Friday, August 29, 2008

...almost home time already!

...it's 10:25pm here back in Glasgow and i am soooo tired so i'll give you a quick summary of the last little while...
( and in no particular order because i'm too tired to check my journal! )
* edinburgh was overcrowded, freakishly busy and rained ALL DAY, including sitting in the rain through the whole Edinburgh Tattoo! ( stayed dry under blanket mats and umbrellas )
it was still very cool though and the kids enjoyed it, we didnt care much for Edinburgh Castle though...
* courtney had bigger competition last saturday and only won one medal ( a fourth in her swords ) and then on the sunday she won another trophy! ( four firsts! )
* our two day Isle of Skye tour was AMAZING!!! soooo soooo beautiful up in northern scotland with so much history and beautiful mountanious scenery...loved it there!! and TONS of pictures too...i got a really lovely photo of a scotland sunset in skye on our first night!
* our visit with mary and ron in inverness for 2 and a half days was wonderful....and of course waaaayyyyy too short! they fed us all very well, welcomed us into their home surrounded in warm hospitality and took us up to newtonmore to see the house that my grandma was born in and lived there until she was 5 years old when her family immigrated to canada. also in newtonmore was the hotel that my great great grandparents owned and operated which is now The Glen hotel....so historical and lots of great little stories to share with you there...
* we had a terrifce dinner visit with rachael and her family who live in west kilbride - after last sundays competition- and brought them all sorts of canadian goodies....rachael gave courtney a bag full of scottish goodies!! dawn, racheals mom, and her husband michael prepared a lovely homemade dinner for us and it was absolutely delicious!!! ( thank you again Waddells for such a fantastic dinner and friendly welcome into your home! HUGS )
* our Ireland tour was awesome!! so much history there too...gotta love foreign countries...TONS of pictures there too...cant wait to show you everything!
* COURNTEY turned 10 years old while we were in Ireland ( thank you to everyone for all your birthday comments for her and all the emails too!!! she enjoyed reading them all over here! and thankyou to Grandma Liz who somehow managed to mail a birthday card for courtney at our hotel in Ireland to receive it ON her birhtday too!...and also a huge thank you to Kelsey and the Wog family for sending along a special birthday card and scottish cash with lynn--- you are ALL so thoughtful and it meant so much to us to have such wonderful surprises from people we love back home! ) ... on her birthday we went to see Riverdance - live - at the Gaiety Theatre....probably the most spectacular live show i will ever see in my life! it was incredible...amazing...breathtaking....i was just in awe afterwards...tyler was doing his own version of riverdance for the next few days which had lynn getting him to perform every chance she could!
* and then TODAY ( august 29 ) we spent the entire day - up at 5:45am, on way to catch the ferry at 6:30am, on ferry at 7:20am ) to go to the island of Dunoon for the Cowal Highland Gathering and world scottish championships...only our premier dancers ( 4 of them ) danced today and even though they all worked hard at their four long step dances, none of them were able to win any placings.
courtney had 29 kids in her 10 year old class, but she did win a judges placing ( 7th ) for her sword dance!!! ( yay courtney! )
the other girls had up to 44 kids in their groups...it was just insane to even think of winning a medal as they only gave 6 placings per dance with such huge groups of kids.
i tip my hat to our girls who still gave it their best shot and tried!
* and now....i need sleep....we have a FREE DAY tomorrow ( shop and chill ) and then sunday we are off to go see the famous St. Andrews Golf Course and some other last Scotland sights...
-sigh-
i dont want to come home yet....
( i am hooked on scottish fudge, butter tablet and nugat bars...better stock up! )
see you all soon!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

WHEW< MISSING YOUR UPDATES SOOO BAD AND I CHECK EVERYDAY AND WHAT A NICE SURPRISE YOUR BACK ON THE BLOG!!!! Way to go Courtney in all your placings and winnings of medals, what a great way to be rewarded for all your hard work ! It must be so breathtaking to see all those beautiful sights. I cant wait to see all the pictures ,I am so looking forward to it. Glad to hear Courtney enjoyed her birthday . I cant believe she is already 10! How's the beer Mike?! Riverdance live lucky ducks!!!! Tyler you have to do a dance for me please when i see you, you must look so cute. Almost school time the kids will have so much to tell about there summer vacation.. Well see you soon and glad all is good keep us posted still LUV YA ALL and miss you lots NIKKI

Anonymous said...

Wow, that all sounds amazing, I can't wait to hear about everything! I will see you this Saturday and I got you your soaps this weekend!
XOXO miss you!
T

Dana L Gordon said...

Way to go Courtney!!! You have managed to get alot in in such a short time. It sounds like you all enjoyed yourselves. Can't wait til you get back.

Talk to you soon.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kim, yu have done a nice recap of our weeks together. What a trip! I think that it was a great trip--Lynn planned it so very thoroughly and we are going to remember this experience the rest of our lives. I can't wait to see the photos you took as well.
Last night I was so out of it I thought we were still in our dorm rooms and when I got up to go to the washroom I was crashing into furniture until my hubby turned on the light to help me find my way out of the bedroom! He was kind enough not to laugh at me knocking over lamps and furniture. I have been in a fog ever since we got home but tomorrow will be better.
Hope you are more with it than me!
See you next week, looking forward to pictures!! Lori