Visitors in Edinburgh: The Colorado Lutzes

Well, we had our first visitors!  The first week of November, Neal's eldest brother Scott and his wife Connie flew in from Colorado Springs for a ten-day vacay.  Neal has three brothers and five sisters, so the Lutz men and their families are distinguished by their locale.  I guess we are now the Edinburgh Lutzes, though I still think of us as the Kansas Lutzes.  Also: after two point five years of marriage, I still can't figure out the plural use of Lutz...Lutzes? Lutz's? Lutzs? Lutz'? Someone help me.

 We showed them around Edinburgh, the free parts (the only parts we know, obv).  They did buy a Historic Scotland pass, which allows free or discounted entry to hundreds of historic sites across the country.  We already have an annual membership, so we used them to tour a few castles, including one Neal and I hadn't visited yet, Craigmillar Castle.  It was totally different than Edinburgh or Stirling Castle in that it was just more...raw.  Most of the rooms were missing roofs and it wasn't all refurbished.  It was a little easier for me to accept that this is an actually castle from centuries ago.

We took a rental car to England for a couple days, and were able to attend the Preston Temple.  We stayed at a beautiful Marriott, thanks to Jeff, Scott/Connie's son, who hooked us up with a lovely room at this joint:

The Brits know how to do hotels. We're getting gypped back home.

 We also visited several quaint and adorable English towns where Connie had some family history sites to visit.  We walked through numerous old churches and cemeteries where her ancestors had been christened and buried.  Honestly amazing stuff.

Absolutely massive cathedral in Durham. My phone died immediately after this pic. But the inside was amazing, trust me.

Our drive through the English countryside was one of the most beautiful I think I've ever taken.  Endless rolling green hills, roaming sheep, old and beautiful bridges.  We had the lovely accompanying background music of Eleanor Arden Lutz crying her lungs out for the majority of the drive (first time in carseat in three months + cutting two teeth = nightmare. Girl was not having it.) My ears burn at the memory. Baby Einstein was used and abused.  I know, we're awful. But desperate times call for desperate measures, I mean, poor Scott and Connie were having to yell their commentary on the scenery over Elle's dramatic screams.   Thankfully, they are well-seasoned parents/grandparents and were totally cool about it. 

After we returned to Edinburgh, Scott and Connie took a few days to visit other cities and towns in Scotland.  They made it up to Inverness, which is very close to Loch Ness.  It was so fun having them stay with us for part of their trip.  Because Neal's family is so huge, it's difficult for me to get to know everyone very well on an individual basis...at family reunions and weddings and stuff, it's hard enough to just say 'hello' and 'goodbye' to everyone.  His family is really good about writing each other regularly, so we do know what's going on in each other's lives, but it was nice to sit down and visit so much with the Colorado Lutzes. They're wonderful people and great examples to both of us.  I totally married Neal for his family ;).