Ireland Week 2

I'm writing this entry sitting on the train about to depart for Galway. Apparently, I've timed my visit to Western Ireland to perfectly coincide with another storm, many of the passengers are on cell phones discussing the unusual weather this fall, much of which I've seen on my visit! We've witnessed the front page news hurricane that hit the southern coast of Ireland when we were in Wexford, an early icing in Dublin that made for a treacherous playground trip, and now this! I'm hoping all this fuss about the storm bound for Galway is just the another overreaction on the part of the Irish who only know fair weather. I've decided to call all of this stormy weather "rainbow opportunity weather." Case in point:




Brey was a gorgeous town with a cliffside path and beautiful views of the sea. Unfortunately, I turned back after a few minutes because of insane winds and rain. On the way back down to the car a rainbow appeared! We were able to see end to end but just couldn't seem to find that pot of gold. This is one of the few times I've seen both ends, and yes it was a double rainbow! If you missed the pop culture reference search YouTube for "double rainbow" and enjoy one man's exuberant reaction (that may be too light of a word) to a double rainbow over one of America's National Parks.




The sun peeping out from behind the storm clouds made for some interesting lighting. The tufts of grass just seemed to glow. I found a small footpath to follow down the hill and came upon an unmarked ruin, perhaps a home or church?





The waves were ridiculously huge and violent, what a site! Watching the sea birds in the wind was fantastic, they barely had to flap their wings.




Galway adventures to follow, Claire and I have just arrived for our little solo trip and will be walking about the city and doing some day tours in the west.

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Taking Ireland by Storm

I've been posting photos of our trip to Ireland to Facebook but thought Id
better share a few here as well! Claire and I are having a grand time and have enjoyed spending the past few days with the Admirand family and all their pets. Claire is just loving the dogs, especially the sweet natured pointer, Belle...unless Belle is trying to hop into Claire's bed in which case Claire throws all of her weight (all 30 pounds or so) into a shove that never seems to evict the needy-snuggler, Belle.


We've spent the last four days locally in the Rathfarnham area celebrating Kaitlyn's birthday, exploring the Wicklow Way, and just hanging out and catching up. There's been a good deal of fighting and loving as you can expect from four children under one roof, but Claire has greeted each new day with a smile and "where are my friends?!"




Jack who is in second grade (or second class as they say here) is tolerating Claire's affection very well, she's always on the lookout for him and will slip her arms around his neck in her chokehold version of a hug whenever he's off his guard. Four year old Kaitlyn and Claire either play really sweetly or are engaged in a tug of war over some toy or another, quite on par for the age and family standing. And last but not least, my uber snuggly Godson Chris and Claire have been caught numerous times snuggling on the couch...until Claire snapped the arm off a lego dude. She still hasn't been forgiven for that one but things seem to be on the mend.

This weekend we're having a girls only trip down in County Wexford. This is the first time I've been to the coast of Ireland (aside from Belfast) and I'm hoping the weather holds out for us. We've packed some rain gear for the girls and are keeping our fingers crossed that the "hurricane" heading for us isn't too bad. And here is my favorite photo so far:



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McManda’s Wedding

I had a few titles floating around in my head for this post -

“And the boys wore watermelon” a quip at Amanda’s color choice, she called it watermelon and I dubbed PINK (in all caps, shouted…loudly)

“For the Facebook Phobic” a poke at my friend Lauren who can’t seem to bring herself to join the fun but is desperate to see my slave labor tablescapes.

“Flower girl” Ok, not creative but Claire WAS the flower girl and seeing how she is the focus of the blog it works…right?

But alas it’s after midnight and a late afternoon coffee (bad idea!) has kept me wide awake, well that and the fact that I’m finally back online (!) after a storm knocked my phone and internet out (my lifeline!) and I have about 30 million things I want to read and catch up on.

But here I am dropping off a few favorite photos to share with you all with an untitled post because I just can’t think of anything catchy and clever this late at night.

I’m used to photographing wee-folk, but here’s a go at some wedding photography:

Aunt McManda smooching her new hubby DJ, note Claire’s headband hanging out in my bouquet – I didn’t notice that until just now!

Hello Photoshop, you are my friend indeed. I fully intend to blur out the groom’s eyes. Who kisses with their eyes open (let alone stares at the camera during a smooch?) You’re a freak DJ but I love ya anyway.

Ooh! A baby picture, how did that sneak in here? My sweet niece Jessica (or Jessa as Claire calls her) who snoozed through most of the reception.

View Full Album

View Full Album

Yes, the centerpieces were all hand made – on site, by yours truly and a few good friends of the bride. And no, we did not get much sleep the days leading up to wedding. We had to set the tables, and with a ton of dried orchids leftover, came up with the GORGEOUS place settings you can see in the second album. A stroke of genius I tell you! Look out Martha, I’m eyeing your job.

Aruba!

We had a great time in Aruba this year! I'm still going through photos so here are a few to enjoy! Sorry about the quality, my allotted space is almost used up here on blogger/picasa so I needed to shrink the photos.

And some more are here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=56928&id=1667141666

and here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=57343&id=1667141666

and here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=56946&id=1667141666

My personal favorite from the trip may be this one:

Cowabunga!

Just had to share this cool picture of Claire leaping off the table. I took it last week when we were visiting Grandma Caca. Shhh! Don't tell her ;-)

Camping with our Kiddo

As Claire is getting older, we’re finding it easier and easier to camp with her – less stuff to bring and definitely less worrying about what she’s going to find to put in her mouth.

Last year our stash of kid stuff seemed huge (see here and here), we were definitely able to pare thins down this year while bringing along a few choice toys and her stroller (which got tons of use as the girls loved pushing Claire and the other littles around).

Claire is still too young for the motorbikes and trap field so we stuck close to camp playing with friends, chasing balls and collecting creepy crawlies. I brought a few items from Claire’s dress up basket at home thinking the kiddos could play hounds and hare, a fitting game with all the sporting dogs:

One family brought an ice-cream maker in the form of a ball that all the kids chased up and down a hill and there was LOTS of hair-braiding. Next year I’m putting up a beauty shop sign so I can open and close the parlor as wanted ;-)

The playdoh people were a HUGE hit and even I got into creating them. Claire and I had whipped up some homemade playdoh a few days before the trapshoot following this very simple, no-cook recipe here. I brought along some markers for coloring and found they helped the girls with their creations – the playdoh was undyed so having the markers for a bit of color was helpful.

Step One – Get a nice hunk of play doh and shape it into a round ball

Step Two – Gather bits of nature (a quote from my model above) to create facial features. We got a nice botany lesson from Ara as we found bristly weeds for eyebrows and mustaches – thanks!

Mount your people to sticks and take VERY creative family photo, note the family pig…very cute:

Oh look! Claire is NOT too young for the quad. Note how Kelsie offered Claire every single piece of safety equipment she owned, too cute!

And here is the dynamic duo plotting their escape on the big bike, neither of them was to keen on the idea of taking a ride with Jeff this year, but sitting on an idle quad was just plain fun:

Dining, Sleeping & Playing Al Fresco!

We're back from our yearly trap shoot/camping trip! Things went so well with Claire, I'm really glad we did a trial run recently. Having the pack 'n play was awesome, but
the biggest difference was the other kids and teens for Claire to play with. Ginny, 15, was especially helpful (thank you AGAIN if you're reading this!) and Claire just adored her. I wish I had snapped a photo of the two of them, we'll have to wait for next year!

Most of the families camping had dogs so Claire had lots of animals to chase after, not to mention all the kids. She slept so well while camping, probably a combination of cool air and tons of exercise. We upgraded from a thermarest to a twin air mattress making things much more comfortable for Mommy & baby while nursing at night.
Our friends James and Cat watched Claire on Sunday so Mommy and Daddy could terrorize the orange birdies on the trap field together, and we even found time to ride the old Yamaha dirt bike. Cat got her first dirt bike lesson and next year she'll be zooming around with the kiddos

Enjoy the captioned slide show below, my time for posting with commentary is limited - Claire is pulling on my pants looking for some attention.

Babe in the Woods

Some might say we're crazy for taking such a young baby camping, but things went really well! We camped in the state park which borders our yard. Funny enough, camping isn't allowed in that part so we had to drive to the campsites about 7 miles away (yes, there ARE woods in NJ with some decent acreage).We thought it important to be close to home for this first trip. Forgotten items could be easily retrieved and of course there wasn't a long car ride to contend with.

We crammed the Jeep full of firewood, gear and some familiar sites (vibrating chew toy, Morty the moose) and smells (pillows and the sleeping bag she'd been playing with) for Claire. Photos on the left are of Daddy and baby about to get in the car. I had to post both, Claire has been grabbing at Dan's beard lately and the reaction shot is so funny, just look at her impish grin and Dan's laughing grimace!

After setting up camp and we went on a nice hike hoping to tire Claire out...that only worked on us of course! I think camping with an even younger baby might be easier, we couldn't turn our backs for a second with Ms. Mobile on the loose! Claire enjoyed toddling around the campsite clearing looking for new friends to play with or eat - no bug was safe! Constant vigilance was definitely the name of the game with the potpourri of choking hazards on the ground.

Claire was VERY interested in one large rock on the ground. She kept trying to lift it up and I'm not sure if it was the weight or the odd shape, but she never succeeded. Perhaps her interest was in weightlifting was spurned by all the Olympic viewing? The video is pretty funny. Find it here on the blog's YouTube channel.

What else kept Claire busy, you ask? A giant boulder she many times to climb. Eating pierogies and onions with Mommy - the two of us polished off all but three, poor Dan. Staring at the campfire (which was hell to start since the wood was wet, poor Dan again). Mostly Claire snuggled with us, toddled around and watched the world go by.

We left the campsite early Sunday morning after a brutal 5 am wake courtesy of the baby who fell asleep in my arms as the sun went down. Ugh, waaay too early. The night went well, Claire slept in a fleece sleeper on a nest we made her out of our fleece pants. I shared part of my sleeping bag and we wrapped her in my jacket, combine this with a matching fleece hat and you can bet this kid was warm (and full of static).

We think Claire's nighttime getup is photo worthy - even if it was 5 am when I took these pictures. Pink, it's the new camo baby!

Things we're bringing on our next camp out (labor day weekend - 4 whole days!):

• a playpen - enough said
• a flashlight - we actually forgot ours and middle of the night potty runs were a little dicey
• a dust pan to sweep out the tent floor, Claire finds the tiniest things to eat
• dry firewood

Phew! Is this my longest blog entry or what? We had such a nice time so I can't help but go on and on! It was especially exciting for Dan and I to return to a favorite pre-Claire activity and find we can still enjoy camping even with a baby.