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.  

It's Great to Be Eight!

Our Graham-bo was baptized back in October.  What a beautiful morning it was!  

As his birthday approached, we kept thinking how cool it would be for him to be baptized in the ocean, the Mediterranean Sea.  He was all for it until the weeks leading up to it.  "Too cold"  is what he'd always say.  Soooo, we starting selling it.  Telling him how cool it would be, years from now,  to tell everyone.  He'd have amazing pictures and a super unique experience.  We sold it.  Sweet! 

Here's some of the amazing pictures we promised.  

He was baptized in Taormina, one of our favorite spots here in Sicily.  Another big selling point was that he'd get to share the day with one of his best buddies, Jettyn Jones. Jett's family is in our branch here.  He's also in Graham's class at school.  

After talking with the Jones family, we decided on a beach a few weeks before.  When we showed up, there were still Lidos all set up.  Lidos are beach chairs and umbrellas that are set up and sold to beach goers here in Italy.  There are rows and rows of them.  You come and pay anywhere from 10-20 euro for a lounge chair or two with an umbrella.  We thought for sure they would be all cleared out by the beginning of October.  Most Italians think of summer as only be the last couple weeks of July and the whole month of August.  We were very surprised to see it still up.  

After some talking with the Lido manager (he wanted us to pay 150 euro to use the whole area), we decided to set up our little event at the far end of the beach in the "free" area.  Boats were already starting to come in and out so we had to get going.  We decided to shorten the program.  No musical numbers, just Lisa Jones and I would give brief talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost.  

It felt a little rushed, but it was still very memorable and very special.  

We were lucky enough to have Grandpa in town for the big day.  It was so nice to share it with him.  

Notice the next few pictures.  Graham....smiling.  

And now Graham.......pretending to be sleeping.    

Many members of our branch came to the baptism, but I was particularly grateful for our neighbors, the Fahey family.  They aren't members of our church, but as soon as I gave them an invite, they put it on their schedules and made it.  We loved having them there.  

After the baptisms, we took the gondola up to Taormina and walked around.  Grandpa got to see it for the first time and the rest of us got to enjoy.  We went to our favorite restaurant, Da Cristina, for some amazing arancini and pizza.  

Here's the view of the beach from up in Taormina.  If you look to the little cove on the far left, you can see the beach where Graham was baptized.  Cool, right?

Etnaland

As the summer was coming to a close, we decided it was time to make our way to Etnaland.  This "land" is a water park named for the volcano, Mount Etna, that is located very near us.  Etnaland also houses an amusement park with rides, but we decided to stick to the water.   

Benny LOVED it!!

We went with our neighbors, the Fahey family.  Evan and Ben are two peas in a pod.  

The wave pool was hilarious!  There were performers on the side of the pool.  Everyone danced and partied.  It was awesome!  

All of the kiddos

We got a sitter for Sullivan, so it was just the five of us.  We are always quite the spectacle at the beach and the water park was no different.  Very, very, very few women wear one piece swimsuits and very, very few men wear anything but Speedos.  Good times.  I've decided I need a hefty serving of whatever confidence brownies these Italians are eating.   

We had such a fun day!  We'll definitely make our way back next year!

We love Sully!

Sullivan has become like the street mascot.  Everyone is always always so happy to see him and the kids all swarm around when he's out to play.  

Who knew that three big bowls of water and a baby could be so entertaining?  

The Via Taormina crowd is a happy bunch.  Even with this crew, we are missing quite a few.  

Evan Fahey, Aaron Cranston, Brendon Fahey, Graham, Harrison Barnes, Ivana Cranston, Lucy, Victoria Barnes, Megan Fahey, and Benny Boy

Sure love this little man.