A boy and his dog Joshua & Hudson: And now family time in the UK

As everyone knows, the main purpose of this trip was to spend time with 'our' family. It was the very first time that all 13 of us had been in the same place, let alone continent, together - ever !! Afterall, the 4 families span between England, Canada & New Zealand (and Uncle Mark spends about a third of the year in Baghdad!).

We will forever be grateful to Grandad & Grandma and Aunty Juliet & Uncle Mark for their incredible generosity in helping us get there and having such a lovely time together, especially our last weekend at Compton House in Sherborne, Dorset. Compton House was a most gorgeous country house with an imposing and spectacular front entrance. Apparently the house was re-built around 1840 but contstructed in mid-16th century style - yes, truly a 'wow' ! It had an incredibly grand oak staircase that took you to 2 top floors of bedrooms and let's not forget the 'private' cinema room !! It felt like our own castle!

It was also the Turnbull boys' birthdays, all within the last 2 months, and in fact we were altogether for Paul's actual birthday on 3rd October - Paul turned 46, Mark turned 48 and Stephen turned 50 - so we all celebrated it together at Compton House. Aunty Juliet had organised for an amazing birthday cake to be made, like a book, and had scanned (in edible icing) photos of the 3 boys from the ages of 4 upwards on the top of the 'book' cake - exceptional ! The kiddies just loved filling all the balloons with helium !!

So ... stand by to be introduced to everyone and our very special weekend at Compton House. [Note that Grandad had organised for a professional photographer to come in one morning to take photos and we are awaiting receipt of those photos now, so there will be an update on family photos on the blog shortly - in the meantime, these will have 'to do' and I apologise to family for some 'not so good' shots).