Big Day

Today I drove up to Banchory with Ali, Stuart & Josie in the car. We had three cars going up from Edinburgh. We set off at 10.30 after dropping Marvin and Cleo at the kennels/cattery. It was raining as we got to the Forth Bridge and before we got to Dunfermline it had started to snow. The snow continued and we drove most of the way to Stonehaven at around 40 mph in dreadful conditions. We were in thick driving snow which lay on the motorway so I was driving in the tracks of the car in front with very poor visibility too. I was glad it was daytime!
It was only hearing from those ahead of us, that things improved by Aberdeen, that persuaded me to keep going. That and knowing how disappointed we would all be if we didn't make it after all the planning. They were correct and it was dry by the time we arrived, very cold though which made it slippery underfoot. We arriving at around 3pm having taken 4.5 hours to do the 139 miles.
The celebration was lovely, mum in law is known as Carol rather than by her given names, having been born on Christmas Day 1922! We had four generations of the family there with only one missing, she is in Mexico at the moment. My sister didn't make it as she is still under the weather so one of mum's friends filled her space at the party. The Royal card took pride of place having been presented at church on Sunday. Extra.
Celebrations over, and as the star of the show was heading off for a nap, our strand of the family tree headed to our hotel at Westhill. We arrived around 6.30pm and after settling in all met up again for dinner. The three girls were on great form all day and all slept well which meant their parents did too! I had a fairly early night and slept like a log.