Top of the morning to ya!!

Top of the morning to ya! As it turns out, no one in Ireland actually says this saying...so, of course, as soon as we find out the phrase is more American than Irish, we can't stop ourselves from saying it!

Our trip to Ireland was fantastic! Of course, I'm a bit biased, having a bit of Irish blood in me!

Our journey to Ireland was more of an epic traveling experience than anything else. We woke up at 3:15 am and drove two hours to Brussels. The drive would have been uneventful, except our car holds 5 people and we're currently traveling with 6. Which means, "double buckling." For those of you unfamiliar with this term (courtesy of Jacobsen family), it means you buckle two passengers into one seat belt. I drew the short straw and shared a seat with our youngest, Ben. He doesn't even remember sharing the seatbelt with me, he slept the whole time.

We did make it to the airport on time, thanks to Maggie 2 (GPS). I'm not sure we would have had such a positive result without her. About 20 minutes outside of the airport the cars/trucks came to a complete stop on the highway. After sitting on the highway for 20 minutes we started to get nervous about making the flight, so, Greg expertly put the car in reverse and drove about 200 yards backwards to the previous exit. It worked. Maggie 2 managed to help us navigate the side roads of Belgium and got us safely and on time to the airport. We were all elated and singing Greg's (and Maggie 2's) praises...but, we were quickly hit with the reality of making it to the check in on time. You see, we were flying on Ryan Air. I'm not sure if anyone is familiar with Ryan Air, but they are a low fare/no frills airline. One of their policies is to have all of the "check in" luggage checked in 45 minutes prior to boarding. We had 10 minutes to park the car, get the kids dressed and make it to the check in counter for our one piece of luggage. Panic set in...

Hail Mary full of grace, help us find a parking place... we found a great spot with some ease. Next was to get the three sleeping kids up and changed in the parking lot. Ben and Mackenzie snapped to attention and were fully aware of the time crunch. Sam, however, was not quite aware of our desperate situation and was still in the car and in his pjs when we were all off and running. After counting heads, I noticed we were short one and stayed back with Sam to help him adjust and change. He was not so happy about being rushed...needless to say, threats were made and tears were generated. Another not so high parenting moment...

As it turns out, the manic situation I had created with Sam was not necessary...the line to Dublin was long and not progressing quickly. We did eventually make it to the plane and enjoyed an uneventful and short flight to Dublin.

After unpacking and eating, we met up with some Irish friends of ours and enjoyed a great afternoon sightseeing and visiting their home in Dublin. Because we were all a bit zombie like by the afternoon, we needed to cut the visit short and head back to the hotel for some R & R.

The following day Greg played golf with some customers and the kids, Nana and I made our way to Dublin. Our only goal for the day was to make it to Dublin and visit the National Leprechaun Museum. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from the museum. I was basically trying to check off the kid box at this point. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised with our experience. It was amazing! Like I've previously said, I'm a bit biased, having some Irish blood in me, but it was truly great. The museum was established to honor and pass on the Irish folklore and myths. We not only learned all about Leprechauns, but also other Irish legends. The story telling was enchanting and all of us could have sat there all day and listened to the stories. Please, please, go visit this museum when you are in Dublin...with or without kids, I think everyone would find it to be a great learning experience and a ton of fun.

Thursday was spent playing on the beach and relaxing. I think after so many packed days, we all needed one day to hang out and play in the water. When I say "we", I mean the kids...the kids played in the water. For dinner we went to, Malahide, an adorable village on the water. Ok, so I have admit, I thought it was an exceptional place because they had...Starbucks. A moment of silence, please.

Greg took Friday off from work and we all headed to Dublin for some more sight seeing. Again, I had my goals for the day and I was pretty determined to accomplish them, despite the whining from my family. I wanted to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the Guinness Store House. In my mind, I had let everyone get what they wanted on the previous days; golf and Leprechaun Museum, so now it was my turn. The first box to check was the Book of Kells...I managed to get everyone to Trinity College only to find a huge line. The kids did a great job waiting, only because Greg had brought his phone and they were all engrossed in some stupid game on it. After about 20 minutes of waiting we managed to make it into the library to see the Book of Kells. Within about 5 minutes, Ben grabbed my hand and announced, "You wasted your money on this." I tried so hard to ignore his complete disinterest in it and tried to read the displays with some sort of attention. However, having the boys continue to grab me and convey their utter disappointment with the display over and over again, did begin to get under my skin and I was forced to threaten, yet again.

After the Book of Kells, we were ushered into the library. I literally gasped at the sight of it. Over 200,000 of Ireland's oldest books are carefully stacked and displayed in this part of the library. While I gasped in amazement, I think my family groaned with boredom. Ok, so the morning wasn't exactly kid friendly, but I do think they managed to learn something from the experience, despite their moaning.

Our afternoon was spent touring the Guinness store house. I'll go out on a limb here and say, not exciting, but the free pint of Guinness at the end might be worth it for some folks. Because I can only drink a sip or two of Guinness, Greg enjoyed 2 free pints. So, if you ask Greg about the tour, I'm fairly certain he'll tell you it is worth the visit.

Now for my least favorite part of traveling...souvenirs. The kids had an idea of what they wanted before we even entered into a store, but it still seemed like a long, torturous process to me. Sam wanted a "good luck charm" and found just the right necklace that displayed it. Mackenzie wanted to spend her Euro on a sweatshirt and found one within her budget. And, Ben...he, as some of you know, collects snow globes and has been collecting one from every place we visit. Ben is now the proud owner of 13 snow globes (most are at home). We think he has now surpassed Mrs. Harris' collection of snow globes. I'm not sure Mrs. Harris even knows she is competing with Ben in snow globe collecting, but ever since Christmas of 2008, Ben has been talking about Mrs. Harris' collection. Game on!

We finished the day eating dinner at an Irish pub at Temple Bar. Greg really wanted to have the authentic Irish pub experience, so we all indulged him for the evening. Unfortunately, the Irish music didn't start until after 9:30 at most of the pubs and we weren't willing or able to make it past 8 o'clock. We were knackered.

Our journey home was long...really long, but we managed to make it back in one piece and marriage in tact. So, all in all, another successful adventure.