Exploring Limerick - Day 1

Today I'm picking up the clunky narrative straight from our trip journal.  :)  In case you missed it, I thought I should finally share about our trip in July, and started here.  :)

"We found the Travelodge and settled in while Ruthie finished her nap, and decided to visit the King John Castle that afternoon.

"King John Castle is a great museum--probably worth the 10 Euros per person because 1) it has extensive hands-on exhibits which are fun even for little ones, plus 2) lots of room to run around since the tours are self-guided/paced and there's lots of space, and 3) it's a legitimate old fortress full of history and coolness. By the time we had had enough and bought a couple of magnets at the gift shop, the kids were getting hungry so we began searching out a potty for Gemma and food options. 

[This exhibit had foam blocks for children to practice building arches!  She had some help ;).]

[I learned a lot of history from the exhibits and the brief movie they showed.  It was a perfect way to start a tour of Ireland, since I hadn't done any reading ahead of time!  Ruthie just liked playing with the projector image ;).]

[A model siege tunnel]

[The next part of the museum was outside in the actual fortress.  It was so beautiful here--I could hardly believe we were all in IRELAND! :-D]

[Some of it was clearly reconstructed ;).]

[Another interactive display turns into a castle for Bio bio bio ;).]

[We had to!  It's tradition :).]

"Our first stop was at a bar with a sign in the front that deceptively proclaimed "food all day," since when we asked for two of the specials, the bar tender told us they stopped cooking at 3.  They had a potty, though, and after that we headed back to a pizza/fast food place we had seen earlier and got a 16" pie with "chips" and two drinks for 10 Euros.  The guy even threw in two juice pouches for the girlies.  (People love kids so much!) So, we took it back to our room and ate before John finally

hit the mattress never to rise again, and I bathed the girls and got them in bed by 8 pm.  All in all, it was a great day. 

John seems to have transitioned to driving on the left flawlessly, and the girls are right on track to adjust to the time change.  Praise God!"

Our Ireland Trip! Day 0

Back in July, the four of us went to Ireland for the wedding of Jenni and Sam.  I can still hardly believe that we've had so many opportunities to travel so many exciting places . . . eek!  I struggle a little with blogging about this because I really don't want to boast in our amazing gifts that we can take no credit for . . . and yet I do want to share our joy, especially with our families (I'm not sure my mom has seen more than a half dozen photos of our two weeks there, and there's something wrong with that!).  And so we begin.  We did a pretty decent job of keeping a trip journal this time, so it's likely that the narrative will be straight from that much of the time and very boring to most people.  That won't start today, though, because I need to get it from John's laptop still.  But here's day 0, July 9, 2014, the day we flew to Dublin!  

First of all, my mother was kind enough to drive us to JFK, even remembering to bring cash for the numerous tolls we had to pay (yikes).  We arrived with plenty of time but were quite encumbered with luggage.  We had kept the clothing for the four of us to one small suitcase and one small garment bag, but we had John's laptop bag, my purse, the soft carrier for Ruthie and a large frame-pack for Gemma and our two enormous carseats.  And we didn't bring a stroller.  Lugging all that stuff through the airport was a challenge on the shoulders, but we made it through.  

John also got momentarily detained because a page of his passport was coming out, but thankfully a second security person overruled the first one and let us pass.  Then we arrived at our gate, waited a while and discovered that our flight was delayed and we had to change gates.  We had several hours of just waiting, and lots of this sort of thing was happening:  

Of course, many of the passengers waiting along with us were Irish people returning home, so we got to just enjoy hearing them talking while we were waiting around!  In our limited experience, we've found Irish people of all sorts--from the north and the republic--to be just delightful, and that helped make our wait more delightful.  

I was a bit disappointed to discover that it was a smaller plane than we'd previously taken overseas.  Someone help me--it was three seats on each side of the aisle.  As Ruthie was ticketed as a lap child, it meant three seats for the four of us.  At least we were together, but it wasn't particularly roomy, and we had no choice in the in-flight entertainment this time, either.  We found ways to keep ourselves busy, though, and the children slept pretty well.  

Now it's time for the uber flattering "after" pictures, when we woke up after a brief night and arrived in Dublin!

Hooray!

Oh, the air was refreshingly crisp for July.  We collected our belongings and took a shuttle to pick up our rental car for the week.  We weren't ready to relax by any means, as John had to quickly adjust to British backwardness roadways and drive us to our motel in Limerick.  I was on high-alert the whole time, and he performed flawlessly that first day.  

I visited Jenni in Northern Ireland seven years earlier, but this was my first time seeing so much Gaelic!  

We did arrive safely, but that's another day's story.  I have a coughing child to attend to . . . 

E and E 9/27

This is the longest I've ever neglected the blog...ahh!  Under the conviction that it's better to just start somewhere than not to  write at all for fear of imperfection, we'll start back with the wedding of last weekend! It was the marriage ceremony of a dear friend who goes by her middle name, Edith. John has known her and her family since she was about ten, and was almost like an adopted brother during his years at grad school. Then, she spent many hours babysitting Gemma Grace on our choral society nights back before Ruthie was born, and often Eli would come along, too.

They chose to get married at a mountain chateau, which was utterly enchanting (heh, I'm not sure if it was actually a chateau, but the term seems fitting :)). It was basically a destination wedding, with the wedding party, immediate family and some of the other single folk staying ok location in the main house or guest house, but they had both the ceremony and reception outdoors. And they asked Gemma, Ruthie and another little one all to be flower girls! Gemma was very excited.

When we first made the intrepid drive up the mountain road, we saw a flock of turkeys and some young deer!  The miss the rock-work, the bends and streams were unsullied and elvish, and when I caught my first glimpseof the elegant roofline rising out of the mist, I also had to catch my breath.  

Friday morning the girls and I spent at a bridal tea with the ladies, and the rest of the day we spent exploring the grounds and home (which had an impressive playroom for the children) and holding my inconsolable, teething toddler while others ran about helping with food and preparations. Ruthie was not at all her cheerful self for the first day and a half and we had just about lost hope that she would be a flower girl at all. Gemma and the other little toddler rehearsed together on Friday night, and then we all enjoyed a cookout on the veranda.  

I loved how they ordered their flowers by the bucket from a local farm and made up all the bouquets and centerpieces themselves. I also really loved how brides of the past had left their bouquets hanging from the exposed beams in the kitchen.

Well Saturday afternoon came and Ruthie had gotten a decent nap. We got her into her dress but she still wouldn't be put down for pictures. At least there were some good ones of Gemma with the bride. And then John and I had a face-palm moment and gave her a small dose of Tylenol, which changed her demeanor within minutes! 

Soon she was happily trotting about inside the house holding her sister's hand! She was also happy to carry her little basket...once I put a chocolate in it. Heh. 

So, marvelously, all three little flower girls made it down the aisle! And the ceremony was lovely and uninterrupted by childish noise. Our girlies thankfully did fine and I don't know if the 14-month old was there the whole time or not, but everything was quiet and lovely! 

Since the groom is culturally Jewish, they chose to have a traditional Jewish ceremony with the wine, the huppah, and the stomping on a glass, among other things. It was very neat to witness. Our pastor's recent preaching from Romans 11 has warmed my heart to the Jewish people in a new way as we've been learning about the special place they held in the heart of our Father and their need for salvation. It was just neat how these events came on the heels of that preaching, and were all the more stirring and intriguing for me, personally.

I also loved how the bride incorporated some lovely crocheted lace into her dress! 

And it was a great idea to have the bridesmaids all wear black dresses of their choosing. Here are the three sisters of the bride...

 

Abi is the one on the left, is the photographer of the family. She's the one who has taken newborn/family photos for us when both our girlies were born, and she is SO talented! 

A few more photos....

Gemma seemed genuinely confused by the tug-of-war photos. :)

The bride and her parents. We love them all so much!

The reception...

...and the giant sandbox right next to the reception! This was such a child-friendly wedding! 

(For the curious, Ruthie's dress washed up just fine! We're getting Gemma's dry-cleaned since it was borrowed.)

Time to cut the cake! This was another smart idea they had: having just a small special cake and serving sheet cakes to the guests. 

Our children had so much sugar for two days!  And then the bride and groom had their send-off out the front doors of the house in the dark while we all waved sparklers.  It was an exceptional weekend in many ways. :) I regretted forgetting our good camera, but having only phone pictures has certainly made blogging about it easier. ;) 

We love you, Edith and Eli, and hope you're having an amazing honeymoon!