The 4th and the 13th

 On the 4th of July this year, we went down to Provo to spend the day with family and friends. My brother, Adam, had his first Stadium Bowls sale to BYU for the Stadium of Fire, so we decided to go to support him. His wife, Brittany, invited us over to her parents house for the day for good food and swimming. We were also able to have the Hutchings family over, and my Mom came up from Vegas for the weekend. I forgot to take pictures of everyone during the day, but we have a few. Marshall and Ryan of course found some time to do their own fireworks before dinner. And our niece, Laela was so cute in her red, white and blue.

 Stadium of Fire turned out to be a lot more fun than we had expected. They had a concert with Carly Rae Jepsen, Kelly Clarkson and Cirque du Soleil. They did an amazing job in recognizing everyone that has and does support our country and provides our freedom. After the concert, they had the best fireworks display that any of us have ever seen. It was so much fun and we are glad we ended up going.

Adam has a company called Stadium Bowls. He has developed and patented a bowl that looks like whatever stadium he is selling to. This was his first sale of 5,000 bowls that BYU sold Dippin Dots in at Stadium of Fire. We were so proud of him and happy to support his business!

  

I planned a surprise date for Marshall for the 13th. After we woke up, I surprised Marshall with a rented kilt and sporren. He was so confused until he figured out that we were going to a Scottish Festival. Marshall comes from a long line of Scottish ancestors and is very proud of his heritage. We went to the Payson Scottish Festival for the day. 

 At the festival, there were all different types of Scottish competitions. They had bagpipers, dancers and of course the Highland Games. We thought it was really funny that all of the Scottish sports consisted of lifting or throwing heavy things. The longer we were there, the more proof I had that my husband is definitely Scottish. He even came home with the sunburn to prove it. The store I rented the kilt from had all different types of things for the different Scottish clans there are. Marshall is a descendant of the MacKinnon Clan, and I was able to find a small book about our clan that we read on the way to the festival. I never realized how hard it is to pronounce Scottish names. I think I was really only able to actually read about half the book. 

Each Scottish Clan has their own plaid, called a Tartan. While we were at the festival, we saw a ton of McKinnon tartan. There were scarves, ties, backpacks, kilts and everything else you could imagine. We ended up with some baby shoes (not an announcement, just for the future!), and I surprised Marshall with a MacKinnon tie when we got home. 

 We thought the Sheaf Toss was interesting. The athletes use a pitchfork to pick up a bag of straw and throw it over a bar that is raised during each round. We even got to see the world record holder for the Sheaf Toss.

 I think the Caber Toss was our favorite competition. The poles they are picking up weigh about 150 lbs. and they flip them completely over. We were very impressed!

 At the festival, they had some Scottish food you could try. We found a booth that was selling a drink called Ginger Beer. In Scotland, this is a popular alcoholic drink. Here in Utah, there is a family that makes the non-alcoholic Ginger Beer. We bought a bottle to try it and I couldn't handle how strong the ginger was. Marshall LOVED it and ended up buying a whole case. 

We had so much fun learning even more about the Scottish culture and have decided that we want this to be something our family does every year. Marshall is even thinking about becoming a competitor in the games. We also found a booth while we were that had printouts you could buy about your family name. On the printout, there is the family crest and the history of our clan. We got one that we are going to frame and always keep in our house.

 We are loving all things Scottish right now!