Welcome to the World

This month 2 very special babies arrived . . . BumBum's cousin Jack, son of Pat's sister and brother-in-law Kate & Brian O, and BumBum's good friend Rosie (maybe future ND roommate?), daughter of our good friends Jen & Pat G (Pat's ND roommate). Both babies are doing great! And so are all the parents . . . or at least that is what they tell us, since we have just a few weeks before we start those crazy sleep deprived days & nights!

We can't wait to meet Jack and Rosie!! In the mean time, we have to settle for pictures. Here are a couple!

Jack O (born November 10):





Rosie G (born November 3):

Edinburgh!

And the winner is . . . . Johnny5! You may think that he was the only player, but I did receive several guesses via email. Johnny – your prize is a shout-out on our blog! Yay for you!!! [by the way, this is your shout-out].

Our trip to Edinburgh was quick – we arrived Friday night and left Sunday late morning, so really we just had Saturday to explore. Friday night we headed out for dinner to a restaurant suggested by our hotel. The guidebook described it as “Mediterranean food with a Marrakesh feel inside”. It was about a 10 minute walk from our hotel, past some of the most famous pubs in town and on an adorable street with filled with little shops and restaurants. They didn’t have any tables, so while in the lounge area waiting for a table we decided to just stay there. It was a really great dinner and we even tried a local specialty – haggis. The manager recommended it, so we figured we should at least try it. I have to admit, it was not bad. I also have to admit that the version we were served was fried in beer batter, which can make anything taste good, right? Anyway, if you ever head to Edinburgh, we definitely recommend this restaurant! It is the blue building in this picture (taken the next day):



Saturday as we walked around the city in daylight we realized that what we had heard was true – Edinburgh is very similar to London. Same stores, same buses (but theirs are white, not red), same crosswalks, traffic lights, etc. The accent though, that is totally different! And the weather is usually much much cooler, so we were ready for our first real taste of winter. But we were pleasantly surprised with a gorgeous, crisp fall day that was not nearly as cold as we expected. It was even sunny! We could not stop taking pictures! Here is a shot looking down the Royal Mile:



Our first stop was a visit to the newly unveiled Adam Smith statue, outside St Giles’ Cathedral. Pat (as a GSB grad and a free market soldier) has a special place in his heart for Adam Smith, so we had a moment of silence and took several pics to ensure a good one.



Then we had a nice leisurely stroll down the Royal Mile (which runs between the Palace and the Castle). It is filled with shops and on beautiful fall day – loads of people watching! It did not take us long to figure out that there was home rugby match – rowdy (drunk) people in kilts & rugby shirts were everywhere. I wish I had snapped a picture, but I did not want to risk offending them.

We walked all the way down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. From there we hopped on a tour bus for a loop around the city. It was so nice (aka, not raining and not freezing cold) that we actually sat up top, outside! We had a live guide giving the history of the city, which was great. We loved her accent, even though we probably only caught every third word. Here are a couple pictures we took from the bus:

The Castle:



Others:





We got off the bus at the Castle and did our own tour. It was dusk, so we got some great pics. Here they are:











Then we headed to a pub in the Grassmarket to watch rugby. It was fun, but not that exciting of a match as the Scots had not beat the visiting team (from NZ!) in about 23 years, so there was not much hope for a win. Although they did put up a good fight, the Scots lost. But the real story is about Maggie, the namesake of the pub. Click here to read about her.

Overall Edinburgh gets 2 thumbs up! We really enjoyed it and wish we would have had another day or 2 to explore.

Where were we?

Even though we planned for our trip to Boston 2 weeks ago to be our last holiday before BumBum's arrival, we had a perfectly empty weekend and many places still on our to-see list. So this past weekend we had one last city mini-break. Don't worry moms, we are currently back home in London, all safe & sound, for good this time. Probably.

Here is a picture from our weekend. Any guesses where we went? Answer & details to be posted later this week.

 

And the answer is . . .

. . . JUNO! Most of you guessed this right away, so we must have done pretty well with the costumes. In case you were wondering, yes, Pat (ie Paulie) did have the requisite tic-tacs. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it. It is a witty comedy about a pretty tough subject. Here is the DVD cover we were attempting to copy:

halloween

We have not dressed up for Halloween in several years and we surely have never done a couple costume, but this year I have the perfect accessory so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to have some fun with it. Do you know who we are?

Added bonus - profile shot of BumBum at 32 1/2 weeks! [For comparison, the picture below in Times Square was at 27 weeks. Looks like BumBum is packing on the pounds. Well, one of us is!]