Sunday my parents took us to the Grandfather Mtn. Highland Games. We had never attended anything like it and my mom thought it would be a wonderful learning experience for the boys. The night before, my dh called a cousin of his, whose husband is of Scottish descent. When he asked about the event he found out that his cousin and her family were there with their clan. She told him that she would meet us in a parking lot and take us up the mountain to the site, so that we wouldn't have to take the shuttle which cost $5.00 a person to and from the site. It would have cost us $70.00 to take the shuttle! She also told us that we could sit in their tent with them and offered us any food that we wanted to eat. Our boys wanted to participate in the kids kilted mile race and they had to wear a kilt. Well she just happened to have kilts that fit the boys. So we registered them to run and got them fitted in their kilts. Believe it or not they actually liked wearing them!

We watched the Parade of Tartans which was really awesome. The bagpipers and the drummers were so good that it gave me goosebumps. I could have done without the people in some of the clans who were scantily dressed and the ones who were gothic. It was neat to see how many clans were there and to see the smallest of children in kilts.

The boys have never run in a race before nor have they run a quarter mile, which is how long the kids kilted mile race was. We tried to explain to them that the lap around the track would be longer than they thought and that they would need to start out slow and then pick up their speed towards the end of the race. I wasn't sure how they would do and like any loving parent, you want your child to succeed. So when it came to race time I just told them that would do wonderful that the Lord would be with them. Our 6 year old went first and their were quite a few boys in the race. He finished the race and he wasn't last! Yay for him! We were just happy that he made it all the way around! He's number 75.

Our middle son raced next he is 8 and he raced in the 7-8 year old lad race. I think there were about 15 boys that raced in this age group. I told him the same thing as his brother, that the Lord would be with him. The race started and he paced himself really well. He came in 4th place! I couldn't believe he did so well! We were so excited for him. Our oldest son did not want to run and we were not going to push him to do something that he didn't want to do, so he just cheered his brothers on! Our 8 year old is number 74 in the picture below.

We ended up having to leave early because the bottom fell out of the sky and we got soaked to the bone. We rode the 2 hour drive home soaked and cold. We had a great time though and plan to attend next year and that time we'll bring umbrellas!