random happenings in July

So much has happened in the last few months and I feel like I haven't documented anything. I'm really enjoying myself, and I always forget to take pictures so I'll share with you what I've got!

We were all feeling really sad on the fourth of July because it was a rainy day, and lets be honest, America is a great place to be on that special day. To rid our sadness we had a little parade inside where Owen and Isaac rode up and down the hall with their fourth of July get-up.

Everyone went to a movie while Katelyn and I baked Dutchman's cookies and went to City Centre to find Claddagh rings for her sisters.

Bryce and Mandi bought a BBQ just before our celebration with the missionaries, and put it together in time for us to have a BBQ. I ate the best hamburger that night. Also fun fact-- Sister Valadez is from Ivins and my cousin is married to her brother Ricky! I was so excited to make the connection.

After all of our visitors left in July and we didn't have any vacations coming up, we were able to start making a regular schedule and explore the simple aspects of Dublin. Irish Village Markets at Merrion Square Park is one of my favorites. It is basically a food truck fest with live jazz music. They even hand out little blankets for everyone to sit on and it's really quite lovely.

The curry was easily my least favorite thing I've had from the food fest, but that smoothie was one I will never forget. It was made from freshly juiced fruit, with a banana to thicken it up a bit. It was incredible and my heart is broken because that smoothie stand hasn't been there since :(

We went swimming at the Aqua Zone where swim caps were required. It was so fun to do something that made life feel like summer. There were a few water slides and I was sent to check them out for the children. You can imagine how cool I felt waiting in line by myself behind a bunch of little kids who were also going down. The slide next to me was full of a big group of teenage boys with tubes who were going to go down a scarier slide. Friends and bravery. They were much cooler than me!

I love taking the twins to the park in the late afternoon to get them out of the house before dinner and bed time. This is always my favorite time with them, and they dress up in costumes for the park quite frequently. I love the reactions we get.

Ireland is weird. I am always seeing strange things everywhere, and I plan to make a little book of all the weird things I've seen when I get home, but this was by far one of the strangest. This picture was hanging up in the stinkiest room I've ever been in at the aquarium.

They also handed out these medals at the aquarium. "I touched a crab OR starfish" ha!

I usually text people before when I am going to bed and I always fall asleep. I wake up in the middle of the night every night so I'll always do my best to text people back. Conversations end up looking like this a lot of the time.

We watched high school musical, and later that day the boys did not want to wear their shirts. I'm one hundred percent positive it was Troy Bolton inspired.

We are somewhat frequent Dublin Zoo goers and Isaac wears this mail man costume every single time. He calls it his zoo keeper outfit and he often looks at people and says, "why do they think I'm a zoo keeper?"

We went to a lovely little fair in Bray. What I don't have a picture of is the funniest ride of all time that Mandi and I went on the cute hand carved weapons I bought for my nephew (ha, sorry Cass) and the delish kebab I had. I just love Kebabs!

They are always in dress ups or boots. Often times both.

We found this little note in Bryce and Mandi's room which made us laugh. I love the missionaries!

Katie was in town and we met up at Trinity College. It was so so so fun to see her! After we checked out the library we headed to Starbucks to escape that crazy rain storm and later went to dinner with her mom and sister.

Going to Glendalough is always one of my all time favorite outings.

When the weather was nice we would go to Britas Bay, our favorite beach, a few times a week. It was lovely, and we were pretty much professional beach goers by the end of the summer. I found a star fish one afternoon and it was quite exciting for a non-coastal gal like myself.