The trip home. . .

Our year in Ireland is up and time to move home. It flew by too quickly. It was a great memorable year with trips through Europe, the birth of Austin, the death of Pat's dad, living in a foreign (but not that foreign) country, serving in a branch, our kitchen flooding and on and on. I'm so glad we took this opportunity - great times.
On the trip home in August we stopped off in Boston for a week to visit my parents. While visiting with them we drove to some church history sites (none of which we had visited before) as well as Niagra Falls. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great week.


The Joseph Smith farmhouse - where it all began.

A picture of us in the Sacred Grove. All I can say is. . . it's true!

The Bray Branch

We loved the branch we attended. About 50-60 came out each week. We loved each person and each experience we shared with them. For our last Sunday everyone stayed around after and sang the hymn "God be with you 'til we meet again' and took a branch photo. This is about 3/4 of the branch. We miss them so much already. . .
This is basically the whole church building. What you see through the window is where we have sacrament meeting. We then divide it into 3 small sections for primary, priesthood, and Relief Society.

This is the entrance from street.

Austin is crawling!

Austin starting crawing in July. He is just such a great baby. (if only he'd sleep through the night. . . )

Edinburgh, Scotland

Katie came to visit the first week of August. IT WAS SO FUN! We flew over to Scotland for the day, it is beautiful. Some people thought we were crazy for flying there in the morning and then back that night, but it actually worked out really good for us.

At the Festival

There was a summer festival held last week in a small town called Bray. The kids went on a number of rides and had a great time. Mom and Dad went on a high-flying, intense, crazy, scary one. I screamed the whole time, I can’t believe Pat talked me into it.

Happy Birthday Logan!!

Our boy is growing up. He is doing so well. Logan just celebrated his 5th birthday. He got to eat dinner at McDonald’s and got to Ice Age 3 in 3D with Mom. He opened presents and blew out candles. Logan says he had lots of fun on his birthday.

Wicklow Mtns - Ireland

We visited an old (700 AD) monastery (Glendalough) up in the mountains – beautiful setting. We also visited Powerscourt Estate and Gardens. You hear how green Ireland is, but it really is, and it’s beautiful. Pat's mom and sister came to visit, it was wonderful showing them around and letting them watch the kids for us.

London

We went to London on July 1st. It was really neat being there and just seeing everything. Pat’s mom and sister met us there and they came back to Ireland with us for a few days. It was sure fun seeing them. Note to the inexperienced. . . traveling with 3 children under the age of 5 in Europe. . . is HARD.

My friends. . .

We’re heading back to the US the middle of August and we’re excited, but I’m going to miss the great friends I’ve made this year. These girls have really made this year what it is. I’m going to miss them so much!! The book clubs, the play groups, those unexpected times when we just chat, chat, chat. Good times and good memories.

Enjoying the Summer

As you can see the sun does actually come out from time to time. We’ve been getting out to beach, which is only a mile or two away. Sheep are everywhere, as you might expect. The kids had a blast feeding them a few weeks ago. We'll often spend our Saturdays or evenings walking in one of our favorite parks (you see here a view we have from one of them).

Fun with Austin

As you can see, Austin is growing, Logan and Sam love to play with him. It's a good thing he's such a great sport!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

I just have to write a little something about the fact that Pat and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday! I just wanted him to know how grateful I am for him and how these past 6 years have been great and that I am looking forward to many more years to come. He is my best friend and I can't wait to see what new adventures our life will bring us....Love you babe!!!

Something Sweet

Many of you know that Pat's dad passed away this past December. I wanted to share with you a little conversation Samantha (our 2 year old) and I had the other day.
We were sitting there looking at old pictures on the computer. When we saw one of grandpa she said, "papa". I decided to let her know that "papa" is always going to be with us. She then looked up at me with a reassuring smile and said, "papa in heaven". This is one of those sweet moments that I will always treasure. We will always miss our Papa Brady but know he is always with us!

Paris Pictures

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip to Paris. We really had a great time and are so happy that we have been able to live in Ireland to take advantage of seeing Europe. We have loved being here and think it has been a great adventure!

Visiting the Louvre was definitely an experience....it was so huge! We were able to see the Mona Lisa and I think we zipped through there as fast as we could. I mean with 3 kids with us, we were lucky that we saw anything.








These are pictures of Notre Dame Cathedral and some beautiful views of the Seine River. We had beautiful weather while we were there. I kept having to pinch myself...am I really here?


























Here are more pictures of us in front of the Eiffel Tower. Some of them are also of us at the top. We really had FUN!!

More pics of Paris coming soon...

I love Paris in the Springtime....I love Paris in the Fall....

We decided to take a family trip to Paris. With three kids it was a little difficult but we still managed and had fun doing it. When we first arrived we hit the ground running. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. It was AMAZING! I mean you see pictures but until you are right there you don't realize how massive it is. As you can tell, Samantha was pretty tired...the poor child

This is the only picture Pat and I really got of ourselves together.
This is one of those moments on the trip I was thankful the kids were getting along. We were getting ready. to go on an evening river cruise on the Seine. We actually didn't go until 10:00 because we wanted to see everything lit up...it was worth it. We even got to see the Eiffel Tower light up. What a dream come true! It was so relaxing-the kids fell asleep. I didn't have to worry about them wanting to take a dip in the Seine

Even though the older kids fell asleep, Austin managed to stay awake the whole time....he loved it as you can tell!

EASTER FUN

Easter was a lot of fun! It was different being in Ireland but lots of FUN! They don't have plastic eggs here and I couldn't find easter baskets so don't mind the halloween buckets made into easter buckets. Instead of an easter egg hunt we had a candy hunt. Samantha and Logan had a good time. Samantha was digging into the candy as fast as she could. Especially the chocolate....I wonder where she gets that from....