Holidays are coming.....

We're both really looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of this week as we have my niece, Chloe’, and her husband, Donald  (A.K.A. Dino) coming to visit for a week from the Isle of Skye, with their two kiddies, Charlie and Ava.

It’s hard living so far away from them. You miss so many things in very short periods of time with children, they change so quickly and we haven’t seen them for 12 months so they'll be so much more grown up. When we last saw them their youngest, Ava, was only 6 months old and she didn't really do much at that point, just sat quietly and watched everything going on around her, little sweetie. She's 18 months now and a proper little person, by all accounts. She won’t remember us but we’re really looking forward to getting to know her. Her Nana, my sister, is always telling me how she can't find anything when Ava has been to her house to visit, so, armed with this information, I've been busy nailing everything down in preparation for them coming here!

Charlie, their eldest, is just over 3 now. He was just over 2 when we last saw him and was such a little character and very clever for his age. At that point he had just started learning to speak Gaelic and, as Kat (my wife) and I don’t speak it ourselves, he translated a children’s programme for us called ‘Lucas am bata’ or ‘Lifeboat Luke’. We were both very impressed, Charlie, on the other hand, was totally unfazed!

His dad, Donald, volunteers for the RNLI in Skye and Charlie's a little bit smitten with 'daddy's boat'.

My sister, Tracy, (Chloe's mum) and her husband moved to Scotland when the kiddies, Chloe’, Adam and Ryan were all very young. It was a very sad time for me as I was used to seeing them all every day and was a huge blow not having them around any more. They were all really excited about their new life together and after they’d moved, Chloe’ kept in touch by writing to me lots and sending me photos of them all growing up. In fact, I found some of the letters she’d sent me a couple of weeks back and I was having a read through them, they did make me laugh. It’s so funny re-reading letters from your teenage niece who’s now all grown up with a family of her own!

It's absolutely beautiful in Scotland, I love it up there and love to go and visit whenever I can, but this time its our turn to play host and the Scots are coming to Essex!
Chloe's been here before, sometime back now, but Dino's hasn't and he's never been to London either and neither have Charlie or Ava. Charlie's really excited, so I'm told. They've been busy deciding on all the things that they're going to be getting up to while they're here on their holidays. So, as you can imagine, they’ve got a very hectic, fun-filled week of activities planned, including visits to London to do the sightseeing bit and lots of Essex sightseeing, plus, Dino will be celebrating his birthday with us whilst they’re here, too.
By the sounds of it they'll be needing a holiday to get over this holiday!

We’re both really excited to have them all here I’ll no doubt I'll be on here telling you all about it once they’ve gone home for a rest!

Right, There's still time to enjoy the calm before the storm. Time for a cup of tea!