Justus is TWO!!

It's official - we now have a two year old!! So crazy how time flies. We had so much fun celebrating his birthday with him. Just like last year, it was just the three of us, but I am glad there wasn't a big party or anything - it is so fun to have him and all his cuteness all to ourselves!He had a big pile of presents waiting to be opened when he came downstairs. (By the way, thanks to all the fam for your contributions - it was fun to have so much for him and 90% of it was not from us! We seriously have the best family ever!).
The loot... I loved watching Trav try to 'assemble' his first gift of what I'm sure will be many to come!!
The weather happened to be awesome on that day, so we decided to start our first annual tradition here and take him back to Cairnie Fruit Farm to celebrate. It was fun to see how much difference a year makes since we did all the same things as last year - one big difference was that he wasn't quite walking last year and this time he was running around like a mad man! (Also, for some reason we were the ONLY ones there so we had the entire place to ourselves - it was amazing!)
Running through the big corn maze - we followed his lead and made it out in no time!
Action shot of Trav bouncing him on the 'jumping pillow' - he did not want to get off of this thing! He was loving life!!
Celebrating back at home with some homemade (well, from a box) chocolate cupcakes. He is seriously such a happy, easy-going kid. We are so blessed to have him - Happy Birthday, buddy!!

Planes, Trains and...

...well, there were no automobiles, really, but oh well! Justus' second birthday is tomorrow and as a pre-birthday celebration we had an action-packed (well, in our world) weekend planned for him! On Saturday, we went to watch part of the annual RAF (Royal Air Force) Air Show. There is a base just a few miles from St. Andrews and we could watch all the action from the beach in town. So we knew it was a win-win combo with the beach and big airplanes! The air show lasted all day, but we decided to watch the military planes. They were super loud and doing some seriously amazing tricks! Justus had his eyes glued to the sky (well, until he realized how close the water was and then he was distracted by running into the waves!).
He was really proud to show off the shells he had collected while we were hanging out there!Then on Sunday, we had booked tickets for "A Day Out with Thomas" (the train), who he loves. We drove to a local train station where they had life-sized versions of Thomas, Percy and some of his other friends. Justus and I both had the very first train ride of our lives! It was on an old steam train and it was SUPER SLOW, but Justus loved it, of course!
Meeting Thomas...
He even got to help give Thomas a drink of water. Too cute!
There were lots of activities for the kids to do there, including a train museum that was at the station. Justus loved walking onto the old trains and pulling the levers and turning the wheels.
Then when we got home we let him open a few of his birthday gifts early - his own wooden train track and tunnel for all his trains! He has been playing with it non-stop ever since!!

New Haircut

It was definitely time for a trim...and being broke and cheap, I decided of course that it would be best to try to cut Justus' hair ourselves. (Mom, now I finally know why you did it to us!) His hair was long and luscious and I loved it, but it was always getting in his eyes and I felt bad. So I suggested to Trav that we try to cut it with hair clippers, on the longest setting. It started off looking pretty good, until we got to the front. The first swipe of the clippers across his bangs cut them back to almost nothing! I freaked out but there was no turning back at that point. So......this was the end result. I affectionately referred to it as the "Julie Andrews" (note the similarities!). Honestly, I couldn't even look at Justus at first. I felt so bad that we had cut off all his cute hair! But after he showered and we did a little styling...
...it actually turned out to be a really cute haircut on him! And at least it shouldn't be in his eyes for awhile!
(Just in case you think he's not happy about the new do, he is...this happens to be his new "say cheese" face!)

Top Chef

I was rolling out some dough yesterday and since I had already made a big mess, I called Justus in to see if he wanted to play with the roller and dough. Duh. He stood on his stool at the counter for probably about an hour before we finally tore him away, crying, to clean him up and put him to bed! He decided that he was making us a 'bread pizza' with lots of veggie and fruit toppings. Seriously, I cannot get over how cute he is!

(I tried about 10x to get a video to upload but it just wouldn't work for me...oh well, maybe next time. Sorry, grandmas!)

Highlights from the Highlands

When Peeps & Tom were here we took a three day road trip into the Highlands. This was a first for all of us. We stayed in a cabin in a little town called Fort Augustus. The cabin was literally right on the banks of the Loch Ness (regrettably though, no sightings of Nessie). We had pretty great weather and it was seriously gorgeous. These are just a few major highlights...

Urquhart Castle was just about a 20 minute drive up the loch (lake) from where we were staying. Justus' favorite part was running around the big grassy hill (despite all the 'please keep to the path' signs). You can barely see him here - he's in the bright red sweatpants so that helps! The only thing that the town we were staying in was really known for was the canal that runs through it. We ate on the second floor of a little pub and got to see the canal in action with some old school fishing boat that looked like it was off the set of some Disney movie or something! Not a bad way to keep a toddler entertained during dinner though... The property that our cabin was located on had its own horses (including one mini-horse!) that roamed freely on the grounds and also its own highland cows. The lady who owned the property (Jenny - just a great gal - HA!) said that the cows were very friendly and approachable and to pay no attention to the "Bull DANGER" signs. I wasn't there when Trav had this conversation with her so of course I tripled-checked to make sure that is exactly what she said and meant as we led our son into the bull pen. They did seem friendly enough though! I'm sure we could have gotten closer (and Trav probably would have) but I wasn't going to push it!! A true Highland experience, I guess :) We did take an evening boat tour up through part of Loch Ness. If you know anything about Justus' obsession with "big wawa" then you'll know that this was definitely one of the highlights of his trip! Next we headed onto the Isle of Skye. It is incredibly beautiful - so much that we were taking pictures out of the car window as we were driving. Those never turn out. But it was just that pretty. Just before you cross over the bridge onto the island you come to Eilean Donan Castle - one of the most recognized and photographed castles in the world. It was raining when we arrived (really the only time on our trip it rained) but it had cleared up by the time we finished the tour. Justus was not all that excited to be there (probably tired from sleeping in a weird bed and being strapped into his car seat for long amounts of time) but it was definitely worth the visit. There were several places along our drive through Skye that you could pull over and walk around and take in the amazing scenery. Seeing as how Justus is obsessed with water and equally obsessed with throwing rocks into the water, he was pretty much never allowed to be on the ground at any of these stops since they led us up to cliffs that dropped off hundreds of feet into the sea. But Trav and Tom did step about 2 feet away from him so we could take these pictures of him hurling a rock off the cliffs (don't worry - not as dangerous as it looks, grandmas). And what better way to end the road trip than sharing ice cream in Inverness with Uncle Tom? All in all, Justus was a little trooper, like he always is. I think we were all glad to be back in our own beds drinking from our own coffee mugs (inside joke) but it was definitely worth the trip. It is how you imagine Scotland will look before you've ever been here. So now come visit us and see it!!

Aunt Peeps & Uncle Tom

Peeps & Tom came to visit for two weeks (and an extra day!) and it was AMAZING. They only left this morning but we all already miss them so much. The house is way too quiet. We did a ridiculous amount of things while they were here (Edinburgh, Stirling, Falkland, Anstruther/Crail, golfing, shopping, eating way too much Nutella, Highlands road trip, Loch Ness, Isle of Skye, Pictionary Man, Phase 10, "Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife", throwing rocks, etc.), but it was never too crazy really. We had lots of time to just hang out. Justus is officially OBSESSED with them both, and you can't blame him. They are awesome. I took an insane amount of pictures, but the best are the ones with him just hanging out with them (he followed them both around like a shadow).Walking around the Falkland Palace gardens with Uncle Tom.
Hanging out at the St. Andrew's Castle with Aunt Peeps.
He looks at them both in the cutest way!!
The look on his face perfectly sums up how he feels about them.
PLEASE COME BACK SOON!!!!

The Next Lodewicus Theodorus Oosthuizen

Once again, I realize it has been way too long since I've posted anything here. But, in my defense, we were back in the States for 5 weeks visiting the grandmas, who are probably the only ones who care about these blog posts anyways!! But now we are back and fully recovered and back in the normal swing of things, so here goes...

Justus' latest obsession (besides "big doors opening" - yes, he is obsessed with garage doors opening and closing) is GOLF. This could not make Travis any prouder, I'm sure! When we were back in Colorado, he got to go to the Columbine Country Club practice green a few times with Trav to put his new plastic mini-clubs to good use. He could have done this all day (and he does now that we are home, where he also has a set of these clubs).

His favorite place to set the ball up was about 1 inch from the hole...that way he could make it in every time! What a little smartie!
I'm pretty sure his golf swing is already way better than mine will ever be. He looks like a pro with his follow-through!
While most golfers try to avoid hitting their balls in the sand, this was one of Justus' favorite places to be...mainly just because he liked picking up and throwing the sand.
But he was polite enough to rake up his mess before leaving!
All of this golfing in Colorado was then topped off with our return home and the start of the Open Championship here in St. Andrews. Trav was working at the Open so Justus and I went down every day for at least a few hours to watch.
This has officially solidified the obsession.
Now, at home, he will use anything to hit his golf balls across the room. His sword, his hammer, his horse-on-a-stick, he even used a mini colored pencil the other day!! The kid is crazy. Gotta love it!