Yikes, Ike!

For all our far-away friends and family:
Well, we've been busy pulling things in and boarding up the south-facing windows yesterday and today. Right now, we're just hoping we won't be out of power for more than a few days. It still looks like we're pretty much directly in the path of the dirty side of the storm. We're supposed to start getting tropical storm winds this evening, and then the hurricane comes in in the dead of night, unfortunately. We'll update this as soon as we can, hopefully sooner rather than later.

For our local friends: Stay safe, and we'll see you soon!

My 3 Words--BYO

Did anyone catch it on "Good Morning America" this morning? It was quick, but the Backyard Olympics made it. We're about 2/3 of the way into the video.

(OK, so technically, backyard is one word, but it worked better to make it 2 words.)

Scotland

Now here comes the impossible task of sorting through the 1400 pictures we took (not exaggerating).

Day 1-Arrive in London, British Museum, dinner at Texas Embassy, show at Her Majesty's Theatre

Thomas and I are waiting to see "Phantom of the Opera". Fantastic show, as always!

Day 2-Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace

at the Tower

at Hampton Court

Day 3- Took a train from London to Edinburgh, walked ALL AROUND Edinburgh

First we climbed up a huge hill behind our B&B that gave great views of the city. Here is Edinburgh castle in the distance.

From the park below the castle.

One of the streets right next to the castle.

Day 4- Bus tour to Bamburgh Castle, Alnwick Castle, William Wallace Statue (aka "Wizards and Warriors Tour")

It was a very touristy thing to do, but we are SO GLAD we took bus tours and let someone else, who knew exactly where to go, do the driving. We were able to enjoy the views, not stress about directions (or which side of the road to drive on), and sleep when we felt like it!

Bamburgh Castle--used in films like "Macbeth" and "Ivanhoe"


From Bamburgh you could see Lindisfarne Island where St. Aidan founded a monastery. We passed St. Aidan's hotel and St. Aidan's Catholic Church in the town next to the castle.

An interior court of Alnwick Castle, and the very spot where Harry Potter learned to fly his broom!

One of many tributes to William Wallace throughout Scotland.


Scott's view. Where Sir Walter Scott would always stop his horses to take in the view on the way to his home. During his funeral procession, the horses stopped here on their own, just like they always had done.

Day 5- Edinburgh

Holyrood Palace, where the Queen and family stay when they visit Edinburgh. On the tour inside, we saw the apartments where Mary Queen of Scots lived and where her favored confidante was murdered in front of her by her jealous husband.

The crag we climbed to get the previous picture.

Day 6- Edinburgh

We finally went into the castle today, after letting the crowds from the festival and bank holiday weekend die down.

The stands were there for the Military Tatoo show that they do once a year for about 3 weeks. The last night they were doing it was the first night we arrived, so there were absolutely no tickets left. They light bonfires on the walls of the castle, turn off all the electric lights, then the bagpipers do their show, then they have fireworks afterward. It would have been really interesting to see!

We got our first live piper on our way to the castle. He is in front of the Scott Monument.

Day 7- Bus tour north to Inverness

Urquhart ("er-ket") Castle on Loch Ness (blown up in the 1600s). We were lucky enough to be in Scotland when the heather was in bloom, so most of the hills and mountains were covered in purple, like the ones behind the castle.

No Nessie! Marian was disappointed we didn't see any sign of a monster. We took a 15-minute boat ride on the loch.

Day 8- North to John O'Groats

Our '4-day bus tour' was really just 4 separate day tours out of Inverness. This day we went up to the northernmost tip of the mainland. It was windy, cold and wonderful! We couldn't believe we were freezing in August (on our anniversary)!

We saw a lot of wildlife on this day--seals, birds, Highland cows (those really shaggy ones), Shetland ponies and lots of sheep! The deer were hiding, but we saw them the next day.

Duncansby Stacks are behind us. We are facing another inlet where the puffins had been nesting just about 2 weeks before.

My moment of being the northern-most person in (mainland) Scotland. (There are the Orkney and Shetland Islands further to the north)

Day 9 - Isle of Skye

On our way to the island, we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle. Basically, there's a castle (or ruins of one) around every corner in Scotland.

Our only day with rain, and it was really just heavy mist, on and off. 'Skye' means 'mist' in Gaelic so the weather wasn't surprising.

Day 10- Inverness

Our hotel was directly across the Ness River from Inverness Castle.

Some more pictures of heather on the hills.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip!

Backyard Olympics 2008

Our second Backyard Olympics took place this past weekend!

Opening ceremonies


Smith Family flag (you can't see it, but there's an 'S' in the yellow)

Marian is wearing her Jamaica shirt from the last Olympics, 4 years ago, while Brennan is sporting the Greece shirt that was Aidan's last time.


Marian in the torch relay


Balance Beam


Egg race


Golf

There were separate events for the babies:

'Mom-calling' where the moms did the calling and the babies did the racing.

Video of the race (Kendra, hope you don't mind that I stole this from your site)




Tunnel racing


Globe Beach Ball Toss


Dance-off


Brennan and Daddy staying cool

The paparazzi

Medals Ceremony (youngest to oldest)

And we finished off the day with Chinese food and Olympic Ring cupcakes!

It was so much fun, we decided we have to figure out a way to do a Winter Olympics!

My Three Words--Revised

I figured out how to download the video from "Good Morning America", so now (hopefully) you can just watch the video below to see Brennan's first TV appearance. He is the 'My First Haircut' clip, about halfway through.

Summer of Fun

One of Aidan's alien creations from summer camp.

Everyone trying out our new swingset.

Weathering Tropical Storm Eduoard.

Marian loved her new 'curly' haircut.

Our day at NASA with friends.

My Three Words

Brennan made his national debut this past Saturday on "Good Morning America". They have a "Your Three Words" segment that they'll do every few weeks. You upload a video or picture with 3 words written on a sign about what's going on with your life. We did "My First Haircut" for Brennan. Here's how to watch it:

Go to: http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=your%20three%20words&from=30&to=39&type=video

Then there is a picture of a little girl in a green shirt holding her hand out. It should say "3 Words, Aug 2, 2008". Click on that link and it should show you a quick advertisement, then the video. Brennan is about halfway through.


If that doesn't work, try this:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Weekend/

In the upper right corner there is a search box. Type in "your three words"

It comes up with a list of random articles. On the left is a few video link and then "view more video results". Click on that.

It comes up with seven thousand results. Right now, his is on the 4th page, so click on "4" at the bottom.

Then there is a picture of a little girl in a green shirt holding her hand out. It should say "3 Words, Aug 2, 2008". Click on that link and it should show you a quick advertisement, then the video. Brennan is about halfway through.