thistle epistles

It's a delight to have my parents and four younger siblings here for a visit.  They are loving getting to know Elijah.  As I am writing this, my mom is holding Elijah and talking to him, and he is talking right back in his own special coo-and-babble-and-laugh language.  I have never heard such a talkative baby of his age (not quite three months old).  He is already putting together sounds, he "talks" in response to us talking to him, and he seems to be desperately trying to communicate with us.  What a cutie.  Even when he refuses to go to sleep at 12:30am because he is talking away and laughing hysterically, it's cute. . .

We have excursions planned for every day, mostly in the mornings so that Elijah can still get a proper nap in the afternoons.  On Thursday we went to Glasgow Cathedral and were given an informal tour of the cathedral.  It was quite interesting, but sad to see so many of the vestiges of its Catholic history still lingering - in the crosses, the small chapels in every alcove, the stained glass which breaks the 2nd commandment, etc.  What a massive and impressive building - took more than 400 years to build!  We also walked through the "oldest house in Glasgow" on our way back to the bus stop.  We would have walked up the Necropolis, but it was a very rainy day and not nice weather for trudging up a steep, slippery hillside.

Today we took the bus up to Bearsden and visited the ruins of the Antonine Wall, the northernmost boundary of the Roman Empire.  There are a few sections of it still visible, including the ruins of a bath house which was once part of one of the garrisons which was along the wall.  On our way to find one of the remaining sections of the Antonine Wall, we wandered through the Old Kilpatrick cemetery which had an amazing view of the hills north of Glasgow.  It was a stunningly beautiful sunny day.

Tomorrow we are planning to visit the Clydebuilt maritime museum, which my dad will probably find quite interesting because of his naval background.  We have lots of day trips planned for the following week or two... Aberdeen, Stirling, Edinburgh, and Loch Lomond. . . so stay tuned. . .

But what I am REALLY looking forward to is having my husband home from his travels.  I miss him so much and it's hard to fully enjoy things when he's not here with me.  I am thankful that his trip seems to be going very well so far.  We are both hoping the days speed quickly away towards Thursday!!