The Royal Wedding and Morocco!

The day before the Royal Wedding Theo and I headed down to Westminster and Buckingham to see the sights before too many adoring fans showed up :o) The streets were lined with british flags on flagpoles that had little crowns on top and people were already camped out for their spot along the procession. We snapped a few photos and then headed home to pack for our 4 day holiday in Marrakech, Morocco!



Sadly a terrorist exploded a bomb in Marrakech on that Thursday, April 28, in a popular tourist cafe in the center of town. After speaking to the American embassy in Marrakech and checking out updated travel advisories we were convinced it was OK to still go and probably the safest time to be there. So we headed down Friday morning with our good friends Sonya and Daniel and their 10 month old son, Connor.
We arrived in Marrakech and were taken to our resort a few minutes outside of town. The Jnane Tamsna was a gorgeous resort with 5 pools and extensive gardens where they grow their own food for their delicious restaurant!
Saturday morning the owner of the hotel arranged a driver for us to go into town and visit an old Koranic school and some local tanneries. The school, Ben Youssef Medersa is attached to the local mosque and was opened in the 14th century. The walls and archways are covered with beautiful tiles and inscriptions in every available space.

The pool at our hotel

Downtown Marrakech

After the school our guide took us to 2 local tanneries. We had to carry mint leaves to avoid being overwhelmed by the smell. The first tannery was worked by Berber families who cured cows and camels and the second worked by Arab families who cure goat and sheep skins.


After the tanneries we headed back to give the boys a nap and then visited the Jardin Majorelle, a french garden in the middle of Marrakech that was purchased by Yves St Laurent in 1980.


That evening Daniel and Sonya were kind enough to babysit Theo while Shane and I headed back into town for a Moroccan meal with traditional music and belly dancers! The Dar Majana was a beautiful restaurant, buried down a long tunnel off the road that opened into a huge courtyard where we had drinks and then dinner in a small dining room off of the courtyard.


Sunday morning we bundled up the boys and headed into town to visit the souks which are the main market stalls in Marrakech. It was pouring rain, which I think happens about 2x a year in Morocco, and we were solidly soaked at the end of the morning. The souks were very fun though and Theo got to taste some Moroccan sweets from one of the stalls. Moroccans love kids, Theo was constantly hugged and kissed wherever we went, but Theo was a little unsure about them!



That afternoon Sonya and I had massages at our hotel while Shane and Daniel watched the kids. We then switched off and the men took a Moroccan cooking class. The meal they made was served to us outside of our rooms that evening, under the stars and an outdoor heater :o) It was a beautiful night and a great way to end a great trip.

Miss you all!

Love, Sarah, Shane, Theo and T4!

Brittany and Normandy

Happy Easter everyone! We were very lucky to get to travel to France for the 4 day weekend and stay with our friends, the Des Courtis family, at their home in Saint-Briac-sur-Mer, France. They warmly welcomed us into their family even though we crashed their Easter holiday and made them speak English all weekend! We have promised to make Theo learn French to make up for our failure!
Saint Briac was beautiful and the weather was perfect. Theo spent all day at the beach or in their enormous back yard playing with his toys. He was in absolute heaven!


Saturday we rented a car and drove to Normandy. We stopped quickly at St Micheal's mount (Mont Saint Michel) which is a famous abbey built on an island. When the tide is down you can access it from the road and when the tide is up it is an island. It was formerly a famous spot for pilgrims. There is now a road where you can access it at all times of day but it is still an amazing site.


We met our tour guide in Bayeux and he took us around Normandy. I strongly recommend getting a guide because the area is huge and you could drive around all day not knowing exactly what to look for! We visited the German cemetery first. Most Germans were killed in battles or by the French underground resistance so they were buried quickly in shallow graves around France. This cemetery is where their remains have been moved and they are still finding new bodies each month.


After the German cemetery we visited Pointe du Hoc, the point between Utah and Omaha beaches where the US army rangers were in charge of scaling these enormous cliffs in order to capture the German cannons so they couldn't fire on the beaches during the invasion. The area was heavily bombed prior to the operation and there are enormous craters where the bombs landed. It was amazing to see. The cliffs were basically 90 degrees vertical and the Rangers climbed them using small pick axes and their bayonets!


Next we visited Omaha beach where the most casualties during D-day occurred. This was primarily because the planes in charge of bombing the area before the ground forces arrived missed their targets so the Germans were unhurt and completely prepared for the invasion. The beach has returned to it's original purpose as a seaside resort and is absolutely beautiful. There are still many reminders of the US casualties, however, including a memorial and the provision of several German bunkers in the area. The main road by the beach was named for a US army platoon that lost the majority of it's members in the first wave. There is also a small stone in someones front yard that marks the spot of the first American cemetery in France.



Lastly we visited the American cemetery. It was a gorgeous day; blue sky and sunny, and the white crosses against the green grass overlooking the ocean was stunning. The cemetery is the largest US cemetery outside of Arlington and is used for US armed service men and women killed in France from 1941-1945.


After Normandy we returned to Brittany to spend the rest of the weekend with our friends. We enjoyed delicious French home cooking, went out for crepes and cider (2 Brittany specialties) and had a lovely and relaxing weekend.


Miss you all!
Love, Sarah, Shane and Theo

It's a...

boy! Yes, we have the beginnings of a basketball team :o) Theo is quite excited!
Love, Sarah, Shane, Theo and baby boy T4!

Finally done!

I've been working on this hooded scarf for Theo for forever! Turns out knitting takes more time when you have a little one :o) Anyway, i wanted to show off a few pictures of Theo in his scarf (just in time for summer!) and him playing with his dad. If any of you are beginning baby knitters I strongly recommend Debbie Bliss beginner baby knits book. It is really easy and has adorable ideas!

The hooded scarf!

With pocket!

Headed to the park!

We love the sandbox!

Isle of Skye

Our first vacation without Theo! Last week, after celebrating our 5 year anniversary on March 11, Shane and I hopped on a plane to Inverness, Scotland. My parents came over to stay the 4 nights and 5 days with Theo. It was sad to leave Theo but we were excited for some R&R!
Once in Inverness we rented a car and drove the 2.5 hours to Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye. Along the way we drove over Skye Bridge which connects Skye to the mainland, and visited Eilean Donan castle. The castle is beautifully situated on the Atlantic with a view of the Cuillin Hills (the mountain range that covers the island).


Kinloch Lodge is owned by the MacDonald's family, a clan from the Isle of Skye that can trace their lineage back to 1140! Clare MacDonald is a chef in her own right and has several cookbooks available for sale. A few years ago she hired Marcello Tully from London to be the head chef of the B&B restaurant. A daily 5 course dinner is included in the room price and the restaurant got a Michelin star a few years ago. The food was AMAZING and after 3 days we really had to leave or we may not have fit into our small house in London!

Kinloch Lodge

View from our window!

After all the eating we had to get out for some exercise! We first drove up to Portree, a small town on the northern part of Skye with an adorable little town square and village. From Portree you can drive around the Trotternish peninsula for amazing views. Along the way we stopped at the Old Man of Storr - a hike up to a group of rock formations, the most prominent being named the Old Man of Storr. It was a beautiful hike, even though the second 2/3rds of the path was covered in snow!



After our hike we continued up the Trotternish Peninsula to Flodgiarry Country House Hotel (for lunch - of course!). It is the ancestral home of Flora MacDonald, the famous rescuer of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1746. We had a small lunch at this beautiful country home and Shane had the best fish chowder in the world!

Our last day in Skye was full of whiskey tasting. We did a small walk near our hotel after breakfast and then headed to Talisker, the only distillery left on the Isle of Skye. Their whiskey's are known for being very smokey because of the peat that is used to dry the barley in the early parts of the process. After a thorough tour and tasting session we managed to buy a few bottles before leaving. Next we headed to the south of the Island and stopped at Eilean Iarmain, another beautiful country home, that has a small whiskey shop. They sell Gaellic whiskey, a new company that began about 40 years ago. They buy scotch made by distillers on the western coast of mainland Scotland and bottle and sell them. We had a very nice tasting session here as well, tasting the 8 year, 12 year and 21 year old single malts. Next door to the whiskey shop was a wool store that sold men's Harris tweeds. It was a good stop for Shane!

After a wonderful 3 days of driving, walking, relaxing and eating, we headed back to Inverness. We spent the night in Inverness, visited Loch Ness and searched for Nessie, before heading back to London. Our little guy did very well in our absence and my parents thoroughly enjoyed their week with him. It was a great trip but after 5 days it was good to have our family back together!

Inverness Castle

Love, Sarah and Shane
(see Facebook for more pictures!)

And then there were 4!

Hi everyone!
Theo wanted to show you a picture of his new sibling! He or she should be joining us around Sept 3 of this year. We are very excited to welcome another little one into our family and Theo is looking forward to being a big brother!

Love, Sarah, Shane, Theo and T4

On the move!

Hello everyone and sorry for being such a delinquent blogger! January has been a very fun month in the Tintle household. Beginning in mid-Dec Theo started crawling backwards. He continued to do this for nearly a month and we were quite confident that his wiring was wrong and he would just move backwards his entire life! However, one day in late Jan I had just finished talking on the phone and I set it on the ground. I looked up to see Theo, with his entire focus on the phone, moving towards me! It was amazing. I moved the phone and he did it again! I then tried it with a toy and he went backwards. For an entire week he would only crawl forwards for electronics - phone, computer, blackberry - but for everything else he still went backwards! The best was he seemed to find crawling amazing and would laugh every time he moved forward. It was great b/c you always knew when he was on the go! Sadly for us though, this slow moving only lasted about 2 weeks. He is now completely on the go and starting to pull up on furniture. He, of course, can't get down so he just crashes to the ground when he lets go but it doesn't seem to bother him. He is loving his new freedom and we are scurrying to baby proof around him!!

Besides new movement, Jan also brought Theo's grandparents for the weekend. It was very fun to see my parents and for them to get to spend time with Theo. We also had another house guest, Zac, who stayed with us on his way from London to South Africa. I just received an email from him saying that he missed Theo :o)

That is all for now! I will try to be better about updates. Feb is bringing us lots of fun guests from the US and in March Shane and I head for Scotland!!

Love, Sarah