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We took our first family (*) holiday in September. Given that we live in the north of Scotland, it involved a fair bit of travelling (by car, plane and ferry) with was rather challenging at times with a baby but overall we managed … We saw quite a few friends plus both the french and english parts of the family in a 2 week holiday, not bad going. We could actually have extended the trip by going to another wedding in Greece beforehand but we opted out because of the travel/distance. Apologies again Kat and Mike.

First we went to the wedding of our friends Jeff and Michelle in Nottingham. We set off on Friday afternoon, had an overnight stop in Carlisle and then finished the journey to Nottingham. We stayed the night at our friends’ Molly and Matt. Jeff and Michelle had opted for a humanist ceremony which everybody found very touching. The food was delicious “despite” being vegan (ah prejudice…). We saw loads of friends from our Bristol years. Unfortunately we had to leave the dinner quite early as A. simply wanted to go to bed. Here are two photos of Jeff and Michelle: in flesh … and in sugar.

After the wedding, we drove to Birmingham airport and boarded a plane to Trieste for a very short visit to Becky and Alex, our friends who live in Italy with their two sons. The youngest is just 3 weeks younger than A. It was very nice to see Becky and Alex who tried to come and see us last year for New Year but couldn’t because of the snow (they were stranded at Bristol airport for 2 days waiting for the airport in Inverness to be cleared). We were luckier: Italy was warm and the flights were on schedule. Unfortunately A. managed to catch a cold and was not very well.

After Italy, we spent a couple of days with Jenny’s parents in England. Jenny’s sister Suzy and her husband Dean had a baby a few days earlier but unfortunately we could not come and visit as A. was still poorly. We stayed at home, being fed nice food and waiting for A. to recover fully.

After that, we drove to Dover took the ferry across the channel and carried on to JP’s parents in France. JP’s parents were delighted, they had not seen A. since she was about 6 weeks old. A. was getter by then and she had a good time playing with “papi” and “mamie”. JP’s sister Estelle came to spend one day with us and celebrate her birthday. There are a few photos below. Note that JP’s mum has already introduced A. to champagne…

After 4 days in France, we drove back to England and spent another couple of days at Jenny’s parents. We managed to go and see Suzy and Dean’s new baby girl. Very very cute.

Too soon it was time to think about heading back home. We drove North to see our friends Sarah and Alex in Sheffield. They have done a lot of work in their house recently and we put the kitchen to good use. We stayed just one night and then it was time to start the long drive back to the Highlands … and go back to work the next day.

Overall, we probably stretched ourselves a bit too much for those holidays: we came back completely exhausted. Travelling with a young child is not easy. The grandparents were absolutely delighted though and it really made it worthwhile. A. is not six months old yet but she has been in 3 countries by car, plane and ferry; let’s hope the French are right when they say that “les voyages forment la jeunesse“.

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(*) Unfortunately Sam could not come with us for the trip so it was not a proper family holiday. Many thanks to Tim and Ele who kept Sam all this time. He had a great time at Megstone, as usual.

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