Kinsale

We stayed in the town of Kinsale while we were in Ireland.  Such a beautiful little harbor town located in Cork County.



We ate out more while we were here than we normally do because the food was AMAZING!  Kinsale is known as the gourmet food capital of Ireland.  To Brian and I it was like eating out in Charleston every night.



The beach out our back door.



Carolyn was upset that I didn't bring her swimsuit but it was definitely not warm enough for that.  And Brian decided not to join the polar bear club.



There was a great walking path behind our house which the



girls enjoyed.  (And we always love the opportunity to get them out and let them run/ burn energy.)



It was along the harbor and we even met up with



a sea lion.  He just stopped and stared at us for the longest time.  I thought he was going to swim up to us.  Come to find out from our neighbors where we stayed he is tame and follows all the boats in and out of the harbor.



The path eventually led to James Fort, which was built to protect the harbor back in 1601.



We had the whole fort to ourselves and the girls had a great time running around.



How nice would this have been to be in your backyard when you were a kid.  The people we rented our apartment from said that is what this fort used to be for their kids.  A true Irish playground.



After exploring the area around where we were staying we decided to drive to Mizen Head.  We should have known when we stopped to take this picture that some bad weather was rolling in.  I don't know if you can tell the layer of fog on top.



By the time we got to Mizen Head you really could not see anything at all.



Unfortunately typical Irish weather of fog and rain made us unable to walk out to the light house here.



I was disappointed but I think that is one the things with visiting Ireland.  It is a hit or miss as far as weather goes.  Fortunately for us this is the only time during our visit that weather really affected our plans.

Dublin

Although we spent most of our time on the South West side of Ireland our flight flew into Dublin very early in the morning.  So we spent a couple of hours exploring the city first thing.  Brian looks like he smelled something funky in this picture.  I think he was just ready to get to why he wanted to spend a couple of hours in Dublin...



The Guinness Brewery.



Much happier.  I am not a huge Guinness fan so for once the pregnant woman wasn't too sad I couldn't partake.



I did however appreciate how they only brew their beer from water from a certain mountain in Ireland.  That is what is flowing behind Brian and the girls.



And after the tour we got to go up to their roof top bar for some amazing views of the city.  Also we had a celeb citing here.  I didn't get a picture and but Kevin Connolly from Entourage was at the bar.



Sid enjoying her first ever Coke.  I know Brian and I are on crack giving our 2 year old a Coke but adults got a free beer for the tour and kids a soda.  She was so happy and sat there not making a peep until she finished the whole thing.



I don't really have many other pictures to share from Dublin.  Brian and I both agreed that it was a cool town that we probably would have loved had we still been in college or even traveling without the girls. We enjoyed the countryside/ beauty of Ireland the best.

Ready

In an effort to be better about keeping up with where I am with Baby Girl Donehue, thought I would share that I am 27 weeks.  Yay!  Which means one more week and I will be in my last trimester.  (I don't know who is more excited about that me or Brian.)

We are all ready for her to arrive.  (Only thing left to figure out is how we are going to transport our three children.  I need a huge American SUV)   I want to be nostalgic about this being my last pregnancy, but I find myself just really ready to meet her and have our family complete.

This is one of my new favorite pictures.

Berner Oberland

The area we were in in Switzerland is known as Berner Oberland.  Behind Brian and the girls are the three tallest mountains in the area Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.  This area appeared to attract what I would like to call serious hikers (Ones with their ski poles and backpacks, all geared out).

We could not have done this trip without the backpack for Sid but when we first put her in it each day she would scream.  I mean scream for about a minute and then realize she had a pretty good ride.  Carolyn did great job walking but also never failed first couple of steps and she would say I am tired of walking.. We had to come up with games of finding "happy little trees" and rocks.

Because of all this I sometimes felt like we were comic relief for the other hikers we came across.  You didn't see too many 4 or 2 years olds running around the trails.



On our second full day after doing a short walk we decided to check out some of the carless towns in the area. You can only get to them by cable car or train.  I had much love for the carless towns of Murren and Gimmelwald.



It was nice to just let the girls run free.  All along the streets they have these water holes which the girls thought were for washing their hands and splashing of course.



The views were gorgeous and we were actually above where we stayed in Lauterbrunnen.



Cowbells were hanging off of a lot of the buildings.  The free roaming cows here wear them so the farmers can find them.



For lunch we decided to try out a Rosti one of the local dishes.  Brian and I had no idea what it was we thought it was some kind of roast chicken.  We were very wrong.  It was a wonderful shredded hash brown dish topped with various toppings that felt like it should have been served at Waffle House.  Ours had cheese, ham, egg and a bunch of random things like pickles, tomatoes and pickled onions.



I just like this picture because I think the background behind Sidney almost looks fake.



Our view from lunch.



Then we headed to Trummelbach Falls which is a series of 10 glacier waterfalls inside a mountain.



We had to take an elevator up and then climb up stairs and through several caves to view them.
(Can you believe Sidney fell asleep like that.  Just looking at her makes my neck hurt.  She slept through our whole waterfall/cave experience.)



Each second 20,000 liters of water from the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau glacier melts power these falls.



Carolyn loved this part of the trip.



I always got a kick out of how long they estimated a walk to be and how long it actually took us to do it.  From the Falls it was supposed to be a 30 minute walk back to our campground.  It took us an hour or more.  I guess they weren't walking with a four year old who wanted to stop and look at every creek, leaf, cow, rock or whatever else interested her at the moment.  It did make us stop, take our time and appreciate our surroundings.



For dinner that night we had to have cheese fondue which is another local favorite.  (Carolyn loves to get to take pictures for us.)



Great trip!  We loved this area and our time here.

Plans

I had plans, big plans...but these two had other ideas.



After having shared a room on our past two trips and Sid sleeping in a big girl bed, she came home and decided that her crib was not cutting it.  So with no redecorating of Carolyn's room, no new bedding, and not even a care on who got what stuffed animal in their bed...Carolyn moved up to her top bunk last night and Sidney slept on the bottom.

They were thrilled.



Brian was happy (being that it is one less thing we have to check off our list before Baby D arrives) and me being the pregnant, hormonal lady that I am, cried.

Birthday Boy

Brian's big 32nd birthday was last week and to celebrate we took a trip to



Ireland! Where Brian got all of his Birthday Wishes..



Beautiful Scenery,



A Beach to walk upon, and



Oysters (as good as Charleston oysters) everyday.



Wonderful Birthday trip for him as well as the girls and I.
Brian read this post before I posted it to the blog...  He has rolled his eyes at everything I have written to end this post so I am going to include them all.
I can't wait to spend many more Birthdays together!
We gals are lucky to have this man in our lives.. (even bigger eye roll)

Love you Brian!!

Hiking

Our first full day in Switzerland we decided to head out on a hiking adventure.



We took a little cob wheel train through the mountains to



reach a cable car/gondola that took us up to our starting point.



Brian and I are not experienced hikers.  In fact this is probably the first time we have actually embarked on mountain hiking.  Here Brian is trying to figure out exactly where we needed to hike to catch the train back to where we were staying.



The views were well worth our effort.



I don't know if you can tell by the picture below but the path we walked on was not that big. Carolyn was fine but



I was very happy Sidney was in the backpack.  I would have had a heart attack if she had been running free.  We had to take lots of snack breaks for Carolyn but stopping wasn't a problem when you had gorgeous scenery to look at.



By the end of our 2.5 mile hike Brian was carrying both girls.  He got his workout in that day.



We did climb up and find an area where I felt comfortable enough to let Sid out of her confinement.  Of course one of the first things she did was try to get naked.  I drew the line at getting naked on an Alp.



At the end of our hike we were rewarded with one of my most favorite things.  A restaurant with our table right beside this wonderful playground.



That night we made redneck smores inside our cabin.



We might not have roasted our marshmallows over an open fire but the end result tasted just as good.