It's May and I'm Happy

So, here are some pictures taken recently!

When the dandelions were still pretty :).  Will Mooney!

My new puppy, Levi, taking his second bath.  He hates it.

Me with Levi.  He's a spoiled brat, but at least he's a cute one :).

NOW...since most people have seen a bunch of wedding pics already, I thought I would finally get my camera hooked up to the computer and see if I could find some pictures that were slightly unique.  Here goes...

Most of the following pictures were taken by my lovely friend, Samara, who came up from Oregon for the wedding.  Thanks, Sam!

My adorable little sis, Mack

The lovely Jenny!

All four of my sisters!  Amber, Jenny, Melissa, and Kate

How blessed I am to have such a wonderful new big sister.

Happy?!  Naw...

I like this one...gotta sneeze, Jake?

Me with my dashing big brother

The handsomest man at the wedding!  Will Mooney!

Yay!  We got to decorate my Accord for the honeymooners.

Mark Wilkie came up from California to be one of Jake's groomsman.  Thanks Mark!

This nickname for Amber originated with Kate.

Brian Savage (groomsman) and Autumn Morse (bridesmaid) inspect the damage.

Can't see this one too well, but you can kinda see Jake is twirling his new bride around after she threw the bouquet.

Matthew Morse, Jesse Mooney, Richard Morse, and Jed Mooney

Aren't we CUTE?!

I know this isn't very much...but I hope you enjoy anyway.  This post is a tribute to Michelle and Cori because you guys forced me to update thanks to a promise I shouldn't have made :). 

Conwy Castle, North Wales

A stop at the Knight Shop below Conwy Castle brought me face to face with my knight in shining armor...

Conwy Castle!  In the middle of town...

Conwy Castle was one of the many castles in Wales built for King Edward (Longshanks).

The winding staircases leading to the top of the towers

The interior of the castle

The wall surrounding both the castle and the village

The top of the tower, from which the archers would defend the castle

The path connecting the towers

The castles had so many of these small sitting areas throughout the dark halls.  This one happened to be in the King's tower, connected to one of his rooms.

Yes, it is a toilet.  The hole goes all the way to the bottom of the castle, where it opens up along the side of the castle.  Yuck.

I had to climb up into one of the archer's shafts

So, that is Conwy Castle in North Wales.  I hope I will be able to wrap up these pictures...I promise my next update will be soon...:)

Direlton Castle, Edinburgh Castle

The McCaskills took us to a castle in their own village of North Berwick.  This castle was built by a family and ordered to be destroyed by Robert the Bruce.  That is why it is pretty much a ruin.  But it was the first castle we visited, and quite intriguing...

The grounds were absolutely gorgeous. 

This was the banqueting hall.  See the fireplace?  The entrance on the left was where the servants would ascend with food from the kitchen, located directly below the banquet hall.

Looking up the chimney .

I LOVED all the winding stairs in the castles!  We ascended and descended so many stairs, and even Pastor Savage kept up with us the entire time.

The day after we saw Direlton, we took a train with the McCaskills to Edinburgh.  What a relief to not have to DRIVE in Edinburgh!  The story is, on our way up to North Berwick, MapQuest took us through the big city instead of around it...and we got STUCK in it.  Our first day of driving our new rental car, on the wrong side of the road, with a crippled driver, in the craziest city.  And the UK is infested with millions of multi-exit roundabouts.  I tell you those couple of hours that we drove around and around and around that city was the biggest nightmare of my life...

The huge double-decker busses drive without mercy, grazing past the little cars on the streets with only a few centimeters to spare...literally...

There are no places to park, no stop lights, so one simply cannot stop at all!  So many close calls that day...but what a blessing to know it was only by the mercy of God we didn't die!  And I mean that...

We were able to briefly stop finally to ask a policeman for directions to get out of the city...and got lost again.  We found a telephone booth and called the McCaskills...and got lost again.  Finally, help from a man on the side of the road got us the best directions...and finally, finally we got out of that city.

But what a GORGEOUS city it was!    That's why our second experience with Edinburgh was so much fun...we got to ride on top of the double-decker bus instead of being nearly killed by it this time...and saw that glorious city...

Memorial to Sir Walter Scott. 

The enormous fortress that sits upon Castle Rock.

Inner entrance to the castle.

View from the castle.

St. Margaret's chapel, a tiny little prayer house perched in the midst of the castle.

Robert the Bruce being crowned.  This part of the tour was when we had to turn our cameras off.  A long series of winding rooms led us through the history of the preservation of the Scottish crown jewels, and finally to the room which contained, under guard, the beautiful royal collection.  In cases lay the royal sword, crown, jewelry, and the famed Stone of Scon on which the Scottish queens/kings were crowned (just a big rock, actually).

The room in which Mary gave birth to King James, the ruler to whom we owe the publication of the King James Version. 

Ceilings in these places were quite intricate...

The fireplace in the dining hall.

The throne room was lined with medieval weaponry and armor.

The enormous courtyard

Outside of the War Memorial.  That was another place we couldn't take pictures...there was a gorgeous memorial inside dedicated to the unknown fallen.  It looked like what the Ark of the Covenant could have looked like, framed in by cherubim.

The entrance is guarded by Robert the Bruce and William Wallace.  I'm not sure which one this is...

Walking the Royal Mile

I nearly got run over taking this shot of the Mile!   Those crazy drivers...almost killing every silly American that crosses the street without looking...

In the bus!

This is pretty much what the entire city looks like.

I guess the best word to describe Edinburgh is...enchanting.  I wish my pictures could do it justice.

I will post more shortly!  You all will be sick of pictures by the time I'm through!  I'm already sick of them!

Trip to the UK...SCOTLAND

Pastor Dan Savage and his wife, Brenda...my travel companions! We are waiting at Chicago O'Hare.  That place is like a CITY.  For those of you who have been there, you know what I'm talking about!  Note the crutches: Pastor broke his ankle in four places the week before we left!  Obviously, we went anyway because we couldn't get a refund on our tickets .  The blessing about it was that we were treated like VIP's at the airports!  First in line in customs, security, boarding, etc.  Both times we were at O'Hare there was an attendant waiting with a wheelchair!  The attendants wheeled him around (while we strong women lugged the luggage).  Thank God for that broken ankle (I can say that because it wasn't me who had the injury ) or we would have gotten so lost and most definitely would have missed one of our flights because our layover time wouldn't have gotten us through the long customs and security lines in time.  I tried not to notice any dirty looks we got as the attendant let us cut to the very front of all the lines.  Ah...how nice it was to feel ever so slightly important for a few brief moments...  I told Pastor that if I ever go to a big airport again, I'm getting a cast and crutches.

Mrs. Savage and I on BMI airlines.  This particular British airline is wonderful and quite spacious.  The food and service is unbeatable (for economy class, that is ).  They stuffed us with food and drinks, and the personal "tellys" were priceless for the long flight.

We chased the darkness from Chicago to Manchester, England, and when we arrived there it was morning.  So we (after quite an ordeal) "hired" our rental car and headed to Scotland.  Our destination was North Berwick (about a half-hour northeast of Edinburgh).  Below are some scenes along the way, which were difficult to capture as we drove .

This is pretty much what Scotland looks like as one drives through the country.  Rolling green hills dotted with thousands of sheep and cut by endless rock walls.  These rock walls are not supported by anything and most were constructed hundreds of years ago.  The incredible thing about them is how many BILLIONS of stones are in each wall.  The tediousness of the construction must have been unreal.

A typical telephone booth.

Yes, a man in a kilt.  In the mall.

On our drive through the curving roads, we saw this picturesque ancient church out in the middle of green fields.  We had to stop...

I was very interested in looking at gravestones, but many of the oldest ones didn't have dates anymore due to weather-wear.  This one caught my eye...I assumed the person died by poison...?

There in North Berwick (pronounced BEAR-ic), a small seaside village, we visited missionaries who we had before never met, Dan and Jackie McCaskill.  We spent several days with them, and they were kind enough to show us their lovely church and give us the tour of their surrounding area and of Edinburgh. 

North Berwick is a town typical of most small villages in Scotland.  The "flats" are right on the street, and the cars parked block much of the thoroughfare making most streets in the country one-laned rather than two .

This is Bass Rock, a tiny rock island just off the coast of the town.  Its fascinating signifigance is that this was the place on which Christians were imprisoned who refused to give physical homage to the king.

This hill in the middle of town is called "the Law."  Don't ask me why.  Otherwise, the surrounding area is pretty flat.

Brother and Sister McCaskill and Pastor Dan and Brenda Savage

This is all I am able to post for now, so I know how incredibly anxious you are to see more , but you'll have to be patient...this computer stuff is not my forte .

I'll be posting soon...

Hey Folks,

To all who are intererested, I will be posting a series of pictures and all from my trip to the United Kingdom...so please be patient...I'm still suffering from jet lag and the lovely pleasure of unpacking (which I really can't even do yet because most my luggage was sent to Oregon...).  Bear with me, faithful friends.

Hannah