker, open air buses for a tour of Edinburgh. So we took a bus into the city and then walked to where the tour buses were. Edinburgh is like New York City and a beach town combined. There are people and tall buildings everywhere. Then there are seagulls flying around, and the set up of the town feels, to me, like a beach town....except old. And grand. But enough of that.

It was so cold. But I loved going around on the tour, seeing all the buildings and such. It was a good first thing to do. It made me feel like I knew the place better; I have a better footing on it now. Then we came back "home" (<--this is what we are now going to call where we're staying. don't get it confused with Lancaster) and made tomato soup and bread w/ cheese. We watched Brambly Hedge. So. Cute. We all sat in the living room, on the floor, eating soup. Very Cozy. Then went to bed. And that finishes Yesterday.

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We woke up at Noon this morning. It felt so good to sleep. Thank you, Jesus, for sleep and soft beds. We got ready and left around 2:30 for the bus stop. We went into Edinburgh because, theoretically, we were going to John Knox house and the Royal Mile. In the end we just did the Royal Mile (although we passed Knox's house but decided to go there later because it closes at 5) and went to the best pub for Tea. The Royal Mile has many fun shops and pubs. The pub we went to was called The Castle Arms. Eliza Becker told us to go there. I'm so glad she did. I had fish 'n' chips. We did some more walking around and went into a book store on Prince's street. Edinburgh is a great place for people watching. I love it.

List of Wee Notice-ings::

1) All waitresses here seem to be Polish.

2) There are kilt shops everywhere..aka tourist traps. I like them.

3) No billboards (except at bus stops)

4) 2 mean people so far. 3 nice people. the nice people are winning.

5) The buildings are beautiful.

6) There are teen groups everywhere, for English camp I think.

7) People ride bikes. There are hipsters. It makes me feel like I'm in Lancaster. Sigh.

8) You feel like you're in the city and then, all of a sudden, there's a HUGE green hill.

9) I ate Haggis.

10) There are a lot of restaurants that are American here. Weird.

I took pictures yesterday and today. I'll post pictures tomorrow, because I have to go to bed now.

Love, CareyAnne

Sunrise Over Ireland

2010-07-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

I'm too tired to move.

I feel like I've just pulled an all-nighter and I'm doing it again. Ewww.

But we're here! In Scotland! It's beautiful. The weather is lovely. I'm very excited to wear jeans and scarves and hats here. And it's true. The sunshine is moody.

We left yesterday around 2:30ish for the airport. It was a pleasant, familiar drive down to Philly. Uncle Rob Bigley came with us so he could drive our car back to Lancaster. Thus there were lots of stories and laughter. We got to the Philly airport, got our tickets, and found our plane. The airport is huge..soooo it took a little while to walk to our plane. We finally got on, and waited around for a little bit for the plane to take off. Mom, Maggie and Ellie sat together and Daddy and I sat together. Next to us was this black french man who slept the whole time...which was a little odd. Anyhoo we finally took off. On the backs of all the seats there are little video screens where you can pick your own movie, tv show, or music. (I watched When In Rome..which was cute). Ok so usually plane food is kinda gross and slimy and not really food..but the food AirFrance gave us was so good. I got chicken. It was yummy. So were the mashed potatoes and veggies. And they even gave my dad red wine. Gotta love the French. I was impressed. I have to say the 6hour & 48minute plane ride was not all that comfortable the whole time. Dad's seat was, apparently, the worst in the whole plane (says him) and my back was killing me half the time. It's really hard to get comfortable at 3am in a plane where you can't really move or stretch. Oh the joys of traveling.

It was worth seeing the Sunrise over Ireland. Really. I did. It was beautiful. Red, Purple, Yellow, Blue, sigh. It was amazing. We were flying along the sunrise. Anddd I was over Ireland. I mean really the combination can't get any better.

A lit breakfast of a blueberry muffin and a banana. Man, I like these French people...and their food! Speaking of France..did I mention we had a layover in Paris? The flight over France was gorgeous. Rolling hills, farm land, little villages, church steeples. It was such a glorious sight to behold. Then we landed. Our layover was a little over an hour, and while Dad and Maggie went on an adventure to look around the airport, I stayed behind and read. The toilets in the airport were orange. It was awesome. --The next flight we had was on a littler plane. All the people who worked at AirFrance were dressed very smartly in suites and legit looking flight attendant outfits. On the plane, we were all split up in different rows. I was on the end of mine with two other men. The one right beside me was British, I think, and slept or said "Cheers" all the time. It was not that enjoyable.

The flight to Edinburgh was not as long..it was about an hour. So I'm sitting there..waiting for the flight to be over. And then I saw it. A flash of green beneath the clouds (which were fluffy, puffy and oh so cool). I waited and waited and waited a litttle bit more and then I, honest to goodness, let out a little gasp. There it was! Scotland! It was hilly and green with little villages everyywhere. So. Lovely. We finally landed and taxi-ed around the airport to find the spot where the plane stops. There were lovely wild flowers in little green patches. It made me think of my dear friend Blythe Whitney :)

I got off the plane and it was cold! Shockingly cold! AAhhh I'm so excited for this weather!! I really am. Tim Frew, whose house we're going to be living in, picked us up from the airport. He is just as sweet as the rest of his family. They are so dear! I'm so glad God has brought them into our lives, even though we live on different sides of the ocean :)

Anyway. The cars drive on the wrong side of the street. The stirring wheel is on the wrong side of the car. It is soo nerve wracking. And I'm already anxious about everything! Their town of Kirkliston is Adorable! It's perfect. It's what every British village should be. Old buildings, people, little circly roads. It's perfect. Absolutely perfect. And the Frew's house! It's small and oh so cute! I love it. I'm so excited to be spending 2 weeks here. {right now i'm sitting at their kitchen island writing this to you}

After we had a tour of the house, we decided we were hungry. Tim had to go back to work. We went to this place for lunch called "Frankie and Benny's". It's a "new york italian" pizzaish place. It was a great way to ease into this kind of scottish experience. I had a burger and there was old swing american music playing. It was nice to have something kind of familiar. Then we went grocery shopping. That was overwhelming. So much stuff! And it's all in pounds! Pounds confuse me.... What's crazy is that there are so many brands here in the U.K. that are American! weird.....

So that is our trip so far. The day is not done. It's only 4:10pm here..and we might go do some other stuff to keep us awake.. I'll post later if anything else happens today.

Welcome to Scotland everybody!!!!

Much love-

CareyAnne

ps. The U.K. sendoff party was very very fun. Thank you Beckers!! and I'm sorry there are no photos for today.. I haven't been able to take any yet. But never fear. It will happen soon!!

In Which the Bustards Take a Trip to a Small Wet Place

2010-07-19T08:28:00.001-07:00

Hello world! So here you are. You have found and are now looking at "Moody Sunshine". This is my blog. And why, might you ask, am I blogging? I am blogging because my family and I are going to Scotland. Yes you heard me right. Scotland. And thus the title of this post explains it all.

So. We're going to Scotland for vacation. There is a wonderful family at our church. The wife, Janet, is from the U.K. Her sister, Catherine, lives in Edinburgh with her husband and two children, Kaitlyn and Douglas. They came over to the states for a good bit of the summer to visit Janet and their other family. We decided to house swap. What does this entail? Well, when we go to Scotland, they will live in our house and we will live in their house over in Edinburgh. We met Catherine, Kaitlyn and Douglas last Wednesday. They are wonderful. Catherine is one of the sweetest people I have ever met. Kaitlyn, who's eight, is such a dear. She makes me laugh. We would compare how I said things to how she would say them. Then we would teach each other different words. Douglas, almost five, is adorable. He has stolen my heart, and I doubt he's going to give it back. :D We took them to the Science Factory and to the Fractured Prune. We had a wonderful time. I have to say it. I love their accents. It makes me so happy. I have always loved British accents and theirs is just as good. It's so fun to listen to them talk.

With that long intro over with, I will now tell you what this blog is for and what you will hope to see. My goal is to post every day about what we did with pictures that I myself have taken. I love to take pictures (TaxiCABPhotography) so, I promise you, I will be taking loads over there. I'm excited. One of the things I've been looking forward to is blogging and now I have started!! Yay!

Tonight is a U.K. send off party for our family (and our friends the Slessers). I'll post about that later.

I hope you will come visit regularly and leave comments! Let me know what you think!

Much Love,

CareyAnne