It turns out when you wake up at 4:40am you're chomping at the bit to go at around 7:00. I can't blame it on Rhys today, he woke up at 5:00, so there was a good 20 minutes of extra sleep that I could have gotten. (I have to just laugh at that now, because otherwise that statement would just be depressing.)
Anyway, one of the most frequently asked questions about traveling to a remote village (yes, village) in the Scottish Highlands for five weeks is:
"Ok, we know what your husband does all day (golf), but what do you do?"
Turns out a lot.
Today Nicholas and I left the house at 7:30am headed south to climb Ben Bhraggie. Ben Bhraggie is a hill one can hike with beautiful vistas on the way up and from the top as it rises 1,302 feet above sea level. Atop Ben Bhraggie also stands the 100 foot statue of the first Duke of Sutherland. There is quite a bit of controversy involving the statue and the Duke. It has been vandalized many times, and people have taken large chunks out of it in attempts, one can only assume, to bring it down. (If you are interested, you can read a succinct explanation of it here.)
We attempted to reach the summit when Nicholas was 3. We made it about 80% up when Nicholas declared he was too tired and hungry to climb another inch. I ended up carrying him down on my hip the entire way (while pregnant with Rhys). I felt pretty confident that he could reach the top this year. It took us about an hour to reach the top (we looked at lots of bugs, flowers, berries, stones, butterflies (of course), and stopped many, many times to rest, stall, and otherwise dawdle. He was so proud when we reached the top. The excitement of having reached the top refueled his energy supply and he quite literally bounded down the hill in a Tigger-esque fashion.
Afterwards, we got lunch at one of our favorite spots, the Coffee Bothy at around 10:30am. Such is the case when you have arisen so early.
We then drove back up north to go straight to horseback riding together. After riding, we momentarily paused long enough to catch our breaths before leaving for the train station. Both boys donned their Thomas the Tank Engine shirts and grabbed a Thomas toy each and we set off to take Rhys on his first train ride, just like we did with Nicholas 3 years ago.
Enter the photos (A word on the photos: I kind of pride myself on my pictures. I don't consider myself a photographer (or writer, for that matter) at all, but I think I have something of an eye when it comes to my kids and the blog. I took wonderful pictures on Ben Bhraggie with my camera, and as I mentioned before forgot the adaptor, so I will post those photos back at home. Sorry, I'm a little self conscious about the picture quality (not that great) with the iPad, but it's certainly better than no pix at all. Ok, done. Thanks for listening- ha, ha.)
Our regular destination when we are here is to an inland village. It is where Nick took his first train ride as a two year old and each year since. It is only about 30 minutes away. Perfect for the preschool set. On the way you travel along the sea, pass the local fairy tale castle, then move inland. There you see countless pastures and farm animals: cows, sheep, horses, etc. Nicholas was particularly excited to have seen some bunnies scampering across a field, but was even more thrilled at spotting Daddy drive past the train on his way to meet us at the train station. True facts.
When we arrived we stepped off the train and Daddy arrived within 2 minutes to pick us up! What service! He drove us to a charming restaurant called The Pier where we had an early tea. It had been recommended to me by an acquaintance here who also has children. She said the restaurant was nice, the food was delicious, and that, most importantly, it was kid friendly- hurrah! And it didn't disappoint.
After our mid-afternoon snack we took the boys to a playground at the local elementary school. The playgrounds here are a little different than at home. Those awful plastic contraptions that we have haven't caught on here, so there really are some fun things to play on. I would have loved these playgrounds as a child. Who am I kidding? I went around the obstacle course several times myself.
Now, I have no idea what you would call this crazy, springy do-hickey, but Nicholas loved it. It reminded me of a space capsule. And that spring at the base was so flexible in all directions that it bobbled and girated all around.
Below, I stood on the back footrests, and sent my son rocketing forward in a fit of giggles. (And if you look carefully at his lips, you can see the requisite shuttle sound effects being produced).
And finally, the aforementioned obstacle course. Just about everything swings, moves, pivots, requiring strength, balance, and coordination. I secretly love doing it. Maybe not so secretly. Why don't we have these at home? They are fun!
The idea is to make it around the entire couse without touching the ground. Some parts were very easy, for both a 5 year old, and a *ahem* adult, but there were 2 parts that were really tricky.
We drove back to the apartment pretty tired, made the kids dinner, bathed them, and put them to bed.
Exhausted yet reading about it?
Well, Wif and I somehow managed to catch a second (or third or fourth) wind, hop back into the car (in-laws with the kiddos) to make an 8:30 dinner reservation. I had one glass of wine, and after the meal (around 10pm) I could barely keep my eyes open.
So we are keeping fairly busy for village life, right?
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