Our Vacation: London, Durham, and Edinburgh

Three Planes, Four Trains and Five Busses later and we are home!  Aila did amazing! She is such a happy traveler. There were some tears along the way and she only slept if she was touching either dad or mom but man is she a trooper.

We had a 10 hour flight to England. Our plane tickets had us sitting apart but praise the Lord, we were bumped up to economy plus and were both put in an aisle seat in the middle of the plain with a seat in between us. Aila slept for most of the flight and we watched movies.

We started our time by spending two days in London. We walked from Kensington Garden to London bridge and saw all kinds of fun things along the way. We had Aila in her stroller and she loved looking around at all of the people.

We then got on a train and headed to Durham where we spent 7 days with our dear friends the Warnes. Let me tell you, the absolute best way to see a place is with friends you love who know the area and have a child the same age as yours. We had so much fun! We took it easy so that our girls had plenty of time to rest (their daughter is only two weeks older then Aila). We visited the Durham Cathedral, took long beautiful walks, went to Newcastle, and I got to go to a fun play day with Charissa and our girls.

After day 7 we said our sad goodbyes and headed off to Scotland. We stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast and on our first day took a nice walk along the waters of Leith. Our second day was rainy, it wasn't too bad but I couldn't bring my camera. We toured the Edinburgh Castle which was amazing then took a stroll through the city. The next day was gorgeous and we crammed in as many things as we could. We started our day with some haddock for breakfast and some porridge. The sweet older lady who ran the B&B recommended we pour some whisky on top so that is what Stuart had while I went sans whisky. Aila also went without whisky though that may have been recommended as well.  Our sweet Aila did so well, she was strapped on to daddy and stayed there pretty comfortable through out the whole day. Stuart and I absolutely loved Scotland and like any vacation, we wished we had just one more day to spend there.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us during this trip. It was amazing in so many ways. We were nervous of how our flights would work out but God took care of it. We also weren't sure how Stuart's leg was going to do but everything was fine. He was definitely sore and could feel a little pain but overall everything went smoothly.

I am definitely more aware now that time is not something that is guaranteed and I am so grateful that we got to have such an amazing vacation. I constantly realize that Stuart makes me a more fun person. He pushes me to be who I want to be. It was Stuart that planned out our entire vacation. The Scott Monument was amazing and something I never would have done on my own. He also encourages me to bring my camera wherever I go and then carries my camera for me until I need it to take pictures. He also planned to do certain thing ahead of time so that I would get my perfect shot. For example, he planned to go up to Calton Hill during sunset which ended up being one of my favorite shots. I also learned a lot about Aila, which will be for another post.