Well, my Ireland trip has come to an end :( Everything worked out great and I love Ireland! I'll post a slide show of my pictures, cause I have too many to share (I even cut out a BUNCH from the slide show). I'll post some of my favorite pics though.
TOP TEN THINGS I LEARNED IN IRELAND:
1. The whole corned beef and cabbage things is FALSE...well, kind of. Apparently Irish people in Ireland do not eat corned beef and cabbage. They do eat a lot of cabbage and often have ham (they call it bacon) with their cabbage. Irish immigrants who came to America, however, could not afford ham, so they would have corned beef and cabbage.
2. Irish people are SO friendly. Everybody we met was very helpful and kind. I'm sure they are used to lots of tourists, but I think I would get annoyed after a while, but everyone was very happy to help. I can only think of one guy (a gas station attendant that wasn't super friendly, but even he wasn't rude by any means). I think their accent makes them sound even more cheerful and friendly! I've decided its a mix between and English accent and a pirate.
3. Addresses in Ireland are a rarity. The fact that our car didn't have a GPS like it was supposed to turned out to be okay, because there would have been no addresses to enter. I still don't really understand it, but you just put the persons name and the town they live in and the county, and that's how they mail things. It's crazy.
4. Irish people drive 60 mph (100 km/h) ALL THE TIME. The speed limit on the highways (they have very few divided highways) is pretty much always 60mph. Some people go faster, but for the most part people go 60mph. The crazy thing is that they have the same speed limits on windy, narrow roads and people actually go 60mph on those roads! It was very scary at times, because the road is about the size of a one lane road in the US, but they would be two-lane roads in Ireland. We had a couple of close calls, one in particular with a tour bus.
5. They brand their sheep using various colors. Each shepherd has a color (red, yellow, blue, green etc.) that they use to brand the sheep near it's rear. We only saw red ones, but saw some pictures of all the colors of sheep grazing together and it looks pretty cool.
6. This was a hard lesson to learn. I learned that Dr. Pepper is scarce in Ireland. I saw it at 2 convenience stores. I didn't buy the first one I saw, then spent the next 3 days regretting it as I searched for another one. FINALLY in a town called Killarney I found a Dr. Pepper! The store clerk told me she was surprised to see it on the shelf and figured it would never sell. She asked me if it tasted like peppermint, I told her no and that she definitely needs to try one. I would ask in most restaurants if they had it, just for the heck of it, but they never did. One waiter asked, "What? Pepper?" I just sighed... So the Irish do still have some things to learn...but I think they are too focused on their Guinness to be concerned about DP.
7. The weather can change very quickly. We didn't have too much rain and everybody kept telling us we were lucky to have the weather we were having so we felt very lucky. But there were days when it would be really foggy and cold in the morning and it would look like it would rain, then it would turn into a beautiful warm day. I didn't even have to use my poncho at all, so I think we were really fortunate as far as weather goes.
8. There is no consistency in Ireland when it comes to toilets. This might sound strange, but I couldn't help but notice that everywhere we went they had different kinds of toilets. They all looked different and flushed differently (one even had a chain flusher and I thought of that toilet that was in our doll house Mom). It was just weird to me that there was so much variety in their toilets, but it kept things exciting!
9. I learned that the Crowley's were professional soldiers and were known for their fighting skills. This, obviously, wasn't surprising to me. :)
10. There is so much to see and do in Ireland! We just stayed in the south west area mostly (Limerick, Cork, Kerry and Clare counties) and we had so much to do and see that we didn't end up making it to Dublin. Just a quick summary: we went to the Bunratty Castle, went to a cute town called Ennis and shopped a little, went to the Cliffs of Moher (my favorite I think), went to the Burren (a rocky region of Ireland), went to the Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney stone, went to another cute town called Kinsale, went to the Killarney national forest and saw some beautiful scenery, went running, and got a facial! That's just a quick recap of the things we did. I would love to go back sometime and be able to do more things, like hike, bike, canoe, etc. But we had PLENTY to do and there was more we could have seen!
I apologize this is getting long, but a couple other things worth mentioning:
We were able to give away 4 Book of Mormon's on our trip and left another one in our villa. We gave them to 1. A cashier at a clothing store who had asked us some questions about Mormons. She was very excited we gave it to her. 2. The lady that did our spa treatments. She has lots of questions about the church. 3. Tom. He was one of the gate guards and he was so friendly every day when we came back. We took a picture with him before we left and then left a book of mormon for him on our way out. (he wasn't there to say no) 4. To one of our taxi Driver's in New York. On our way to an from Ireland we had a long lay over at JFK so we took taxi's to a restaurant called Carmine's (both times, because it was so good). Our last taxi driver was very normal and we talked with him a lot and gave him a book of mormon as we were leaving. So we were excited to share a little about our faith with all of these people and I've learned that it's easier sometimes with people you don't know as well, so I need to get better at that.
Also noteworthy...Mom, get ready for this...I finished, not one, but TWO books during this trip. I read The Noticer and The Wednesday Letters. I would recommend the Wednesday Letters, the Noticer was a little corny, but nonetheless, I read TWO BOOKS!
I told Dad I think we should plan a family trip to Ireland!
Two of my favorites sights- the Cliffs of Moher and the Killarney National Forest
Like a small child on Christmas Day I bounded out of my bed and cheerfully got the kids ready for school. It was a glorious day! It was nice to spend some one on one time with Alex (more on that later) and especially to have no fighting! They are enjoying school, even Devon has admitted its not as bad as he thought. Although he has to tell me every day how boring it is because they do so much work. Audrey is really liking her class. I often find her in her room after school pretending that she is the teacher. It's so nice to be able to finally get some things done around the house!
Cameron-officially 8 and baptized!
This picture cracks me up. Alex was watching Troy trying to pull out the sign, so he put his muscle into it. He was grunting and everything.
