from Dublin to Connemara and everything inbetween

Wow.

I'll never take a week and a half off of blogging again (when I have so much to blog about).

I have put all of my pictures in backwards. Meaning the first things you'll read about and see are the most recent events. Once I realized what I had done it was just too late to switch it and I had already been working on this post for an hour.

The past three days have been super laid back which we sort of needed. Especially Charlotte. You'll realize why once you see the rest of this post. Today we had a play date with a few kids/moms from church, Ben took Charlotte to our playground, and we went out for seafood yet again (yummm). Yesterday we hung out at our apartment, watched movies, and took a two hour nap. Sunday we went to church and had dinner at another member's home. Oh and celebrated Mother's Day.

The following is what happened the week prior.

On Friday we had to drop Nana off at the airport so we stayed for an extra day and visited Dublin. We didn't get through our whole list, but made a good dent. We'll be going back for another day or two next month before we head back to the states.

We were able to walk A TON through out the city and visited O'Connell Street, Temple Bar, Trinity College, Book of Kells, Merrion Square, Four Courts, a preserved Georgian home, and Marsh's Library.

My favorite were the Georgian doors. I took about 25 pictures just of doors.

Trinity College. You know that the way you get in is based solely on your exams after secondary school? Whatever score you get tells you if you can get into college or not. Each degree has a number attached to it which you need to get in order to go after that degree. I think it's out of 700 or something, which if you want to be a doctor or lawyer, you have to get. Philosophy is like a 300 or 400. You also have to decide what your major is before you start your undergrad. The fantastic thing is that it's 100% paid for if you continue to pass your exams throughout college. If you fail a test, you have to pay up.

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to this lady. We were so fortunate to have her for our first two weeks. She was my traveling buddy every day and I definitely miss her. Charlotte was so used to having her around that after she left Charlotte kept saying "nana nana nana" and looking around for her =(

On our way to Dublin we saw this van. Ben has an uncle Peter so we thought it was hilarious.

We also noticed that Curran is a very very common Irish name in these parts.

He was just collecting money dressed as a leprechaun.

A wee bit sad.

I'm not gonna lie... those pints of guinness look quite refreshing.

Oh goodness this girl is not a fan of the stroller anymore.

(yep, she still only has six tiny teeth)

The next six pictures are from our visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Site where St. Patrick baptized a bunch of pagans from a well that once stood here.

We unfortunately didn't have enough time to read about everything because the place was just huge. It had flags from wars that Ireland fought in from the past 200 years, knight's coats of arms from hundreds and hundreds of year, and the most amazing stained glass. Charlotte kept pointing out every Jesus she could see and saying "Jeezuh Jeezuh".

We also saw a few Currans buried there.

She was just tuckered out after walking about Dublin and found her way into our bed =)

Checking out O'Connell Street.

(the next two days are accidentally switched around... whatever... I'm too tired to change it)

Last Thursday we headed out to see a castle that was on Nana's list of things to do before she left. She had read about it in an Irish magazine that they have a monthly subscription to. We went to the town it was supposed to be at and couldn't find a thing so we stopped at a gas station. They weren't sure where it was but pointed to a man working at the carwash and said he owned it and to go ask him.

HA! We were so confused. Sure enough, he was the owner looking to sell it and was really confused as to why we would want to go see it as tourists. We showed him the magazine article and he showed everybody around that his castle was in this magazine that an American was holding. He said it was small and to not get our hopes up.

Then he tossed us these:

THE KEYS TO THE CASTLE!

He didn't even ask us our names or anything. Just said to take our time. Luckily he was still at the gas station later when we dropped off his keys! It was a pretty small castle. But it was still a stinkin castle! It was on sale for €600,000 - now it's down to €450,000 - which is less than $650,000! Hello!

After feeling like we owned our own castle for an hour, we headed down to Kinvara for lunch and to check out their local castle. Dunguaire Castle was built in the 16th century and is in a fantastic state. They've renovated each floor to represent what the castle looked like in that century starting in the 1500's on up.

Trying on hats in their gift shop.

Afterwards we picked up Ben and headed back to Galway to eat at Nimmo's.

Later I was holding Charlotte and running away from Ben while he chased us. He captured some great little moments on his iPhone.

Outside Nimmo's.

Their restaurant is in the Spanish Arch.. how cool.

Last Wednesday we headed to a friary that's been abandoned since the 18th century. It was built in the 14th century. The poor monks that lived there were kicked out so many times I lost count as I read the history. It was huge. As I walked through, I kept climbing through tunnels into new rooms, up and down stairs into new hallways... it was amazing. So far the best ruins I've seen.

This was a deep well they'd fill with fresh water and keep live fish all year round. Genius, huh?

As we were headed out of town we stumbled across the Ashford Castle. It also acts as a hotel with a golf course.

Below is the entrance onto its grounds.

Two Tuesdays ago we had a low-key day since we had been on the go so much. We headed out to downtown Galway to shop and site see. I bought a Claddagh ring (which originated from Galway). We also visited St. Nicholas Church where Columbus visited right before he left for the New World. This is where Nana went to church one Sunday.

Two Mondays ago Ben didn't have work so we all headed to the Aran Islands. We took a 40 minute ferry out across the Atlantic and rented bikes for the day. We biked all over visiting ruins dating from the 6th century. It was really cold/windy/rainy that day, but still a lot of fun to experience Ireland biking.

Charlotte kissing the gross window on the ferry.

Can you tell we don't worry enough about germs in our home?

Snacking on an apple on the boat. She asks for an apple about three times a day.

Lotte on top of an altar.

My family next to an old temple.

A temple from the 6th century.

When we would stop to look at anything one of us would go explore while the other hung out with Charlotte then we'd switch. I caught him teaching her to blow dandelions.

I love these two together.

She LOVED riding on the back of Ben's bike. He would purposefully go on bumpy areas and she would say, "whoooooaaa!" or "weeeee!" over and over. After a few hours she fell asleep on the back of that thing.

She loved the boat rides to and from the islands. I, however, am a wuss. On the way over the Atlantic was just super choppy. I got a little queasy, but she wore this smile the entire way.

She was tuckered out on the boat ride home and laid on Ben's legs most of the way back.

Two Sundays ago we went to church at an LDS branch that meets here in Galway. When all of the members are present there are 35 or so. It happened to be a holiday weekend so maybe half of that showed up. It was fast and testimony meeting which was awesome to hear everyone's testimonies. Almost everyone spoke of the temple and its blessings. The closest one that they can attend is in London.

The branch was so excited to have visitors and were really welcoming. We were asked by a family over for dinner that night (a family by the last name of CURRAN =) The wife is actually from a family that Ben's dad knew while he was on his mission here. She was born a few years after he served here, but her older brothers, sisters, and parents knew my father in law really well. He even did one of their baby blessings. Small world, huh?

Two Saturdays ago Nana (Ben's grandma) watched Charlotte for the day so we could go explore. We went on a long drive all around the Connemara Peninsula. There were some barren and rocky areas where you could see why people packed up and moved to America for an "easier" life. Then an hour or so later we drove through the most beautiful land I've ever seen. Mountains, streams, random castles nestled in a forest.

Breathtaking.

The three videos below are of us biking on the Aran Islands (just a quick video to show you how windy and yet awesome it was), bells ringing at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, and Ben/Charlotte chasing birds in Dublin. He kept doing this with her all day to get her happy about staying in the stroller. Now she always asks where the birds are. Enjoy.