Visitors in Edinburgh: The Lehi Lutzes

Two days after Christmas, we enjoyed a much- anticipated visit from Neal's brother Kent, his wife Stephanie, and their 8-month-old son Clark.  Neal and Kent are the youngest boys in the Lutz fam. After many agonizing years for their poor mother, they each finally settled into marriage (as she was on a mission in the Philippines.  She and her husband had put off serving a second mission forever because they didn't want to miss the surely impending weddings of their youngest sons.  After over a decade of waiting, they gave up and left for the 'Pines.  A month after their departure, Neal and I were engaged, and a year later Kent and Stephanie were getting married.  That's two trips home to the States during their 18-month missionary service. I digress.)  During their pre-marital glory days, the boys did a bit of travelling, climbing mountains in Peru, Russia, and Costa Rica in addition to numerous states throughout the US. One could say they're a pair of 'peak-baggers'. So when Kent and Steph told us they were making their way to Scotland over Christmas break, Neal was stoked that he would get to climb Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK, with his big brother. And I was stoked to have another visit from family.

They arrived after a loooong day/night of travel bearing gifts from the homeland, including marshmallows, Twizzlers, Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, taco/fajita/salsa seasoning, tortillas, deodorant for both of us (they only have roll-on here. nasty!), and an ice-cold can of Diet Dr.Pepper for yours truly. Basically took up a good chunk of their luggage space to help out some deprived Americans.  After a nap for charming little Clark and his jet-lagged father, we took them on a little tour of the city and climbed Arthur's Seat (our foolproof solution for jet lag).  We had a rental car the entire time they were here...it was glorious.  The bus system in Edinburgh really is awesome, but there is something to be said about the freedom of just getting in your car and going where you need to go.

That night, they were obviously exhausted, and went to bed around 7:00.  We still needed to go pick up the travel crib we were borrowing from a friend for Clark to use, and Eleanor was sleeping soundly in our room.  Not only did we have the opportunity to leave our child at home, but we had a car. I don't know, that short drive to pick up the crib had the two of us downright giddy.  After we loaded it up, Neal asked excitedly, "where else should we go??" The possibilities seemed endless, yet I couldn't think of a single place to go. We pulled into the parking lot of a clothing store we've always been curious about, but have never had a convenient time to just hop off the bus and check it out.  It was closed for the night but we were just excited that we had so easily stopped by. Anyway, we succumbed to the reality that we are lame and were in bed by 9:30, but if you live a car-less life, you just might understand the thrill we felt that night.

On day three we loaded up the babes and took a trip to northern Scotland so the guys could summit ol' Ben.  Stephanie and I drove along the country roads of Fort William, and by she and I, I mean Stephanie drove along the country roads of Fort William (you could not pay me to drive a manual ever again, especially in a foreign land) and she did amazing.  The guys finished their climb, one of the coldest Neal has ever done, and we made our way to Inverness for the night.  Even in the winter, Scotland remains so scenic and beautiful.  The drive was just gorgeous.  We passed the infamous Loch Ness, numerous old castles, and arrived in the quaint city of Inverness.

My sad iPhone pictures:

Cousins (2 months apart!) reunited

Don't look too excited, girl.

From the summit of Ben Nevis:

And now for some of Stephanie's nice-camera-real-photography-pictures:

Look at Mr.Clark totally conked out!

Ben Nevis hiding behind the cloud

A view of Loch Ness...such an insanely long lake.

The Lutzes surprised us with matching BYU pajamas for the kiddos. Go Cougars!

(all these baby pictures are for you, Grandma Lutz)

In Plockton, a beautiful little fishing village

Hogmany

We made it back from our little road trip on New Years Eve, which is a huge event in Edinburgh.  Aside from festival season, it's the most popular time of year for tourists to visit.  We had been looking forward to Hogmany since we moved here, but after all that time in the car, I was majorly wiped out.  I was still battling that first trimester fatigue along with what I think was a pesky virus, and the thought of going out so late was realllly unappealing.  I offered to stay home with the babies, and Neal stayed behind with me (which was really sweet, because I know he wanted to go). Kent and Stephanie went to see the fireworks and made some fun European friends, while Neal and I watched the London NYE show on our computer (womp womp).

The next day we headed South to England to attend the temple...another long day in the car. t Thankfully we had Serial to keep things interesting.  Neal and I did a session while Kent and Steph watched the babies.  After our session, they went in to do sealings, only to find they didn't start for another couple hours.  So sad.  They did spend some time in the temple though, and we made our way back to Edinburgh.

We had so much fun hanging out with this family.  They're fun, and smart, and all-around great people.  They taught me how to play Pinochle with great patience, were extremely gracious about our tight living quarters, and were just a lot of fun to hang out with.  After they left, we moped around our suddenly too-quiet flat and tried not to think about how long it will be until we see them next.  We miss our people! We love it here, but we really miss our people.

Miss you guys already!

Christmas in Scotland

Edinburgh is a breathtaking city year-round, and did not disappoint with its festive December trimmings.  The European Christmas market, a slew of carnival rides, and two ice rinks in City Center were full of people for the entire month (an unsettling, claustrophobia-inducing amount of people, in my opinion) but it was a beautiful and fun atmosphere when we were brave enough to face the crowds.

 

Poor photo quality, but can you see the piper?

Santa ignored my requests for this gorgeous reindeer hide...rude

Trying to peek at the choir

Cheesin' at the Ward Christmas Party

...which went way past E's bedtime. 

Eleanor woke with a fever of 101 degrees F on Christmas morning.  It was the first time she'd ever been sick.  She was sad, rosy-cheeked, and refused all solids (very abnormal from our chubster).  With a bit of tylenol and a lot of cuddling, she made it through the day just fine.  It really made me appreciate how lucky we are that she's a healthy, happy kid.  A former co-worker of mine has a two-year-old daughter who was recently diagnosed with neuroblastoma, and watching her/her family go through such a scary experience has helped me realize we should never take our children's health for granted.   You can read more about/donate to Abriana here.

Sock stash. 

No smiles from this solemn sickly lady.

We spent Christmas day at the church, enjoying a traditional British dinner with several other families in our ward.  It was so much fun, and the food was divine.  We learned about and observed some interesting British traditions:

We had a humble but beautiful holiday season.  I daresay it was our best yet (our fourth Christmas together--woah). Thank you to all of our friends and family who sent lovely cards/gifts...international postage isn't cheap, and it meant a lot to us.  Happy Belated Christmas! (do I sound British in this paragraph, because that's what I'm going for..?)

A Tale of Thanksgiving Abroad

So initially, the plan was to get a turkey breast, throw it in the crock pot, and maybe try to track down some cranberry sauce for a lonely Thanksgiving dinner with my little family of three.  But a few days beforehand, the winds of changed determined that no, I wanted it big, and I wanted every single dish we would normally have on Turkey day.  We have four sets of full-time missionaries in our ward (so 8 missionaries total), so we invited them to meet us at the church for a Thanksgiving lunch.  I regretted it right away...I mean, I have never even thought about roasting a turkey in my life, and certainly have never cooked for more than six people before, but we were committed and had the building reserved. We had also asked around, and some of our American friends agreed to join us for the feast (thank heavens, because Becki brought a ton of food and was a huge help).

We shopped on Tuesday, prepped on Wednesday and woke up bright and early to follow the strict oven schedule on Thursday.  The grueling labor of chopping, seasoning and baking became enjoyable as we listened to the fascinating and addictive podcast Serial while we worked...six hours of Serial to be exact.  That's a lot of prep, peeps.  And a lot of Serial.

The problem with my oven is: the temperatures on the dial have either worn off or were never there in the first place.  So my landlord, bless her heart, just wrote in sharpie "min" and "max" without any hint of what the temps are.  So for the last three months I've just been guessing where I should set the dial. They also use Celsius here. When you're just heating up a casserole it's not a big deal, but baking only happens when I'm feeling exceptionally brave.  So I was a little terrified to cook my turkey.  I watched an obscene amount of YouTube videos days in advance on basting and brining and dressing and roasting, and the more I watched the more stressed out I became.  Martha Stewart's voice may seem deceptively calm and soothing, but I honestly wanted to cry after watching her demo.  Actually, I think I did cry.

 In the end, Becki hooked me up with a meat thermometer and I just babysat that turkey like it was my firstborn child (I love you Eleanor).  And it turned out great! It was done just in time.  The zone leaders have a car (so envious) so they picked up all the food from Becki and I's, we walked to the church, Neal carved the bird, all sixteen of us partook of the wonderful meal (Becki made cranberry salsa.  I'm still thinking about that cranberry salsa!), and then we cleaned up the church.  It was fun, so much fun. Definitely worth the work.  But we were exhausted.  I told Neal that I felt like preparing a Thanksgiving meal was more physically and emotionally draining than giving birth (you think I'm joking).  We walked home, crawled into bed just after 7 PM, and caught ourselves all the way up on Serial.  It was glorious.

The only pic we took, the rest of the day was just too darn busy.  Thankful we have such lovely friends when we can't be with family for holidays.

 

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 ;).

Snail Mail

Happy (very) Belated Halloween, from the fastest snail you'll ever meet:

you know, for posterity