Ireland

Our last stop of the trip! I can't believe that it's here. In some ways this whole thing has flown by and in other ways it seems like an eternity ago that we were in Costa Rica. This is a pretty crazy thing that we did, and now that it's wrapping up we are all eager to get home and settle into our normal life. It has been exciting, enlightening, amazing and wonderful. It has also been stressful and exhausting. So,  here's to Ireland!

May 12

We landed in Dublin in the afternoon, got our car, and started our one hour drive up North to our cottage in the countryside. It is no longer very weird to drive on the left hand side of the road, instead Rusty and I are worried about what it will be like to drive on the right hand side of the road in America again. We made it to our cottage and the inside is a little worse for wear, but the outside is breathtaking. It has a big, beautiful yard with flowers and trees and a lilac bush, and a big wall. We promptly climbed the wall and looked out into a huge green field on the other side. I have fallen in love with it here!

We settled in and Rusty went out to get some groceries and some food for us.

May 13

Because we were traveling for Mother's Day, Rusty made a big deal out of making me breakfast today. We had a pretty traditional breakfast of eggs, toast, ham/bacon, and sausage and it was all delicious! And we can drink the tap water here! Woo hoo! We also loved exploring the backyard. It is big and full of grass, trees, flowers, rocks, and a big rock wall that of course we had to climb. The kids loved having some space to explore and I was so happy to offer them that. They spent the whole day outside in the yard with us.

Then we had our first venture into Dublin, but it wasn't really for tourist reasons. I had been having some sharp pains in my chest for a few weeks and we finally decided it was time to get it looked at. I was nervous to drive in Dublin by myself so Rusty and the kids came with me and played at a park down the street. The doctors appointment went well, it was costochondritis and didn't need anything to help it go away. The park had a beautiful church in the background, but it was definitely in a less than nice area of town. We felt a little uneasy and left pretty soon after I got back from the doctor's office. On the drive home I'm convinced I saw a teenage boy rob a store haha. Yay for big cities!

We tried to go to O'Connors for dinner, because little pubs here are totally fine to take kids to. It's a family friendly place. But turns out we are not really good at pubs haha. We walked in and didn't see any kind of menu or anything and were too embarrassed to ask anyone. So we just sat there for a while and then walked out. But we did talk to the most friendly woman in the world who was in there and I was so excited because 1. She was so nice and 2. One of the reasons you go to a pub in Ireland is for craic (gossip, conversation). She made my Ireland dreams come true!

The house had a fun book of Irish legends and folktales that we read from every night. It was great to have a change from the same books we had been reading but it was also so cool to read these and then be able to go see the places they were talking about. It also gave me the idea that I want to get the kids a book from each country we visited to help them remember the trip.

May 14

Today we stayed home, other than the kids and I running into town to get some groceries and play at a park. The kids love to play outside. Adeline loves seeing the "moos" in the pasture, and Henry loves to "cook" the rocks and flowers into cookies and cakes.

To give Rusty some quiet time to get work done I ventured into town (Kells) with the kids to get some groceries and go to the park. Driving in the countryside here is perhaps the most peaceful, beautiful thing ever. The park was awesome and the kids loved playing there and not melting in the heat being outside haha. We drove past this really amazing tower just in town. It's crazy the things that are here!

May 15

This was our first real time going out for adventure in Ireland and I was so excited! There are some really great things on our list for this country, but I think the overall thing is just how beautiful it is. We love driving here, no matter where we are going. Today took us out into the countryside even further to see some amazing sites. Our first stop was Monasterboice. This is the remains of a monastic settlement, with a tower that was used to keep watch for Vikings, the remains of a church, a cemetery, and three high crosses. These crosses have relief carvings that were used as a visual aid for the church services. Back then they would have been painted with bright colors, but even plain they were special. When we first got here there were some other people around, but within a few minutes we had the place to ourselves which made it even more special.

Next stop: Brun na boin! There are actually two different sites here but with time constraints we decided to go with seeing only Newgrange (instead of Knowth) because Newgrange allows you to go inside. This is such a fascinating place. I had no idea that Ireland had anything like this, but this tour was really enlightening. And our tour guide was so nice. She told us, "Your kids are so polite and well behaved. That is a credit to you both." That might not be true all of the time, but man it sure felt good to hear that!

Newgrange is a passage tomb that people believe was used for the burial of important people and for worshiping the sun. The white rocks on the outside were taken from the Wicklow Mountains, over 55 miles away. The 97 kerbstones were taken from the sea, and nobody knows how they were moved. They each weight between 1-3 tons. Each stone! That is insane! Brun na Boin dates back to 3,200 B.C. which means it is 500 years older than the pyramids of Giza, 1,000 years older than Stonehenge, 2,700 years older than the Parthenon in Athens and 3,300 years older than the Pantheon in Rome. This place is SO OLD. 

The two coolest things for me were: 1. The art. The entrance stone (and some of the kerbstones) have beautiful art carved into them. Ireland, this Boyne Valley in particular, contains 30% of all Megalithic art in the world. That is crazy! And 2. The Winter Solstice. So obviously we were not there during that time, but each tour gets to go inside and see the different caverns inside the tomb. There were so many more carvings inside, and a large stone basin. There is a window that is placed perfectly so that at the time of the winter solstice a beam of light shines in on the floor of the passageway and lights the cavern up. They did a reenactment for us and it was amazing!

It was a whole big deal to get into Knowth, which I don't really understand, but I asked the guy if I could just take some pictures from the entrance gate and he kindly obliged. This place was impressive and had many satellite mounds. I would have loved to walk around for a little bit, but that's ok. There are just too many things to do here!

The final stop for today was the Hill of Tara. Both kids had fallen asleep in the car so Rusty and I just took turns walking around. So, the Hill of Tara is steeped in legend and myth here in Ireland. The cottage we are staying at has a book full of Irish legends for children and so it was actually really fascinating to come here after reading those legends. Many of them mention the Hill of Tara. It was believed to be the seat of the high king. There is also a statue of Saint Patrick holding a clover because legend has it that this is where Saint Patrick told the King about the Trinity. When the King didn't understand how three things could be separate but the same, Saint Patrick bent down and picked up a clover to show him three separate, but same, beings. Patrick later became the patron saint of Ireland, and is often portrayed as holding a clover.

On our drive we keep seeing so many beautiful things! It is so crazy here. We can't stop at every place because there are just too many. We stopped on our way home at a grocery store and picked up some food and some bubbles for the kids, and I found THE BEST COOKIES OF MY LIFE. Chocolate chip shortbread cookies. I love these so much I ate the whole bag.

Happy with their bubbles!

May 16

We went into Dublin today! I always love seeing new cities because they each have such a unique vibe. Dublin has an old world feel to it, but mixed with an upbeat, trendy, lively touch. It felt exciting, but not crazy; vibrant, but not trying to hard. It was laid back and fun at the same time. We walked over to the Trinity Library to try to see the Book of Kells right when they opened (we wanted to change our ticketed time) but they didn't open until noon. So we changed gears and went over to visit the National Museum of Archaeology. I have kind of a love/hate relationship with museums. I love them because they have so much fascinating information, and I hate them for the same reason. There is just no way to see it all and the overwhelming nature of it kind of bugs my Type A personality. But we had a great time at this museum and saw so many fascinating things! We saw a lot of gold work, some amazing artifacts from the vikings, and "bog bodies". The bogs here act as a preservative for a lot of artifacts, including humans. Crazy.

St. Stephen’s Green is a really nice park in the center of Dublin. Most large cities have something like this, and Rusty and I enjoyed talking about the different ones that we have visited while walking through this one. It sure is beautiful! Henry, Adeline and I played tag in the grass, we looked at a swan and the flowers, and then we found a cool playground to go and play at! 

Our next stop was Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Trinity Library. First of all, the campus is alright. Second, the Book of Kells was pretty amazing too! You aren't allowed to take any pictures of it, but I took a picture of a copy of one of the pages that we got to see. This is how detailed and ornate each page is. EACH PAGE. The Book of Kells is a book of the four gospels that was made by monks around 800 AD. The pages are made from calfskin. The book was divided into each of the four gospels and they have two on display and two in a vault. We were able to take a picture of another old book, the Book of Dimma.

Then it was time to see the library! Rusty made fun of me because I got so excited, but this library was just stunning! There are over 200,000 books in here and they are all still read and studied by scholars and students here at the university. Crazy. Here we also saw an original document that tells about the Irish Revolution. We didn't know until we toured Kilmainham Gaol how important that would be.

The oldest harp in Ireland

By now it was time for food. We wandered on Grafton Street, a sort of outdoor market mixed with a strip mall, in order to make our way to one of Dublin's most famous pubs: Temple Bar. Right as we walked in we could hear live traditional Irish music playing and I just got so giddy and excited. It was surreal to be there! We got a table and ordered some food. My sandwich was ok, the pizza for the kids was ok, but Rusty's nachos were bad. Really bad. But it was worth it to be able to sit down and listen to some more of the music.

Oh, Molly Malone. I found you accidentally while we were trying to find our parking garage. I recognized your name but didn't know why you were important. Everyone was touching your chest and I felt confused about it but thought, what the heck. I'm in Dublin! and so I did too haha. Come to find out that Molly Malone is a fictional character from a popular song. The song became so popular that she became an unofficial mascot for Dublin city. As far as the touching of the chest, that is purely from the statue that was made. She is depicted as wearing a very low cut dress, so some people think she is a prostitute. Touching her chest is supposed to bring you good luck. They say she is the trollop with the scallops and the tart with the cart haha. The song is actually really beautiful! Henry asks me to sing it to him all of the time. Nothing about prostitutes. 

I was determined to taste Guinness while in Dublin, and because I don't drink alcohol that was proving to be difficult. But I had heard that Guinness cupcakes were a thing so I looked it up and it took us to the Queen of Tarts. And seriously, they did not disappoint and they were amazing.  

May 17:

This morning we headed back into Dublin to tour Kilmainham Gaol, an old jail. I couldn't quite figure out why everyone loved this so much (I mean, it's just a jail) but it quickly became one of my favorite things in Dublin. I had made reservations for us for the afternoon not knowing how the kids would be doing with jet lag, and it turned out that they did a lot better in the morning. Kilmainham Gaol wouldn't let me change my time so we had to just show up right when they opened and hope to get on an earlier tour. We got there at 9 and got on a 10:15 tour, which wasn't so bad. We went up to the little bakery upstairs and had some hot chocolate and a quiche while we waited.

When it was our turn to go we all met in the courtroom downstairs to start our tour. We started our tour and I was nervous that the kids would be noisy because you have to stay with the tour group or leave, but they were amazing! We first watched a little video to orient ourselves and then we started touring the actual jail. This was a new kind of jail that was meant to focus on separation. Up until this time most jails kept everyone all together in one room, the murderers and the petty criminals. This was designed to give some separation and safety. We also learned that many young children were imprisoned here, the youngest being five, mainly for stealing food during the potato famine when everyone was starving. That broke my heart. There is nothing that those kids could learn that would "rehabilitate" them when they were only taking the food because they were starving. And the sentences were long. But, when the famine got the worst some people were actually fighting to get into the jail so that they could have some food. But they got overcrowded and had to have people sleeping out in the hallway with no blankets or beds, and it was cold in there even with the windows that were not closed when the prisoners were there.

This hallway is often called the 1916 corridor because many of the people that were kept here were fighters in the 1916 rebellion. I thought that this was all so fascinating. They were fighting for freedom from England. We heard a lot of amazing stories but I'll only share my favorite. The jail is most famous for the rebels that were kept here from the 1916 rebellion for freedom from Britain. One of the women incarcerated here later went on to become one of the first rulers of government in Western Europe for Ireland. Joseph Plunkett married his wife the night before his execution. They were married in the courthouse with only the guards as their witnesses and were only allowed ten minutes after the ceremony to talk under supervision. Later his wife, Grace Plunkett, was incarcerated there for drawing propaganda posters for the rebellion. The Catholic Church excommunicated all of the rebels and they were not allowed to go into the chapel in the jail. This made Grace very unhappy, so she drew a beautiful mural of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child in her cell. We were able to see it! Samuel Beckett was executed here after a very touching and inspiring speech he gave about the innate right to have freedom on the docks in Dublin. Abraham Lincoln was known to have memorized and recited this poem often. And my favorite story: Eamon de Valera was a prisoner here for being a rebel in 1916. Later he came back to the jail, not as an inmate but rather as the president of Ireland. He came to make the jail into a museum to help the people of Ireland see the sacrifices that people went through for their freedom. HOW IS THIS NOT A MOVIE YET?!?!?!?

It is just a short walk over to St. Patrick's Cathedral. This was on our "maybe" list, but it's Saint Patrick's Cathedral, in Dublin! So we headed over there and it was beautiful inside. It has some truly beautiful stained glass windows, and the pattern on the floor was so cool! They had some activities for the kids like a puzzle of the stained glass and some blocks to make the cathedral. 

To end the day we went to The Brazen Head Pub, which is the oldest pub in Ireland. There has been a pub on that spot since 1192. 1192! Can you believe that?! That is insane. I mostly thought that this would be a cool place to see but the actual food wouldn't be good, and after the food at Temple Bar we weren't expecting much. But it was cold and drizzly outside so we decided to eat dinner in there. And I'm so glad we did because it was the best food we had in Dublin! I ordered Irish Stew, and Rusty ordered some thing with ham and potatoes and a delicious sauce on top. Holy cow. It was all so so good.

On our way out of the city we drove past the Dublin City Wall. Don't know anything about it, but here's a picture of it haha.

May 18:

Today we left Dublin to move to Kilkenny! We drove through the Wicklow Mountains and stopped at Glendalough Monastic Site. We considered not doing Glendalough because we had done Monasterboice, but out of the two we liked Glendalough better. It was more crowded, but I felt like there was a lot more to see. And the setting in the mountains like that was just beautiful! We loved walking around and seeing the different churches and graves here. What a stunning place.

The Wicklow Mountains are so beautiful! We all wish that we had more time to explore and hike around there. 

The Wicklow Gap

A unicorn!

Kilkenny Castle was our last stop of the day. What a busy day! We parked on the street a few blocks away and ended up being right next to part of the old exterior city wall. I love that there are so many things like that in Ireland. I think our most common thing we have said in Ireland is, "Woah! What is that?!" about a million times as we are driving. They are everywhere!

Kilkenny Castle is fully restored and has been continually in use and updated as the years went on. This was the first caslt we had seen, and honestly both Rusty and I were a little bit disappointed just because it didn't feel like a castle inside at all. We didn't pay to go in, we just went in to the free part to use the restrooms, but we were a little sad. We did love our time outside and played out in the yard a lot! We played duck duck goose, tag, and just rolled around. 

After the castle we drove to our place for only one night that was also out in the country. It was on a farm and was so beautiful! She even had some scones there for us (my favorite!!!!). They had some toys for us to play with so we played a lot of badminton and soccer in the yard. Turns out, Henry is really good at soccer! And he really likes it. I told him that he could play on a team in the fall and he was so excited. I told him that there would be like five other people and he said, "I don't know if I can win against FIVE people!!" Haha.

May 19:

What a day! Today was definitely one for the books. First of all, it is our anniversary! 8 years of marriage, 9 years of dating. Woo hoo! We celebrated by visiting the Rock of Cashel. This place was amazing. I know I have said that like a countless number of times, but seriously we are seeing some cool places haha.

Our first view of the Rock of Cashel was when we were driving up. We went first to a little cafe that had good reviews for some lunch and ice cream. It was really tasty and we even got free tickets for the Rock of Cashel: bonus! 

There are these giant ice creams everywhere to show where you can buy some

After our food we headed up to the Rock of Cashel. It used to belong to some kings, but then they donated it to the church in 1101. There are a few different buildings up on that hill, and they are old with rich histories. This is where Saint Patrick baptized the King Aengus in 450 AD. So the things up here are a vicar's choral hall, graveyard, cathedral, chapel, and a tower. We started by looking through the choral hall and seeing all of the things inside. 

After the choral hall we wandered around until it was time to start our tour. One of the craziest things was that we were walking around looking at these crazy cool buildings and then we looked through the little openings in the wall and saw the most beautiful cathedral down below in the middle of a field of cows. Ireland is stunning!

Our tour started by walking through the giant cathedral. 

The second part of the tour let us go inside the yellowish building- Cormac's chapel. This only opened to the public this year so we are really lucky to see it! It was built in 1127. Inside is a sarcophagus, the remains of some beautiful frescoes, and beautiful detailed work. They don't want the frescoes to be damaged, so you could only open one door at a time and it had to be extremely quick. They don't want a lot of moisture in there.

This used to be a well, and may be where St. Patrick baptized the King.

Then it was time for the Cathedral, built around 1250ish.

An old fresco found in the cathedral

This round tower is the oldest building here, built around 1101. While we were there a lot of black crows were flying in and out of it, which was eerie and I loved it!

Side view of the chapel

This cemetery was so cool!

When we were all done with the tours, we hung out on the grass and played with the flowers and let the kids roll down the hills. Ireland is cloudy often, but I think it adds something special to its beauty.

After our visit we drove to Waterford Castle, where we actually got to check in AND SLEEP IN A CASTLE. HOW COOL IS THAT?!? When we decided we were going to Ireland sleeping in a castle was definitely high on my list of things I wanted to do, and I was surprised to find out how doable it was. First of all, there are plenty of choices. Secondly, it wasn't that much more expensive than a hotel room. And this place was AWESOME. It was on its own private island that you had to take a ferry to get onto. The island was beautiful and had a big golf course on it. We checked in and got to see how stunning our room was. It had a big room with our bed and some couches and a fireplace, and then it had a second room with a pull out bed for the kids, and then the bathroom and an entry area. The bathroom had the coolest clawfoot tub and a wooden toilet seat. I don't know why I thought that was so cool, but I did haha.

Look at the size of that fireplace in the lobby!

After we got all settled into our room we went out to play croquet. The little butler guy brought our suitcases up to our room for us and then went out and set up the croquet course for us. The kids had so much fun playing, and I just kept looking around and thinking: "I'm playing croquet in front of a castle. A FREAKING CASTLE. IN IRELAND." Man, I'm lucky. Rusty and I had fun having some very serious competitions (Rusty beat me two times dang it) and we loved just having some down time and having an "almost date" for our anniversary.

Once Rusty was done dominating in croquet, we wanted to go and explore the grounds a little bit. We wandered through a forest and found little fairy houses! Fairies are a very common part of myth and legend here, and we had read about them in that book when we first got to this country. Henry was really excited to see those houses, but wanted to make sure he didn't touch them because we learned that that is very bad haha. Always the obedient one. 

We found these amazingly graceful and beautiful swans and watched them for a while.

When we got back to the room we put the kids to bed and then I got to take a bubble bath. Then we watched some shows and ate these delicious treats that Rusty ordered for us! I can't believe we got to spend our anniversary in a castle. So romantic!

These are our fanciest faces. Haha.

May 20: 

The next morning we woke up and had the most delicious breakfast. We were able to help ourselves to a continental breakfast, and then order whatever we wanted from the menu- and all of this was included in the price of our hotel stay! This is such a good deal! Rusty and I both decided to order the full Irish breakfast that came with bacon, link sausage, egg, black pudding, and white pudding. I was not a fan of the puddings haha, but that was purely mental. They actually tasted fine.

Rusty was so happy about this honeycomb!

Look how big this fireplace is!!

After breakfast we got to just hang out in our room for a little bit before leaving to go to Reginald's Tower. We drove about thirty minutes and got there and then realized that we had left all of our jackets in the hotel, so we had to turn around and go back haha.

When we got to Reginald's Tower the second time, we got to stay and go in haha.  Walking around the outside was so cool! You can see a cannonball that is lodged in there from an attack, and it's the oldest civic building in Ireland- and the only one to keep at Viking name. It was likely built around 1250 and was a Viking fortification. It has been used as a mint, a prison, and a military storehouse.

We got inside and walked up the different floors of the tower. The steps are so narrow and steep and slippery from them being polished by being walked on so much. We watched the most fascinating documentary about the history of this tower! I wish I remembered more, but it was so cool.

Some coins from when it was a mint

The original plan for Waterford Tower! So cool!

We left Reginald's Tower and drove toward Kinsale where we would be staying for a few days. The views from our bedroom window here are just beautiful. It looks out onto these beautiful fields of cows, and the sunsets are unreal. I want to live somewhere like this someday.

May 21: 

Today we worked at home for a little bit and then went into Kinsale, a quaint coastal town with a very colorful downtown. The houses and shops are all brightly painted and beautiful. Rumor has it that when Queen Victoria of England died, England ordered the Irish citizens to paint their houses black for mourning. They did not like being told what to do, so they painted everything really bright colors haha. The Irish are pretty strong willed. I drove us to this town and it is the scariest driving I've ever done in my life. I thought I would die! A giant tractor came around a curve and I had to pull off of the road so that we didn't crash. I pulled over once we got here and made Rusty park because I was so scared haha. 

                                     

We started by eating some fish n chips! Honestly, not the best but the views of the cute harbor are cool. And this is what you're supposed to eat in Kinsale. Maybe we just still have the ones from NZ in our mind haha. 

                                          

                                   

   

                                   

                                   

                                    

After lunch we got some ice cream and then did  a town walk from our Rick Steve's book and then got some ice cream. We loved seeing all of the beautiful buildings and ended up at a cemetery.

So many kegs of Guinness haha

On our way back to the house we drove up a hill and saw some incredible views over the bay and an old military fortress. Ireland has some really cool history!

                                   

                                   

May 22:

Today was a very exciting day! I know that some people feel very strongly about avoiding all touristy things, but I think that there is a reason they are touristy and avoiding them just for that reason is as dumb as going to them just because they're popular. When we travel I try to research everything and then decide what we want to do, regardless of if it's popular or not. Today was a day that was a touristy activity, but I have no regrets! We drove to Blarney Castle and got to kiss the Blarney stone! We had heard that the line gets really long so we wanted to do that first and look around later. But Blarney Castle is huge and imposing and beautiful and so cool! It was also left like it would have been as a castle instead of being renovated like Kilkenny Castle. This is more what I had in mind when I pictured visiting castles in Ireland, so I was so happy with this!

On our way up the stairs to the top of the castle, Rusty found a bathroom in the castle haha!

These tower stairs were SO steep and hard to climb. They were the servants stairs and they were rough haha.

View from the top

Happy to be at the top!

The Blarney Stone! Ok, so the Blarney Stone has a lot of tradition and myths associated with it. And HELLO I love traditions and myths. So the story goes that Queen Elizabeth I was trying to reprimand someone from Blarney. He started to plead with her and deceive her, and she said: "This is all Blarney. What he says he never means." 

There are a few different myths about why kissing the Blarney Stone would give someone the "gift of gab" or of eloquent speech. We read them all and then voted on the one that we liked the best. Here are some of our favorites: 1. It was believed to be a stone used by Jacob as a pillow and brought from the Holy Land after the Crusades. 2. Cormac McCarthy rescued a drowning woman from a lake who turned out to be a witch. To give thanks to him, she told him about a stone that was in his castle that would give him powers if he kissed it. 3. The Queen of the Fairies fell in love with a chieftain who didn't love her back and was later killed in battle. He bled onto a stone and the Fairy Queen cried onto the stone and kissed it. This transferred her powers to the Stone. McCarthy learned of this stone and moved it to the top of the castle. Henry's favorite was the witch, mine was the Fairy Queen, and Rusty's was the witch. 

Then it was time to kiss the Blarney Stone! Again, for some people it might be too touristy, but I loved doing it. It was a little bit scarier than I thought and I forgot to mention the backbend part to Rusty at all haha, so he was a little surprised. I was so, so proud of Henry! He was nervous to bend over that high above the ground (you can see the whole way down) but he did it!! 

After kissing the Blarney Stone we got to tour around the castle. It was so fun to see a castle that hadn't been changed and kept up over the years. Our favorite was the Murder Hole, which was a hole in the ground of the second floor above the gate where you could pour fire down on top of the intruders. Pretty intense!

MORE PICTURES: defenses

After the castle we got to walk around the grounds and see some beautiful gardens and a little family of ducks that Henry and Della absolutely loved.

A nice lady took some pictures of us!

This was the entrance to the jail... so creepy

Scary jail, just as tall as Della! Those poor people.

After Blarney Castle we went to a little park and let the kids run around like crazy before we started our drive to our next place in the Black Forest. We were not prepared for this drive, the Gap of Dunloe, and it was such a great surprise! It was honestly one of the most beautiful drives I have ever done. We got down to a one lane road that wound around in the mountains. The road was pretty intense, but we were mostly just so shocked and surprised that we didn't care. It was so beautiful! 

SOO narrow

Real peat! 

May 23: Today I had to teach some classes so we stayed home and relaxed. It's a miracle that I had good enough service to be able to teach; I really can't think of any other explanation. Our service was so spotty and terrible, but I was able to teach all of my classes. We relaxed at the house and did some puzzles and walked around to see all of the animals at the farm. We drove into town to get some groceries because we were not prepared for us being so far removed from people haha.

One of my all time favorite things happened today. The host had a few dogs, and Rusty noticed that one of the dogs was limping. He asked me to message the host to let her know, and her response was: "Is it the white and brown one?" "Yes!" "... He only has three legs. He always limps." HAHAHAHA Oh my heck I laughed so hard I thought I would die.

The sheep here just roam around and I love them! Henry saw  them and said, "Oh a little lamby! I just want to hold it and snuggle it!"

We were lucky to be here right as these beautiful flowers were in bloom

May 24: Today we drove the Ring of Kerry! This is a must do for people traveling here, and so we knew that we had to have time for it. It takes a full day because you get out at some stops along the way, but it was a day well spent. The weather cooperated beautifully for us, which is always such a gamble in Ireland! The drive is beautiful, and goes along some gorgeous coastlines. It also gets extremely narrow down to one lane in some places. Locals and smart tourists (like us haha) know that you need to go clockwise or you will be fighting everyone the whole time.

You can see how the farmers divide their fields with rock walls

We stopped for lunch in Waterville at a cute little place with delicious sandwiches and desserts. As we were driving through the tiny town, we saw a Charlie Chaplin statue. Turns out, he used to love vacationing in Waterville so they built him a statue haha. How adorable is that?!

Michael Skellig in the distance, really hard to see

The road was so narrow that I could touch the grass on the side of the road from the car

So, so narrow haha

Our first "actual" stop, where we didn't just get out and look, is found only by a tiny sign that says: "Best View in County Kerry" and it really is worth the stop. You pay a small fee and then walk about ten minutes to see some very dramatic coastlines. You also pass some cool replica (but true to original) beehive huts on the way.

The kids spent a weirdly huge amount of time just climbing this stone block and jumping off of it haha. They had the best time.

May 25: We were going to spend today in Killarney National Park, but our house was literally inside the National Park haha. None of the hikes looked particularly interesting so we just walked out our front door and hiked straight up the hill. After that we walked down the dirt road going the other way.

May 26: It was time to leave Killarney today, so we drove out Moll's Gap to try something new. We headed over towards Dingle stopping in Tralee for church. Church was nice; it's always so cool to see the Gospel in a different country with different people. Here we had someone stand up and tell us all the reasons she left the church and why our church is false. That was a first for me haha.

After church we grabbed some groceries and then drove to Dingle. We checked into our house and then wanted to check out the beach just a quarter mile from our house. This little beach was so gorgeous with big cliffs coming down. We loved it, even if it was freezing!

                                         

View from our house

May 27: The weather was really rainy today so we just stayed home and relaxed. It kind of messed with our plans a little bit, but we had some leeway to make sure we got to fit everything in. I think everyone was happy to have a down day and just hang out. On our way into town yesterday, Henry saw a park that he wanted to play at so we did take him there. Adeline fell asleep so I just slept in the car while Rusty and Henry played haha. Henry also tried flying his kite that he got in Bali! It was... difficult haha.

May 28:

Today we did the Dingle Peninsula Loop, and also the town walk (merged the two days together). I have to say, that I agree with Rick Steves: If you only have time to do the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Peninsula, I would do Dingle. But they both are beautiful!

You follow signs for Slea Head Drive

View from our house

Our house is the middle one!

Tiny Dingle town

Star Wars was filmed here, and they are quite proud of that haha

Look at that beautiful water wheel!

Dingle Harbor. We didn't stop to spend time there, but there is a dolphin named Fungie that frequents the waters here

Sheep on the hillside

Blasket Islands

That little beach became our destination for our picnic lunch!

We hiked down to this beautiful beach and had a great picnic lunch there. We also loved chasing the freezing water and trying to not get our feet wet!

Our next stop was Clogher Head Pullout, which is what I still think of when I think of the Dingle Peninsula. The views here are spectacular. You could see the beach we visited on our first night, and you could even see the house we were staying at! The cliffs straight ahead (The Three Sisters) are where Star Wars was filmed. 

To the left you can see the three peaks that are the Three Sisters

The farmers planted crops all the way to the tops of the hills. There is kind of an eerie line that shows where they stopped planting crops after the Famine, because they didn't need that much from the high number of deaths. 

We next stopped at the Gallarus Oratory, which was built about 1,300 years ago. It is an old Christian church, and is actually one of Ireland's best preserved. The stones are so tight that they are waterproof, with only the door and one window on the back to offer light.

                                       

After Gallarus Oratory we went to Dingle town and walked around for a minute and got some delicious treats!

Also, look how tiny this bed is haha.

May 29:

Today it was rainy, and we had to check out of our place and get moving to our dinner stop. So we decided to go to a movie! We hadn't done that while we have been gone, and we went and saw The Secret Life of Pets: 2. Henry and Della both got a little scared of the wolves, but they loved getting to go to a movie!

BUNRATTY CASTLE! This was the hokey thing that I signed us up for, but no regrets! We got to go and see the beautiful castle and grounds, and then we were able to go in and have a traditional dinner like we were guests coming from far away. We were greeted with mead (or juice for us) and then were treated to some beautiful musical performances.  Then a hilarious man named Jim was the leader for the night and told all kinds of jokes. He took a particular interest in our kids (by far the youngest people there) and came to talk with them a lot. 

Dinner was tasty and fun -no utensils to keep it real- and then we had another musical performance that was so beautiful. This was so fun and so, so well done. We loved it here! They even played around with an audience member and told him that he had to go down to the jail because he did something (I can't remember what). It was a good time.

May 30: After the Bunratty dinner last night we drove to Ennis and checked into our new place. This is the cleanest place we have had in Ireland, and I am so happy about it haha! I want to stay here forever. It's cute and right downtown in the tiny town of Ennis. Today we took it easy. Our only outing was to take the kids to a little play place so that they could get some energy out. They are doing so good! We're nearing the end of the trip but we still need to pace ourselves. There are a few more things that we want to do!

May 31:

TODAY IS A DAY THAT I HAVE BEEN DREAMING OF FOR A LONG TIME. WE VISITED THE CLIFFS OF MOHER. THE CLIFFS OF MOHER!! It's about an hour drive to get out there from Ennis, so we were watching the weather forecast trying to make sure that we didn't drive all that way for nothing. In the evening it looked like it was clearing up really nicely so we hurried over and got a nice bonus for the weather. We were able to see the cliffs in the sunny, bright weather and then also in the brooding, cloudy, moody weather. It was really amazing to see it in two different ways.

A little traffic jam: a farmer was moving a herd of cows across the road haha

We got there and walked a while in one direction, staying behind the barrier and only crossing over for some pictures really quickly. I wanted a picture there and it got so windy I felt it pushing me and dropped down, but my jacket almost went over! After that we were more careful haha. The wind here is no joke!

The Cliffs of Moher did not disappoint. They were just as stunning and sheer as I had hoped they would be! I loved watching the waves crash so far down below, and to see the birds swooping in and out of their nests stuck on the cliffs. It's one of those places that I could have gone a little further away from everyone and sat down for the whole day with a picnic- if I wasn't scared of my kids being blown over the edge haha.

June 1: Today we went hiking out in the Burren! Our main goal here was the Cliffs of Moher, so we were just hoping we would have good enough weather to see that. When we got that in yesterday we knew that today we would be able to go hiking and explore a little bit!

The burren is an area that is all barren, full of limestone, caves, and fossils. We saw some cool ones! And a ton of frogs and wildflowers this time of year. Henry loved making a little fairy house out of rocks and we all enjoyed our little popcorn picnic in the flowers.

June 2:

Another Sunday, another branch! Today we drove up to Galway and had the hardest time finding the church building, but eventually made it. It was a little office space next to a tire shop. Go figure. We enjoyed church and made friends with a really nice old man that was visiting from Arizona who totally befriended my kids and gave me thirty minutes of sanity. Bless his soul.

After sacrament, these cute girls came and got Della. Also, Rusty and I subbed in Nursery haha.

After church we went home to rest and then came back out to Galway to walk around a little bit and get some food before we saw Trad on the Prom. We looked up some good restaurants in the area and ended up at a little pub that had the most delicious food ever. Seriously, pub food is so great here. And Galway is a really fun city to walk around!

After dinner we went to the show. This show was phenomenal and I am so glad we did it. I knew that while we were there I wanted to be able to see some sort of Irish dancing and in my online searches I found this place. I bought tickets for it before even knowing much about our trip outline and it was a great choice. I can't imagine any show being better than this one. The dancing was indescribable. I had no idea that bodies could move like that, and it wasn't just silly and weird like I thought it might be. It was beautiful and graceful and moving. And a man played a song on his Irish bagpipe (who knew there were different kinds) and it was so sad that I thought I would cry. I gained a huge respect and appreciation for Irish music and dance tonight. And so did Henry! He wanted to get a picture with all of the pretty girls haha. We were able to see the top dancers in the world (literally the #1 male and female dancers, and everyone else was top ten). The man had just flown back in that day so we were really lucky to see him. He and the top girl were my favorites. They looked like they were just floating up there.

Our house near Galway had a real thatched roof and a peat fireplace, but it was really gross and dirty inside and I did not love that. At all. haha.

June 3:

We took a day trip out to the windswept Aran Islands by taking a ferry. While there we rode our bikes around this beautiful, sleepy island. Although there wasn't anything dramatic or exciting about the day, I couldn't help thinking: "This is joy. This is so amazing. This bike has a cute basket." I've always wanted a bike with a basket haha. Dreams came true that day for me! 

We had a tasty lunch at one of the only restaurants on the island before going to Dun Aengus, which is a prehistoric fort that dates back to 1100 BC. It is right on a cliff, and every year as more of the cliff erodes more and more of the fort falls into the sea. My favorite part was the stone slabs that are stuck in the ground up and down as a defense against attack. 

                                     

Defensive slabs

After the fort, we rode our bikes back to the ferry port but this time we went the other way around the island. It was beautiful! I loved that we got to ride right along the coast.

June 4:

Today was our last day in Ireland, and our last day on this trip around the world. I can't believe it's over, and I also can't believe that we did it. It feels like a dream, like a different part of life. But we definitely ended the trip with a bang! We drove to Ashford Castle, a massively expensive castle/hotel that is the fanciest place I've ever been. And we didn't even go inside haha. We could not afford to stay here but they offer a falconry program that we really wanted to try. Hunting with birds of prey is a big part of Irish culture and tradition, and people still do it today. We got to go to their falconry school and take a hawk for a walk around the beautiful grounds. It was a little rainy that day, but nobody seemed to mind. Our hawk was named Inca, and at first she was not wanting to play along at all but with some time she was amazing! We got to hold her and feed her and then send her off flying again. It was incredible. Henry got a turn too, and he was PSYCHED! 

After the hawk walk we checked into a hotel that we got that is closer to the airport than our AirBNB. Part of why we chose it was because it had a swimming pool and we wanted to let the kids get all of their wiggles out before going on the plane. Well, we realized that we didn't have any swim diapers left, so I called all of these stores around us and they don't use disposable swim diapers here. So we decided to just take her down in her normal diaper and watch it- there wasn't really anything else we could do. We got down there and the pool was closed for swimming for the day for kids! It was like 7:00, so we were really bummed. But the guy said he would make an exception and let us go down for a half hour, which is all we really wanted so we said ok. Then he asked us if we had our swim caps, and we were so confused. Apparently to swim in any public pool in Ireland you need to wear a swim cap. So we bought the ones they offered, and then went to the pool and not a single soul had a swim cap on haha. Rusty went back up to the desk and tried to give the swim caps back and said that nobody was wearing them so we didn't want to buy them, and then the guy came down and yelled at everyone in the pool and told them to put their swim caps on. Then he came over and told Rusty he apologized that nobody was following the rules, but they would now. We got the dirtiest looks from everyone haha. They wore the swim caps for about two minutes and then they all came off again. So, we were in a tiny, shin deep swimming pool standing up with our swim caps on while everyone else was in the deep pool without their caps on hahaha. It was so funny. Oh, and I wanted to take a picture of us but there were signs everywhere that said pictures were not allowed. What?!

June 5:

Today we got up and packed early in the morning! I would be lying if I wasn't thinking to myself how relieved I was that we were going home and wouldn't have to do this anymore. It is exhausting! We drove to Dublin, returned the car, hauled the carseats and luggage through the airport and then got on our airplane. We had a layover in New York, and it was honestly the worst but we made it back to the good ol' USA eventually. Mom and Dad were there to welcome us home with balloons and posters! 

This trip was a once in a lifetime experience that we will never forget. We are so grateful and understand how lucky we are that we got to do this, and will hold these countries and people close to our hearts forever.


Henry's Highlights

• "I just saw a little lamby! Oh, I could just snuggle it!" when we saw all of the sheep driving the Gap of Dunloe
• "This place is crazy pants! There are ice cream cone signs everywhere!"-driving in Killarney
• I told him that I loved him, and I guess I repeated it not that long after. He said, "You just told me you loved me." I said, "Well, I didn't want you to forget." He said, "I don't want to forget you love me. Say it all the time so I remember." Now I'll say, "Did you forget?" and he will reply, "I love you Mommy!" 
• Henry is super into opposites. He thinks it is hilarious. "Yes means no and no means yes. Windows up Daddy! Hahaha! Isn't that silly?!"
• Loves his formula one car
• Says, "This is a catastrophe!!!"
• Likes "Air conditioner" to make his hair soft (conditioner in the shower)
• He picks me flowers all of the time
• He loves to teach Della, and he pretends to teach VIPKID classes
• Finally clicked with the potty training pee part! I told him he could only play that racecar game on the tablet if he didn't pee in his pull up haha.

Adeline's Adventures

• Della LOVES to sing. Like belt it out, with arms out to the sides waving around. 
• Della loves pretending to talk on the phone. She also loves her dolly and will give it pat pats and sing to it.
• She climbs everything! Everything! She uses pillows or whatever she can find. She is so busy and is constantly into something. 
• She likes to build things with magnets.
• She says, "Whoop Whoop!"
• We'll find her in weird places like shelves or closets
• Tells us "no" like it's not even a big deal. Like 95% of the time she says no when we ask her to do something. Always in a sweet voice.
• She still puts everything in her mouth. EVERYTHING.
• She tells us when she is poopy.