Highland Games

We made it out to the highland games this past weekend. It was hot out, almost 90! It was nice and warm and sunny which is a good thing, it can go either way here in October. When we got to the event we signed the boys up for the competitions, and in the process got to borrow small kilts that they could wear through out the day until we left. Dom got them the same tartan he was wearing and off they went to practice throwing different things. The competitive events were not until later in the afternoon. Liam and Finn enjoyed wearing their kilts, and you can bet we got a lot of looks and smiles as Dom was followed around by his two little boys, and took up the back wearing our littlest baby. The day officially began with a marching in of all the pipe bands (4 total, which is pretty good for a small regional festival) It was pretty impressive hearing all those pipes and drums. I really honestly love the sound of bagpipes, I don't know why people don't.
We spent most of the day wandering around looking at the different vender's, and looking at the different clan's represented. Sometimes we stopped and watched the grown men competing in the man highland games. They were huge, muscular guys throwing heavy things at impressive heights. Finn loved following the different pipe bands around and they would randomly start marching and playing. We also ate a lot of food, and did our best to keep hydrated in the heat.
In the afternoon it was time for the boys to compete in their events. Being that this was the first year of this particular highland game festival they were a little unorganized. Waiting for Liam to take his turn took FOREVER! and really, it doesn't matter who comes in first or second at his age, they had much more fun when they could just throw the things, instead of waiting, and measuring and waiting some more. We let him "compete" in one event, but were too hot to wait around for the "awards" ceremony, so we got his participation medal on the way out. They did have the toddler kilted dash when we were over there, so we let Finn run, he came in second, only because he got shoved out of the way at the start of the race. (my boys love to run!) Liam was disappointed that we would miss his race, that was the only thing he really cared about competing in, but it was at the end of the day, and we were all hot and worn out and just needed to call it a day.
It was a fun day together, we were so glad that we had the chance to go. We had fun! Now Liam wants his own kilt, so we are looking into that. PS, Dom wrote a great note on kilting on facebook, feel free to check it out, or contact him if you have any kilting questions. :-)

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