A few days before Jim & Janet arrived in Ireland, we found out that we will be moving to Oregon when Jimmy's assignment in Ireland is over at the end of June! He will still be with Intel but he took a job in a different group in the development fab. Looks like we'll still be getting a lot of use out of these!
They're here!
Wednesday morning Luke and I took Grammy & Papa to Monasterboice - an early Christian settlement founded in the late 5th century.
Monasterboice is famous for its 10th century high crosses.
After Monasterboice we drove down to Skerries Mill. After lunch we didn't have time to take the tour so we just walked down to the windmill. Flour has been milled at this site since the late 12th century.
Since the kids were out of school on Thursday and the weather was predicted to be descent, Jimmy took off work and we headed north to Co. Antrim. First stop, the Dark Hedges!
We stopped at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge for a bathroom break. While there Jim met up with a tour guide again that he had met at Monasterboice the day before!
Dunservick Castle
After driving along the coastal causeway road, we stopped at Bushmills Distillery for lunch and for Jimmy, Jim & Janet to take the tour.
After lunch, Giant's Causeway!
There was a storm passing to the north which made for some incredible waves!
And of course we can't leave without a boot picture!
After leaving Giant's Causeway, we drove over to Dunluce Castle. It was closed by the time we got there, but we were able to take the stairs down to a natural cave opening underneath the castle.
Friday morning I had some errands I needed to do at the mall. So while I did some shopping they went to the movies!
We stayed at the house for the weekend. Jimmy and I went out with friends to celebrate a birthday Saturday night. And the weather was yucky on Sunday.
Monday morning we saw our fox in the field next to us!
Tuesday afternoon Kate took Grammy out for an afternoon tea.
Wednesday morning Luke and I took Grammy & Papa into Dublin. We started off by doing the hop on hop off bus tour.
Then they went to the Book of Kells at Trinity College.
On Thursday, we went down to Kilkenny.
Jim got a kick out of Janet finding something in the window of this store that she wanted.
And of course we had to take them to lunch here!
After lunch we walked down to St. Canice's Cathedral and Round Tower. This is one of two round towers in Ireland you can go to the top. This is as high up as I could get Jim to go.......
Friday morning we drove out to Belvedere House. This "folly" is the famous Jealous Wall built in 1760 in the style of a ruined medieval abbey to block the view of a larger house nearby.
I love all of the large oak trees that are found all around Ireland!
inside the Belvedere House
a view of the Jealous Wall from the front porch
and the lake view from the front of the house
This was originally built as a hunting lodge......
After lunch we drove down to the National Stud Farm. This foal had been born during the night!
We were able to watch them gather the stallions from the fields so they could take them up to the barns for the night.
Luke wasn't too sure about petting it!
Saturday night I participated in our school's fundraiser. The school is in need of a great hall building (indoor recess, class plays, etc.) We did a "Dancing With the Stars" performance.
Close to 800 tickets were sold for the event! (Still cannot believe I did that!)
I love that this picture was captured during our performance! During the 6 weeks of practice prior to the performance, Kate and Sean's daughter watched (at separate times) us practice. Neither daughter was a fan of this part of our routine! In fact after watching us practice one afternoon, Kate asked me later that evening, "Mommy, are you still in love with Daddy?" We had to reassure the girls that we were just acting! LOL!
Sean and I placed in the top 5 (out of 18) couples! This event raised €46,000 ($51,000) for the building fund!
Evidently Jimmy was quite nervous during the show! I had not let him watch any of the practices because I wanted it to be a surprise to him. Being the 14th couple out of 18 to dance didn't help his anxiety! lol!
Sunday afternoon we went into Dublin and toured the Kilmainhem Goal - a former prison where in 1923 leaders of the Easter Rising were executed.
For dinner we drove down to the "highest pub in Ireland".
Janet has asked that we find a place where we could listen to some Irish music that wasn't in a pub. An expat friend of mine had told me about the Irish Playhouse. So Monday night we went and had dinner and then enjoyed an hour long performance of Irish music played on common Irish instruments and the girl did a little bit of Irish dancing for us as well.
It was late and Daddy was too comfortable!
and I guess Papa was too!
Jack and his friend Nicholas recreated Neil Armstrong's famous footprint on the moon for their Neil Armstrong project.
Luke was going to miss pajama day at school on Friday so his teacher let him wear his pajamas to school on Thursday. He wore these during the night and came running into our bedroom that morning, stopped, threw his arms out and shouted, "DONE!" (meaning he didn't have to get dressed for school). He was so excited!
After we picked up the kids from school on Thursday we headed west towards the Dingle Peninsula. This is the castle in Adare all lit up.
I guess it was a good thing he left his jammies on all day as he didn't make it through supper that night!
Friday morning we stopped to take a picture of this pub in Tralee. Nancy Miles is one of Janet's best friends and the mother to the "sister Jimmy never had" our dear friend Liz!
We stopped in Castlegregory to look for shells at the beach. The wind was blowing so hard that not only did that make it cold, but it was hard to walk! I won't tell you the places I found sand on me that evening.......
We stopped in Dingle for a little shopping and some seafood. This restaurant, The Boatyard, had just reopened that day for the season. In fact we waited to order our food for about 10 minutes because the mussles were on their way from the dock! The kids LOVED knowing that we were the first customers of the season!
After lunch we drove out to Slea Head.
The wind was still blowing so hard. In fact it was a bit hard standing still to take this picture!
We left the Dingle Peninsula and headed down towards Kenmare. This is Ladies View in Killarney National Park.
Saturday morning we headed down to the Beara Peninsula.
It's hard to tell, but the sheep on Healy Pass had so many florescent colors marked on them!
The road we took through Healy Pass.
After we drove around the Beara Peninsula, we headed down to Mizen Head - Ireland's most southwesterly point.
The weather was crappy, but that was alright because it made for awesome waves!
A popular dessert for kids here in Ireland is jelly ice cream - ice cream on top of jello!
That night we stayed at a B&B. Just as Jimmy and I had fallen asleep, Jack started throwing up (Kate had thrown up a few times in the car and we chalked that up to car sickness, but now I was thinking they had some kind of bug). Here is what Jimmy posted on Facebook when we finally went back to bed: God, I AM IN LOVE WITH IRELAND!!!.....with Sarah Howard Boswell Nothing like having dinner and a couple Guinness and heading back to our B&B in southern Co.Cork......and our 8-year-old throws up about an hour after everyone goes to sleep. Sarah and I (OK....mostly Sarah) scramble to contain the mess. The lady of the house comes home at MIDNIGHT after a meeting for a women's organization she belongs to just as we finished cleaning it up. We come down the stairs and apologize profusely. She would have none of it. She was worried about our little guy (who had been back asleep for 30 minutes at that point) and said "don't worry about it, life is for living. Now you two come have a drink with me." So, it is 1:45 AM and we just finished a whiskey and a wonderful conversation with a 70-year-old Irish woman. I think she's given us what should be our new family motto......"Life is for living!"
Sunday morning we headed over to Inchydoney Beach.
Kinsale Head
Jimmy loved finding this coffee shop in Kinsale!
Their 3 week visit came to an end on Monday. Next time we see them it will be sooner rather than later!!!
