Devils Chair

We hiked the Devils Chair today. We were a little faster than last time we timed it. Papa and Sierra came. Sierra zipped up and down the trail no problem. Papa is also a great little mountain goat. It was really nice on the trail. 

We always meet nice folks on the trail. This time we met two different groups who were hiking the whole trail. One couple had been hiking for 3 weeks and planned in ending up at the Canadian border. The other was a man from Alaska who is 70 years old and a commercial fisherman. He had already walked almost 400 miles. 

We only walked 8 but it was fun if not ambitious.

This evening we are watching a movie and Hannah's going driving. She will probably get her license in July.

back home

Here we are on the first leg of our journey.  Happy travellers.  It really could not have been a nicer trip.  I can not say enough about how beautiful it was, about how much fun it was to travel with these 3 girls, how easy and stress free(minus the driving on the left) and peaceful it was.  Every morning we knelt and prayed and expressed our great gratitude for this lovely opportunity.  Every night after reading scriptures together we knelt again and again our prayers were just full of gratitude.  I will always remember our nice time and the happy feelings of the trip.  I am so grateful to Greg, and Rob and mom and dad for holding down the forts and keeping everyone safe and well so we could go worry free.  Poor Marshall got sick while we were gone but his dad is a trooper and everyone did fine. Mom and Dad did so much carting kids here and there, keeping the home clean and the clothes washed and nice dinners on the table.  When I got home everyone told me how much they enjoying having Papa and Grandma here and how nice it was to have their sweet presence and careful help.  Now we have a couple more days together before they take off to help someone else so I am glad for that time too.

I found these beautiful roses blooming in my own backyard when we got home.  How pretty and cheery they are.  We also have herbs growing and mom made capri salad with our basil last night.  It was super tasty!  I think I ate a lot of it all by myself :)

I also came home to this darling birthday present from Jenna.  I loved it!  She knows me well!!

Sawyer came over right after school and heard all about our trip.  Hannah got him this fun hat and they enjoyed being reunited.  Ziva was also very glad to see him :)

Daisy and Sawyer came for dinner last night and we had a fun little visit. 

Also last night Hannah had a bunch of the young women over for some fashion show planning.  It went well and we had a fun time.  Only about half the girls came that we we expecting so she has some phone calls to make.  It's been a bit of a pain since she had a set of girls ready to go and then we found out that our ward has a temple trip that day and they all backed out, of course.  Then she had to find another set.  And now she needs to get in touch with half of them and make sure they can do it still.  But this is the way of a big project and you just carry on with it.  

Our flights, fyi, were fine.  Meaning we all arrived alive.  Heathrow to LAX was a bit turbulent and super, super long.  They fed us good food and we watched lots of movies and landed at the end so I guess it went as well as a long flight can.  

It's good to be home. 

Heading home

We are headed to the airport and the all day flying fest ahead of us. 

I asked everyone what their favorite part was, well we actually talked about it last night too. It was almost impossible to pick. When forced Sierra said Blarney and her favorite food was her sandwich at the cupen tea. Dani liked the leprechaun museum and the story telling best and the dingle sea salt ice cream. Hannah liked our Dingle day and she liked all the food. My favorite was also Blarney and my favorite food was a blue cheese and carmalized onion burger we ate one night in a pub. The food here is really good, I think it's because it's real food, 

Everyone we met or talked to was super friendly. We had one negative encounter with a drunk man in Galway but other than that I have felt safe and we've enjoyed everyone we met from Joe the sheepdog man, and Joe the singing tour bus driver, and Cailen the story teller, and Aron the waiter, Sister Faloon the relief society teacher and Karen the barn guide and every other friendly person we talked to.

The countryside is beyond words lovely.

Driving was a challenge but it got easier as the week went on. Dublin traffic is like any big city (except NYC which is the worst)

The exchange rate was not in our favor but the Irish wage is lower so things didn't feel too expensive. 

Limerick was the least clean city we visited, Dingle the darling(est).

We bought a box or 3 of Jammie Wheels every day. The tastiest "biscuits" ever. 

When driving in roundabouts we liked to count out loud "one", "two", "tree". The Irish accent is so pleasant and impossible for us to not try to mimic. 

The magpie is my new favorite non-predatory bird.

I am pretty sure I saw a leprechaun on the grounds at Blarney, and Dani & Sierra stayed in a haunted room at the castle...maybe there is magic afoot here at the Emerald Isle. If not it was definitely  magical for us.

So thanks for having us it was the best!

Last day

Our last vacation day has come. It went fast!

We went to the Leprechaun Museum which was even more fun than we had hoped. It's a story telling museum so you go in with a guide who tells you lore and history, woven through stories and fables and legends. It was so well done and so interesting. We all loved it more than we even thought we would!

Our guide was named Cailen (kill-E-en) and he was a skilled story teller.

After we wandered the market and the mall. Everyone bought souvenirs. It was a fun many hour shopping extravaganza.

We split for lunch. Dani and Hannah had pizza and Sierra and I went to a 6 euro multi cultural buffet. 

We saw some cute elders and talked to them for awhile in the street too.

On the drive home we stopped at the beach and collected some shells.

It's been a great trip!

My birthday shirt from Dani! So fun!

I'll be sad to leave the land of 40 shades of green. I will be happy to see Rob and Ethan and Grace though. I've missed them:)

Wicklow National Park

We drove to Dublin this morning and went on a bus tour to Wicklow. Our guide was informative and interesting. 

The countryside was beautiful! So beyond words; magical and enchanting.

Birthday selfie. I am 48. How crazy is that. It's been a blessed and wonderful life so far. Hopefully I am doing good and becoming all God wants me to be. 

We hiked in the park. I keep saying how beautiful it is here but it really is. It makes me miss MD. It also feels a bit like San Fransisco, the weather I think. 

God is amazing. I can't believe what He has made!

There is a cemetery with an Irish legend surrounding it, I know, surprising. If a single lad or lass can wrap their arms around St Kevin's tombstone and touch their fingertips together they will marry within a year! 

Sierra had a very half hearted go at it, and we made sure Hannah stayed far away and didn't even touch it:)

We heard lots of fun Irish lore and history. 

Tonight and tomorrow we are staying at the Fritzpatrick Castle Hotel. It's very swanky.

Tonight we ate dinner in the dungeon!

Sunday

This morning we slept in. Church didn't start until 11 am and we had no plans for before. We've been eating out once a day, buying food from the grocery store and having that in our hotel for breakfast and snacking for lunch. It's a fine system but I wish they had mini fridges for some milk or something in the morning. The water in the tap is super hot so we have been making hot chocolate with it and having croissants and bananas, or oatmeal. Tomorrow we'll have bagels and jam. 

We left the hotel with out our wifi and then lost our map setting shortly after that. We also left with no time to spare so we had some tense moments wondering if we would make it at all. Then in a stroke of divine providence we saw the building and arrived just as they were finishing up the announcements!

Church was a delight. They had a lovely musical number and 3 good talks. They only have a branch here in Limerick but it was pretty good sized. I also really enjoyed Sunday school and RS. We talked to some friendly members and I'm happy to report the church is true over here too.  I really liked Sister Faloon's lesson in RS. She teaches seminary, is the mother of 15 children and is from New Zealand (or Australia). I would be her friend if we lived here. We have lots in common like a love of not exercising and being poor member missionaries.

After we changed our clothes and went wandering. We saw churches and more cute doors. We visited King Johns Castle and St Mary's cathedral. We lucked out and came upon them rehearsing for their evening song performance. It was pretty.

Hannah's been working on her homework. 

The weather is chilly and overcast but really nice. The bummer is my photos are all dark and do not do justice to the beauty of Ireland.

Everyone's been getting along really well and our trip has been 5 star so far!

Galway and parts north

Galway is a darling little town.

We went to a tea shop for lunch. Meals here are a slow affair with lots of time for conversation.

We had a fun fancy nancy time. Of course we had herb tea:)

We walked around and saw some sights from the movie PS I Love You. 

Then we headed to Joyce county to see some sheep dogs and sheep. Turns out Roy, the dog and also his man were in Marley & Me. Who knew so many movies were made in Ireland? The next Star Wars is filming here right now.

The pups and lambs were so cute of course :)

And those dogs, oh my goodness , they are so smart and so well trained! 

We have been rained on about 10 minutes total so far since our trip began. Much to my surprise and delight! We still have a couple of days left though so we shall see!