Last week we had a few days away having a bit of a road trip round the Scottish border areas.
We stayed in Lower Burnmouth and had a little adventure round the area, calling into the little seaside ports and villages, and also popping back down into England to drive over the causeway onto Holy Island off the Northumberland coast.
Luckily, our little Freddie Bear wasn't in a sling this time, so he enjoyed climbing the rocks and throwing stones with his big bros!
We visited Castles, Priories, Beaches, Parks, Ports and Marinas.  We ate Ice Cream, Pizzas, Teas and Cakes.  We watched Seals, Gulls and lots of other wildlife. 
We also did our usual favourite thing - we walked our local beach every evening until the sun went down before heading back to our house to warm back up by the fire.

A lovely bit of family time. 



Here's a few (too many) snaps.

As usual, we booked our holiday house through Airbnb.  If you've not used it before, click HERE. 

One of my favourite things, when I'm shooting a wedding, is watching the antics of the little guests. 

The kids.

Kids are awesome.  And tiring.  And then awesome again.
I've got 3 of my own, so I know how they can go from the cutest things on the planet one minute, to making you want to pull your hair out the next.  There's a reason that people invented alcohol - and I'd wager a bet that a screaming 2 year old was behind it!

I love the little moments at a wedding - the ones that the Bride and Groom very rarely see until they get their photos back.  That's what I like to do.  I like to capture these little moments forever.  Photos that can be shown in 10 years time when they think they're all grown up!
I love these moments - bridal prep where two sisters are like little Princesses getting ready for the Ball.  Sneaking little selfies on their phones.  Ceremonies where the kids are that bored that they haven't realised the hymn book is upside down.  Outside the church where confetti wars are the best thing on the Earth for 5 minutes.  At the reception where they can't manage any more food, but demolish the sweetie cart in half an hour flat.  Sneaky fingers going for the wedding cake.  Bubbles and balloons - these are two of the greatest inventions to keep a kid busy that have ever been made!  The quiet moments, when two 10 year olds can sit in conversation like a couple of 50s housewives and two 15 year olds can chase each other around like they're 9 again.  The dancefloor, where they let loose like the adults daren't, when sliding is still the best thing in the world and swirly dresses make awesome twirls like they see on TV.
They all catch me eventually, and I get the goofy grin or the embarrassed smile or the covered face or the squeal of laughter.  Sometimes I even get a pose! 

These are precious moments.  Moments which can, and will, be cherished forever. 

There's one thing that kids can teach us - and that's how to live.  Now.  In the moment.  Live every second without a care about what's next.  Cry out your frustrations for a few minutes, but then carry on being the King or Queen of your world.
We all need to live like kids sometimes.

But, don't worry if you don't have kids, or there's no kids at your wedding.  After a few drinks down our necks, us adults soon shed the worry of adulting and start acting like kids again anyway...

Here are a few of those moments.

We had a friend's wedding to attend on Saturday up at Gretna Green, so we made a weekend out of it and turned our journey into a little road trip!

Our first stop was The Angel of the North up in Tyne and Wear, near Gateshead. 
This 66 feet tall, 200 tonnes steel sculpture stands proudly on a little hill, arms outstretched ready to embrace it's visitors. 
It's a pretty impressive thing to stand underneath, but I must admit - I was looking for something standing taller when we were looking for it on the drive up.  I was pretty surprised when it finally appeared behind the bushes just ahead of us at the roadside. 
We sat, had a cuppa, took some snaps and selfies like the rest of the visitors, then it was back in the car.

Our next stop was Hadrian's Wall.
We parked up at the Twice Brewed Inn and had some food (and a sneaky pint of ale for me).  After we were finished stuffing our faces, we trekked over the road and up the hill to the wall.
We had a little explore round Milecastle 39 and the famous Sycamore Gap (featured in the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Movie).
The wall now stands about a metre and a half high in most places - imagining it as it once would have looked standing at 20 feet high is pretty impressive. 
Walking along and sitting on the rocks that have sat here for nearly 2,000 years was a pretty humbling experience.  Well, I thought so - my kids just wanted to jump off things!

All the walking did the trick though - once we got to our Travelodge for the night, the little monster was zonked! 

Here are a few snaps.