Special Bond

My kids are blessed to have such great Grandma's in their life. This summer we visited Grandma Alexander in Utah. I just love this picture of my kids giving her a hug. It just makes me so happy knowing that they love her so much and she feels the same way about them. 

An adventure of a lifetime!

I could hardly believe it when Brian said that he was going to Ireland for work and asked me if I wanted to come with him! Of course I do!! Brian flew out on Saturday, the 14th and I met up with him the next Friday, the 20th after he had finished up his work for the week and I had dropped the kids off in Utah at Grandma's house. 

One of Brian's co-workers and his wife also joined us for this adventure. We did alot of site seeing right away. We saw King John's Castle, St. Mary's Cathedral, the Bunratty Folk Park, and for dinner went to the Bunratty Castle. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip. The entertainment was very enjoyable, the food was good, and we made alot of fun memories. One of personal favorites was listening to this amazing violinist perform. Later I found out that he studied at Julliard! 

The second day, we toured the Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney stone. What a great day with perfect weather, fun friends, and lots of laughter!

Our last day we drove up to the Cliffs of Moher. What a truly breathtaking sight! It was like a dream! Everything was so green and beautiful! We also spent some time at the ocean even though it was SUPER windy that day. We got to see a dolphin jumping around right in front of us! That night we ate at a World Famous Pub called "Durty Nelly's". It had fish and chips and it was pretty tasty!

On the way back to Utah to pick up our kids, we had a long layover in NY. We decided to take the subway into town and spend the day together. We saw quite a few things in that short of time. We saw, Times Square, Empire State Building (from a distance), Trump Tower, Central Park, Radio City Music Hall, and alot of fun shops too. We also had NY pizza for lunch just to experience it all! I had the best trip with Brian and really enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks to his mom for watching our kids and to my sister in laws that helped out too. We love you!

Surf and Swim

While in Utah, we went to Surf and Swim with some of the cousins. What a fun day we had riding the waves together! We did get quite bad sunburns, but it didn't slow us down much.  
Wish I would have gotten more pictures of the cousins!

Watermelon lovers

My kids LOVE watermelon and eat it like it's going out of style! Just a few pictures I caught of them enjoying it! 

One more because it makes me laugh! This kid likes to eat 2 pieces at a time!

Water fun

My mom and I decided to take the kids on a picnic and then go paddle boating. We rented our boats and I think spent most of the time we were on the lake near the fountain that sprayed us until we were soaking wet!

Then the kids wanted to go play at the water park and get even more wet as if it were possible! :) What a fun afternoon we had together! Love days like these.

 

We ended the day by going to 7-11 and getting a free slurpee!

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July! We started it off by going to the parade. The kids love watching all the floats, but especially love the candy throwing! After the parade, we came home and started making homemade root beer for the barbeque we were going to that night. The kids love to play with the smoke that the dry ice makes! If you have never had homemade root beer before, you are missing out! It is to die for! We relaxed the rest of the day until it was time for the barbeque at the Lowry's house. We ate lots of good food, had a water balloon fight, an obstacle course, and watched Gremlins outside on the projector. All around, the perfect 4th of July!

The perfect match

My best friend and I had to have our picture taken one Sunday since we matched so perfectly! 

I have always thought of Liz and I as the "perfect match" when it comes to friends. She gets me and we understand each other. We cry together, laugh alot, give each other advice, and are always there for each other when we need a hand. Love this special person in my life!