Scottish Festival and Highland Games

Saturday was the annual Scottish Festival and Highland Games. This is always such a fun day for us and yesterday was just the same. We had a great time. Brian and Rachel weren't able to come, so it was just us and Fred and Rama. We arrived early. It was gorgeous weather. Scott and Fred were in their Buchanan tartan kilts. Brie was in some other tartan, but still a plaid skirt. I did not wear our tartan because I believe that when you are entering your third trimester of pregnancy, you should probably avoid wearing plaid! They marched in the parade of the clans. We watched some of the competitors in the games. And my favorite part . . . I had a huge pina colada slushee!

It's always more fun to see the pictures, so here they are - a bunch of them. I wanted to show how fun the day is to convince Alan and Laura and Glenn and Renee to come for next year's Highland Gathering now that all the boys have their kilts. Plan on next June!

Scott and Brielle entering the Highland Gathering. Brielle is wearing just a plaid skirt I had for her. Sorry, it isn't the Buchanan tartan.

Brielle sitting with her favorite person - Grandma Rama!

I tried and tried to get a cute picture of Brie in her little "scottish" outfit, but she WILL NOT pose. This is the best I got. I think she was hearing the bag pipes for the first time.

Scott in his almost complete Scottish attire. He now has his kilt, his belt, his socks and the purse in front is called a sporan. This is the BEAUTIFUL sporan that we bought in Scotland just a few weeks ago. It has seal fur on the front. It is really nice. I'm glad we got such a good souviner there. He also bought his skindoo (knife to go in his socks) yesterday. Now we just need flashers to keep his socks up.

Let the games begin! This is one of the games that world class competitors compete in. I don't know the official title. Basically, these men in kilts throw a huge rock as far as they can.

This is the caber toss. Look in the far left of the picture and you see a man carrying a telephone pole size log. He carries it a few steps and then throws it as far as he can.

He has just tossed his caber.

This is the sheath toss. Kind of like the others, but in this one the men throw a hay bale as high as they can. Here is the wind up.

The release.

And then you watch to see if his sheath will go over the marker of the last highest thrown.

Brielle was so excited to see this little white Scotty dog, until she realized he (Stewart) was just eyeing her Scottish shortbread. So she shared.

This is the beginning of the parade of the clans. A huge bag pipe band marches out onto the field playing the bag pipes and drums while each clan (family name) walks along the outside of the field with thier clan flags and banners. Rama and I watched while Fred, Scott and Brie marched.

The line up of clans walking onto the field.
Here come the Buchanans!
Scott and Fred walking along with the Buchanans. Side note: You'll notice that other Buchanan tartans are brighter than Scott and Fred's kilts. The others have the "modern" tartan and Scott and Fred chose the "ancient" tartan.
Father and daughter in skirts! How cute.