Trip of a Lifetime

 Growing up I always loved that my mom was from Belfast. I am not one to love attention, but I loved that I could say that. We've heard stories of her home and life growing up and of places she went. All the time they were only stories but we all hoped one day we would be able to see it. When I was a preteen I wished that I could be sent to Ireland to go to school, mainly because I wanted to come back with a cool accent. That did not happen. 

Around Thanksgiving or Christmas Paul started to talk about taking a family trip to Ireland. Mom and Dad were in, so I had to go. It possibly is their last time going, or at least last time doing a big trip going all over. I was very lucky and fortunate to be able to go, and it was so worth it. It was just me from my family. Paul and his whole family, Mom, Dad and Scott and his kids went. 

I was very nervous for the flights, but they weren't that bad. We left 12 hours before Scott but they got to Dublin about 30 minutes before us. 

All of us in Idaho, hyped up and ready to go.

Second flight. We flew from Idaho to Portland, had a long layover then went to Iceland then Dublin. We left the house at 7:15 am August 2nd, Idaho time and got to Dublin August 3 at 4:15 am Idaho time. A long day of travel.

Waiting in the Portland airport for the airline to open up being able to check our bags. We had a lot of luggage. 

This is a thing here I guess? A coworker said it was popular, so I sent a free foot pic. 

I loved being able to watch where we were. Also being able to see who was in day and who was in night. 

We had a little layover in Iceland, very random, but their woman's bathrooms were amazing. A little room each stall. 

This was a cool troll in the gift shop. 

Once we got to Dublin we got out bags and dropped them off at the hotel and walked around until we could check in. Poor hotel said they could hold our bags and it ended up being 13 bag and about the same in backpacks too. 

We just randomly walked around. We got tickets to tour Dublin Castel but had to wait a little for our tour to start. We went to Trinity College, just for a few minutes because there wasn't much to see. 

The streets are so cool to look at. All the buildings are side by side, no space. Different colors and so much to see. We did stop at McDonald's and I got spicy nuggs (delish) and a strawberry lemonade slush (amazing) 

A weird building next to the gates to Dublin Castle. 

There was a chapel while we were walking around that had a really cool statue. It looks like a homeless man but if you get closer you can see the marks on his feet and realize it Jesus. My parents loved this one and had to make sure we found it and saw it again. 

Dublin Castel. The round tower is the only part of the original that is still standing. It was a mix of Viking and Medieval building. The chapel next to it was built in 1807 and the person who had it built at that time spared no expense and did high end for everything. The tour was really cool to see and our guide was pretty funny. 

This is part of the old Dublin Castle. This was part of the water that was around it. The wall is what used to be the outer wall. Now on the outside of it is lots of buildings. 

This is the ruminants of one of the circle towers. It used to house all the gunpowder for the castle but had to change when some fires started. A whole tower full of gunpowder would have made for one big boom had it caught on fire. I don't fully remember what happened to the tower but you can see the medieval building ways and the Viking building ways in the left overs. 

This was the chape. 

The king or ruler of the Castle was a big man and made this oversized seat. 

There used to be a lot of balls and dinners held here. Since the start of it, it had be added onto and changed. Here was held things like the show Bridgeton, where girls would come starting much younger that we would think is okay now, to find their husband. To be risqué, women would flash their ankles to their suiters to tempt them. Oh have times have changed. 

That night we made it back to the hotel. After we went to a store and got some dinner and water and went to sleep. I laid down and was trying to add pictures to a Google doc we had started but kept falling asleep as I did it. I crashed at 12:50 pm Aug 3 our time(7:50pm Dublin). I had been awake since 6:15 am Aug 2nd. The longest I had stayed awake in a long time. I slept so well, woke up really refreshed, looked at my clock and it was 11pm in Dublin. I didn't sleep as long as I thought. Thankfully I was able to go back to sleep. 

Becks Special Night (Only the boys)

 Kilie is in Ireland enjoying a vacation with her family and seeing her mother's home country, so Beck's special night was just the two of us. Beck love's to pick "fancy" places to eat and we usually go to Barbacoa and get a steak, this time we went to one of their sister restaurants Coa del Mar in Eagle (basically the same place but more seafood focused). We still ordered the steak on the hot rock. :)

Because it was seafood focused we had to get a ceviche to start out, this one was a habanero mango with shrimp and white fish. We thought it was pretty good.

Beck decided that dessert was on him, little did he know you don't order off the secret menu. Most of the dessert's were around $15. The waitress mentioned these truffles off the secret menu and Beck decided to order those, turns out they were $45! But the presentation was cool I guess.

Jackson's Fun Week

This past week Jackson spent it with Bryan and his family. They went to Utah on a family vacation  and invited Jackson to come along. They spent a day touring SLC, went to an escape room, spent 2 days at Lagoon, went to the Hogle Zoo, watched a movie, went swimming at a pool, went to a mall to shop and ate a lot of good food. He text me each evening telling me how much fun he was having. The best part was when he got home, he gave me a big hug. No matter how old they get, those hugs always mean the most.

He said this place was really good, and a little bougie. Some good looking desserts. 

 

Some Church History and site seeing. 

The escape room

His favorite 2 days of it all. He loves going on rides. This was the newest one they had. 

The did a western picture, it looks so fun.

At the Zoo, the orangutangs were his favorite. He got a stuffed animal of one. 

The trip in his words:

This trip was extremely fun, my favorite part being obviously Lagoon. At Lagoon I rode every rollercoaster and my favorites were, Cannibal, Wicked, and Primordial. My least favorites were Wild Mouse and Jet Star 2, these two rides are just painful, hardly fun. Then when we went to the zoo my favorite part was the primates; I've always loved monkey's so this exhibit was the best, with orangutans and gorilla's. The food was also super yummy, my favorite was Dave's Hot Chicken, but exclusive to Salt Lake would be, Salt Lake BBQ or the Pastry Shop that had great desserts . As a whole this trip was amazing and the people I did it with are also fun people to hangout with.

A Crown and a Medal

At the camp reunion, the Young Women President gave me a crown and Payday. It was a sweet thank you to get. 

For way longer than I should have been, I have been doing a Conqueror challenge. I started on for Dublin. It was a path around Dublin. When you reach certain marks you get a virtual postcard and can even do a view of the real area. Last week I finally finished it. When you finish it, each one has a metal that goes along with it. 

They are all pretty cool and are really good quality too. 

Since were going to Giant's Causeway in a few weeks, I decided to start another one that is based there. We'll be doing a lot of walking in Ireland as well, so hopefully this one wont take as long as the last. 

Grandma and Grandpa Camp

 

This past week was Grandma and Grandpa camp. This year they went camping and watched a play at the Starlight Theater. They watched Shrek the Musical. They all had a lot of fun, were super tired when they got home, but love it. 

This is from the morning. No one got a lot of sleep. Emery takes after me and is not a morning person. 

They had matching shirts, which made the group stick out, but in a good way. 

I love they do this every year and the kids love it too. Cailey made her debut at her first camp too. It's always nice for all of them to get together and spend the time together. 

Emery Catch Up

 

Emery and Jenna colored their hair the other day. Emery only did half of hers red/pink, but it looks really cute. They were a little messy with the color. 

She also has been doing a lot of art. She's painted and made everything on the wall. 

She also loves to crochet and I love plants, so she made me this. It's turned out so well. 

Emery took care of some cats over the weekend and the owner gave a print out of them both. It was the best and funny to read. She only saw one cat for a few seconds the whole weekend. 

Moving Things Around

We moved two rooms around in the house. I love how it turned out but mostly love having bookshelves. They are a little empty now, but that just means I need to get more trophy book. 

With moving the rooms around we moved the blanket basket back into the room, so Luna has her queen spot back. 

Can't forget Eevee, she fell asleep in a weird way while we were playing games.