TIME FOR THANK YOUS!

THANK YOU TICE!
For your excellent computer know how services you provided today.
THANK YOU NATALIE!
For putting up with my "Pottery Barn" questions on a weekly basis.
THANK YOU CHAD!
For doing all that you do. If you didn't have us life would be boring.
THANK YOU EVERYONE!
For all that you do for our family. You know who you are!

16 Year Old in the House!

Does this picture scream "SIXTEEN" or what?

Christian is officially 16 as of last week.

He can get a driver's permit.

He can date (in groups, preferably!)

Everybody, watch out!

We Have No Internet!

We are fine, but the second bed and breakfast does not have access to internet. We are at the library looking up O'Rourke histories so I'm quickly going to write a post. We have been to Parke's Castle which was built on top of the O'Rourke fortress. We then spent a good part of the day tracking down the publisher of a book about the history of the O'Rourke Clan. We got one of the last ones straight from the publisher's house. Only a thousand were made, people come from all over to get one from him, they are RARE and he let me buy one. He also said I definately looked Irish!

The librarians are watching me, so I better get off the computer. Love all of you.
Lori

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.