Ireland June 2010

We took a family vacation to Ireland in June, and it was a blast. We went slow and had no real schedule to keep. We practically shadowed the exact same trip Dave and his brother John took last year, which meant Dave had seen and been there before so if Ava had a hard time he took her and let me do my own thing.

We had an early flight out of Stansted so Ava was hauled out of bed and straight into the van, we never even changed her clothes until we got to our B&B. The flight was quick, just over an hour, much better then the 8-9 hours we are used to.

Picking up the rental car was a bit of a drag. The ladies in front of us were having so many problems. I bet Dave stood in that spot for over 1/2 an hour! Ava was dead tired by now.

When we finally got to our B&B it was a sweet surprise. The owner was really nice and very hospitable . Dave was a real gentleman and slept in the double bed with Ava so I could have the single to myself. There was a cat named Ginger who instantly became Ava's best friend, she never left that cat alone. From the minute she woke up she was asking "Ginger where are you?"

We changed our clothes and quickly left to visit the Ross castle. Irish castles are more of towers with courtyards. We didn't pay to go inside but got a couple of nice pictures. Ava had a blast feeding the ducks in the lake.

Muckross House was beautiful and I wanted to take a tour but it was almost an hour long and I knew Ava would never last so we decided to hire a Jaunting horse and rider to take us to the waterfalls. Ava even took a turn controlling the horse, it was a fun way to travel. Our horses name was Suzy.

The next day we drove to the Beehive homes, made only from stacked rocks and suspected to be built around 2000BC. The hills are completely littered with rock, it's really the only material around to built anything with.

There were beautiful landscapes, endless rolling hills covered with emerald grass and road side sculptures. Even their homes and gardens were spectacular.

We stopped at a beach along Sleahead Drive, which was breath taking. The birds ate half our lunch when we carelessly left it alone and played in the ocean.

This is Ava taking on the jellies!

We wiggled our toes in the sand and in the water. Right before we left Ava got a little too close and was taken over by a wave and completely soaked. We had to strip her and the only thing left to wear was a sweatshirt and towel.

We climbed rocks and jumped off a few. I was seriously scared, but my face was worth the picture, it's not fake at all.

Ava fell asleep in the car as we drove into Dingle. We found a great parking spot, where Dave waited in the car with Ava as I quickly darted into every souvenir shop in the entire town. I found a bathroom and blow dried all of Ava's clothes so when she woke up we could go get ice cream.

On our drive back to the B&B we stopped to see a small waterfall on the side of the road, and were told by another tourist that there was a beautiful lake just beyond the rocks. We decided to climb to it even though we were only wearing flip flops and had a 2 year old who wouldn't keep up. It was amazing and huge with a thick fog blanket.

On our last day in Ireland we visited the Blarney Castle. It was a Saturday in June which meant that every tour bus in the country was visiting as well. The line "cue" to kiss the blarney stone was long and slow, Dave had to take Ava out while I waited my turn. At some points you were stuck in a stairwell as wide as your shoulders for as much as 10 minutes, I'm not claustrophobic but it was a little nerve racking. In the end the "Blarney Stone" was disappointing. It' wasn't different or unique, It looked like every other stone in the castle wall. You have to get on your back and bend over the wall to reach the stone, which is awkward and before I could have the lady behind me take a picture I was already getting up. Oh well I did it and nothing is different in my life so who really needs a picture.

There were some escape caves just under the castle that Ava thought she liked until it got really dark and muddy then she wanted to get out as fast as she could. The gardens around the castle are beautiful and full of walking paths with urban legend readings. Dave decided to even try kissing the witches stone.

I'm so glad we went to Ireland! It was never on my must see list and I was worried about the early flight in and the late flight out. In the end our CHEAP tickets were so worth it and I had a great time with my family.

950sqft of Miller

Our landlord dropped by a couple of weeks ago and allowed us to break our year long contract if we could find new tenants. I thought this would be a piece of cake and that there would be lots of people interested, after all the house is nice we just need something bigger. Well things changed quickly when he said he wanted us to up the monthly price from 1,050 to 1,100 pounds and that I had to do all the advertising for it. I have it on a local website that many military people look at and with 2 adds (each of them having been looked at over 300 times) there still isn't much interest. So here is a little tour of our home.

This is the second level: The house is small, around 950 sqft

I made the curtains in Ava's room from a Full Sheet set. I think they turned out really cute, but they don't do a whole lot of light control, her room is really bright in the morning.

Ava loves to look at pictures of herself on the computer and camera, so I thought the perfect art work in her room would be pictures of her. She likes to describe each picture and where it was taken.

Yup that's really it! Well there is one more room (the junk room) that I used to hate until yesterday when Dave and I put some serious elbow grease into cleaning it up but I haven't found my camera to take a picture yet.

Some fun facts about the house:

1. There is no air conditioning or air flow so you have to vent by opening windows or mold will start to grow

2. I have to iron in the hallway

3. There are no outlets in the bathrooms you have to use an extension chord if you want to look at yourself in an mirror while doing your hair

4. There is a washer dryer combo unit built into the kitchen cabinetry. It will wash 2 pairs of jeans or 5 shirts in a 2 hour cycle, and don't even think about using it as a dryer, just hang them

5. My fridge is the size found in a RV camper, I buy milk every 4 days

6. I do the dishes is a single basin sink

Church Farm Petting Zoo

We visited a small petting zoo last weekend called Church Farm, in Downham Market. It was a sweet little farm, very well kept with nice friendly animals. I wasn't sure if Ava would be brave enough to actually touch the animals but she surprised us and really liked stroking the pigs and chasing the chickens. They had trampolines and a huge Swiss Family Robinson play place. It was a beautiful, hot Saturday and I'm so glad we got to spend it with Dave. He was been working a lot lately and it felt like a treat to spend a weekend with him. Ava can't stop talking about this farm so we might have to make another trip.

I accidentally let one of these goats out of the pen while trying to shut the gate behind me. Dave tried to round him up but instead got all the kids excited and they all started chasing this poor goat. Finally a worker hollered "everyone stand still" and the kids stopped running, she got a bucket of food and the goat was back in. This was the first thing he did after re entering the pen, and being the good mom that I am to took a picture instead of grabbing Ava out of the way. They only did it once and then went back to eating the grass.

Love my NEW bed

The other day I was talking with a friend and she asked if Ava was still sleeping in a crib? I said "yes" and quickly gave the reasons both good and bad on why. They went like this:

She hasn't learned how to get out of it yet

She likes her crib

I really want to get her a twin and skip the whole TODDLER BED

Mattresses are a lot of money

There isn't enough space in her small bedroom for a real bed

I thought we would start fresh with a new bed when he move to a 4 bedroom house. . .

Dave and I had actually thought and talked about the differences between a toddler bed and a real mattress bed. I liked the idea of skipping the cost of a toddler bed and just giving her something to grow up with. Dave knew how much Ava liked her cousin Dani's bed and thought she would adore a small bed of her own. So yesterday we agreed to go look at what the base furniture store had. We didn't know exactly what we would leave with but knew Ava needed a little more freedom and choice when it came to getting up and out of bed by herself. Plus potty training is imminent.

In typical BX fashion they had only 1 toddler bed available and the twin mattresses were way out of our price range ($700) We decided to take the bed and had a sweet surprise when we found out it was "ON SALE" At the pick up zone we found out why we had been given the discount. It was the last bed left and the box was completely damaged. After inspecting it and making sure we had a signature proving damaged packaging, we took it home. Ava was so excited she kept saying "Ava's new bedroom"

The first night was a complete success! I know she got out of bed at least once because all her stuffed toys that were on the floor were now on the bed, but she never opened the door or left her room. I woke up a few times in the night and wanted to check on her but held back thinking she is a BIG girl and I need to just let her sleep. In the morning Dave looked at her and she had turned around backward but was still on the bed sleeping. What a good/big girl! I'm proud of you Ava. Now we have to see how an afternoon nap goes.