OCTOBER FEST(ivitites)

I had to take a math test at the Exam Centre in Ireland and I  loved my test proctor.  The Irish are a phenomonal bunch of people. Anywhoosie I studied my butt off all week so it was a pretty big day. When I got home from taking my test there were flowers waiting on my doorstep. Lexie and Bekah are the nicest friends, and although they were supposed to arrive the next day for my birthday, they came at the perfect time :)

I woke up to Mandi's dangerously delicious scones on my birthday and some nice birthday cards.

We went shopping while the boys were at school and I really took 'treat yo self' to the next level. Sadly I had to return a few things but it was still a successful trip :)

Torill sent me a creepy picture message :/

We went to the beach for a little outside time. I love this magical place. 

I love this sight. The boys always wave goodbye through the windows whenever someone leaves the house. Plus look how dreamy our house is.

I originally intended on going to institute but when it came time to go I couldn't make myself walk out the door. I usually don't mind taking the bus, but I really wasn't feeling the three hours of commuting on my big day ;) Sooo MJ took me to Gino's in Bray to get gelato instead. I got the mint chocolate chip in honor of my mom since she was obsessed when she came to visit.

This text from my dad made me laugh so hard. In his defense he later told me that he was using Siri to text so that explains the lack of punctuation and the spelling of my name.

After Linc sent this SnapChat he sent another one saying that my dad thought this was FaceTime. What a cutie. 

It's so weird talking with Max. He is so grown up these days! We actually sit and have a real conversation. Gosh I miss and love him.

This is what talking to Tessa is like these days...we really are personality twins ;)

Lot's of tree climbing happens around these parts and I'm always grateful that they have their bike helmets on :)

Carysfort park is a lifesaver!

This is my friend Vanessa. She moved here from Barcelona a month or two ago. We quickly bonded at YSA when we found out we only live a few houses away from each other, and I'm always grateful to have her to take the bus home with after institute since it gets over so late. Last week she had us walk in a pretty sketchy part of Northern Dublin so that we would only have to take one bus. We have a bus stop across the street from the stake center, but instead we walked a mile to save a bit of money. It definitely felt dangerous, but the next night my friend Karina was asking what bus I take home and when I told her the four she was like, "oh that's too bad you cant go to the bus stop nearby. That's a scary part of town. You don't want to go there!" I think it's better when you're naive about where the scary parts of town are :0

Just a little bit of Blackrock. The poshest town of all ;)

This is Blackrock station. I love that I live in such a peaceufl place, and that I get to see the ocean on a daily basis!

There is nothing better than a sunny day in Ireland.

This is the difference between Owen and Isaac during quiet time.

We were playing an intense game of football where they would get hurt, we would all take a knee, take them away in an ambulance, and then give them a round of applause for being awesome.

I had a really strange night at YSA. We were supposed to go to an activity an hour out of town with the YSA members who live outside of Dublin but there was an accident and traffic was too crazy to get there. Instead we ended up hanging out at the McKendrick's (senior missionary couple over YSA) and had some strange conversations. I didn't want to know everyone's opinion on kissing someone with a tongue ring. I also learned about Elder McKendrick's butterfly tattoo. You learn something new everyday, folks... :/

The boys love their hats!

Owen always borrows MJ's hat for "Cowboy Fight," which always results in tears FYI

 They don't have cookies here. They have biscuits also known as digestives. Guess what we had for dessert after institute. Digestives. Sick right? Well, actually no. I tried the chocolate covered ones last weekend and they are pretty tasty. I guess I'm officially a believer in Digestives..

 A lot of times when I am babysitting we head on over to the park for some much needed fresh air.

I love that "Buddy" is getting a little bit older and that he's able to play at the park with the boys now. You should see that little fella go down the slide while Owen and Isaac wait at the bottom to catch him.. it's the best.

We had to head down to Super Value to get some ingredients and the boys insisted on riding their bikes. I didn't know what to do with their bikes when we arrived so I made them push them around the store. Miraculous enough they did it without any incidents.

We made monster munch and the boys couldn't help sampling it along the way.

 I made a pie while I was babysitting over the weekend.  I detest pie but this is no ordinary pie. It has an Oreo crust, a yummy cream cheese (among other ingredints) filling, and fresh strawberries on top. It's amazing.

 I love and miss my sweet family.

We went on a "magical" sidewalk. Really we just went for a little stroll around the neighborhood but the boys found all kinds of hidden gems along the way and couldn't have been more thrilled.

 Rebekah is bringing it back with the HBL's. This one was baaad (I'm referring to the first part of the message by the way).

Cotton candy sky.

These are the YSA girls from the Bray branch who I love so dearly!

This tweet made me laugh.

I carved pumpkins with the Wink's and we had an Irish theme going on. MJ did a rainbow with a pot of gold, Bryce wrote something in Gaelic, and what you see below is my creation.

Tiffany and Mandi forced me to learn how to play marbles (aggravation) when we were in Northern Ireland and now I'm a super fan.

MJ was Princess Leia for Halloween and all of the members of the Bray Branch could not have been more thrilled.

I was a deer for Halloween. I was going to be a robber but my friend Vanessa didn't think that was creative enough (she loves Halloween). I got on Pinterest and decided to dress up in the same exact costume as the rest of UT. At least everyone in Ireland thought it was creative ;)

I went to a party at Eric's penthouse downtown that had everything going on. Seriously there was SO much food, games, people, movies, and dancing going on. Vannessa was upset after the party because it wasn't a real party. Apparently in Barcelona if you go to a party everyone dances the entire time. She was quite bothered that people were mingling and not all dancing. According to Vanessa it was a "get together," not a party ;) 

I even won the costume contest (first time I've ever won a prize in 22 years!)

And that sums up October 2014 for you!

ring of kerry part 2

On Saturday we drove to Cork. We wanted to explore a little town and we heard there was a Titanic museum there so we thought it was a good fit. We originally wanted to go to Dingle but there was a huge fisherman festival (or something of the sort) going on and it was recommended to not go there during that festival. Cork was a lovely town so there was no disappointment.

I swear the  further away from Dublin the more colorful the town.

Cork was the last stop the Titanic made before it sailed off and..you know.. crashed into an iceberg. We thought it would be cool to go to the Titanic museum but it ended up being a total bust. To start us off they had a man projected onto the wall who was our captain. This was actually pretty cute until a guy asked if it was the real captain. He was being serious.. haha! It was in the tiniest building and there really was nothing for them to show us. They started out by having us look out at this dock that was really just  a couple pieces of floating plywood. The dock was where the ferry picked up the group of people to take them out to the Titanic. It turns out if we would have been there back in the day we wouldn't have even been able to see the Titanic. Their other claim to fame is that we were standing under the same window frame as a man with a bowler hat whom they have a picture of. I wish I could tell you there was more too it but there wasn't. After that they showed us more rooms and kept saying this is kind of what a room in the ship would look like, except different, ha! It was actually comical. At the end they showed us a movie of the titanic sinking and based on the graphics I'm pretty sure it was made in the 80's. Overall it was hilarious and gave us a lot of material for jokes.

What on earth does this have to do with the Titanic?

 They gave us names at the beginning of the museum and at the end we got to find out if we survived. As you can see MJ was the only person who survived.

Later that evening I had a night out with Brynne and Tanner. We went to several different restaurants near our hotel and none of them had any seating. We ended up eating at this restaurant we got take out from the night before and the decision was not regretted one bit. I got a yummy carrot soup, Tan got the goat cheese pizza and Brynne got the caprese salad. We all shared our food and everything was amazing. This is probably the first time I've ever eaten at a good restaurant in Ireland. After dinner we grabbed ice cream from a little shop next to our hotel, danced, laughed etc. etc.

On our drive home we drove through Killarney National Park and made a little pit stop to take in the scenery. Looking back through all of my pictures I feel overwhelmed with all the beauty that I am constantly surrounded by and the wonderful people as well :) 

We stopped at a random location on the side of the road so that both families could take family pictures (we originally planned on going to church after so that's why I'm dressed up. I promise I didn't want my own family pics ha!). It turns out the random location was someones house. We thought it was a bed and breakfast but we upset the dog when we started getting out of the car and their 12 year old son came out to see what all the chaos was. Along with Brynne and Mandi I wanted to roll over dead I was so uncomfortable. Tanner nonchalantly told him that we wanted to take family pictures on their property and the boy told us it was alright and then shut the door. In the mean time Owen (4 years old) found 20 euros on the ground so we thought we would return it to them after we finished the photo shoot. We all trekked on over into the grassy area and ruined our shoes in the water and mud. I had to spray my favorite (and only) Sunday shoes off with a water bottle because they were so muddy. It was quite the adventure. After we finished the family came out of their house to make sure we got all the pictures we needed. They were the kindest, which I mean I'm in Ireland, what did I expect?! When Owen gave them the money the older son  was so relieved. It sounded like he was wasted the night before and lost the money. He was pretty stressed about it. I just hope to keep having interactions with people like this throughout my life. There's something invigorating about interacting with complete strangers in such a way. I seriously just want to know everyone's story and be everyone's friend. I'm not kidding :)