Wiggles!

We are huge Wiggles fans so I was so excited it would work for us to catch their concert while in the States! Greg was back with the group after several years break due to health problems. So thrilled to see him. But this is their last tour before Greg, Murray and Jeff retire after 21 years together! Anthony is going to continue on with a new generation of Wiggles. It was such a wonderful show! Edward was singing and dancing, Evelyn got to hear all her favorites.

 And then... we caught them getting on their tour buses as we were leaving out the back! They were so nice and stopped for pictures! With Greg....

 And Murray... Edward pretends to be Murray and was amazed to be able to give him a high five. He just kept looking at him in disbelief!

 And Anthony! They are just as nice in real life as you would imagine. Such a great, great night! Thanks Wiggles and for so many years of great music!

Cousins

Evelyn was in girl cousin heaven when we got together improptu with Spencer and Ted's families. Swimming was just icing on the cake! We have the best families.

And Edward is so happy to have a boy cousin his same age- most of the time! Sometimes they like the exact same thing at the exact same time!

Utah trip

I know I am pretty behind on this, but here is pictures from the Utah trip I went on with my mom and the kids. We got to visit Thanksgiving Point, camped in Lehi, swam at the pool, visited with my grandparents in PG and toured Temple Square.

Kids love jail! Edward and Evelyn loved hanging with cousins Oliver and Lucy. 

 Evelyn loved her horse ride!

 Edward loved the Noah's Ark water feature in the Children's Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point.

 They both loved the dinos.

 Edward loved splashing in the pool with my mom.

 And eating popsicles at Uncle Rays. The good life!

 Evelyn made some new best friends- cousins Ellie, Quincy and Rees.

They both loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Walker.

 Hanging out in PG!

 Caught a free Sunday concert in the park with family.

 We loved seeing the temple.

This was Edward's favorite part of the Church History Museum- collecting fake eggs! I loved the art competition entries for this year- so amazing! It was a wonderful trip- so glad my mom let us go along with her.

Ireland pt. 5

We stayed one night at Darby O'Gills hotel so we could visit the Muckross House, a Regency-style house. While there, we listened to some traditional music in the hotel's pub while eating ice cream. It was just outside of Killarney. Part of the Muckross House was the Muckross Traditional Farms. So much of Ireland is agricultural, so it was really neat to see.

 Edward adored chasing the chickens!

 And feeding the baby goat!

 Yeah- it was really nice of Roger to include this stop so I could live out my Downton Abbey fantasy! It was an amazing house. Queen Victoria visited it. My favorite part were the Killarney inlaid furniture- a game table and ladies writing desk. Sign me up for a few Carrera marble fireplaces too please.

Luckily everywhere we went there were some playground breaks for the kids. Love this style of swing.

Playgrounds are fun all over the world.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. We went to this old Norman city called Atherney. These are the ruins of the monestary. They let us dress up in costume, took our photos, and gave us a great history lesson and tour.

 Our little princess!

This is called a "love bracelet" and spouses were placed in it for several days if caught arguing in public too many times. Evelyn thought it was pretty funny!

This is the coast just outside of Galway. It was really neat. We loved looking for seashells.

 This is the Abbey of Abbeyknockmoy. It is 12th century. We had to walk through a cemetary and farm road to get there. On our way back, our path was blocked by cows moving to another pasture. Luckily the docile creatures were easily shooed! These stone walls are super old and everywhere!

It was really neat to see- we had the place all to ourselves.

This was the cottage we stayed at for two nights outside of Galway. We were racing to find it before dark. We had driven around for over and hour. Finally Roger went to the pub to see if he could use their WiFi and was able to get directions from a bunch of locals. They were so amazingly nice. Then we had an adventure looking for the key. It was supposed to be in a shed- but there were three outbuildings with no obvious key hiding places. We were desperately looking in the dark with our cell phone flashlights when it finally appeared! It turned out to be a really neat place to stay- with a herd of sheep in the pasture in back of the house to look at!

I just have to rave about Irish butter! The soda bread was sooo good and we ate it slathered with butter as thick as frosting for most breakfasts and lunches. Yum! It was a wonderful trip. We loved it.

Ireland pt. 4

Here is the Blarney Castle! It was really worth seeing.

It was very high and very dangerous. Roger had to keep an iron grip on our squirmy 2 to keep him from plummeting to his death!

 Roger and I each got to kiss the Blarney Stone- which is supposed to give you the gift of gab. You have to lay upside down over the edge of this wall. A guy holds you so you don't fall you your death. And they don't use that disinfectant very often! Ev was too short. Edward was really upset after that he couldn't kiss it too- so we held him upside down and had him kiss a random stone wall and he was happy after!

One of the neatest things was the Posion Garden outside the castle- with posionous plants from around the world like mandrake and wolvesbane made popular by Harry Potter.

This old tree was pretty neat!

This little shack was also on the property. The whole park is privately owned and there is a family that lives there. Lucky ducks!

 Evelyn goes down the "wishing steps"  backwards with her eyes closed. They also had a circle of druid rocks and a witch stone.

 This waterfall was at the bottom of the wishing steps.

Cool bench, huh?

Ireland pt. 3

We visited Bunratty- a historical village with a castle- just outside of Shannon. It was really fun, but it seemed like there was usually more staff or programs that should have been there but weren't there. It was missing a little something. The best part was talking to a woman in her late 70s early 80s about her life growing up in rural Ireland. They didn't have things like electricity, running water and cars until pretty late in the game. She was a gem. I want a thatched roof!

Evelyn loved this waterfall right by the flour mill pond.

We loved the formal gardens.

 Edward loved hiding in the flowers.

 This was the little chapel in Bunratty.

 This is the throne in the banquet hall.

This is on top of the "princess tower." 

 The views of the Irish countryside were amazing!

 And here is the big view of the back of Bunratty castle.

Ireland pt. 2

We had really great weather. We only ever got sprinkled on while out and about.

 Evelyn loved finding out about dungeons and servant entrances, moats and all those other castle secrets.

We loved this sweets shop! It reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I finally found out what all those British sweets in my books were- the pineapple humbugs, the wine gums, the cat's eyes, etc.

We stayed in this lovely cottage in Upper Church. The owner has grandbabies and a wonderful assortment of boots to borrow! 

 And a tire swing!

 Isn't it so cute! It was down the narrowest country lane. On either side of the road was a wall of vegetation. Most of the driving was like that- on all but the most major roads. It was a little unnerving / scary at first to drive on the wrong side. When backing out onto the street or turning around is when it was the most confusing. What side should we be on? :)