Creag Bheag

Today, while Mum painted my new bedroom at Granny's, Dad and I climbed Creag Bheag. This is the first proper hill that I've climbed and it was a lot of fun!

Near to the top we took a wee detour off the beaten path to get out to a ridge to look down on Granny's garden. Dad called Mum and she took a break from her painting to stand in the garden and wave to us and try to spot us so far away on the hill. We at least could tell exactly where she should be and we had binoculars with us. She on the other hand, was left gazing at a large hillside with her dodgy eyesight wondering where we could be! Amazingly, she did spot us eventually so we were all happy we were where we said we were!

Dad and I continued up the hill with me telling Dad stories and asking him questions all the way while he wheezed and panted just in front of me (holding me up). At the top we met a nice old lady who described the alternate way down the back of the hill and along the golf course. We continued up the little seat cairn and had some lunch before heading down the other side.

We stopped off at Lagan Loch to throw rocks in and then continued waving to the golfers as we passed. It was a lovely day and great fun - it's also one of my 50 things to do before I'm 11 and three quarters! Dad's really looking forward to walking more hills with me!

Chocolate Ladybirds

School summer holidays. Obviously it's raining. A lot. So today we made CHOCOLATE LADYBIRDS!

A New Cousin!

I've got a new cousin! Here I am  holding him. He's only 2 days old! Welcome to the world, little man!

Buried

Last full day of the holiday today so we got out to the beach nice and early. It was a nice day too. Dad built a very nice sandcastle and while we waited for the tide to come in and fill the moat he buried me in the sand! One of my 50 things to do before I'm 11 and 3/4s is to bury someone else in the sand but all that digging really isn't so much fun as being buried yourself! Unfortunately, he'd taken so many photos on his phone this holiday that he ran out of space so evidence is more limited than any of us would have liked here.

Interestingly, it turned out the castle had been built on a bit of a sand bank so the water begun to surround us! We braved it out though and stayed long enough to see the castle be destroyed by the sea.

We stopped off at the Findhorn Bakery for lunch which was really tasty and then in the afternoon it was out for some more geocaches.

This is near a memorial just outside Kinloss:

This is a massive Pictish stone in Forres. We drove past it every day and Dad hadn't seen it!

Duffus Castle

After a lazy morning watching telly and building jigsaws we headed out to Duffus Castle after lunch today. We'd enjoyed it so much last year we had to return during this visit. The sun came out while we were there and Dad even got a bit burned! We had lots of fun again though. After finding another geocache (we're doing well this holiday!), we had another go at our jumping picture with slightly more success this time (correct picture to come later when Dad's processed the pics from his big camera). Then we did a *lot* of rolling down the hill!

Look at me! I'm in mid-air. Do you know how fast I was travelling?!

I found a rain-beetle. I was very careful not to hurt it!

A wee jump pick with Dad and me taken using his phone for him to send to one of his friends:

And then we had to go back and FISH FOR CRABS!

And after a late finish at the pier we stopped into a local pub for dinner to finish off another excellent day!

Fort George

It was another busy day today with very mixed weather. It started looking pretty wet so we headed for Fort George. We'd tried Fort George last year but it was so miserable when we got there we just turned and came away again. This time it wasn't so bad. Although we were lucky to make it because we met some Europeans on the road in driving towards us on the wrong side of the road and although Dad knew what was happening it seemed to take them some time work out it was them that were in the wrong and needed to move - the look on the European lady's face in the passenger seat would have been a sight if we could have seen it behind her hands!

Fort George was great fun. Even in the rain! We saw lots of dolphins - even in the fog! We obviously had a sword fight. And had a wee cake and glass of milk before leaving.

In the guard house:

Fighting with Dad:

Fire!

This is embossed on top of the cannon:

You don't see many of these about at home but there were lots up here.

Is it just me, or does this look like a model to you too? I can assure you it's not, it's real, we were all in it. And it's really very nice...

It's a big place. And perfectly symmetrical. I was learning about symmetry at school this term. That's me in this picture by the way.

After some lunch we went to the Findhorn Foundation to try to see the artist we saw last year. Mum and Dad has spotted a picture of his they wanted to buy. Unfortunately he wasn't around but we had a bit of a wander around the Foundation while it was fair. We might have had a cake at the cafe too - I can't keep The Folks out of there!

Then I insisted we go crab fishing again! When we parked up it was like this:

But a few minutes later it was like this!

And a few minutes after that it was like this!!!

Forres

We had a busy and full day today. The weather was looking not too great so we avoided the beach and headed into Forres for a look around and to scoop up a couple of geocaches. It's a beautiful wee town with a wonderful church and the greatest park and while we were there the sun came out making it look all the more lovely.

There's an interesting couple of shops next to each other. I fancied a pie and a hair cut but Dad hauled me away so fast my feet didn't touch the ground...

One of the caches was near the river where they have lots of lovely bridges to play Pooh sticks on!

  

We found an excellent restaurant for lunch where I had fish and chips and Dad had a massive burger. I tried to tell him not to eat it all because all he'd want to do all afternoon was sleep but it was so good he wouldn't listen to me. I didn't let him sleep though!

 After lunch we headed for Grant Park for another cache. This was a really gorgeous park on the edge of a wooded hill. I did a wee bit of tree climbing and a lot of running about. We looked for ages for the cache but couldn't find it. Eventually I had to leave Mum and Dad and go play on the climbing frame while they continued looking. They didn't find it that day and we had to return later in the week for them to eventually track it down!

After Forres, we headed back to Findhorn to do some crab fishing! This would turn out to be the highlight of the holiday! We'd met some boys on Monday who were doing it and told us where to get a line and net so we arrived at the pier at what must have been the best time because we caught loads of crabs! I'd paid attention yesterday and knew how to pick them up once they'd been caught. I just threw them back in to be caught again later!

Once the tide had gone out, there was still enough time to hit the beach. I said it was a busy day! So off to the beach we went, on with the wetsuit and into the sea while Dad built a sandcastle.

And then I got an opportunity to soak him! Here's some video evidence of that..!

I think there's more video on Mum's camera and if we get around to uploading that it'll be added to this post.