Our Day by Design

In December last year we spent 8 nights in Orlando, Florida with Grahams family {his parents, his sister & her fiancé, his aunt & uncle and his cousin & his fiancée}, making 10 of us in total. The 8 of them had spent a week down the coast in Fort Myers first but due to our lack of holidays, we could only get 6 days off work. We met them all in Orlando on the Saturday. We set off on the Friday, my 29th birthday and as we landed in Orlando, we were just relieved that we had actually managed to get there, following a few issues to say the least. It started with the never ending snow which had closed Edinburgh airport and kept my sister & nephew up here since the weekend before. The week was full of helpful suggestions from everyone and there were even thoughts of driving down to Manchester for our Orlando flight; thankfully the airport reopened on the Friday morning! However there were still a few issues at check in {how an airline system can’t cope with people who ha...

We had a lovely visit to London last weekend to help celebrate my sisters engagement . The weather was fantastic so we took advantage of the sun (since we don't see it enough in Edinburgh) and had lunch and some drinks in a pub beer garden before heading home to change and have a glass of champagne to celebrate before going out for a lovely Italian for dinner. L-R: Graham; dad; mum; Patrick; Ashleigh L-R: Ashleigh; mum; Patrick; Graham; dad L-R: Me; Ashleigh; mum We also managed to fit some baby shopping in on Sunday before we left. Mum and dad wanted to buy them their pram and we wanted to get them a moses basket when we were down so that its here in plenty time for the baby! We haven't got any plans to head back down over the rest of the summer, and we will be quite busy with wedding planning over the next couple of months, so the next time I see them, I will be an auntie! Its so exciting and I cant wait to meet my niece or nephew.

My sister Ashleigh and her boyfriend (well, now her fiance) Patrick got engaged on Friday night. He proposed at home, after asking my dad last week, then took her out to her favourite restaurant in London. I think it completely took her by surprise which was lovely and the ring looks fabulous! Congratulations guys, I'm so happy and so so excited for you both. Cant wait to celebrate with you when we come down*. With the baby on the way, the wedding will take a backseat for the time being. However, it me ans I will have another wedding to keep myself occupied with when ours has passed. I can already foresee plenty trips to London to go dress shopping (and to see my niece or nephew, of course). The next couple of years are going to be so busy! * Which, as it turns out is now going to be this weekend. Mum & dad were going to be driving down on Saturday anyway, but we have convinced them to leave on Friday after work. This means we can tag along and should arrive Saturday lunchtime ...

Thought I should start by telling the story of our engag ement. Last September, Graham took me to New York City, which is one of my favourite cities, for a long weekend. As soon as we booked it all our friends kept saying that he was definitely going to propose as why else would he take me all that way for just a weekend. Now I cant say that I hadn't been hinting, especially after more than 5 years together! However Graham isn't one for being pushed to do anything so he was very good at making it seem like it wasn't going to happen, especially because everyone would expect it. He was even like this on the actual night, which was obviously his tactic to put me off the scent. As we started to plan how we would spend our 4 days in NYC, we decided to go up the Empire State Building on the first night. Graham has always known that that is where I would love to be proposed too, which also gave everyone we know a few more clues. After being grounded due a hole in the runway at Edi...