Home sweet home

There's no place like home is truest saying that is quoted daily and all across the world.

Over the Christmas holidays my husband and I traveled back to Edinburgh to celebrate Christmas with my family, I have talked about this trip in past blogs but I wanted to share some of our adventures while we visited (this may be more like a picture book blog).

This was the first time Carl has been to Edinburgh, which allowed my extended family to meet him who couldn't make it out to our wedding. It was so fun being able to show him all the places I love,speak of often and for him to see where I grew up.

<<< Theses are our excited faces.>>>

We arrived just in time (it was planned this way) that we would be there to celebrate my nephews fourth birthday. We went to an indoor soft play center which have become so much cooler than when I was a kid, then hit up every child's favourite food establishment Maccy D's. After opening many presents we all enjoyed his tower of donuts from Crispy Creme. He was in heaven, who wouldn't be with a donut the size of your face.

My mum has had a tradition of taking each of us to 'high tea' at the Dome. We sit at this table by the window, enjoy scones with cream and jam and copious pots of coffee (I know it is supposed to be tea) every time we come home for Christmas. This year was extra special as all three of us daughters and grand-daughter were able to go together. A few tears were shed as we spent some much need girl time together discussing my sisters upcoming wedding, future grand-babes and what was coming this next year.

I became a tourist in my own city which is actually a lot of fun. We took a bus tour jumping on and off at different landmarks like Edinburgh Castle, St Giles Cathedral and Starbucks (had to stay warm and caffeinated). I love the history that is in my city and telling old stories like Greyfriars Bobby. We walked miles passing incredible frost covered buildings, dark closes, cobble stone streets and the many sounds of  the bag pipers. 

On Christmas Eve, those of us who were awake enough braved the cold and piled in to Cramond Kirk Church for the midnight service singing silly songs and beautiful old hymms. Christmas day we had a packed house with my family now being a great ten members strong plus both sets of my grandparents. We woke up to my mum thumping on the door to get up, get downstairs for breakfast, coffee and some presents. As our tradition goes my dad will always either read the biblical Christmas story or an exert on Christmas then we pray together, it's one of my favourite traditions.

Quick showers all around, cute Christmas clothes on and snowball drinks in hand we all sat cosied up in the den exchanging presents but mostly watched my nephew open his mountain of presents. After a delicious meal Carl and I had the privilege of sitting down with all my grandparents to watch our wedding video as they were unable to attend. We spent a few days between Christmas and New Year going on long walks, coffee dates, climbing up Arthurs seat and much more.

 
 New years eve is actually my dads birthday so we all spent the day together going to see Alladin at the pantomime, for those that don't know what that is: Pan-to-mime: A traditional British Christmas entertainment for children, usually based on nursery tales and featuring stock characters in costume who sing, dance, and perform skits. After the pantomime we headed home and ordered in Indian cuisine per my dads request. From there on everyone split up to go celebrate the coming in of the new year,some went to bed, some attended house parties. We went into Edinburgh to watch the castle fireworks then met up with my sister and brother in law to be at a little pub, rolling into bed around 3am. 

  As our trip came to a close we went out with one last big bang. We decided to go on a one day adventure road trip to a few distilleries (one of which is Carl's favourites Glenfiddich), see the Scottish countryside and then go to a rugby game. As we drove up north we entered a winter wonderland being caught in the middle of a snow flurry, so as most people would, we pulled over jumped out and played in it. After our visit to Glenfiddich we dashed back down just in time to meet up with some of the family to watch a local Edinburgh vs Glasgow rugby game. Freezing our butts off in the stadium explaining to Carl some of the rules, we cheered Edinburgh to victory. 

What an incredibly amazing trip this was, filled with  fun & family. I have so many more photos of other memories we made that I simply could not fit them into this already very long blog. I hope you enjoyed seeing what we got up to over the Christmas season, I don't know how we can top Christmas 2015.

Married Life

Photography by Natalie Lynn

 My husband and I have been married six months! 
I know that is not long or something that is a big celebration, but shouldn't it be? Unfortunately in this day and age some people barely make it six months or a year. I think we should celebrate the win of having a good healthy marriage.

There are always people giving advice to engaged or newlyweds on how to make a marriage work. My husband and I were told on many occasions, "the first year is the hardest" or "you really don't know each other til you live together" or "you will argue about your partners quirks that you used to think were cute". Those statements became real fears for me, I would tell Carl we have to really communicate I don't want to fight all the time. When finally he told me "That isn't us! You have to stop letting people put fear on you or our marriage. We communicate well, know each other and we will have a good first year". So here is my advice; everyone has a different relationship style. You can not blanket all newlyweds with fear of failure neither can you expect it to be paradise. Love each other as best as you can. Listen, respond with grace and forgive entirely.

Our six months of marriage have been a dream. We love each other more, accept each other more, respect each other more, understand each other more, I could go on and on. Don't get me wrong we still have disagreements, get on each others nerves but we have learned how to navigate those moments with each other with a lot of grace. Carl and I were just discussing why we have had an easier time than others have? We nailed it down to three important things 1. Communication 2. Letting the other be themselves and 3. Having mentors. We are so thankful for having a great couple to mentor us, they have been married for twenty plus years. They have lived in the honeymoon phase, the hard phases, kids and all the ups and downs that marriage is. We actually met with them for six weeks before we got married and went through a book called "Seriously dating or Engaged" by Dr.Roger Tirabassi. It is rad and I encourage couples to go through it!! It addresses several important topics from finances to resolving conflict to parenting. It highlighted our weaknesses and strengths, gave us solutions, practical tools etc to help navigate our individuality within our unified marriage.

"Be completely humble and gentle; Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace."- Ephesians 4:2-3

I am a huge fan of letting men be men! What I mean by that is, that it is natural for men to be the master of the house, lead their families, make the final decisions on important matters etc. In doing that we honor them in being the man that God made them to be. I believe women who do those things (amongst others) are highly respected by their husbands and more so treated as an equal partner. I don't want that to come across as husbands should dominate their wives. It is about letting your husband do what he was made to do. Being married means being a unified team. Wives have such an important role, we are what keeps it all together and working. I joke all the time about the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, "the man is the head but the woman is the neck. The neck turns the head".

 ^"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." Ephesians 5:22-33

Though it may be just a handful of months we chose to simply recognize this small landmark in a lifetime commitment, being happily married for six months. On October 5th we slept in late, and after all our morning silliness finally got our butts up and dressed. There are some amazing hiking trails in Laguna Beach, we love a particular trail which is marked by Alta Laguna park. The park leads to the trail head which then leads you to a lot of trails varying from easy to extreme. It was a stunning day we could see Catalina Island as clear as day surrounded by the gorgeous deep blue ocean. I wouldn't quite go as far to say we hiked because we basically walked for 20 minutes and then said it's too hot and I am starving (fastest hike ever!). Okay, if you haven't been to Roses Bakery Cafe then basically your life sucks (sorry but it's true). You are missing out!!! It is in Corona Del Mar right on PCH, you can't miss it. They have delicious breakfast burritos, Pancakes, Donuts, and Good coffee with free refills (hello...all the coffee you want. I told you it's the best). Carl and I always stick to our favourite the California burrito, I get a coffee and he gets some OJ. Down on the CDM cliff edge there are two benches and before we got married (before we were even dating) Carl brought me down to Roses to get burritos then we came and sat on those benches. It was a gorgeous morning, cold, sunny and a clear beautiful view of the calm morning ocean (so romantic, he is a master pursuer). Anyways, it has now become our tradition to come down, sit on our bench and enjoy sweet moments together there. As well as getting mad at people who are in our spot, we stand at a distance whispering "get off our bench", eventually getting our way and feeling triumphant when in reality they moved on their own accord. That was it, a simple adventure that celebrated our commitment we made six months ago.

And they lived happily ever after!

The High Sierras

(Cottonon: Trousers / Forever21: Sweatshirt, Beanie & Sunnies / Urbanoutfitters: 5 panel 
 H&M: Denim shirt / Minnetonka: Moccosains)

The High Sierras hold a very special place in our lives. The Sierras is where my husband grew up camping and fishing with his family, and it is also where my wonderful husband asked me to marry him in the middle of Tuolumne Meadows on a bridge over a creek (that I nearly fell off of while in shock and excitment). The Sierras never disappoint us with it's breathe taking mountain ranges, unpredictable weather patterns, peaceful fishing excursions and friendly locals.

We just returned from a short family vacation up to June Lake to celebrate my step father in-law's 60th birthday. A three day weekend was too short but oh so worth it. We stayed in a cabin that had an extraordinary view of the mountains that included two waterfalls. I soaked in that majestic view every morning while sipping on my morning ritual coffee and scrumptious breakfast. What a way to start my day off, right? Our feet were itching to get out the door and into the wilderness, so we got dressed quickly, layering on cozy clothes as a storm was rolling in that day, we were expecting thunder and rain. We packed the Osprey pack with essentials and piled into the car to head over to Lundy Lake. It was a fairly easy hike up rocks, through the woods and across marshes, you know, just a normal everyday hike (hee-hee). At the highest point of the trail we stood on the cliffs edge taking in the beautiful waterfalls below when low and behold it started to snow, it was magical! We pushed on having fun walking across logs and beaver dams. We hit the end of the trail and turned back luckily before the storm started to roll in. As it started to down pour on our way home we decided what better thing to do in the rain than to stop in at a local coffee house, Latte Da, for a quick pick me up. It was so cute, pumpkins lined the steps up to a porch swing, inside a few tables circled around a fireplace with board games and old books. My husband and I snuck outside to sit on the porch swing, sipping our hot beverages and sharing a giant chocolate chip cookie while it poured rain. It was a little piece of heaven.

Monday came too fast but we had planned to take off in the morning to do some fishing before we headed home. First stop was Lake Ellery, probably my favourite lake up there (of what I have seen so far), it is so peaceful as you look out on to the still lake and your eyes pan across the beautiful snow dusted mountains that surround it. I am new to fishing, but I can do everything except tie a leader line, touch the fish, and gut the fish (basically I can cast and reel in ha). I enjoy fishing but since it's more work for my husband to help me every five seconds, I decided to sit this trip out and watch him fish his heart out. It brings me so much joy seeing him bright eyed with an extra bounce in his step, the Sierras are truly his happy place. We often turn to one another, somewhat jokingly saying  "We should move here?", and without hesitation the response is always the same "okay" followed by a gentle I wish smile. Our hearts were content taking in the gloriousness of the mountains that surrounded us but time never stands still when you want it most, time to pack up and get moving.

We had one last stop, Schat's Bakery in Bishop. It has the most amazing bread and all sorts of yumminess. We quickly stock piled as much bread and sweets that are arms could hold, grabbing some garlic cheese bread, cinnamon swirl bread, peach rings, two sandwiches, and two donuts (don't judge us) along side another loaf of chill cheese bread for my best friend, and alas, hit the road home.

 
Til next time Sierras! Which will potentially be very soon.