DUBLIN!!!

It was INCREDIBLE!

Can you see the excitement?  This is us at the Rome airport during a layover.  We may have just talked about how thrilled we were to be going on a trip without our kids.  

The city of Dublin is amazing!  We loved all the monuments and the cool architecture.  

The Ha' Penny Bridge was so cute!  As you walk across, you can see numerous padlocks that are locked on to the iron bars.  They are called "love locks".  Sweethearts carve their initials on the lock and then throw away the key.  It symbolizes unbreakable love.  We've seen them at different places around Europe.  

This handsome guy is so fun to be with.  I feel so lucky to have him by my side forever.  Dublin wouldn't have been as awesome without him with me.  

The River Liffey runs through the city.  You can see Ha' Penny Bridge behind it.  

We found this cool cemetery during our exploring on Sunday afternoon.  

So....I guess I should document that we did run a marathon while we were there.  We went the night before to pick up our packets.  

Look at those shmucks.  Smiling and happy before the race started.  As you have probably guessed, the race did not go well for either of us.  Jason was hoping to get it done in under 3 hours and I had predicted a 3:45 finish.  

I was doing okay until about mile 17.  The crowds and bustle started getting to me.  It's the biggest event we've done, so there was a lot of weaving in and out of people.  I was running with a girl I knew from Sigonella.  I told her to go on ahead and that I needed to slow down.  I still had 9 miles to go and I was feeling terrible.  I struggled through the rest and didn't finish until 4:25.  Grrrrrrrrr.  

I sat down for a while at the finish area and waited for Jason to find me.  I assumed he had been done for over an hour, so I was getting frustrated that he didn't search me out.  After a while, I got up slowly and made my way down the street.  I found him sitting on the curb as white as a ghost.  He looked horrible and I knew right away that his race hadn't gone as planned, either.  

We both slowly made our way to our hotel.  Jason threw up a few times on the street.  He was soooo dehydrated.  

We spent the rest of that day laying in bed watching TV.  We were both so frustrated and depressed about how the race went.  We had trained for a long time and felt confident going in.  We had trained right, too.  We had put the time in.  Looking back on it, it seems silly that we were so upset, but it was a tough day.  

But now, looking at this picture, I should have smiled!  I finished a marathon!  I had done two before, but that was before kids and before life got more complicated and demanding.  Sure, I was much slower than anticipated, but I did it!!  I am positive that my marathoning days are over.  1/2 marathons....yes.  No more fulls, though.  Too much damage to my legs and back.  Jason, on the other hand, needs to do more.  He's a natural runner and is super fast.  

On Sunday morning, we found the church and decided to attend.  It was so fun to talk to the members there and here there stories.  We met so many fabulous people!  The church is true no matter what country you're in!  I loved hearing the gospel spoken with awesome Irish accents!

Our last day was spent on a tour through the Wicklow Mountains.  It was rainy, but we still enjoyed the views.  

We loved seeing Glendalough "Valley of the Two Lakes".  There's a small monastic settlement there in this beautiful place.  We hiked around and got some great pictures.

Not sure what this robot was all about, but we thought it was cool.  

All of the food we had was great!  Jason enjoyed some Irish stew at one of our stops.  

Pretty sure this one is a view of where one of the scenes from Braveheart was filmed.  Kinda cool.  

We found another cool cemetery in Glendalough.  

I'm so grateful for this little vacation I got to have with my sweetheart.