Ireland!!!

We did it!

We have been to Ireland and back with a one year old!

No, we don't necessarily recommend traveling overseas and back with a one year old, but we did it and we're sure glad. It was a really good trip, but also very tiring! I'm only including a couple pictures from the trip below. If you would like to see the rest, please check them out on our Shutterfly page (this other site allowed me to publish the whole album, so there are a lot of pictures available on it.)

For a quick recap... Kalyn, James, Nana & Grandpa flew into Shannon airport and drove down to Killarney, where Reid had been at a conference. From Killarney, we explored the southwest coast - The Dingle Peninsula, we saw some of Killarney, drove up the West coast, stopping at the Cliffs of Mohr. We stayed a night in Galway (awesome little town that we returned to on the way back down) then we drove up to Sligo where we spent a few days at a beautiful hotel in the country (everything was great here, except for the terrible allergies that we all experienced - including poor James). After leaving Sligo, we drove back south to the Connemara area, staying at a little place in Oughterard. We spent a few days here, traveling from this point to see Kylemore Abbey and some great coastal towns. We continued south to Galway where we spent a day in the city - loved it. From Galway, we drove down to Limerick... nothing to write home about, to be honest... we only stayed here one night. After leaving Limerick, we sadly had to drop off Reid at the airport - he had to get back home to start 3rd year Medical School rotations (a whole other story!). James, Nana, Grandpa & I continued south for a few days to a little town on the southern coast called Kildare. This was my favorite spot - a great little coastal town with quirky little stores, quaint little churches and even a coffee shop that produced some fine soy lattes. Of course, there are many details to the trip that I obviously haven't explained... but check out the pictures here and on the Shutterfly page and if you want more details, let me know!

We're pretty sure James enjoyed playing in the dirt more than any other part of the trip. He decided he wasn't too interested in eating during the trip - a very foreign experience for everyone, but he survived... he most ate the "veg", aka, vegetable side dish, that came with pretty much every Irish meal. He was truly a little trooper. When he had rough moments, I had to remind myself that it was our choice to go on this trip, not his!

Mom & Dad... Nana & Grandpa... were great traveling companions.

In this picture, we're visiting Kylemore Abbey - really beautiful!

The Cliffs of Mhor - really awesome views! This is on the west coast of Ireland.

Nana, Reid, James & Kalyn on a ferry crossing the River Shannon.

The Dingle Peninsula on the southeast coast - really amazing views... and the water was so blue! Ok... check out the other pics on shutterfly. Hope you're all doing well!