In Texas I was somewhat of a self-induced hermit.  Waking up at 5:30am, returning at 6:30pm, and back to bed by 9:30pm made time at home feel ever so scarce.  My three hour window each night was just enough for dinner and a shower.  The result was that I never, ever, ever, wanted to leave the house.  The weekends were spent on pet projects, shopping, basketball, Discovery/History Channel, and avoiding anything that might otherwise remove me from my family and lovely home.

Having lived in Europe during my mission, I knew what it had to offer in terms of tourism.  So when this assignment to Scotland came up, I made a commitment to myself and Tia (to her delight) that we would get out of the house as often as possible to take advantage of what this beautiful country has to offer.  We’ve only been here as a family for five weeks, but I feel like we’ve done more “outings” in this short time than we did during our entire year in Texas. 

• Weekend 1: Shopping downtown, local carnival, lunch with a family from work, Dunnottar Castle, Balmedie Beach Picnic
• Weekend 2: Duff House, Delgatie Castle, friends from church for dinner
• Weekend 3: With my two sisters: Inverness, Loch Ness (boat cruise and Urquhart Castle), Cawdor Castle, Battlefield of Culloden
• Weekend 4: Duthie Park, lunch with a family from work
• Weekend 5: Edinburgh Castle, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh Zoo

In Texas this would have been a repetition of sports/gym, shopping, TV and pet (tech) projects. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with our Texas schedule (the weekends are quite relaxing), I am thoroughly enjoying our family time and weekly adventures in Scotland.  While we do have plans to visit other countries, I feel like Scotland could easily keep us occupied through December.

PS – I know Kalani dancing to electronic bagpipes has nothing to do with the content of this post, but she’s just so cute.