Scotland..Day 1&2

The kids were all SUPER excited about the RV that we hired and could not wait to get on the road. With the packing we received plenty of help. Brennan got to ride in his forward facing seat for the first time as well. It doesn't get much better than that.

We didn't leave until 7 pm which was fine because we were stopping at an RAF base north of here for petrol. WELL....we got there later than they stay open, so we camped on the side of the road that night. Being told they open at 7. Got there at 8:30 and found they didn't open until 10, waited and then found out the didn't carry diesel. Things to check for next time...so hours wasted and frustration levels increased. Finally we were back on the road. We had a bit of chocolate and were back to being happy. :)

Mason was quick to make sure he found all the good cupboards in the RV. Have to know where the snacks are, right?

We can only drive so long....so we saw a sign for a Caslte in Carlisle and thought we should get started. It is free...so why not? English Heritage Membership is our friend. :) The kids were great sports when Mom said Dad was going to throw them up in this awesome doorway that was about 8 feet from the bottom of the castle. We will do just about anything for a great picture.

Carlisle Castle was fun and a much needed respite for Mike driving and the kids sitting there coloring. However they would soon realize this was only the beginning for a long trip of exploring!

King Carter and Queen Taylor in the Great Hall

This was the beginning of what would be a large number of bow and arrow moments.

A secret little room in the Kings Keep. All the kids like finding the secret passages.




Dad disappeared and Mason was the first to find that he had gone up a flight of stairs hidden in the corner. He was very proud of himself, with reason of course.

We have no idea what Mason was doing here, but he LOVES just walking around these castles.



All about the windows with these kids. Silly people. Brennan is starting to get in the mix.

Goodbye Castle, Hello Glasgow! We were excited to visit our friend 'Elder' no more McArthur. Taylor was so excited to go to the missionaries home for a change. :) Although we had told the kids that Daniel was home so was no longer on his mission. That didn't go well when we showed up on Sunday and so he was still sporting that same shirt and tie. The kids were not convinced that he is not on his mission. His family was very kind and welcoming and we appreciated them letting us invade for a little while. It was great to connect and see how Danny was doing after getting home. He was a great missionary and someone that our kids adored(we thought he was great too)!

Brennan showing off that he was a big boy and got some snacks to prove it!

That night we stayed in Stirling and were pleased that we would open the front door of the RV and see this first thing in the morning. LOVE IT!!

Mason's Baptism

What a great day for our family! Mason was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I wish I would have had a camera on him all day today and been able to capture just how excited Mason was for this. For someone to doubt that this was his choice would be impossible. Carter gave a talk on baptism and Mason's friend Emily gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Mike had to nearly go under with Mason so he would go under. It wasn't that Mason wouldn't have enjoyed going under, it was the mechanics of his body that made it a little awkward. I had a report that Mason kept looking back and side to side to see those that came to support him. It was fabulous to feel the love of our ward family here in England. When so far from our families these people are truly family to us and we were so touched to have so many there for Mason. After Mason was baptized he was confirmed. This means his name goes in the church records as an official member and he was given the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have NEVER seen Mason sit that still for that long. It was just a couple minutes, but normally a leg or arm or something is twitching on Mason. I did peek while the blessing was being given and saw Mason with a look on his face that I could not describe. He was in such peace. I was grateful that the circle of Brethren around Mason had a slight gap so that I could see this. Our Lord loves Mason and I can feel that everyday that I am with him. The Lord uses Mason as a tool to show others that same love. I don't know anyone who can't feel love radiate from this handsome boy.

Carter was so proud of his big brother. I take his words at the end of his talk, "I am proud of Mason for making this choice to be baptized. He is very special to me and I take care of him."

Thank you so much to all those who took the time to support Mason and our family. We are so grateful for such wonderful friends that we are surrounded by. It is an honor to know each of them and count them as part of our family.

Postal Packages

As Carter said, "Mom, you need to stop taking a picture and let us open it before Mason loses his mind!"

Mason's dilema, if I let go of this bag of Jelly Belly's I will be forced to leave them unguarded while I open these other two presents, but now they are going after the presents. He finally let me guard the sweeties while he opened....more sweeties. Grandpa Mason was incharge of gift picking out this year and apparently walked the store wondering what Mason would enjoy the most. He guessed it right, Jelly Belly fun and Swedish Fish frenzy. Mason was in heaven...although he thought he should have the right to consume all the food right then. I got 'yelled' at when I told him Grandpa wrote he couldn't eat them all in one day. :)

Brennan was quite pleased with his little treasures as well. The new Little People Fisher Price are just like the old ones(but larger because our children can choke easier)--I also was pleased and thought back to my childhood. Carter thought they were robot animals. :)

Looking at Carter and Taylor who were not left out and received a bag to share with Mom and Dad. Although I am pretty sure Mason is laughing at us realizing he got a lot more than us!!

Book Worm

Mason is our book worm. I have had to clear a mess like this everyday of the summer break. I love it because I love books as well and it is good to see that he got something from me. :)

Football Training

Once again the missionaries have been hard at work in our home. This time it was a lesson in football for the kids. Carter thinks that Elder McArthur is the most amazing person in playing football. He can never get it from him, but Carter thinks that is great.

Brennan is being taught very young, and he is pretty good if I do say so myself. He will actually kick the ball all around the back yard now. Carter and I were playing and he was chasing that ball all over the place. If you tell him no hands he will comply quickly and go back to kicking.

Elder McArthur is headed back to Scotland and it has been a pleasure getting to know him. We have really enjoyed getting to know more about Scotland through him.

Sports Day

Carter is done with his Year 1 of school. The school had its Sports Day a few days before school let out and it was a great time. It was kind of crazy being there with all the children and having to run after Mason a billion times, but we were there and that was all that mattered. Carter ran in the final race of his class. He was quite pleased with himself. He did a great job!!!

party time

After a stresful day we were finally able to celebrate with Mason. We had a PJ Birthday party. I forgot to make sure there was a card in the camera so we missed a bunch of pictures.

After one long ordeal at the commisary Mason threw a fit over the options of cake, he grabbed a bag of marshmellows and pointed to the brownie mix....so that settled it. Mason got brownies with marshmellow baked on top. It was pretty yummy, although VERY messy.

Mason got some new books, some sweeties, and a big blow up remote control truck. Which he had some fun with the next day.

Mighty Mouse Mason-Happy Birthday

July 17, 2001 @ 1:01pm We have concluded that Mason looked like an alien when he was born, but he sure is handsome now. :) I have said it before, we learn more from Mason than he learns from us. It is amazing to me to see the progress we were told to expect and the progress we received.
Mason had a purple tongue for about 2 weeks when he was teeny tiny. He slept in a laundry basket for awhile because we didn't have all our stuff when he decided to come. Although we found that once in the bed he actually had slept better in his tiny laundry basket bed. :)

Uncle Kevin made Mason laugh and laugh with this fun game. Mason was easy to make laugh and was the life of the party.

Mason is a good sport when we make him do things like dress up even though his main concern is just getting the candy.

ALWAYS working hard in school and therapy. He has always been determined to do everything anyone else is doing. He will sit and watch for a long time and then decide that he too should be doing that. He gets right down to figuring out how.

This would be camping in McCall, ID. Mason LOVED it. We decided a shirt stating that he should not be alone and if he is found could the finder locate parents immediately. With 14 adults we still lost him a couple times in the campground when he strategically waited until everyone was distracted and snuck off to the docks. Soon everyday every few minutes you would hear someone yell, "Mason check!" The dirt he was allowed to do--thanks Aunt Christy

8 years old

random

Outdoor Fun

Food, Food, Food, oh how I love my food....

Brennan is officially weaned and is loving the many varieties of yummy food offered to him through out a day. We just loved the first spaghetti dinner shots. Rice is not as messy--but SUPER annoying with all its stickiness. Bon Appetite!!

July 4th Festivities

Our July 4th day was the standard American celebration. BBQ with some fabulous friends with some yummy food. Great hosts who didn't kick us out even after Taylor peed on their bathroom floor and rug. Mason loved the pasta salad. Brennan was in heaven with the baked beans, Taylor ate a large portion of watermelon, and Carter pretty much ate the hot dog. Brennan's tummy continued to expand through the homemade Mango Sorbet which we cut him off of because he was just eating the adult size portion with no cares in the world. Because of Mikes back we did a divide and conquer evening for the fireworks and fair. We took two cars and at the end of the BBQ Mason was fighting to go with Dad. We told him countless times that Mike was going home, but he wouldn't have it. Mike does report that once they got home Mason finally got it and was a little bummed out. So Mike had Brennan and Mason while the rest of us party animals headed to the fair.

Carter and I went on a ride called the Midnight Express. Crazy fair ride made me feel like I was shaking for about 5 minutes afterwards. Carter's head looked like it was going to snap off his body, so fun was had by all...NOT! Carter was just "bursting to go on a ride mom." At one point I did hear, "Make it stop, I don't like it, make it stop!" Then as it slowed down to end he was saying how fun it was and he wanted to go again. We did not go again for a second round of torture. I think I was holding on to Carter really tight because I am actually sore today from it. After that grand time Carter took a couple turns down a slide that was super tall and then we went and bought some candy floss(cotton candy). Taylor spent that time with her favorite person and one of our friends, Robyn. Although when we got back we did find it had been a community effort because of my daughters unpredictable bladder. Thanks guys!! We enjoyed a concert by the Tops in Blue. Some was a little cheesy, but the kids really enjoyed it and it was quite an impressive set up. They are all active duty Air Force who try out and tour for one year doing concerts all over the world. They were very good and entertaining as well. The transition from concert to fireworks was poorly executed. They didn't think things out to well when it came to the big trucks that were in the way of seeing all the lower ground firework action. Then the music was having problems so they would delay the fireworks while trying to sort that out. The kids loved it and Carter ran in circles the whole time screaming that they were shooting at him. Overall, the fireworks were pretty good, although the worst year ever in comparison to the few we have been too up here. Just technical difficulties. What do you do, right? Then it was the find your car fun! This is why I need Mike at these things every year. I can never find the van afterwards, he on the other hand has a built in GPS that leads the way. I was WAY off course and was thankful for a car alarm. Rows that were rows were now just big long lines of people trying to leave. Thankfully we passed a dozen people who were also just trying to find their vehicle and so I didn't feel to stupid. We found it, we made it home safe, and I crashed about 2 minutes later.

Back Stuff

Thought I should take the time to specify what was going with Mike. He had a denervation procedure on Monday. This is the first of two things to be done. He has a herniated disc among other issues that are needing some fixing. He was put off this last deployment so he could fix things. He has been doing PT, and other treatments and time finally called for something a bit more drastic. Not the full surgery as the doctors felt that was over the top to do that. He will go back in about 5 weeks and have some tissue removed from his disc so that there is room for the herniation to go back in. It is called Neoplasty. I just thought rather than leave it at Mike had surgery I should explain things. :) He is recovering well and is on day three which means we are suppose to go for a walk..still trying to convince him of that. He is sore, but he is going to be insane with cabin fever soon, so getting out for a moment shouldn't be that hard.