On Safari

Emma worries about where she'll land once daddy sits down on the other side

Michael feeding a llama

Emma and Alyson give it a try

A llama with a long neck

Goat. Goat. Goat. Goat. Goat............

The Black/Freed/Lennox haybale convention at Briarlands Farm

Emma in a log

The classic bed-head!

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah had the chance to pop down to London for the weekend with Louise from Aberdeen to visit Sarah Kavanagh. It was a great chance for her to get away.

Our plan had been for Michael to go stay with Granny and Granddad Black, and for Grandma to come down and help look after Emma (when I say 'help', what I actually mean is look after Emma with occasional interludes from me). Unfortunately Granddad Black had to go into hospital for some tests that weekend (turned out to be about 10 days in hospital in the end), so it worked out very well that Grandma was here to help. Auntie Alyson and Uncle Alan also popped over from Edinburgh to help out, which was much appreciated. Michael was sad that he wasn't getting to spend the weekend in Glenrothes, but was very understanding.

Granddad Black is fine. It turned out something had happened with his heart (like a borderline heart attack or something similar), and they've changed his blood pressure medication. He did have to spend a lot of time waiting in hospital for some tests, but dealt with it really well and patiently (if you'll excuse the pun).

On Saturday, Alyson and Grandma were good enough to take Michael and Emma to the Blair Drummond safari park. As you can imagine, Emma loved seeing all of the animals. One of the great things about the park is that you get the chance to feed some of the animals. As you can see from the top pictures, Michael and Emma seemed to really enjoy this.

To our great relief it turned out that it was much less trouble getting Emma to sleep than we had thought. This was our main concern, as Sarah always has to do this. The first night she needed a little persuasion that her mummy wasn't hiding anywhere inside or outside the house. I had to open the front door for Emma to prove Sarah wasn't hiding outside. After that, though, she went down reasonably quickly with Grandma. She was fine the next night, but seemed to punish mummy for being away by being very difficult for the next week.