Scotland: Day 9: Inverness

Let me tell you about the most beautiful castle I saw while I was in Scotland! It was called Dunrobin Castle. We took a tour inside (where you're not allowed to take pictures). There were so many rooms and little passageways (that were clearly for the servants). It even had an old elevator! Wow, were they before their time or what? It was so spectacular. I wish I lived in a castle. Downstairs was a little cafe. I had some soup and it was pretty good. There aren't a whole lot of places to sit though so if you see someone getting up, take it!
Outside is where the real beauty hits you. These gardens are the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen! I don't think anything will ever top this experience. They're just beautiful!

And the views of the castle from the gardens are just stunning. There are so many different angles. I took so many pictures because every time I thought I had caught the perfect picture of the castle, I saw it from a different angle and fell in love with it all over again!

If you see a door to go outside of the gardens towards a beach, let me tell you, you're not supposed to do that. Apparently, it's trespassing. However, we didn't learn that until after we had already gone through the door and seen the beach. It was very cool. I mean, what's better than having a castle? Duh! Having a castle on the beach!

If you get the chance, watch the bird show. The man that does this has a true love and respect for these birds and it is so fun to watch. He is very knowledgeable and tells you fun facts about the birds and how he takes care of them. At the end, he asks for donations so that he can continue to take care of the birds. And we're not talking about little weak birds. We're talking about owls and hawks and falcons! So cool!

And just when we thought we were heading back to the bus, one of my friends noticed a little trail off to the side of the parking lot so we went on that and found a little stream. It was a cute little area. If you have extra time, I would definitely say to take the unbeaten path.

I think we spent about 4 hours here and I was not disappointed.

After the castle, we had a concert at Dornoch Cathedral. It was beautiful. The whole church is set up in t shape and we met the absolute nicest people! We had our practice, broke for dinner, and then sang our concert. I think it was one of our biggest crowds. We really felt the love since Dornoch is such a small town. Then we headed back to our hotel for the night. dunrobin castle concert

Scotland: Day 8: Inverness

We started off our day with a trip to Tomatin Distillery. It was amazing! I learned so much about how whisky is made, what makes it Scotch vs Whisky, and what peated whisky was and how it's made. We toured the area where they make the whisky. Plus, we got to see one of the barrel rooms where they store their whisky (where it becomes scotch). Then, at the end of our tour, we had a sample. It was awesome.

We drove over to Culloden Moor to see the visitor's center, walk the grounds, and have a bite to eat. Honestly, I found their 'dining' area to be overpriced with not too many selections. I didn't even like the food I got. But the center and grounds were beautiful and very informative.

Then we stopped at Clava Cairns on our way back to Inverness. It was interesting, but I guess to me, if you've seen one rock formation, you've seen them all. Our bus dropped us off in the middle of town where everyone just went off and did their own thing. We ate at McGonagall's Steakhouse. It was a little pricey (which I think put my friends in a slump because they didn't really seem to enjoy their meal). I found my food to be delicious though. I had lamb.

After dinner, we walked around and did a little shopping. Inverness is so pretty. I just love their downtown area.

We took the bus back to our hotel and then decided to take a dip in the pool. It was a nice relaxing way to the end the day. Then, we stopped by the bar for a quick drink before bed.

Scotland: Day 7: Inverness

Since we stayed out so late the night before, our choir director thought we wouldn't wake up in time to make it breakfast, but we showed him wrong.

Not only did we make it to breakfast on time, we made it to the church service that morning and sang beautifully. It was a really fun service. After the service, we went on a nice drive toward Inverness. On the way, we stopped at a beautiful castle that we explored. It was amazing. The inside was nice, but the outside gardens were absolutely gorgeous. Then, we crossed a bridge that took us on a wild adventure. I had the best time.

We checked into our hotel and had a drink at the hotel bar. Then we went to bed!

Magnetic Me

We just went on a super fun road trip! We were on the road for over 40 hours total. That's a lot of down time to be doing lots of random things to keep busy and not be bored. Plus, we had a 7-year-old with us! Lots of time in a car can make for a very cranky child. So I set out to make some homemade travel gifts to save some money. Now, if you have to buy everything for this, it won't really save you much money, but it will still be a fun toy for your kids. And since it's magnetic, the pieces won't fall and get lost in the car! Yay. Win-Win.

So what we're making today is a tin box with a picture of your child in it and fun magnetic disguises. We had bought our magnetic disguises from Amazon about 2 years ago. They are so much fun on the fridge (especially when our elf comes at Christmas). I figured, we could always put them back on the fridge after our vacation, but keep the tin to put them in anytime we want to take them with us. Easy, right?

Honestly, the hardest part was finding the tin! I had thought about using an altoid tin, but I just don't like altoids so I didn't want to buy something I wouldn't use. Then, I thought about those tins of puzzles you can get from Dollar Tree. That sounded like the best option so I went to look for them. Ours was sold out! Bummer. I went to check at another Dollar Tree and they were also sold out! I thought all hope was lost when I came across this Emergency Fashion Kit at Dollar Tree. It was perfect! I didn't really care what the outside looked like (but it was a plus that it was cute).

Anyway, I printed a cute picture of my son and cut it down to fit the tin. Then, I used some hot glue to keep the picture in place. Then, I filled the tin with the disguises. And Done! So much fun!

Chalk Game: Target Practice

We got home from doing some errands one day and my son asks me, "Can we do something outside today?" Well, how do you say no to that? So, I came up with a couple fun things we could do while we were outside and one of them is a very simple, easy to play game.
Step 1: Use chalk to make yourself a target.
Step 2: Assign points to each circle to keep score.
Step 3: Throw bean bags at the target, trying to hit the center from a predetermined distance.
Step 4: The first person to get to a predetermined score wins! (We chose 30)

That's it. Have fun!

Scotland: Day 6: Aberdeen

I have just had the best time writing these posts about my time in Scotland. It has been a great time to reflect on my adventures during the crazy hectic time of summer. That being said, let's get back to it!

We started our day with another bus tour. Now, these aren't really my favorite, but sometimes it was nice to just sit and stare out the window. And Aberdeen is just beautiful! We stopped at the Cathedral Church of St. Machar along our tour and ended up singing a couple songs in an impromptu concert. It was pretty cool.

After our tour, we ate lunch. We found this super cute pub that had great food (I had a potato) and drinks and a huge screen that was playing rugby while we were eating. It was a great break before practice.

After lucnh, we headed off to choir practice. Definitely one of my favorite parts of this whole trip was getting the opportunity to sing in these absolutely gorgeous cathedrals and churches. It's just such an amazing experience that not many people get.

After practice,we had dinner. It was okay. We ate at an Italian restaurant and Italian food just doesn't settle well with my stomach. After that, we got changed into our formal concert attire. We then performed our concert. It went great. We drove back to the hotel and my friends and I got ready for that night. It was just so much fun. We went to 3 bars and 2 nightclubs. It was one of the best nights we had while in Scotland. I just loved it.

Scotland: Day 5: St. Andrews

Perhaps you've heard of St. Andrews. It's the birthplace of golf! However, if you're not a golfer (like myself) this town is still completely adorable!

So we started our day driving to this cute little town. Although I suppose it's probably not that small. We just only saw a small portion of it. We walked around for a little while and saw the beautiful downtown area with lots of little shops and plenty of places to eat.

For lunch, we chose Vic. They call themselves a "Pub/Kitchen and Social Pub". It was so cute! There were board games to play on shelves. It was one big room with a bar on one side. I ended up getting the mac and cheese with garlic bread. It was so delicious!! I loved it. They weren't very busy while we were there, but I have a feeling more people show up at night.

After lunch, we walked a little further down the road and found this adorable little French place where we ordered some crepes for dessert. Oh My Gosh. So good!

We walked around a little more before we found a friend of ours and ducked into a pub for a drink. After our drink, the people I was with wanted to do a little shopping for the golf lovers in their lives. Then, my favorite part of the day, we climbed some rocks. That may sound silly, but it was so much fun! This was a group of rocks that jutted out into the water that gave such beautiful views and frankly, it was just amazingly peaceful. I could have sat there all day!

We hopped on the bus again and headed off to Aberdeen. We had a choir rehearsal followed by dinner. It was so good. I had a haggis stuffed chicken that was delicious.

Dehydrated Strawberries

I got my husband a food dehydrator for our anniversary last year. He didn't really touch it for a couple months because we were SUPER busy. But once he finally broke it open and started playing with it, he really got into it and started dehydrating everything! My favorite thing he dehydrates are definitely the fruits! Specifically, strawberries! Here's how we did it:

First, I cut the strawberries into thin slices.

Then, we put them on the trays of our dehydrator and turned it on! It's that simple!! Amazing, right? We left the strawberries in there for about 12-14 hours. They turned out great!

My Favorite Fort Wayne Children's Zoo Photo Ops

I have been to A LOT of zoos. I absolutely love them! So I choose to go to them all the time. I think I went to 6 different zoos last summer. Crazy, right? Well, last weekend, we traveled to Fort Wayne, Indiana to spend the night at their zoo. It was so much fun! But that's a post for a different time. After we spent the night, we left to put all of our stuff in the car, then went back into the zoo and spent an extra 3 hours there. And while we were walking through the zoo, we found so many cool and fun photo ops! Let me tell you my favorites!

Here's a map to give you an idea of where these awesome stops are.

1. The Zoo Entrance
This is clearly the most photographed place in the whole zoo! I watched people sit on it, stand behind it, take large group photos, etc. We loved it!

2. The Tortoise
This turtle is almost the exact same size as one of the tortoises at the zoo! How awesome, right? Plus kids can ride this one.

3. The Peacock
This is just such a fun and inventive photo op! It is 2 pieces connected at the bottom that allows kids (and adults) to stand/kneel behind the body, in front of the feathers, to make it look as though the person in the photograph's head is on a peacock body.

4. Big Wave
This one is right by Stingray Bay. I just love this whole area of the zoo. It is themed amazingly! But we had so much fun with this one. I saw a family on the surfboard with one kid in front and dad in back with a small child on his shoulders. How cute!

5. Shark Head
This one is right next to the surfboard. Again, so fun! There's an opening in the back for kids (and adults) to get inside the shark head.

6. Penguins
Ok, so this clearly had to make the list for my family because penguins are easily our family's favorite animal! And I just love that there was space between two of the penguins for people to step in for a great photo.

7. Butterfly Wings
So these just look like pretty butterflies in a grassy area. However, when you stand in front of the butterfly, you look like a beautiful butterfly! (said in the voice of Heimlich from A Bug's Life, of course)

8. Orangutan
This is a beautiful statue of an orangutan. Who doesn't love taking cute pictures with statues? Plus, how adorable that the orangutan had his hand out and my son decided they needed to hold hands.

9. Komodo Dragon
If you don't look for this, you could easily miss it! So keep an eye out after you go past the Children's Treehouse.

10. The Safari Truck
It's a cute little truck that your kids can pretend to drive. Slightly less boring than the rest of my favorites, but still cool.

11. Sight-Seeing
So this isn't quite like the rest of the traditional photo-ops, but this was just too cute to pass up. They have a couple self-standing binoculars that are so cute to get a picture of your loved ones using. And if you can't use these for some reason, there's also a basket of handheld binoculars.

12. Eggs
How much fun is it for kids to pretend like they're coming out of a broken egg? Apparently tons of fun! Because my son had a blast climbing in and out of them.

Bonus Photo Op:
13. Dinosaur
The reason this is a bonus and not part of the regular list is because you have to pay extra to get to this. While on the train, you see this dinosaur off the side. It's pretty cool! You pass it twice so my recommendation is to look for it on your first pass and then get ready and take your picture on your way back.

I had so much fun writing this post, looking back at our weekend. It was so much fun.