Some recent photos to get us started again!

                               

Olivia on Traprain Law

Indie relaxing in our back garden. 

Back at Traprain Law. Funny to see Sandy's long and unruly hair of a few months ago! Soon, I'll post some pictures of the up-to-date Sandy...

Running on the beach at Tyninghame with Indie. 

Fun at Foxlake!

By a ripe field of barley, Tyninghame. 

After a break of more or less 4 years, I'm finally ready to restart this blog, which began way back in 2006 as a way of keeping track of the things we do as a family. It became quite an obsession for a while, then, as I started more and more blogs and blog related projects with schools around Europe, I simply didn't have the time, or energy to keep this one going.
But having looked through it, there are hundreds of wonderful photos of our children as they have grown from tots to where they are now. It's time to add to the history of our family and so, hopefully, I'll be updating this fairly regularly from now on! These photos above show Olivia, Sandy, Anna and our dog Indie in various places last summer and autumn, and what a difference from the previous posts from four or more years ago!

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2014 trip to Finland

With Sandy and Olivia growing up fast, we returned in 2014 to our favourite cottage in Finland, where we spent our 3rd year in a row relaxing. The weather was outstanding- apart from a couple of showers which were brought on by extreme heat and thunderstorms, we saw absolutely no rain whatsoever in our 16 day stay! The lake, Palvajarvi was exquisite to swim in and we spend many hours each day enjoying this fabulous place.

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Indie - a new pet

In late 2013, after looking for a greyhound for several weeks, Indie, a retired dog who had raced at Sunderland greyhound stadium, came to live with us. She was at the time just short of her 3rd birthday, and although it was new experience for her to live in a house for the first time in her life, she settled very quickly, and has become a lovely family pet. The video below was made in March 2014, after Indie had been with us for 4 months.

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2013 trip to Finland

In 2013, we returned to the cottage we had discovered in 2012, close to Vaajakoski in central Finland. We arrived to find a much extended and improved cottage, and it was a pleasure to relax with Anna's parents, sister Olga and her son Arnold, as well as my brother Keith, who travelled with us for the first time, and had great fun swimming in the beautiful Lake Palvajarvi.

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2013 - first ski trip to French Alps

In late 2012, we decided to spend our 2013 February holiday week in the French Alps, and my great friend Pascal invited us to stay with him close to the small French resort of St Pierre de Chartreuse. This was a very exciting week for us- the first time for Anna, Sandy and Olivia to ski on snow, and my first trip abroad to ski since I was 12 years old! We had been practising at Hillend Ski Centre in Edinburgh for over a year, so we were certainly ready for the real thing. It turned out to be a really amazing week- a great host in Pascal, a lovely wee resort with cheap (by skiing standards) prices and a huge amount of snow all combined to make it a memorable time.

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2012 trip to Finland

In 2012, we spent our longest time so far in Finland, a 24 day holiday that started in Helsinki for a couple of nights, then moved on to the eastern town of Parikkala where we spent a week with Anna's parents and sister Olga, along with her son Arnold. We then moved west to central Finland where we discovered a fantastic cottage (to become our all-time favourite) close to Vaajakoski and Jyvaskyla, followed by a week in a very small cottage close to Ruovesi, before finishing off with a night in the lovely city of Tampere.

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