Greetings from Scotland!!!

well hello from Bonnie Scotland!

mike was able to hook our laptop up to the internet here in our flat in Glasgow so i can give you a quick little post and update...sorry no pics yet as we just got back and it's 10:20pm...we've been on the road today with 5 hours of driving!

our flights all went pretty good without any major problems ( with the exception of lori and alex's mishap ) but all is going great!!!

since i stayed up so stinkin' late the last two nights before we left, i really paid for it here! after being awake for over 42 hours, upon arrival we went out right after checking into our flat on thursday to keep us all awake and on scotland time. we ( being Walter our tour bus driver and the 19 of us from the dance school ) drove up to Aberfoyle for lunch and to visit the Wollen Mill and to see the sheep and then drove through the Trossachs ( a very narrow and winding road ) up and down the hills and mountains and let the kids run through the wild heather plants all over the hills! it was breathtaking and just amazing to see...so beautiful!

my grandma would have loved it!

yesterday we visited Crieff ( lynn likes to go there to visit Caithness Glass which is famous for their unique glass paper weights ) and shopped in the visitor centre. then we were off to Pitlochry for the afternoon for LOTS of shopping and a great little town to check out.

the homes and the business buildings here are like out of a Shakespere play...mostly stone or brick, kinda reminds me of Lord of the Rings Shires.....just like it!!!

today was the girls' FIRST dance competition!!

courtney competed in Kinloch Rannoch ( outdoors ) which is a very little town that took us 2 and a half hours to drive up to! again on those extremely narrow and winding roads...

and i must say that i still cannot get used to the driving on theRIGHT ( wrong ) side of the road!!

so bizarre.

anyway, the girls did great and between the 6 dancers, a total of 20 medals were won!

for the first time, the hosts of this competition had a new entry for 'best dressed dancer'. one little trophy for the pre premier dancers and one for the same of a premier dancer...guess who surprised us all and won for the premier dancers? yep, miss courtney! and the pre premier winner was also one of our dancers too!!! ( taryn )

courtney danced in four dances today:

fling, seann truibhas, highland laddie and the sailor's hornpipe.

she danced very well and won a first and 3 seconds!! she also won the overall trophy for her class!!!!

SOOOOOO EXCITING!!!!

on our way back to our flat we stopped back in Pitlochry for dinner ( mike and mom had 'high tea', a full scottish dinner )

and we returned home tonight at 9:30pm (3:30pm wpg )

well, i am off to get the kids to bed now as courtney has her second competition tomorrow in

Kilmarnoch and we all need some sleep!

BE BACK AGAIN ANOTHER DAY ( hopefully with some photos to share )