Blarney Castle and the Blarney Stone, Ireland

These are the cows next to the picnic area at Blarney castle. I swear the cows totally stared at us while we ate lunch. They kept a really close eye on us, and backed up super fast anytime we approached. Isn't it crazy the way they are lined up like that? They aren't even eating.

We loved visiting Blarney castle. We climbed to the top of the castle, kissed the blarney stone, and explored the grounds. The grounds were really gorgeous. There were fun, easy to climb trees that the kids enjoyed, an area with a witches kitchen, wishing stairs, ponds, streams, small waterfalls, and there was even a small picnic area with swings and a totem pole for climbing.

Inside Blarney Castle


View from the top

Next to where Kayla and I are standing (and Brayden is hiding) there's what appears to be a sort of bench, except that there's an opening behind it that goes straight down. There are bars in the opening, but our kids liked to lean over and look down which was kind of scary.

This is what you have to do to kiss the Blarney stone. It's about 2 feet down and 2 feet out in a 5 feet wide bar covered opening, who knows how many feet above the ground, at the top of Blarney castle.

Allen just did it! Kissing the Blarney stone was a total rush, and I'm really glad we did it. Kayla kept saying things like, "I'm too young to do that," "My glasses will fall off," "Maybe when I'm older." Well, I have to say that I thought it was really fun.

The stairway up to the top of the castle was really narrow. Kayla didn't want to go into the stairway to take this picture, but we still had to go up, so she had to go back into the stairway anyway. She's standing next to the rope you hold onto to climb up. There's a much better set of stairs for the way down.

This was taken as we approached the castle. Allen, Spencer and proof that Kayla and Brayden love each other (sometimes).

The Dingle Peninsula and Funghie the Dolphin, Ireland

As we were leaving Dingle, the sun was hitting the mountain just right to make it look like there is a spot of gold. It was a great time to tell our kids that if you catch a leprechan, he has to take you to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Dingle Harbor

The famous "Funghie" the dolphin. He's a very friendly dolphin that hangs out in the Dingle harbor. We went on a boat ride to see him, and he swam around our boat for about 30 minutes straight.

The kids loved Funghie the dolphin!

So beautful!

View near Inch Beach

A tractor on the beach.

Allen and the kids.

Killarney National Park, Ireland

As we were driving through the Gap of Dunloe (we went the long, not so scenic route), we saw sheep wandering next to the road. It would have been more exciting if it were a whole herd, but I'm also glad we didn't get stuck behind a whole herd.

A bridge in the Gap of Dunloe.

Allen makes an awesome leprechan. I love Kayla's expression in the background.

The "Lovely Ladies" view.

These pictures aren't in the order I intended since blogger adds them all backward for some reason. We took a "jaunting cart" (I love the name) around Killarney National Park. Brayden is in Muckross house garden.

Kayla is posing in the Muckross House garden. (She likes creative poses if you can't tell.)

This is the back view of Muckross house. The color green of the grass and everything in Ireland was quite spectacular - it's a bright spring type green that amazed us our whole visit.

Muckross House


The Jaunting Cart - complete with our guide that was incredibly hard to understand, and really didn't have anything interesting to say anyway.



What's wrong with this picture? Allen is sitting on the right (and wrong) side of the car. It was our first experience with driving on the wrong side of the road, and Allen was awesome. (I was really glad that I didn't have to drive.)

Venice Girls Trip

All of the girls in San Marco square.

The mural over one of the doors of St. Marks Cathedral.

The side view of Saint Marks Cathedral


As we were leaving San Marco square by water taxi, we saw this group of 4 gondolas being sung to by a man with an awesome baritone voice.

Venice is just like it looks in movies. It was so cool to see it first hand. It was also interesting to see how the water level is so high that most residents can't use the bottom level of their homes. Apparently, the island (that isn't even visible) is constantly sinking.

The canal alleys are beautiful.

All 6 of us - Joni, Valerie, Me, Traci, Pam and Julie.

I love this picture of Julie!

Zodiac clock in San Marco square.

Here's a picture of a gondola and boatman. The price for a gondola ride is controlled at 80 euros per boat.

This is was our first view of Venice from the bus station. We decided to take the bus because when we were in Milan we took a train, and the cashier told us the wrong gate. We ended up going the wrong way and had to pay to get on another train. We still had drama even with the bus. We got to the bus stop at 7:15pm to get on the last bus that leaves at 7:30 and noticed that the bus was full and there was a line a bus long. Another bus came just after 7:30 and the tension was pretty high when we got to the front of the line to get on the bus and it was already looking pretty full. A man from Liverpool came up behind me and was totally invading my space, so I said, "You need to back up." I just said what I was thinking and didn't realize those were fighting words. He was hoping to get to the other side of the bus to put his bag underneath and didn't realize that the bus was already full. Right then the bus driver said there was room for 6 more. There were 4 people in front of us, so our party of 6 had to wait for the next bus. When we got on the bus the man from Liverpool said something about me being a "violent woman." What?! It was funny at the time because we were just so glad to get on the bus that got there at 8pm, and we were tired and a little crazy. We were passing some candy around, and my friends offered some to the man from Liverpool. His wife said, "Don't take any; it might be poisoned." Valerie then said, "Don't worry. It's not from her (meaning me)." Again, everything was funny, even though I was totally being insulted. Later on when we were talking about our husbands and kids, the man from Liverpool said, "Wait . . . you are all married. The poor bastards!" We just laughed some more. So apparently, the mode of transportation isn't really the issue. When a group of women get together, there is bound to be drama.

Italian Pottery Shopping

On our girls trip to Italy, we went pottery shopping in Nove, Italy. (It's were they make Tiffany, Lenox, and Italian mosiac pottery.)

We bought so much stuff that Pam and Traci had to ride in the front seat together.

I barely fit in the back seat with the huge boxes.

Repacking our boxes. We found more stuff that we just had to have, so we had to find a way to fit it in. Joni and Valerie were my roommates.

I made the biggest mess of all repacking my box.

It snowed packing peanuts!

We sent our boxes from the base there to the base here in Germany for free.