Way Too Much Fun in Ireland

This week we had a short but fun visit with Tal and Anita in NYC. We were with them for parts of two days and overnight and we loved seeing their amazing pictures of the Ice Hotel and the fascinating Swenson stomping grounds in Sweden. We also got to see Tal and his partner Danny give an Imagine Learning presentation in a school in Brooklyn. They did a great job! I’ll post about that on our way home since I forgot to take pictures and we’re staying overnight with them again on the way home, After some good talks and a meeting with our book agents we headed out on a “red eye” to Dublin on Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning we rented a car and drove all the way (3 hrs) across the country, managing to remember to stay on the wrong side of the road, to an incredible hotel that Dad/Rick found online while surfing around for our trip. Did we ever hit the jackpot! It is truly beyond belief!

The original building was founded in 1228 by the de Burgo family following their defeat of the native O’Conners of Connaught. In 1589 the castle fell into the hands of Lord Bingham, with whom we hope to find a connections since we are Binghams ourselves!

It passed through several hands including the famous Guinness Family who expanded the property to 26,000 acres (yes the Guinness family of current beer fame).  It then passed through many other capable hands and has recently been voted one of the top two hotel properties in Europe.

 

 

Every room as well as hundreds of pieces of art in the hotel is stunning, including 11 Waterford crystal chandeliers in the dining room!

 

 

Because Dad is doing a column on the castle and I’m doing a blog post for the Deseret News….last night we stayed in “The Stateroom”.

 

 

 

 

And tonight we’re staying in the Presidential Suite…whose former occupants include Ronald Reagan, Princess Grace, Bob Hope (whose daughter married one of the former owners) and of course, Pearce Brosnan who was married in a church nearby and spent his honeymoon here.

 

 

 

 

The grounds were equally impressive. We were thrilled with the green, the occasional sun, the flowers and the amazing trees. Several of the owners were gardners extraordinaire. One planted one million trees…trees of every kind, including a palm tree (which we haven’t yet found)!

 

Every path led to a new delight!

 

 

The hotel staff has been so good to us!  We’re so grateful that because it’s off-season in the hotel business and pretty much everything in Ireland is priced reasonably because of the economy we have this rare and delightful opportunity to be swimming in splendor! 

March Madness

I've been home for four days in March. Time flies when you're having fun! From conducting a family retreat in Toronto to the exciting missionary experiences and fun parenting seminars with Chris and Hedy  in Canada to the momentous events in Boston there wasn’t a moment of “unfunness”!

 

You know the fun I've had with Peter James Eyre Shumway.  I’ll never forget that amazing experience. It was hard to say goodbye to those cute kids and Jeff…

 

 

And especially to this darling daughter whose love for pregnancy, labor and giving birth is sheer inspiration! What precious hours and days we had together with actual time to really communicate and revel in the cuteness of that little flock! It’s always so fun to “in the world” of our children. To know their friends, to learn to drive to the store, schools, the zoo, the church and most importantly…Trader Joe’s!

 

Saydi is holding the camera at arm’s length. That is not her hat…it’s a balloon in the background.

After Saydi dropped me off at the airport just after 4 p.m. on Monday, I ran into one of my best serendipties of late!  It was snowing and the plane out of Boston was two hours late, and I was going to miss my connection in NY. I first thought I could spend the night with Tal and Anita if they could get me out early the next morning. I HAD to be in SL by 11:00 the next morning to meet my high school friends for a special occasion at the temple. No flights home from NY would get there in time.

 

So they said they could get me into Long Beach and I could catch a plane from there to SL arriving at 10:50 the next morning.  I thought maybe N & K might be able to pick me up and take me back so I got excited about that, but they sold the last ticket on that flight  to the guy in front of me. Later I found that the Long Beach airport is about an hour from Ladera Ranch so we dodged a bullet on that one N&K. 

 

SO I asked them to check SF. Sure enough! There was a flight there arriving about 11 p.m. and then I could get a 6 a.m. flight to that same Long Beach flight to SL at 8:30, getting me into SL at 10:50.  I snapped it up and couldn’t believe my good fortune!  Charity was in need of a good talk! She picked me up at the SF airport which is 15 minutes from her house and the we had a really good chat until about 1:30 a.m.. That girl is “amazing”!

 

I got to sleep about 2 a.m. and got up at 4:45 when Charity (bless her heart because she had lots on her plate that day and had taken a guy to the airport the morning before at 5 a.m.) took me back to the airport where I caught the flight to Long Beach and then home. I caught a cab at the airport and got to the temple just in time to go through with my high school “gang” to do “the work” for our friend Marsha who had died of cancer two years ago. It was a joyful experience complete with lunch at the Blue Lemon afterward.

 

I unpacked, packed again and left the next morning for Palm Springs. It was fun to meet and speak to many of the people involved in a new company we’ve been writing for called Melaleuca. Good products. Good people committed to leaving a legacy of values for their kids as well as in their business.

After a little time drinking in the sun, flowers and the smell of new-mown grass, we headed back home to mountains of snow, unpacked, packed again, caught up on a million things, gave our lessons at church and met the Looslis at the visitor’s center at Temple Square on Sunday afternoon. The church museum across the street was packed with fun things for kids!

Here’s Eliza creating her own Quilt pattern:

And Isaac arranging geometric shapes.

After that we had the fun chance to speak to a group of single adults at the JSMB. That building is an inspiration in itself! Such a good audience. President Omer was presiding. FUN! He is being released on May 1st and going to his new assignment presiding over the mission in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 1st.

We left at 5 a.m. this morning for NYC where we are so excited to see Tal and Anita for two days and a night. Then we’re off to Ireland until Sunday and then Manchester to watch conference and another fun speech and then on to London.

While I was gone, Dad/Rick was hosting the Pothier family who came out to Utah for Spring Break. I was sad to miss them but here are a couple of pictures from Shawni’s blog to prove they were there…with their cousins the Looslis too! 

 

March Madness indeed!

First Meeting and Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig!

The morning after the amazing birth of that little baby shown in the last post Dad and I packed up the kids and headed for the birth center to introduce them to their new brother! 
We forgot how bad rush hour traffic can be in Boston but so we were all breathless with excitement by the time we got there an hour and fifteen minutes later when it had only taken thirty minutes the night before.  I did the video on the iphone during the initial excitement but here is the aftermath. I think Emmaline is thinking that something’s about to change!











Grandfather of course was delighted to welcome #10 grandson to the family!




And Grammie was once again enchanted by the magic feel, smell, and freshness from heaven of a newborn baby.



On her own up in the attic at her little art station, Hazel had created the most darling envelope filled with a little book that showed her own brilliant way of expressing love to her mom which she brought unbeknownst to anyone.  See the pages below.





Translation: Happy Birthday George (one of the many name options).






Above: Baby….I Rock?  Below: I am the best baby ever



Not to be outdone, Charlie worked on the message below with his dad for a very long time as soon as we got home…to be read from bottom to top:



Translations:  DEAR BABY BROTHER, I HOPE YOU WILL HAVE FUN WITH ME. 
Of course the first order of business when we got home was a birthday party Even though it was March 16th by then, one day late,  the baby didn’t care and the kids had a great celebration (cake decorated with grapes, peanuts and candy necklaces by Hazel).




That thing on the right was….appropriately… a Zero Candle..lit.



Does Saydi look radiant just less than 24 hours after giving birth or what?

And that baby looks pretty happy to be here too, newly arrived from heaven.





Every day he is brighter and hungrier. The first week is always full of little worries and concerns. And Saydi, though she called him a “little torture chamber” today because she is engorged, couldn’t adore him more. There’s nothing like a new baby in the house to put the whole world straight!




We think we have a name but I’ll save that for the next post. Don’t want to let the cat out of the bag!