The sky's the limit

This week's theme over at The Gallery, is simply skies. And what a lovely theme it is too. I couldn't resist joining in with some images of the skies closest to my heart (and soul).

There were skies over golden fields

and skies over golden beaches (no filter here, all natural Scottish light!)

Brooding skies over the Caledonian canal

 skies before the rain in secluded coves

and mysterious skies over Loch Ness

But there were plenty of blue skies to act as the perfect backdrop to childhood memories

The sky's the limit, as they say. Two weeks in Scotland renewed our belief in that saying. To the moon and back baby, to the moon and back.

An emotional driving force

This photo was taken just 2 weeks ago.

A family picnic with grandparents in tow on our favourite family beach. Hopefully, (fingers crossed) our closest beach in the not too distant future.

Littler is full of pride, chuffed to bits with his new skill in sandcastle construction. His Grandad, bursting with pride to be sharing this beach with his 2 favourite people in the whole world. Just out of shot is his Gran, a woman with a heart made of pure gold that would do anything for the 2 little men she dotes on. A heart that has a huge capacity for love.

And it is these emotions that are the driving force behind our Great Escape. I want there to be hundreds of more photos like this one. Thousands of more moments shared with grandparents in tow. Many, many more picnics on the beautiful beaches of Scotland and many more nights where my children are put to bed with sand stuck to their feet, their hair sprinkled with sea salt and the sound of the waves still echoing in their ears.

Different beach...

...same hopes and dreams

This is my post for Tara's latest edition of The Gallery. Pop over and have a look at the emotions other lovely people have chosen.

Family

This week's theme for The Gallery is pretty poignant for me today.

For the last 8 days my little family has been living apart - with husband in a hospital bed and me at home with the boys.

But finally, husband has been taken into theatre for surgery. So I'm leaving the office right now to go and give him a tight squeeze as soon as he's out of post-op recovery.

With the rest of our family 600 miles away in Scotland, these 3 boys are the sun, stars and moon of my world. In fact, no. They're my entire universe.

I'll be holding them all as close as I can tonight.

My little family.

The Gallery: Extreme close up

 

Poor Bigger. He's very proud to have lost 3 of his baby teeth, but it really doesn't make for the prettiest of photos. In looks almost threatening in this photo - I think it's the nose-wrinkling in an attempt to show off the gummy gaps to the max. There's no sign of any big horse teeth yet, so I can still say he's my baby. Even though he'll be 6 next week. SIX! *weep*

This post is for Week 96 of The Gallery over at lovely Tara's place. The prompt is 'Extreme Close-ups'. Click here to see all the other entries.

Here's looking at you kid

This post is for week 87 of The Gallery, over at Tara's place:

Both my boys have beautiful blue eyes, inherited from their dad. Great big puppy dog eyes that have me running round in circles. Boy, do they know exactly how to use those eyes to their maximum heart tugging effect.

 Bigger sometimes likes to complement his eyes by sticking out his tongue. Odd child. Still cute though (luckily for him).

 Even a mucky face can't detract (much) from those sparkling peepers.

 But sometimes, we have to hide their superpowers beneath some achingly cool shades.

 

Even the eyelashes can slay you at 40 paces. Sadly, to get eyelashes like these, I have to pay for the privilege. Le sigh.

 

Someone pass me the wrinkle cream please? No, not the tube, the giant vat of industrial strength stuff please. Cheers. 

The Gallery: Guilty pleasures

This week's Gallery theme over at Sticky Fingers is Guilty Pleasures...

Oh my...the things I could choose for this theme...the list, to be honest, is endless. I'm a little ashamed at the number of guilty pleasures I have, including:

Ridiculous, over-priced desserts

:: Pudding. I pretended this was a treat for bigger. I dragged the poor soul to a newly opened ice-cream parlour where he ordered the monstrosity you can see above. Of course, he only ate about a third of it *weep*. I devoured mine.

Breakfast at Fortnum & Mason whenever my dad is in town

:: Fortnum & Mason. I feel so indulgent when we go to F&M. We don't do it often, but oh boy does it feel like a guilty pleasure! I don't even look at the prices now - they make me blush. I just smile and cross my fingers that dad is paying (again).

Chocolate cake, in any shape or form...oh and giant chocolate buttons *drools a little bit*

 :: Chocolate cake. Giant chocolate buttons. Bliss. Nuff said really.

Coffee - sometimes a latte, sometimes an americano with hot milk

:: And lastly, coffee. If I'm feeling very naughty, I pick up an over-priced coffee on my way to work. It's my treat to myself, to soften the blow of abandoning my babies for the day in order to make enough money to fuel (amongst other things) my coffee habit (hey...wait a minute...but that's a whole other blog post).

But my ultimate guilty pleasure is lunch out (usually at Pizza Express) with my boy, bigger. Which is where we are in the photo above. He's my favourite lunch date. Ever. (disclaimer: husband hates eating out. I don't know why. He's a freak)

What's your guilty pleasure?

The Gallery: A Happy Memory

This week, the theme over at Sticky Fingers is A Happy Memory. At first, I thought - easy! But when I tried to find the picture to represent my happy memory, it was much harder than I'd anticipated. Which to choose? Wedding day? Birth of first child? Birth of second child? Honeymoon? All wonderful memories.

Then I went in search of a photo I knew existed somewhere, but I just couldn't find it. It was the last photo ever taken of my husband and I, as just a couple - taken literally days before we conceived Bigger. We went to the beach, the sun shone, we spent all day just reading the Sunday papers and eating the picnic we'd brought along...ah such lazy, hazy days.

Then there's all our camping photos - some lovely happy memories there too. Campfires, bangers & beans, sunrises & sunsets...but they're missing Littler. We haven't managed to go camping since he arrived, but when we do, I know we'll have a blast.

So instead, I've gone for a family holiday. The photos below were taken on our first ever family holiday. We spent a gloriously sunny Easter weekend in Windermere and made a bucketful of happy memories. It was our first 'holiday' where we didn't visit Scotland, we didn't stay with relatives and we didn't have to abide by anyone's timetable. 

It was hard work, but it was great fun! No need to juggle grandparents and keep everyone else happy, we pleased ourselves and spent hours down on the lake just being together. Just the 4 of us. Sharing ice-cream and giggles and a love of outdoors. Happy, happy days.

The Gallery: Shoes

 

These are my happy shoes. My no place like home shoes. My husband bought them for me 2 years ago for my birthday (I know, he's a keeper) and they're made of the softest leather. Almost as comfortable as slippers. He also bought me a gorgeous dress to go with them (not the one in the picture), but that's a whole other post. I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

The Gallery :: Rain? Who cares!