2012 Review

I realise we haven't been overly diligent about blogging, and since Jessica has re-found her ability to post it seemed like we should too. 2012 was a busy year with a graduation; a transatlantic visit; a disney visit; yet another 1st day at school; a cruise; and even a battle with a government department.

Whilst there have been some changes for us this year with a new dog and a new school, there is still a lot of continuity. Alyson is still working at the Parliament and seems to be enjoying her job more of late. We are lucky that her job has so many vacation days (relatively speaking) to allow us to undertake our various trips this year. I am still in school, but at least a new school! We both still have the same callings in church.

We have been very lucky to take a few trips this year. We really enjoyed returning to Eurodisney. We also really enjoyed our trip to the Eastern Mediterranean on our cruise. It was my first time cruising, and Alyson's first time on Royal Caribbean. We also had a couple of long weekend stay-cations here in Scotland. Alyson and I did a fair bit of travelling, but it wasn't only us jet-setting. We were delighted to welcome Joe, Eve, and Nate in June. We ran them rugged up and down Scotland from Edinburgh to Aberdeen to Inverness.

Christmas was great but marred by the fact that we have no passports. We were very much looking forward to going back to Kaysville. It's a much needed chance for Alyson to see everyone and a greatly appreciated break for me. There is still no sign of Alyson's visa, but we're hopeful that it will come soon at which point she'll be almost straight on a plane. At least that's the plan...!

Hopefully 2013 will be eventful and also have the opportunity for trips. Most of all on a selfish note I'm hoping to be in full-time employment as a lawyer, but that might need a lot of crossed fingers. Who knows what other surprises the year might hold.

Ben - our new addition to the family

Christmas & 2012

Alyson and I really enjoyed the chance to be around family over the Christmas period. We had the chance to spend almost a week up in Aberdeen, and then just over 2 weeks in Utah. The timeline worked out quite well, there were no snow storms on either side of the Atlantic to delay us (or volcanoes). The mild weather here also meant that my exams went as planned in December with no chance of involving me having to fly home early like last year.


It is an interesting time of year that lets us compare traditions. In Aberdeen we had the chance to go with my family to pick out a tree (which is an annual tradition for us, although they are nowhere near the size of the tree in the Bean front room). Alyson rolls out the advent calendar that Eden gave her, it's probably her favourite decoration. In Edinburgh we just have a little artificial tree that I bought several years ago when I first moved down. Christmas in Aberdeen is a military affair - quite regimented, and yet very laid back at the same time. We wrap all of our presents (from Santa or otherwise). We open them in order of age though, until it gets to the last few or if we've been sat there opening for too long. This is obviously in contrast to the Bean Christmas where Santa's gifts are laid out in the living room, but family gifts are wrapped. The Christmas meal in Aberdeen also involves everyone contributing. This year we actually had a sign up sheet to decide who would cook which part (I did the roast potatoes). The rest of the day, and indeed the rest of the season, is very much a relaxing time though. Recently we've actually taken to doing the big meal for dinner on Christmas eve so that Christmas day itself can be less stressful. It actually works quite well I think. We still go with traditional turkey. I really enjoy having the prime rib in Kaysville though.Turkey - no matter how well it is cooked - is not my favourite meat.

I don't know how it is for others, but for my family half of the excitement of any holiday is purely the anticipation and the planning. We look forward to getting together, we enjoy talking together about the things we want to do. Mostly we enjoy talking together about the things we are going to eat! Food is a pretty central part of any family meeting...This year my mum had a clever plan to order her grocery shopping online and have it delivered. She gave everyone in the family the login details so we could add our own ingredients/purchases. Most of us had an assigned day to cook, so we would have to prepare for that, but it was also for things like choosing which kind of juice you fancied etc. One important thing for Alyson and I specifically though is trying not to get too sidetracked by our pending trip to the US while we are at my parents' house. Of course we look forward to visiting Alyson's family, but it wouldn't be fair to my own mother if the whole time we had set aside to being with her, and my family, was spent just talking about/looking forward to being elsewhere. That said, we had a great time in Aberdeen, and the timing (for us at least) worked out great. Although I did feel sorry for Nate who had to wait 3 days extra for Christmas.

We really enjoyed our trip to Utah this winter. I think we managed to get more out of this trip than we have previous ones. Probably through more planning and having a better idea of what we wanted to accomplish. That was also in no small part thanks to the Beans who really set aside time to do things with us, and had activities and time off already planned like the trip to Park City. It means a lot to us that we get to see a lot of the family while we're out there. I really enjoyed going skiing for the first time and didn't pick up any permanent injuries! I was also delighted to get my fill of chicken alfredo, Carl's Jr, etc.. It was also great to see friends from home. I have quite a few childhood friends who have moved to Utah, as well as a plethora of people we've come to know in Edinburgh who have moved back to Utah or still have family there.




Being back home we're still struggling a little with jet lag 10 days later. I have just started classes again properly and am back in the swing of applying for graduate positions. Alyson is back at work and back to planning various youth activities for her calling.

Latest On-goings & a Scottish Thanksgiving

                So we recently went to a Mongolian BBQ for one of our friends (Jon who you may have met at our wedding) who is moving to London for work. As you can see it's quite the experience. Basically you make your own meal with a variety of wacky ingredients, and they provide some recipes you can try (beside me in the picture. The meats are probably the most wacky - if you click on the picture you should be able to read it.




Alyson and I both tried Camel and Wild Boar! Once you choose your meat and other recipes, you put it all together (including spices) in a bowl - like I'm holding - and then give it to the chef. He then cooks the whole bowl on a gigantic hot plate (along with everyone else's).

         We also recently went out to dinner with my family in Perth for my oldest brother Neil's birthday. This managed to successfully coincide with an Aberdeen football match (we're good at making things work like that!). Alyson, Maggie, and my mum went to Tullibody to play with Emma and Michael, while Neil, my dad, and I went to the football then came to Edinburgh. As Alyson may have mentioned, everyone then came to Edinburgh for church the next day. I had the [mis]fortune to be set apart as 2nd cllr in the bishopric in our ward. I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.

Last week we also had the opportunity to celebrate thanksgiving with some other Americans in our ward. It was an interesting experience trying to coordinate but worked out alright in the end. There are about 10 Americans in the ward at the moment.

Baxter

My best animal friend in the world passed away today. We will miss him dearly.

love you pup. (6/5/1995 - 17/10/2011)




Baxter moved in with us probably about this time last year. He generally had very good health up until his last year where he had a few bladder infections, and one more serious case where the vet says he had a mini-stroke. They treated him for that and he recovered quite quickly, but warned us that it was likely to recur at some point in the future. Unfortunately on Saturday evening I guess he had a more serious stroke (8 months after the original stroke), and he deteriorated from then on. He was still able to recognise us, but the stroke happened very close to the part of his brain that controls balance and a few other things, so he couldn't even stand up. He was also very nauseous, and dizzy, so he didn't have an appetite, and couldn't keep anything down. The vet told us that because he hadn't improved within the first 48hrs that he was unlikely to get better even with treatment. It was probably the toughest thing that I have ever done in my life to have him put to sleep and to have to say goodbye. Our flat seems very very empty now, and we are struggling to come to terms with not having him to mooch for our food, or to have to go on walkies. I'm sure the pain will dull over time, but I had Baxter for more than half of my life - 13 years (he was 3 when we got him from the shelter). He was there through very trying times and very happy times - a constant companion. We will miss him dearly.

Alyson and I had enjoyed going for family walks with Baxter. We never went too far, he was an old pooch, but he loved to be outdoors and sniff all that there was to sniff, and we loved to take him. He kept us both company when the other was away, or even when we were both at home. He was always happy to see us, and to pay us attention (so that we would also pay him attention). He was truly a part of our little family. There is so much, that although from the outside seems very little, made our lives in some way or another revolve around this beloved dog. He was a great dog, and we were lucky to have him for so long. I look forward to seeing him again.

London

 It would appear that the blog makers (Google?) have decided to update the format to write these blogs, and as such I can upload a lot more photos which is great. I much prefer the new set up.

Anyway! As you can perhaps tell from the photos, we had a recent trip to LONDON! We did quite a lot in a very short period of time. Alyson had never been (not even flown through Gatwick or Heathrow) so we wanted to cover quite a bit. It was mostly sight-seeing and just taking pictures from the outside although we did get the chance to actually go inside a couple of places. My brother Jamie lives in London so he was kind enough to not only let us stay in his flat, but also to show us around. I have only been to London once before actually touristing.

We saw so much stuff, as you can see from the top photo - we actually got the train from Edinburgh to London (Kings Cross). That might be a highlight for any Harry Potter fans. The next photo is Alyson standing next to some odd (I thought it was odd) wall art made entirely out of plants/grass.

 We saw a lot that first day, including Tower Bridge, which is probably one of the more famous London landmarks (not that they are lacking those in London).  I have to admit that I have a very different style of being a tourist compared to Alyson - who can go almost non-stop all day. My legs were pretty knackered after the morning.

 The Millennium bridge (also a Harry Potter feature); the Tate Modern; and St. Paul's Cathedral were also features of our Saturday morning. Jamie also took us to a place called the Borough market which was quite cool. It was basically just an immense expanse of food vendors, and Alyson managed to get a particularly tasty fresh & hot roast pork sandwich for lunch there. They had freshly squeezed lemonade as well. As you can see from this next picture we made a stop off at THE Globe theatre. This was a must for Alyson, and it is kind of cool to think how long this place has been around although I'm not a Shakespeare fan.

Thankfully for me we had planned to go and see a show which meant I would definitely get a chance to rest my legs. Purchasing tickets was actually the first thing we did on the Saturday morning. In London (as I imagine they do in New York as well) they have lots of vendors selling tickets at a discount so we managed to get some cut price tickets for... JERSEY BOYS. I have to say that out of the whole trip it was probably the highlight for me. I really enjoyed the experience.

 In the evening on the Saturday we had the chance to go on the London Eye. It is basically a glorified and giant Ferris wheel, but it's quite cool to be able to see things from on high.

 On Sunday after church we did a bit more exploring (once the rain had subsided) and went to pay a visit to our Monarch. Apparently she had forgotten our appointment and had made other plans in Balmoral. This next picture (although only showing the front portion, it is indeed much much larger) is, as you may recognise, Buckingham Palace. Below are the houses of parliament and "big ben". Apparently big ben is actually only the name of the bell and not the tower/clock.

There are many other pictures but I can only be bothered uploading so many for now. On Sunday we also saw Westminster Abbey and a couple of other things briefly, including the American embassy. It is quite a substantial complex which surprised me.

On Monday we had to leave in the early evening so we really only had time for a couple of things. We decided to go see the 'War Cabinet Rooms'. Basically this is an underground bunker complex, located underneath the Government buildings in London and used by Churchill and his cabinet during WW2. It really was fascinating. We also saw Downing Street (where the Prime Minister resides) and then went off to the British Museum. Safe to say there was plenty to see at the British Museum. Our trip down to London had been rather delayed on the train apparently because of a fire near the railway line, thankfully our trip back was less disrupted. When you add in the time it takes to get to the airport, checking in an hour early, and the time from the airport in to town, taking the train is actually much the same. The train also takes you directly from the centre of Edinburgh to the centre of London. It helped that we had 1st class tickets too, they were on a special deal and actually cost as much if not less than the other fares on offer. All-in-all this was a good trip.

Champion Haggis and the Hot Tub

We had the luxury of going on holiday again with my family to a place called Kinpurnie. It's about 15 miles outside of Dundee (if you decide to Google Map it). The building you can see here is actually divided into 2 cottages (East/West Newbigging) so there were some of us in each house. Thanks to my oldest brother Neil we had his projector set up in one of the living rooms hooked up to an Xbox. The other half-house served as the more social/eating house.

The houses each had a hot tub which was great fun to be able to just go whenever we wanted. I don't know if it was quite as nice as Park City, but that is not quite comparing like for like.

Emma's talking is really coming along leaps and bounds. At 18 months she can already say all of our names and tell us what sounds animals make as well as count to 12. Quite impressive! She had lots of fun singing "5 little monkies" with Alyson, waiting every time to do the "snap" of the alligator. For a full explanation you will just have to ask Alyson. It was great to spend time with my family again.

We made sure to make use of the facilities despite the weather. We did actually get a few sunny days which was nice. We also had the nice surprise of my aunt Sally coming across from California. It was a rather impromptu visit, but great for my mum as not all of our family had managed to make it on the trip.

It was Alyson's first time to Dundee, and we didn't see as much of the city as we might have liked. Anyone who has listened to me for long enough knows that I don't hold too high an opinion of Dundee though (or Glasgow for that matter). We did get to have an all-you-can eat Indian buffet. We also visited the home of Scottish champion haggis (though we have yet to apply our own taste test).

Our next adventure is not too far away. We're headed to visit my brother Jamie in London and that will hopefully have another lively blog entry in store.