Mommy Comes to Visit

by Sep 5, 2013100 Things, England, Scotland, United Kingdom3 comments

A couple weeks ago something I really hoped but never thought would actually happen, did. My Mommy came to visit Matt and I in London for 10 days and we kept her very busy for that time!
The day after she arrived, we met up with Catherine and Matt’s sister to go wedding dress shopping. Yup, wedding dress shopping. I’m not even going to begin to describe what a surreal experience it was but it was also so much fun! It was more of a ‘try everything on to see what style looks good’ exercise and I didn’t have any expectations of finding the dress. But I did. I have dreamt about it most nights and I cannot wait to go back for my 2nd fitting in a couple weeks. I’m so glad Mom was there for the experience, I couldn’t imagine doing it without her opinions and hilarious comments like:
“You ROCKED that dress”, “Your boobs looked AWESOME in that one”, and “Are you going to say Yes to the Dress?”.
Oh, I miss her so much already.
I wasn’t able to take any leave from work while Mom was here but there’s plenty in London to keep her busy! She spent a couple days doing the local touristy sites around the city and a day trip to Windsor Castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. We also took her to Mamma Mia and all our favourite restaurants.

Momma and her ribs

Since Mom doesn’t get to travel outside of Canada very often, I really wanted her to try and go somewhere besides London for a few days. After a bit of back and forth and not having a lot of time to go to another country, we settled on going to Glasgow for a weekend. Most of you would probably think there isn’t much going on in Glasgow and wonder why would we want to go there out of all the other places in the UK. My Grandma (Hi Grandma!) and Great Aunties grew up in Glasgow before moving to Canada and I’ve always wanted to see the house they lived in. There was no better time to do that than with Mom! After a quick train ride from Glasgow train station we checked off number 10 on our 100 Things List – Visit the house Dayna’s Grandma grew up in in Glasgow.

The house my Grandma and Aunts grew up in

The house my Grandma and Aunts grew up in

Mom holding a picture of Grandma and Aunty standing in front of the house

The house my Grandma and Aunts grew up in

Can’t get over how much my younger sister looks like Grandma in this picture!

Mom also wanted to see the church they used to attend. Grandma told us it was right around the corner from their house but when we got to the end of the street there 2 churches – one to our left and one to our right. We came to the conclusion it was the one to the left. Were we right, Grandma?

The church my grandma went to

Church to the left

Church

Church to the right

We didn’t go into the house (anyone else think it’s a bit weird to ask a stranger if you can take a look inside?) and without my Grandma there to point out different things there wasn’t much point anyway but it was awesome to see it and remember all the stories she told me of growing up there.

The rest of our time in Glasgow was spent walking around pretty much the whole city. We went to parks, the Botanical Gardens, the Glasgow Cathedral, and ate delicious food (no haggis though!).

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral

Glasgow Cathedral

Old Grave

Cathedral

Botanics

Bees in the Botanics

Mom smelling the roses

Mom and I in the Botanics

Exercising in the Botanics

Exercising in the Botanics

We also stumbled across these guys – you know you’re in Scotland when…

[flickr video=9570255697 secret=c060d974a5 w=640 h=360]

Mom gave us the greatest surprise leaving gift as well – she cleaned our entire flat while we were at work! Feel free to come back any time Mom 😉

All kidding aside, seeing my Mom for the first time in 2 years and having her see what our life is like on the other side of the world was so special. Two weeks wasn’t long enough! I miss you already, Mom!

Mom and I in the Botanics

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