Car Troubles!

I decided to go ahead and tell you about our car troubles.

While we were driving through the lovely, incredibly narrow roads, a car going the other way fightened our driver, who shall remain nameless, and he swerved and hit a large rock on the

side of the road. Because of the rock, the passenger side front tire grew a small bubble. We had to take it to the tire service place and get a new tire. And guess what? Keys and tires are the only thing not covered by the "Full Coverage Insurance" with Avis Car Rental. You can imagine how happy the driver, who shall remain nameless, was with this little drawback. By lunch time he was over it and we laughing about our "souvenir" we won't be able to bring home!

The Queen of Dundrum Castle

Today is day #2 in Northern Ireland. After starting off with some more car trouble, we drove to the town of Newcastle by the Irish Sea. It was like the New Jersey Boardwalk of Ireland in its off season. After staying there for a while we went to find Castle Dundrum (or what was left of it!) The first picture above is me in the highest part of the castle. The second picture is Chad showing you how thick the walls were through out the whole castle. The third is the whole picture.

After the castle, we went to the town of Downpatrick, where St. Patrick died and is buried. We also went to the County Down Museum where there were exhibits on the history of Northern Island. (Northern Island is actually part of Great Britain, and has a slightly different version of history). After Downpatrick, we went to the local ASDA, which is Walmart! It was not quite the same, being mostly a grocery store. Boring!

Tomorrow, we are going to do more family history stuff. We also might go to "The Outlet" which is like an inside mall.

Talk to you tomorrow.

We Made It To The Emerald Isle!

Well, I thought I was going to go bezerk on the airplane. After fighting restless less syndrome and swollen feet I finally passed out about 2:30am Delaware time. Slept for about an hour and have been up since. Our first experience was trying to figure out how to start our lovely Volvo. The key is in a box and it goes into this kind of ignition and you push the start button. Put this together with the steering wheel on the other side of the car and two people with very little sleep and it tool us a while to figure it all out.

Then, as you all know, Chad has the innate ability to sniff family homesteads out. So we left the airport, driving on the opposite side of the road of course, and started driving in the general direction of the McKeon homestead. As I passed out periodically, he pushed on and found the darn place! The man is amazing!

So, we drive up to the house wondering whether these people are going to think we are crazy, and we knock on the door. An adorable little lady opens the door and doesn't seem surprised in the least little bit. Her daughter-in-law was there as well. She tells us her daughter, the Ireland genealogy buff, told her to expect us this week. We were welcomed in but they were just sitting down for lunch so we walked around outside and took pictures while they ate. Then we went back and sat and talked with them. She brought out her family tree and Chad showed her how they were related. We are going to meet up with her daughter Tuesday evening.

Notice me at the gate sleeping! That leads to the next event. We found our bed and breakfast and I took a nap for an hour while Chad tried to connect to the internet. Then we ate at The Halfway House (which was okay, way too many potatoes!) and came back. I'm going to sleep very soon.

To Kirk: I haven't seen any leprechauns yet. Love you.

To Caroline: Still looking for Irish Webkins. Love you.

To Jake and Christian: Be good, help Tice, have fun! Love you.

To Tice: We owe you!

To Everyone Else: Wish you were here!

Hola Friends

Tice here doing a guest post. Lori was most disappointed that Natalie and I were unable to make it to Jake's concert tonight*. We were sans babysitters. They were all busy with prior engagements. We would've had such fun whooping it up and embarassing him. (We live for that, you know.) But, alas, we were unable to do so. No worries, Jake. We'll make it there next time. Or maybe we'll show up for your first date or prom...

*We did, however, get a picture of him in his suit. And we pinched his cheeks and told him how cute he looked.

16 Year Old Boys, Got to Love 'Em!

This week I have had the blessing of taking Christian to seminary every morning at 5:30am. He did pretty good the first three days, because he knew his "goodness" depended on whether he could stay up later. Getting Christian to the car is a whole job in itself. He's so sleepy and confused, that I end up handing him his shoes, his bookback, his breakfast, in order to get out of the door. I was standing at the door WAITING for him to walk out so that I could lock the door when he said

"I'm so tired of everybody waiting on me!"

You and me both, Christian, you and me both!

My son, Jake!

This is an old, but never been posted picture that I love. It was taken immediately after Kirk's sixth birthday party. We had eight very active little soldiers attend the party and by the end of the two hours boot camp I was DONE! The hilarity of Jake's pose sent me into fits of laughter! What would we do without him!

Guess Where I'm Going?

Chad has been talking about going to Ireland for a while now (actually, since he found out through family history that he's more Irish than I am)and he actually bought the tickets. It hasn't really sunk in for me, yet. He even took me to get my passport, and I still thought he was just kidding around. Every one say a prayer for Tice, because she's coming to hang out with the kids!

Picture Perfect Cousins

Hey, Jack! We just wanted to let you know Kirk got your letter. As you can see, he opened it before he even took off his coat. I think your picture is perfect!

Just so the rest of you understand, Kirk and Jack had a heck of a time playing last week in Connecticut during Kirk's spring break. If you knew where one was, you knew the other was with him! It was a hard and sad day when they had to say "Goodbye." Thanks everyone, for making Spring Break fantabulous and where anxiously awaiting for all the cousins to come to Delaware in a few weeks!