Full Of It

Thinking his brother was full of it, Conner decides to do his version of

a diaper change.

Honest to god, this is not a posed photo. I was in the garage doing laundry and when I came in I caught Conner trying to give his brother a dry swirlie. Poor Iain, haha!

Beach Time Fun

Last Friday Tom had to play the pipes at a wedding that was held at a small park in Huntington Beach (about 40 minutes on a good traffic day from us). We all went since it was a Friday night at 5pm and it meant Tom could then use the carpool lane. Well it turned out this little park also had a small mother's beach attached to it. The kids could play on the playground and then run a few feet into the ocean. It was awesome. On the Friday I had no beach gear, but got Conner down to his diaper and he had a lot of fun.

So on the following Monday, Tom took the day off (gasp! A rarity indeed) and we went back out there. Now this is pathetic, we live literally like 4 miles from the beach, and I've never taken Conner down there. But we decided to drive 40 miles to this one, lol. So here's Conner's real first time in the ocean!

And Here's Iain enjoying the swings near the water.

Cookie Monster

Well Iain has delved in to the world of solid table food. Because he's got teeth already and has mastered the stage 3 foods, I've started giving him arrowroot cookies, and he loves them! He can be a major crank, but as soon as I pull one of these little cookies out, his face lights up. I couldn't resist snapping a couple shots of him being Mr. Laid Back (I love the foot on his tray) and enjoying his cookies.

Bath Time!

I just had to snap a couple shots tonight. Iain is finally big enough to sit in the big tub and I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and bathe both kids at once!

The Newest Member of the Clan!

No don't worry, I'm not preggers again!

This weekend we adopted a pup from the shelter. He's a lab mystery mix, although he may be part boxer or part pit, not sure. He's got the back end of a boxer. But he's super cute and very friendly and has taken to the kids really well, even Iain. The cats and his own reflection are another matter though, so we'll be working on that! He's 7 months old and is already 42 pounds, so I think he's going to be a big one.

He had surgery on Monday to relieve him of his manly bits and he's not allowed neighborhood walks for about 5-7 days. So once he heals we'll start his training and teach him some manners. He was never taught any basic commands that I can see.

So far he's settling in nicely and doing a lot of exploring of the house and yard. We haven't named him yet. The shelter named him Stallone, which I don't think fits him. One of the mom's in Conner's class suggested Rocky, which I actually like and think fits. But we'll give him a few more days to name himself!

Scottish Photos

Well out of 400 photos, I figured these 2 would be the only one's worth posting. Unless of course anyone out there is interested in shots of various pipe bands, athletes, etc!

This is Tom and an entertainer named Chris Yeats. He does a fantastic comedy routine and is a riot to watch. He would roam the games on his stilts and entertain people.

This is Tom and Conner, Chieftain and Chieftain-In-Training, roaming the games on the cart. Conner was all about the carts and loves to ride in them. Each night it was his job to "tuck them in to bed", and each morning "wake them all up".

Scottish Games Are Over

Well my hectic weekend of Scottish Games is past. All in all it was a great weekend. The weather on setup for Thursday and Friday was seriously dodgy. It was raining, bitterly cold and there was a killer wind. We all prayed for sun for the weekend, and the good man (or lady, you never really know!) kindly relented and gave us sun. It was still pretty cool, but at least the sun came out.

We had record crowds and for the first time sold out of our food and programs. I don't believe that has ever happened.

I was very happy with how my piping and drumming events went. As always there's room for improvement, but there were no major glitches and the bands seemed happy. I had some very nice comments from my out of town bands, Dowco Triumph Street and Robert Malcolm Memorial. A better bunch of people I've never met. So kind and gracious, its an imense pleasure to have them at my contest. I hope they decide to come back!

Funny enough, even with all the work, stress and sleepless nights putting this games together brings on for weeks on end, on the Monday cleanup day its always sad for me to see the trucks come in and haul our semi trailers off the grounds and back to their storage spaces. Sappy I know, but for some reason it makes me sad. Anticlimatic I guess.

Anyways, hopefully soon I'll have some pictures up. Tom took probably close to 400 shots over the weekend, and I have to go through them still and edit them for the web. Someone jokingly called him the Where's Waldo of the games. At some times he was acting as chieftain, other times photographer, other times hard laborer, other times something else. A jack of all trades. But he done well. It's not easy being in charge of the whole chebang and he put on a hell of a show. I'm proud of him.

So off to edit my photos and find some to post here!