Ireland! (You'll Notice a Lot of Green)

Daybreak and the Duluth Intl Airport as we begin our journey to Ireland

An unsuccessful nap in Newark, NJ during a 10 hour layover

The lane which became the base for our travels in Belfast

Nightie-night Gwyneth. Settling into the night in Brandon

View #1 from our room in Brandon

View #2 from our room in Brandon

Our friendly accomodations in Brandon, which belongs to the parents of Karen Kelly (one of our fabulous hosts)

Horse in the pasture. We got to watch him from our window as well.

Daytrip to Kinsale with Karen's mom Daphne

For some reason, I found this photo particularly funny with the girl running from the fountain as if it's about to explode...

Tribute to the Kinsale mariners lost at sea.

I didn't know that John Deere manufactured sale boats!!???

Gwyneth's Irish souvenir - a rain cover for her stroller

Our world traveler...traveling.

Our fabulous host, chauffeurs, cultural experts, guides, and wonderful friends Shane (with arm in sling after shoulder surgery) and Karen at Karen's parent's house.

Daphne and Mervin - Karen's warm parents and hosts while in Brandon.

Gwyneth analyzing the fountain in Galway

Galway

This is Louise. I rode her outside of Galway. She was beautiful, but to be honest, she wasn't very friendly or cooperative.

Outside of Sligo. Probably the most beautiful countryside we saw in Ireland.

The cows escaped some poor farmer's pasture.

On our way to Giants Causeway

Three Strikes and You're Out!

Wes and I came awfully close to reaching the third strike with our vehicles in one day...and it wasn't fun. My beloved first car unexpectedly (although that's usually how it works with these things) broke down when Wes was on his way to a job site. Now this car, a Ford Escort, has been a trooper for us. We've abused it over and over, and it keeps on running without much of a peep! I got it with 65,000 miles on it for a very good price ($3600) and it's now got 189,000 miles on it. There have been about two times when we've needed to have small repairs done on it, and then the regular maintenance, but it's never been costly. Once a car approaches 200K miles on it, it's inevitable that it's getting very close to the end. So, the car sputtered out on the side of the road. With limited options, Wes decided to pull our very, very old truck that we've used solely for hauling firewood out of the garage to pick up our car and tow it back to our trusty Two Harbors auto mechanics at Reliable Auto. Amazingly both the truck and the car made it there! I could hardly believe it, because our truck is, well, far from being reliable. Once are car was dropped off at the "car ER," Wes drove our rusty old truck toward home. He almost made it, except about 50 feet from our front porch, the back wheel fell off and rolled past Wes as he came to an abrupt stop. So in the end, a tow was inevitable and two vehicles ended up in the shop.

Here is a shot of the tower putting all his weight into jacking our truck up off the road. He had quite a time trying to figure out how to tow the truck without its back wheel.

A Counterfeit Wrap

I've seen this wrap out there for carrying babies called the Moby. It's basically a long strip of fabric that is wrapped around the body in various ways to carry a baby in different ways. I've got a couple carriers already, so I just couldn't justify spending $30-$60 on another baby carrier, so I just admired them from afar.

Not long ago, I looked on the internet and found instructions to make something that works the same way, so I thought I'd share the love and pass it along. It's very simple really. Of course the manufactured ones are a bit more finished, but not any more useful.

All you need is 5-6 yards of jersey material that stretches in width, but not in length. What you purchase should be 60 inches wide. Then you cut it straight down the center and have two long pieces of fabric...one can be given away and one for keeping. You can overlock the edges or hem the up, but with jersey material, it's really not necessary. That's it. Instructions on wrapping yourself up with the baby can be found on the Moby Wrap website.

Here is a happy baby in the carrier...with a happy mama. Not only does Gwyneth seem content, but because of the way the wrap is positioned, it's really comfortable on the back and shoulders. In future, I plan to post a few more pictures of various holds.

Psst...one last thing...I only paid $5.50 for two wraps. The color wasn't exactly my favorite, but for a dollar a yard, color becomes a moot issue.

Wedding

Wes and I were recently able to go to a wedding and Gwyneth was invited too. It was a beautiful wedding with lots of fun activities planned to keep guests entertained. Post-ceremony, we boarded a train for a ride to the edge of the city, then we were dropped off along a walking path and walked to the reception tent down to Canal Park while accompanied by a festive group playing Danish walking tunes. It's not often Wes and I have an occasion to get spiffied up, so we decided to document the occasion. Here are a few photos from that.

(note: "spiffied up" in Northern Minnesota is casual to the rest of the country. You should see our "casual" - we all look like we came off the trail from hiking...just without the grime.)

Kai Lynn - who did a bang-up job putting a fussy baby to sleep and then giving me a friendly hand keeping her content when awake. By the picture, you can tell she did a wonderful job!

Out of Five and Into Six

Gwyneth is officially a half year old! Everyone says that you blink and then it's gone in reference to children growing, and I believe it! I'm not sure what exactly is the cause of this feeling of being perpetually fast-forwarded, but it does indeed occur.

I chose a few photos from the last month where Gwyneth has been practicing all sorts of new-found expressions. She's also learned how to move - a lot, so from here on out, I'm sure our blog will be filled with lots of blurry photos, starting with a couple below.

A Freecycling Baby

Gwyneth just learned all about the benefits of freecycle.org. This is an online group that has "chapters" in areas around the country. We're lucky enough to have one in ours. The concept of freecycle is to give away the things that aren't needed to those who do, or get the things needed that others don't. In the United States we all know that we have closets full of stuff that we never use, and never will use again, but don't have the gumption to take it somewhere or do something about it, so in our closets sits stuff. Well, Gwyneth just benefited big time by receiving something that someone no longer needs, and something that we could use a lot - an exersaucer. Not just any exersaucer, but a really, REALLY nice one, and it was all for free! So thanks to someone else's generousity, Gwyneth is now having a blast in her new "play center" as I write this blog in peace, with the occasional squawks of delight (hers, not mine, although I've done my squawking to lots of people I know could benefit from joining freecycle.) When we're done with it, guess what, we're going to pass it along - freecycle style.