Jolly Old England..and Scotland...and Wales!

So we've been in the UK for about two weeks now and we've been able to do a ton of stuff! Hmm, let's see... where to start...? Well, we arrived on Sunday and spent the first couple of nights with my older brother Geoffrey and his family in Rugby. It was nice to just spend time with the fam and catch up a bit. Then it was off to Scotland. We passed through the Lake District on the way up which is one of the most beautiful parts of England in my opinion. We visited a couple of small villages in the area but spent most of our time there navigating the windy roads that took us past hills, valleys and a number of lakes, beautiful - anyone who has seen Miss Potter will know what I'm talking about.

We arrived in Edinburgh that evening and spent that night and the following two with our family friends from South Africa. Traci and I were lucky enough to spend the next day walking around Edinburgh taking in the old city while my parents were kind enough to watch Emma for us.

Edinburgh is amazing! Traci and I agreed that it the most beautiful city that we've visited yet. The architecture, some of which dates back to the 11 hundreds is unlike anything we've ever seen. Truly a memorable experience!

That evening we visited the nearby Roselyn chapel which has been around for over 550 years. Some of you might have heard of it before. It was featured at the end of the DaVinci Code. We were lucky enough to be the last visitors for the day so we had a personal tour through the chapel as well as some alone time to just look around.

The following day, Emma's 1'st birthday, we ventured further north to St Andrews - the highlight of my trip so far! I was lucky enough to get a round in on the Old Course, and when they say "old", they really mean OLD! Golf has been played there for over 600 years.

It was an amazing experience, one that I will never forget - it felt more like my birthday :) (we'll update you on Emma's B-day party details in a later blog).

We were also able to visit some ruins of an ancient cathedral at St Andrews as well as a really old castle. We love the history that you can't help but stumble upon!

The next day it was back to Edinburgh for the morning and then back down south to Preston, England. We met up with the rest of the Spires fam and all enjoyed a session and a few family sealings in the Preston Temple.

Then we were off to Southern Wales for a week. On the trip down we stopped off in Bath where we spent a freezing afternoon browsing the roadside shops and trying to stay warm.

Those buildings on the bridge pictured below are shops - needless to say, we spent a good amount of time in them :)

In Wales we rented a really large farm house and had the entire family together for four nights.

The house was just outside of Swansea so we spent some time exploring the city. It's a relatively large coastal city that has a small town feel. We also ventured further west to check out some of the really cool coastline;

further north to visit some amazing castle ruins perched on a hill with some breathtaking views;

and further east to visit another castle which, we were told is the largest moated medieval castle in the world.

We are now looking forward to next week and Christmas. We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and are constantly reminded of the true meaning of the season.

Till next time...