In My Room

When we moved into our house here, Justus inherited a whole new set of toys (and books, and stuffed animals, etc., etc.). Thankfully, the people we are renting from have two boys so they left plenty of toys to keep Justus entertained. He is still exploring everything and sometimes he finds things that I didn't even know we had! But he loves being in his room...everything is just his size and nothing is a "no" (not that he ever disobeys or anything!)!

We've Got a Walker, People

Justus is officially a walker now! He started taking his first good string of 3-4-5 steps about three weeks ago, and now he is a pro at it. He loves carrying things (or dragging them!) around with him wherever he goes (I guess this is something he couldn't really do while crawling - although he did sometimes have fistfuls of toys in his hands when he crawled too!). We got him fitted for his first pair of shoes (well, walking shoes) - size 4 and 1/2. He still needs to get used to them but he is so cute in them...he looks like a little boy!! :) and :(

Fish & Chips

We took a little 'field trip' yesterday with a few other post-grads to the town of Anstruther. It's about 15 minutes down the coast from St. Andrews and they are best known for their award-winning fish & chips. Trav loved them, I thought they were okay, Justus could care less...he had chocolate-coated animal cookies to keep him happy :)

The town seemed really quaint and cute but unfortunately the 50+ mph winds almost blew us into the North Sea and prevented us from really enjoying the town! I have never been in winds so strong in my entire life! It looks nice and peaceful but don't let these smiles fool you. We were getting smacked with huge gusts of sand in our faces every few seconds. The one benefit was we didn't need to push Justus around in his stroller... the wind was doing it for us. (Oh, and another benefit, I got to wear my sweet new windbreaker courtesy of the Kubalewski's - thanks, guys!)

Nice hair, buddy :)

Seems like a nice place...we will definitely take a trip back on a less blustery day.

The West Sands

Justus had the first beach experience of his young life on Sunday at the West Sands beach in St. Andrews (apparently this beach is famous for the opening scenes of "Chariots of Fire"). Even though it was windy (and chilly), he loved the sand! He literally had it ALL over him when we left. In fact, there is still some in his ears at this moment...that stuff does not want to come out!!


He was clever enough to sneak an entire fistful of sand into his mouth while I was a few feet away taking a picture! He didn't seem to mind it though and kept trying to eat the sand the rest of the time we were there. :)

St. Andrews Saints

Travis is playing on one of the University of St. Andrews football club teams (well, what the rest of the world calls football we Americans call soccer!) and they had their first game yesterday. It was a gorgeous day so Justus and I decided to go cheer on the Saints!



Best looking forward on the team, by far. And to all those who are wondering...no red card!

Obviously Justus is a huge football fan and will no doubt be bending it like Beckham once he has this whole walking thing down. :) In the end (well, since the start of it, really), the Saints lost the game, but in my opinion the University is the real winner for choosing Trav to be on their team. Ha ha ha!!!

Sky

Well, we got our Sky Cable last week which means that we can stay connected to the states through satellite television! This made all of us happy for different reasons - Trav: ESPN sports package (three NFL games per week...just enough to stay somewhat up-to-date on his Fantasy Football standings), Jess: King of Queens, Project Runway, The Simpsons, etc., and Justus: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! It's really all he will watch, and more specifically, he only pays attention to the songs at the beginning and end. But still, a little bit of home and familiarity just feels good.

Warm Weather

Well, I think we must have brought a little of the warm Arizona weather with us, because it has been unusually (so we hear) warm here since we arrived. It has been around 16-18 degrees celsius (about 60-65 degrees fahrenheit) with lots of sunny blue skies. We have tried to take advantage of it while it lasts...since we know we will be freezing our booties off soon!

One of my favorite things (at least for now) is to hang the laundry up outside to dry. I have never done that before! I think Justus' clothes look so tiny and cute hanging out there!

We have a really pretty nature trail that is literally right outside our back door. We have taken the walk a couple of times. Justus gets to ride on Trav's shoulders and he loves every minute of it.

There are lots of trees and a "burn" (creek) that runs along the trail. It's really peaceful. We even picked some wild blackberries on our last trip and they were scrumptious.

We decided to tour the St. Andrews Castle and Cathedral ruins on one of these sunny days. Justus loved crawling around...

A view of St. Andrews and the bay from the top of St. Rule's Tower (part of the old Cathedral).

Here we are standing on a bridge on the 18th hole of "The Old Course" - the birthplace of golf. It's a public course and there is even a path right through the middle of it that you can walk along - babies, dogs, whoever!