Father's Day

We had a great day today celebrating Father's Day! It started with breakfast at home. 

Next, we headed to Ikea. The plan was to get Gemma's big girl bed, but the boxes were too long to fit in Paul's van! Of course we found other things though, and Gemma had fun playing. Paul will have to go back during the week with a bigger van to get the bed!

We headed into Dublin city centre next, and our first stop was Queen of Tarts for a yummy lunch. 

Our next activity was a train tour of Dublin. It was fun to be tourists in our own city!

After the train we walked around a bit on the way back to the car. Gemma really wanted to 'pet a bird', and she spent quite awhile running after the pigeons!

We strolled through Dublin Castle as well!

I think Gemma's face in this last picture says it all! We had a wonderful day celebrating Daddy!

Summer Fun!

We didn't have a great spring here, and it's only the past couple of weeks that the weather has started to get dry and a little bit warm. We have taken advantage of it! Here's Gemma at a couple of different parks in the area:

Last weekend Paul and I went to Galway for the day on Sunday to watch Mayo play Galway in the Gaelic football Connacht semi-final. The weather was beautiful, it was a great game, and Mayo won! It doesn't get much better than that!

Yesterday Gemma and Daddy went out in the morning while I went to boot camp and got a few groceries. One of the places they went was the toy store to get Gemma a scooter. She's been asking for one for her birthday for months. She has been doing really well with toilet training, and we figured if we waited until her birthday to get one, we'd miss most of the summer, so we got one as a special treat. She loves it!

Our first 'scoot' on it was yesterday afternoon to a local coffee shop to enjoy some ice cream on a sunny day!

Grandpa's Visit!

On May 28th, my dad arrived for a 10 day visit! The first weekend he was here was the June Bank Holiday weekend, so we headed to Louisburgh to visit Paul's parents. We also celebrated Dad's 60th birthday a few weeks late!

Back in Dublin, we enjoyed spending time together hanging out at home. 

On Saturday, June 6th we took a day trip to Belfast and met up with Marie and Brian. We had a great day walking around the city, touring a market, and going on a bus tour. 

On Sunday, June 7th Dad flew back to MN. We had a great visit!

Copenhagen!

Two weeks ago, I was very lucky and got to spend a long weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark, visiting my good friend, April, and her family. They have been there for nearly two years, so it was great to be shown around the city by someone who knows it really well! It was also wonderful to catch up, as we hadn't seen each other since December 2012 in Minnesota!

I flew over on Saturday, May 9, and returned to Dublin on Tuesday, May 12. We toured around the city and saw Rosenborg Castle (a former royal residence and home of the Crown Jewels), Nyhavn (a waterfront tourist area), took a canal cruise (and saw the back of the Little Mermaid statue!), went to Tivoli Gardens, ate some amazing food (the pastries were seriously the best I've ever had), and explored other areas of the city. The amount and types of bicycles in the city was like nothing I'd seen before. Automobile tax can be as high as 180%! Plus, the public transport and biking facilities are so good, it's easy not to have to rely on a car. 

Rosenborg Castle

A part of the Crown Jewels collection

April and me in Nyhavn

Nyhavn

The pastries!

The bikes!

Tivoli Gardens

My great-great grandparents emigrated from Denmark, and I was able to find the church in which they were married in 1885!

It was a wonderful long weekend, and I had to snap one more picture in the airport before I flew out. I thought even the luggage carts looked very Scandinavian!

May Bank Holiday

We had planned on going to Louisburgh for the May Bank Holiday to take in the traditional Irish music festival that is held there every year, and Gemma was feeling better by Friday, May 1st, so we made the trip to Mayo. It was so good to get out of the house! We had a great weekend with Paul's family and taking in the music. On Sunday afternoon we took Gemma to a couple of the pubs to hear the music, and she LOVED it. She stood quietly and took it all in! She enjoyed her drink (glass of milk) too! There was even a bit of Irish dancing in one of the pubs at one point, so Gemma now does her own Irish dancing at home with her arms down by her sides. It's so cute!

And, we stopped for a special treat on the way back to Dublin on Monday!

Chicken Pox!

Back on Sunday morning, April 26th, I noticed a few spots on Gemma's face when she got up that morning. Later, when I was getting her dressed, I noticed more all over, and more seemed to show up during the day. Chicken pox it was! Kids aren't routinely vaccinated for it here, and I had heard of a few friends and co-workers children who had had them recently. Gemma got a lot of spots, including in her mouth, so she lost her appetite, and was generally not feeling great. Luckily we got some good lotions and antihistamines from one of my friends, Daddy got her some new DVD's, and we gave her a new Play Doh set. The worst was being stuck in the house for nearly a week!

The Zoo!

Today we took advantage of the sunshine (although it was still a bit cool!), and enjoyed a day at the Dublin Zoo. We hadn't been there since September, and Gemma got into the experience a lot more this time- talking about all the animals nearly constantly! There are a few little playgrounds throughout the zoo, and she loved playing at these and sitting with all the wooden animals!

We ended the outing with an ice cream treat!

We had the stroller with us, but Gemma walked nearly the entire time we were in the zoo itself! She was asleep in less than 10 minutes tonight! 

Phew, that's me all caught up for now!