Glasgow, Andrew's Birthday and Our Trip to Oban

We drove up to Glasgow to see Mom and Dad off back to the good old US of A. This was a wonderful time, but I have no photos because I forgot to download my Mom's camera before she left. On the way back up home we stopped off at Fort William and took this photo of Gaius with the highest mountain in the highlands...anyone know the name???? 10 points if you do and leave it in the comment box!

The four of us on one of our favorite walks.

Gideon and Gaius in the field behind our little cottage.
Andrew's Birthday was Nov 3 (Monday) and even though we were having a big bash for Gideon's first birthday the following Saturday I did not want Andrew to go unrecognized. So I decided to keep his celebration low key. We had 14 adults and kids over for dinner and birthday cake - well that's low key for me! It was Super Hero themed because Andrew is my Super Hero! (Hay, don't think I can't hear all those awwaawww's) It was a lot of fun and the kids all had a blast and even got take home bags full of fun stuff!

Does this photo seem odd to any of you? Andrew receiving a cook book by one of Eleanor's favorite cooks! There is a funny story behind this. Shortly after Andrew and I were married we celebrated Andrew's birthday for the fist time together. Andrew went out and bought me a gift (if you are wondering, it was a Starbucks thermos). Ever since then it has been the on-going joke that Andrew always gets me a gift for his birthday. This year I went out and bought this book (don't worry it was half off) and wrapped it up and gave it to him on the night of his party. Shortly thereafter it somehow ended up in my arms.

I took Gideon to the doctor's but they said this is a normal look for a kid coming up on 1 year old. I thought I might have needed to be concerned about the green coloring and perhaps over developed snarl??--but what do I know.

Andrew had a conference in Oban (2 hours south west of us)and the kids and I tagged along for the fun stuff. While Andrew was in hours of boring talks the kids and I explored Oban, including a fun castle (sorry, I cannot remember the name of it but its in Oban). This is the view from the castle looking back toward the mainland and highlands.
Gaius had so much fun running around the grounds of the castle. He was so excited and called out, "Castle Mommy! I find castle!" Every time the castle fell out of view and then reappeared through the trees of the extensive grounds.
The boats were a particular favorite of Gaius'. From the moment he woke up in our lovely hotel right on the water (thanks to UHI), till he lay his little head on his pillow the excitement in his voice remained while he said persistently with great repetition, "Boat Mommy!!" "I go see boat Mommy?" "BOAT 'nother BOAT mommy!" for some reason the excitement in my response began to wain after the second day.
The kids in Oban