June, the Month of Holidays

Meet the McNeilly family -
Mary Elizabeth, Edward Joseph and Maria Eleanor.

I am starting this blog following a month-long holiday that has taken the McNeilly family from the Swiss Alps to the Scottish Highlands.
We've eaten cheese and chocloate, gazed at the Eiger and tramped through alpine meadows. We've filled our water bottles from highland burns and trekked across windswept ridges. This may sound idyllic, wending our way for a leisurely month through some of the most spectacular and diverse mountain scenery on God's good earth, and in many ways it was idyllic. However, I ought to include some vital information about the people numbering the McNeilly family. Maria Eleanor is a 7 month old baby and Mary Elizabeth and Edward Joseph are brand new parents. So infuse an element of panic in my description, and you'll get the general idea. Nonetheless, we had the help of Maria's American Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Bryan in Switzerland and following the Highland days, we returned to the welcoming home of Maria's Irish Granny and Grandad. So the month was not fatal, and we have some good pictures.

I should introduce us more formally. Edward and I met at the University of St Andrews in 2004. In 2006 we married and moved to the University Cambridge for Ed's MPhil and my PGCE. In the middle of the year, we found out we were expecting a baby and in October 2007, Maria Eleanor was born. We still live in Cambridge; Edward is now working on his PhD.