BEST! SURPRISE! EVER!

Early Sunday morning we headed to the airport to head to our next stop - EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND! Ive been super excited for Scotland because of all my dad's missions stories Ive heard since I was a little girl. My favorite being the classic story of being chased and bit in the butt by a german shepherd - but anyways I was so excited. The past month or so my dad had the idea of maybe coming out and visiting, but he realized it wouldn't be worth it to travel that much for just one day in Scotland so the idea kind of went out the window, but I knew dad was still excited for me to visit his mission. Well after almost missing our flight - we seriously almost miss all our flights so we are pretty used to it by now - we arrived in Edinburgh. I got a text from dad saying he couldn't sleep and he wanted to know if we had made it safely. As I hopped on the bus to take us to city center me and dad texted. As I stared out the window and realized this was the place my dad had served 20+ years ago it made me kind of emotional. I was so happy to be here, but of course I would rather be able to explore the city with my dad. Well, I knew it was too much of a trip to happen so I forgot about it, we hopped off the bus and started walking to our kick ass hostel. That's the name of the hostel, and to be honest it was a pretty kick A hostel. It was right across the street from the Edinburgh castle so obviously that was going to be our first stop. Dad asked what our first stop was going to be so I just sent a picture of the castle. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and headed up to the castle. As we were walking up to the castle in the courtyard area I turned around to wait for some of the others to catch up. I saw Kelsi videoing, which was normal, she's always videoing, but she was facing it towards me for a good few seconds and I was really confused. I then realized there was a man walking towards me so I then look at the guy and I was so shook. I immediately started crying and gave my dad the biggest hug. I then realized JACK was there too so I gave him the biggest hug too. I couldn't stop crying or hugging them. I was so in shock I had no clue what to do besides cry and hug haha. I was beyond excited to see them. Seriously though I was thinking less than an hour ago how much better this day would be if I could have my family here and they were there! Why am I the luckiest girl ever? I have thee best people in my life and Im grateful for them EVERY SINGLE day! Wow I love my family so much. Thank you dad and jack for coming out, you seriously made my day. I know it was a ton of traveling, money and not a lot of time in Scotland, but I hope it was worth it. Love you guys. 

Luckily my head teacher is super chill, so she let me sneak away with my family for the day. We explored the castle and just so you know this is easily the prettiest the castle Ive seen in all of Europe. Dad waited in line for tickets and me and Jack walked around the castle grounds. While walking around with jack, he was telling me about life back home and I just started crying and I gave him another hug and told him how much Ive missed him. This day was seriously unreal... still feels like a dream.  There would be points throughout the day that I would realize I was with my family...in Scotland! How cool?! We walked around the castle and saw some cool cannons, swords, sculptures and the queens crown. 

Our next stop of the day was Arthur's Seat. It was definitely an adventure. Cold and rainy Scotland day made for a muddy hike and quite a few wipeouts. Loved every minute. We made it to the top and it was thee windiest thing I have ever experienced. Full on blowing us over. We had to lean on to this cement pillar for support. Crazy stuff. 

Jack with Greyfriars bobby 

One thing I loved about this day was I didnt feel like I needed to constantly be taking pictures. Usually, I want to take a picture with everything so I can show my family once I get home, but guess what?! I had my family so no need for a ton of pictures! On the way down, the mud made it super hard and sketchy. There was one point where jack took a tumble and once he fell to the ground he kind of just laid there for a few seconds like he had been defeated. It was hilarious. We met up with my friends for lunch and its still crazy to me that my family and Europe friends have met. I never thought those two worlds would come together, but they did! Super fun to have them meet my dad and jack and its cool that my family got to know the girls Ive been living with. 

Funny story - dads phone was dead all day so mom wasnt sure if we had met up yet. She didnt want to blow the cover just in case, so I get a text in the late afternoon that says "Hows the UK?" We wanted to kind of mess with her so I said "its cool" "Super pretty" haha she didnt respond. So at this point we had her pretty worried so then a little bit later we decided to send her a selfie to reassure her everything worked out. After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a warm shower and to relax and somewhat dry our clothes. We made a pit stop at some souvenir shops and Princes street for the best view of the castle. 

Random selfies of me and Jack. Once we got to the hotel, jack grabs my phone and turns on my spotify. I asked him if he misses my music and he told me he misses when I find new music. :')

Seriously the best day ever. Oh and they restocked me with some hot cheetos, fruit snacks and other necessities. #blest  

We chilled the next little bit and rewatched our video at the castle over and over again, and cried every time. I didnt want to leave, but I knew I had another early morning of traveling and so did they. So we walked back to the hostel and said our goodbyes. This goodbye wasn't as hard as the last because 1. I'll be home in 6 weeks and 2. My roomies aren't strangers anymore. Thank you Dad and Jack for everything. You guys are troopers and I love ya a ton. Scotland was a 100/10. 

So jack wanted a picture of him holding up the castle, but we forgot until the last minute so here are the pictures we got. haha good thing he's only 11 and there's a good chance he'll come back and he can get a better picture. Love you buddy. Much love from the wells' in Scotland!