Aberdeenward bound

After a busy week in Cambridge, Bluet, Ilona and I boarded a train to Aberdeen on Friday morning*. While in Aberdeen we went to Castle Fraser, which was really fun, once the kids were given a checklist of things to spot and tick off. A busy weekend ensued

At Mill House there was a swing to play on

A car Andrew and Nick are building to play in

A tree house Andrew just built to not fall out of

Muffins to eat

And a railway to watch in full steam (NB we must get one of these at our house)

Oh, and bees to visit

*We changed at Peterborough onto a busy train, but as we had reserved seats it was fine. In fact the kids behaved perfectly - probably because I let them play games on phones. At Newcastle we changed again and this time the carriage was so full the passengers did not want to let us on even though we had reserved seats, but we eventually got on and everything was fine; all this because of the Edinburgh festival, the train was empty and peaceful from Waverly onwards. As we then arrived 30 minutes late, 50% of our ticket price was refunded, so it all worked out great. 

I like to ride my bicycle

After we came back from the UK, and just before starting school again, Ilona decided she was going to learn to ride her bike. So on August 31st she woke up unable to ride her bike, but by night time she could do it. She ran into the house excited to tell us (we had no idea) and I went out and shot the video of almost her first successful bike ride. Now every day when she get home from school she wants to go ride her bike round and round and round and round our drive at ever increasing speed. It's kind of a child's biggest milestone after learning to talk. 

We also bought Wilder a bike as he needed one too.

On to Cambridge

After York we took the train down to Cambridge to see Gran Helen. While we were there we were also visited by the Oaktains, who cunningly rented an airbnb just down the road from Gran Helen, with patio doors that opened onto the orchard, giving the kids tons of space to run around. We visited the Natural History Museum, and the Computing History Museum (which Bluet and Caroline loved and Ilona and Madeleine hated (Bluet wanted to live there, presumably to play Sonic the Hedgehog for the rest of her life). We also took a walk to Granchester, and the double decker bus back. Oh, and the guided bus to St Ives (not that one).

The big race

Our final day of our first stint in York, we all took part in the York 10K - with me, Simon and Nick running 10K and Bluet, Ilona, Della and Gus running 5K. A fun time was had by all, I think. Especially once we had our medals. The adult's race featured a run through the streets of York and past the minster, which was pretty cool (although at 22C, the weather was too hot to enjoy properly).

And afterwards we had the traditional once yearly fish and chips.