Our Perfect Moment

I've been reading this book called "Mothering with Spiritual Power." I love it for many reasons... first of all it's a very uplifting book and doesn't dwell on what you're doing wrong but instead talks about how we can use gospel principles to make ourselves better mothers. Second, it's a quick, easy to read book. I don't have a ton of time to sit down and read all at once (who does when they have small kids?) and the book is easy to pick up and then put down again, then pick up, then put down again... you get the idea.

Anyway, the point of this post wasn't to tell you about the book so much as it was one particular part. In it the author says that while our days with our children are not perfect, we have perfect moments with each of our children each day if we keep our eyes open for it. I totally agree and wanted to relate just one of our perfect moments from today.

I was getting stuff done around the house this morning (am is always my most productive when it comes to cleaning). I was at the sink doing breakfast dishes while I had a load of clothes in the washer. I look over and Sophie is leaning up against the washer (while it's on the spin cycle) and humming... you know so that the shaking makes her voice all funny. HA! It was SO cute. Then she smiles and giggles, then hums, then giggles, then hums. It was too cute! I wish I could have got it on video.

On another note, I've been trying to get Sophie on video for the past month singing "Popcorn Popping" but every time I pull out the camera she runs over, sticks her face as close as possible and gives me her best cheesey grin. However, she can do all the motions to the song (as well as "Once there was a Snowman") and sings her best version. It's adorable.

Some things that kept us entertained

Ahh, how dangerous - and how fun! If you can't fully see, this is a sort of giant metal and rope top. The kids climb on it, or through the rope and an adult spins it around. Notice the kid barely hanging on on the middle. When we first saw this there were two kids at the VERY top!

I hope you can see what this says. All the packages of cigarattes say "SMOKING KILLS" lol

We SO should do this in the US.

We go all the way to Scotland and Aaron takes a picture of a car... In his defense, how often do you see a lamborgini?

Trying on Mommy's hat.

At the Palace of Holyrood, in the ruins of the old Abbey.

Sophie was thrilled to find some of her favorite play things - ROCKS.
I love this picture. Sophie is entertaining herself in the window of a restaurant off of Princes Street (the main shopping district). She loved watching all the people go by, especially babies and doggies.

Playing on the playground.


She was not so sure about this. It's a rubber hammock basically.

The Graveyards

Call me morbid, but I like to go to old, old cemetries and look at the headstones. It's something that I wish we would have done while we were in New Orleans before we moved, but these are much older anyway, I imagine.

This one dates to 1777 and then they added more in 1797.

As you can see on this one, whole families are entombed in the same place (and not very big areas either). If I remember correctly, this one had the parents and children who didn't survive very long (one an infant, one pre-school age). It also had the suriving children (sons? I can't remember) and they're spouses.

I thought this was interesting. There was no headstone for this girl "Clarinda" but just this gorgeous plaque.

And finally, we walk the horrendous steps into this second graveyard, only to see....


Yeah, you're right. That's Abe Lincoln. I thought it was funny that I go all the way to Scotland and see a statue of Abe Lincoln. Not was I expected.
Anyway, this is a newer monument to the fallen Scottish-American soldiers who fought for Emancipation.

A few Pics to start off with

This is outside of St. Gile's Cathedral. I was amazed at the artitechure, the windows, and especially the ornate carvings. But I have to say that Aaron thought it was 9 times cooler than I did. He had a hard time containing his excitement :)
Another thing to note is that there were a few stained glass windows depicting various parts of Christ's life, but an awful lot of the decorations and ornate stuff was of Scottish royalty. I wasn't expecting there to be quite as much 'political' if you will, stuff. It definitely shows the close relationship they had between royalty and religion.

Part of the Royal Mile at night, plus some fog. The fog makes it COLD, but so beautiful as well. The Royal Mile goes from Edinburgh Castle at the top, to the Holyrood Palace at the bottom. I'll post pics of the Edinburgh Castle as soon as Aaron gets home (he's in Manila again) b/c I loaded them onto his laptop to relieve my SD card.

This is the Holyrood Palace. It's where the Queen stays when she's in Scotland.

We toured it and I quite dissapointed that you can't take pictures inside of the palace. I understand why - perserving the antique linens, pictures, etc. but that doesn't mean that I still wasn't sad about it.

My mom and Sophie in front of a pretty amazing fountain at the Palace of Holyrood. I wish that we could have seen it actually going. That is part of the palace grounds in the back, but not the actual palace.

Here's Sophie and I in the entry way into the main Palace, I guess you could say. Through this entry way is a small grass/garden area and then it's surrounded by the castle on all four sides.

Bagpiping

A little bit of Scotland for you!

I'm sure most of you have seen someone 'piping' before, but just in case you haven't -
1st - It's very loud. You can hear it for blocks and blocks before you can ever see the person piping.

2nd - It's extremely hard to get any sound out of the pipes. It takes a lot of practice and air :)

3rd -This is my favorite Scottish proverb.... "If they neighbor offend thee, give each of his children bagpipes."

A Few Observations

First off, we're back! Scotland is beautiful and Sophie did great on the planes and in the car. I'll post pics and video and whatnot later. Right now I'm EXHAUSTED but before I go and take a quick nap, thanks to my mother watching Sophie, I thought I'd post a few observations... random yes.

First, not that I agree with eating baked beans period, but you should NOT have them for breakfast! (A traditional Scottish bkfst always comes w/baked beans and you can find them everywhere!)

I've decided that it's not a small world after all; otherwise it wouldn't take so long to fly around it :) However, there are just a ton of people living and doing whatever you are. For example, we went to church in Edinburgh, Scotland and ran into two girls from Greeley (where I went to college and Aaron and I spent our first married years). Ironically, her father was the bishop of the university/singles ward (albeit after I was already married).

We spent two weeks looking at amazingly beautiful landscapes, architecture, etc. but there is nothing more beautiful than watching the sunset over the Rocky Mountains.