St. Patrick's Day

This is a little late, but we didn't do much for Saint Patrick's Day. We wore a little green, tried to find bums to pinch etc, etc... but mainly we just enjoyed the insanely lovely weather. We had a beautiful week of sunshine, all the snow had melted and temperatures were well into the 60's, so we were outside as much as possible. It then snowed the following weekend (boo) and is finally starting to climb back up again this week. We spent the morning of the 17th playing with friends and the afternoon in the park. Not a bad way to spend the day. I hope we can spend a good part of the summer like this!

Here is Eleanor wearing her green MSU sweatshirt and her new pigtails. Oh, and of course her shades. She thinks it's really funny to put them on, and then wants to take them right off. Also funny. On our walk she finally wore them for more than two seconds when the sun was in her eyes. Everyone we passed had to wave at her. She made sure to wave back each time. Cutie.

She got a bonk right near her eye last week. It's healing quickly, but you can see it in this picture.

Yes Fonzie, you are the coolest.

Eleanor loves the bucket swings. She swang for over a half an hour. (Modern English now says it's swung, but I learned it as swang. Any opinions?) When I finally got her out, thinking she was bored, she got super, super mad. So I put her back in and we enjoyed another half hour.

We ran into two other families from our ward at the park. The Hills and the Hutchinsons. In Michigan, the second the sun comes out everyone races outside. It's been so nice after such a dull February. We were all sick for most of the month. Ugh.

Just swinging and swinging away.
Our ward also had a chili cook-off last Friday with our awesome neighbors, the Oversons, taking first place. There were over 20 chilies there! It was so good, and I ate way too much. We dressed Eleanor (and me, the dork) up like a cowgirl, but I didn't have our camera on me. A friend took some pictures, so I will post those later when I get the copies. Not much else to report right now. Clayton is very busy with school (and March Madness of course). Eleanor is trying to go from two naps to one and mom is trying to stop that. I have a feeling we all know who will win this round. Love to all!

Ireland!

We went to Ireland at the end of last month. We did another whirlwind-weekend trip, leaving on Friday and coming home on Monday. This is our Hotel in downtown Dublin. It is called the Fitzwilliam Townhouse. Very charming, but like most hotels in Europe, small and thin-walled. We were on the top floor with no elevator, so we had to really consider if we were going out again before we hiked up to our room.

There is a story that long ago when Ireland was under British rule, one of the queens died. They told everyone to paint their doors black for mourning, but instead everyone in Dublin painted their doors red, yellow, green etc... as a rebellion of sorts. Oooh, dangerous. Anyhow, all of the Georgian sector of Dublin still carries on this tradition of lovely colored doors. Our hotel's was blue. However, even though I've read this story in two separate books, it may have no merit. Who knows. They sure are cool looking. Below it looks as if I've pasted two shots together, but this is just how they look. There are hundreds of them.

This is one of the doors at Christ's church Cathedral. Really beautiful churches all over. It was hard to keep straight which ones where Catholic or Protestant.

Next is Dublin's Castle. Not very impressive, and mostly rebuilt in the 1500's on. We found a cooler one later in our trip.

This the main door at Trinity College. Trinity College houses the Book of Kells which is one of the oldest illustrated manuscripts in the world. It's neat, I guess. You can only see a few pages of it. However, the tour then leads you on to the coolest thing we saw there. The Long Room. An old library room that houses the college's huge collection of rare and old books.
You aren't allowed to take pictures in here. I understand, I also figure that if the Louvre will let you take shots of Monets and Rembrandts without a fuss, I could risk it here. No flash of course. I kept the camera in my purse so the shots aren't very good. But I just had to. This room is mesmerizing. We stayed in there just looking in awe for about 30 minutes. A must see if you are in Ireland.

Here is a link for a better shot: http://www.tcd.ie/Library/heritage/longroom.php
Or here: http://www.paddi.net/images/longroom.htm

This is the Ha'penny bridge. Named for the toll it used to charge to cross. A half penny. It was the only pedestrian bridge for ages. It crosses the river Liffey. It is just down stream from the Guinness brewery. They claim that water from the river Liffey is what makes Guinness so magical and tasty. Being teetotaling Mormons, we'll have to take their word on that.
By the way, they no longer charge you anything to cross it.
Cool windows. Great architectural details everywhere you look.
Clayton near the river. It was oddly green, and no, they hadn't dyed it for any festivals. Not sure I would want to drink anything made with it...but hey. Whatever works.


Take a good look. Or don't. This is the Molly Malone statue on Grafton street. She is also affectionately known as "the tart with the cart". Poor Molly. Getting groped by tourists on a regular basis. (Note the polished areas?) I had to hide my eyes in shame.


We took a train up to Malahide to see the castle there. It's about a thirty minute ride up and a gorgeous ten minute walk to the castle. Here is Clayton on the path.

And lounging in front of the castle. Nearby we passed Cricket fields with actual games going on. Sometimes you just see the perfect things to make you feel like you are abroad.

Here we are with the castle in the back round. There are something like 300 castles or ruins of castles you can visit in Ireland. Being limited on time we were thrilled to see such a good looking example on our short trip.

Well, our wandering is winding down. Clayton takes the LSAT this Monday and we are back to work and drudgery. Boo hoo. Thanks for indulging us on our blog. We might have one more trip to try, but who knows. We would like to settle down soon too. So expect normal blogs in the future.