..utah scottish festival..

one thing i absolutely fell in love with about lance from the very beginning was his talent for musical instruments. before i had even met him, i heard him play the bagpipes and let me just say - wow! for me, a man that can rock a violin or a guitar or the piano, that was hot stuff. but the bagpipes? that just takes sexy to a whole new level! it is such a rare thing to hear these days, especially in utah, so i just thought it was beyond cool that lance not only played the bagpipes, but played them so well.

as the years have gone by, the bagpipes have been under the house collecting more dust. i suppose life just has a way of getting in the way of things that we once used to spend so much time doing. with work and kids and the responsibilities of owning and taking care of a home, there just isn't much time for lance to pull out the bagpipes anymore. he still gets calls to play at funerals, but he is already so busy with painting that he never seems to have time to spare. despite all this, i know lance still cherishes  his ability to play, and we both hope that our kids show an interest when they get older.

every year lance says he wants to go to the utah scottish festival, and every year we don't go. haha but this year he had a saturday off and it just happened to be the weekend of the festival se we loaded the kids in the car and headed down to thanksgiving point for some scottish fun. it was so cool to hear the different pipe bands...and to see finn and sam's reaction toward such a noisy instrument. we were far enough away that it wasn't too startling or loud, and both of them seemed to enjoy it. there were lots of different "clan booth's" set up - basically families just advertising their genealogy. ;) and lots of booths selling scottish gear and attire. of course i was immediately smitten by the baby and toddler kilts, and somehow convinced lance that finn and sam needed one. he was a little wary at first, saying things like, "when will they ever wear a kilt?" haha and obviously he is right, they will probably never wear them, but i like to think that they'll play the pipes when they're older, and they'll look back at their first kilt with smiles on their faces. or their wives will anyway. ;)

we didn't stay too long because it was hot and crowded, but all in all i'd call it a success and something i hope to make a tradition of in the years to come.