Pinch Me..I'm in Ireland!

Next up on our travelogue...Ireland!   What can I say?    It was everything we'd hoped it would be...which was basically a country full of green (natural and man-made), stunning scenery,  and lots of personality!   We were enamored! 

On Saturday, we woke up early and took a tour bus along the Wild Atlantic Way.  Part of the route looked a bit like this with crazy hairpin curves that made us very glad that we weren't driving! 

We were very impressed with how green it was, despite it being the first week of March!

The end destination for our tour was out to the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher (also known as the "Cliffs of Insanity"--in case you happen to be Princess Bride fans.)     We very much enjoyed the  opportunity to see this iconic Irish site and we are pretty sure we saw a couple puffins while we were there, so that was cool as well!

Apparently, it's a somewhat regular occurrence that people die along the cliffs and, as such, they had many of the trails closed.  I'm not sure if they were seasonal closures or permanent, but this memorial was a sobering reminder not to do anything stupid...not that we are prone to doing stupid things...but, you know, just in case. 

After the Cliffs of Moher, we headed to the quaint little town of Galway!  We very much enjoyed wandering around this adorable place and Glen was quite excited/surprised to find the latest Brandon Sanderson book in the local bookstore. 

We had a full two hours to explore, but we wished we had scheduled a whole day.   

But, alas, we saw as much as we could in that 2 hours and then boarded the bus back to our hotel in Dublin. 

On Sunday we took a public bus to church...

and met a friend of a friend (Jen B.) there...

and saw the same sister missionaries we'd run into in Edinburgh the week before. 

It was a gorgeous day, so we  decided to walk back to the hotel, rather than taking the bus, so we could see more of the city.  

We started our trek back to the hotel by walking through the Glasnevin Cemetery and National Botanic Gardens, both of which were located very near the chapel.   

We really enjoyed our walk  through the National Botanic Gardens and were very much amazed at all the signs of spring, none of which were visible here in Utah when we returned, despite Dublin being full 12° latitude further north than Utah.  

We enjoyed the walk back through Dublin and spent the next day and half seeing as much as we could. 

On a whim, we  visited the National Gallery of Ireland when we realized that it had free admission...

Totally worth the spontaneous stop! 

We also visited the  Little Museum of Dublin after seeing a lot of advertisements for it and seeing it had good reviews on Trip Advisor, but we frankly found it a rip-off.   It was full of quirky exhibits like this tennis ball collection, as found by Dublin dogs...

and this one dedicated to U2...

and I don't even know what to say about this one...a little off-color/weird/who-the-heck-knows, but it mentions postcards, so that's up my alley at least!   All in all, worth maybe $5-7 to see, but we left feeling taken advantage of after the price we paid to be there! 

On the other hand, one of the highlights of our time in Dublin was EPIC-the of Irish Emigration Museum-and admission to it cost the same as the Little Museum, but was 100 times the better experience.   Honestly it was one of the better museums I've ever been to and I would totally recommend it for someone in Dublin who wants to learn more about Irish culture and heritage.

I didn't take many photos there, because it was so interactive, but here's one goofy one...

and one of the scenes you happen upon right after entering the museum...

To wrap up all about Ireland,  I'll finish up with a few more shots from around Dublin...

We had an absolutely lovely time in Ireland and would highly recommend a visit to anyone thinking about where to go next.    Then on Tuesday morning, we took the tram to the airport and took off for home.  Here's our final view of beautiful Ireland...

Stay tuned for one more trip blogpost to come.  Yes, yes, I know I said this was the end of the trip and that is true, but I still have one more leg - between Scotland and Northern Ireland - to post about.  😊

Mid-August at a Glance!

It's been a crazy few weeks and we're in the midst of even more craziness, but here's a glimpse at our mid-August happenings around here! 

Enjoyed the sidewalk chalk art at Alpine Days:

Picked up Charity (Ellie's roommate) and stopped at a smoothie place on the way home from the airport.  She stayed with us for a few days!

Went to a family gathering with Bobby and Buddy's families.  I hadn't seen some of my cousins in 20+ years, so it was great to see them.  It was a full house, but fun to be there.

We belatedly sung to my Nana for her 95th birthday:

Ellie, McKenzie, Charity, and Emma dropped in for a few minutes  before they headed out for a concert in Park City.  The performer was Cody Fry, which no one had really heard about, but the four girls were excited to go. 

Went to the Provo Farmer's Market on Saturday...

Went to the Alpine Days parade and other festivities.  It was a tad bit of a let-down without any kids with us.  hahaha

We've been going on lots of walks, which one day was matchy matchy: 

We've been seeing tons of deer...

And lots of raptors lately...

 

Glen flew in his boss's private plane down for some meetings in Saint George for the day...

 

 

Emma and Ellie made us a charcuterie board for our Sunday dinner... It was quite tasty!

Denali was super cute...

I like finding pictures like this in the camera roll! haha

Can't remember if I ever mentioned the sprinkler saga, but basically we found out that our water meter and our neighbor's was switched and we were paying way too much!  It's a long story of how we figured that out, that involved not watering our grass for two weeks to prove to the city that something was wrong with our meter.  We FINALLY got it figured out and our lawn is still suffering the effects. 

Thankfully, we've had a lot more rain than usual lately.  Not quite like  rainy days in the East, but periods of time that are like a good soaking rain in the East.   We are hoping that it helps bring our lawn back to life! 

Ellie has also been enjoying the rain....

This is the least of the excitement of the last few weeks, so stay tuned for lots more coming your way...eventually!

The Fourth

 The fourth of July was just after I arrived home from Nashville/Birmingham and I may have been a bit exhausted that day--as evidenced by the first picture you see here.   Besides not sleeping great on the trip (which is becoming maddeningly more common of late), our flight had arrived in the wee hours of the morning on July 3rd, which meant my sleep deprivation was intense.  I think I have to admit I'm officially growing old, because I do not handle sleep deprivation as well as I used to!    

It was fun to have Emma join us for the day! 

Glen smoked chicken, and we made kale salad, corn on the cob, homemade freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade, and a fruit pizza for dessert. 

Everything was quite delicious! 

Later we watched fireworks from our deck, because there were at least 3 decent shows (at people's homes) within a couple blocks of us.  We are in the small part of our town where fireworks are actually legal, and it's pretty mind-boggling each year how all-out people go here in Utah.   The dogs (Kiwi in particular) were a little skittish.  

We found this cute photo on the camera roll from Ellie's 4th of July festivities! 

Later that weekend, Glen and I took advantage of a gift card the kids had given us for Christmas and ate at this super fancy restaurant called La Caille.    The food was amazing and the grounds were pretty spectacular too! 

Even the peacock was showing off! 

And last, but not least...what would a blogpost of mine be without a sweet picture of my grandbabies from that same weekend?   They were dressed in matching outfits Heather had given them and they were about as adorable as adorable gets, if I do say so myself.  

Hope you all had a happy Independence Day too!