Trek Recap

Guys, trek was a pretty good time. I feel like I would have enjoyed it more if I had been home for a little bit longer before we had to leave, but that's okay, I still had a great time.

 There was a couple of kids from another ward in our stake that came up to our tarp as we were chilling one night and yelled "The Tarp is Lava!"  We all heard "Tarpis Lava" and were like, what is that, like a greeting? So then we started to use it as our greeting.

 Just a few of my favorite gals in my ward

 These two dressed in each other's clothes and I couldn't stop laughing at it.

Husband and I make a good Ma & Pa, and our family stayed alive the whole time and everything.

Trek is pretty awesome. Although I can't really see the point of it (it doesn't seem like anyone is sacrificing enough to duplicate what the pioneers did) it seems like a good time and it gets the kids away from media and technology and helps them to see what they went through. I recommend it for all....at least once.

Time to Trek!

Guys, it's here and here we are ready to go!

 Looking good, me.

 Here's our small family! We're looking good.

And here's the whole ward! I'll be back in a few days to report the good times.

Getting ready for trek

Well team, the time for trek is closing in. And just in the nick of time, I finished our family's trek flag. It looks awesome.
We are definitely a Hamilton family. And in the corners, #MSWH is our family motto - one I picked up on a poster in England - Maybe Swearing Will Help. We're about to do something really hard, and I think it'll be to have something to help lighten the mood when it gets hard.

 Earlier today, I took the boys to get some sandwiches. First of all the entirety of the lunch was a great and funny event, but would take forever to explain. Then when we were eating lunch, I just started to record Gecko as he was being a small weirdo. In case you can't hear at the end, he says "These is yummy chips" and I just think it's so cute in his small voice.

Then tonight, I took Cookie to my sister's, so that she and the boys could watch her while we're on trek. She'll have a great time, and hopefully, so will we!

Home Home Home!

Well friends, I am home! First of all I was excited to see Husband, but also, this monster:

Then these jokers came over (This is them earlier in the day, going to see the airplane show at the Air Force base). 

 When they came over, we were setting up the tent to make sure it worked. Okay let's explain. We have to leave on trek in 3 days. So we have 3 days to prepare for the entirety of trek, here we go. While the kids were there, and we were setting up the tent, they couldn't even handle life, they had never been in a tent before. This video probably isn't funny to anyone else, but the way Gecko says "Ballam (the name they call Husband) do it!" he sounds like a small German boy, and I can't handle it. Enjoy!

Last Day in Dublin

Today we had to get everything in that we wanted to see before we left. Luckily for us, we didn't have too much to do, so it was doable. Let's get to it! First we saw the Ha'Penny bridge, because that's how much it used to cost to cross it. 

 Then we went to a museum, the Natural History Museum. It's also called the Dead Zoo, because all thats in here is animal skeletons.

 And this giant crab shell, holy jeez.

We walked around all day and finally had some sun here! 

Also I should have mentioned, at this time of the year in Ireland, the sun goes down at like, 11:00, and it rises at like, 4:00 AM. So, I never saw night, and I never saw moon or stars. In addition to this, it's always cloudy there, so finally seeing the sun today was so great! 

I've had an amazing time over here. While 4 weeks was a long time, it was worth to see all that I did. I hope to come back with Husband someday (he was originally supposed to meet me in Ireland and then things worked out that it didn't happen) and we can see all sorts of awesome stuff together! 

Dublin!

We have finally made it to Dublin, which means our trip is coming to an end, alas. But we still have a couple of days to have a great time.
First we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The Book is an illustrated Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. It's seriously really cool and very old. This pic isn't of the actual book, but one of the volumes of...something in there that now I can't recall the name of.

This is a library in Trinity College called The Long Room. It has gillions of books and is so cool!

Here is the oldest harp in Dublin. Apparently back in they day, Queen Elizabeth banned harps and had them all destroyed, but this one is from the 15th century and it survived! Good for it. 

Here is the most famous church in Dublin - St Patrick's Cathedral, and its so awesome. 

And here is Dublin Castle. We debated going inside, but honestly I didn't want to spend the money to walk around in an old castle. Again. 

 Here's just St Patrick's from another angle, so impressive.

 Just one more day in Ireland and then the trip comes to a close!

Rock of Cashel

Cashel in Irish means castle, so literally, this is the Rock Castle. It's awesome! I wish it hadn't been as chilly and windy as it had been, but it was cool to tour this building. 

 Of course, right as we were leaving and done, the sun came out. At least I got a pretty sweet picture out of it.

On our way out, we tried some sheeps milk ice cream. It was way good! I was very happy to enjoy this.

I finally decided to drive in Ireland, where they drive on the wrong side of the road. Unfortunately for me, it did not end well. Dang it.

Kenmare!

We have now gotten to my favorite place in all of Ireland. Kenmare. It's a great place. It's small and adorable and just so fantastic.

Just look at those colorful buildings! It's so cute! 

Did I make sure we had an afternoon tea service? You bet I did, and it was so good. 

 They have a tree here where people put their wishes on it, and it's so cute. The wishes are mostly for health for people and their loved ones, and I just wish we had something like this home, I think it's sweet.

 Yes, here we have another ruin of a church, but I think it's just so cool. I love that they leave things as they are, and have these awesome ruins to remind them of their past.

More Driving

Today we had more driving, and on the way we found an awesome waterfall. Technically we're still on the Ring of Kerry, you just drive it all over the place.

Here's a random property we took a tour of the grounds - Muckross. It was awesome and giant, there are so many great houses/castles around here. 

We're starting the last week of Ireland, and my 4th week of being away from home. I'm having such an awesome time, but I miss America and my people back home! But this last week will be awesome!

Ring of Kerry

Today we were supposed to visit the island Skellig Michael, but in order to visit the island, you have to have a clear, picture perfect day, and the ocean has to be calm. Unfortunately for us, that didn't happen today. So instead, we drove the Ring of Kerry. It's an 111 mile loop around Ireland, and you can stop in tons of tiny cute Ireland towns. I'll just post some basic pics.
This is the closest we got to Skelling, dang it.

TBH I just thought this snail shell was magical.

Just a random beach we came across. 

 We found a little town, Waterville, and apparently Charlie Chaplin lived there for a bit. Since he is one of my favorite actors, I was so happy to find a statue of him.

 Again, another beach we found.

 The loop is amazing, and it was so awesome to see all the great sites! I could visit these for an entire week for each place!

Driving Through Ireland

Today was a driving day, and we drove through Killarney. We found a gorgeous church today, we popped inside to look and there was a wedding inside, so that was a nice surprise! 

In Ireland (and England too) all of the marshmallows are pink and white. This was a super delicious hot cocoa that I had there. 

 I don't even know where this church was, I just enjoyed it.

Basically, Ireland has churches every few feet, it's like Mormon churches in Utah, there are so many! Some are super old and falling apart, and some are super old and still gorgeous. 

Cliffs of Moher

Today we drove to Ennis and then went to the Cliffs of Moher. They are gorgeous!

Ireland is just so gorgeous...I think I could very happy to live here!

Donegal

Today we left Belfast and headed over to Donegal. We visited Donegal castle, which was awesome, for being just a couple of ruins. The first picture here is a neat church we saw on our drive down, we just stopped every time we saw something cool.

And then here is Donegal castle, pretty swank. 

 There's this weird like, tree trunk chair that you could sit in, sure, okay.

It was a lovely drive and only a little chilly, so it feels like a victory.

A Giant Tour of Ireland

Today we went on a several hours long tour of northern Ireland. Buckle up, everyone, it was a lot!
First, we went to the Dark Hedges, oooh cool.

After there, we hit up Giant's Causeway.

Look how cool! 

After the Causeway, we hit up a place called the Balleycastle Harbor, which was super pretty. Apparently Game of Thrones is filmed there, so there were many nerds dressed up in the clothing of the show and fake fighting. It was adorable and hysterical. 

 After the Harbor, we went to visit the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of. But then we visited The Gobbins, a bridge that's built into the side of the mountain and it's just basically a walk on the side of a cliff, it's amazing.

 It was such a busy day and for sure at the end I was freaking exhausted! I think we just went back to our house and fell right asleep!