Party #2

On the 11th (Great Grandmother's actual Birthday), we had another party at an Italian restaurant in downtown Columbia.  AK had skipped her morning nap, so she slept through the first half of the party (phew!) and behaved nicely for the second part.  Her new party dress was quite a hit and had the added bonus of not showing drool/spit up :-)

Great Grandmother's 100th Birthday

The first party was at Still Hopes.  One extreme projectile vomiting incident notwithstanding, Anna Kate was an angel - all of Great Grandmother's friends loved seeing AK & Henry.

Here, Henry is "honking" AK's nose - she didn't find it as funny as he did!

Party #1

Apparently Anna Kate partied too hard...

Miscellaneous

We are in Columbia this weekend to celebrate Grandmother's 100th birthday. There are lots of parties planned, so prepare yourself for Anna Kate's party attire cuteness!

Here are a few pictures from this morning.

For Auntie Robin

Just to tide you over until we can get our Ireland pictures organized.

We Made It Back To Atlanta!

We're in the car on the way home, so check back for updates about the second half of our trip later.

AK was great on the plane - she took two long naps and played fairly quietly the rest of the time!

The Burren

We took the scenic route back to the hotel from the cliffs and went through a famous area called The Burren. There are exposed pieces of limestone like this all over the countryside for miles (kilometers). None of Anna Kate here as she primarily slept through the car ride.

Cliffs of Moher (Cliffs of Insanity)

Wednesday was cold and windy, but it was our first sunny day on our trip. We visited the famous Cliffs of Moher which you might recognize as the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride. At first we tried to put Anna Kate in one of her snowsuits and carry her, but it turns out she hated the wind so we hand to return to the car before even seeing the cliffs and switch to Plan B, the stroller.

The wheelchair / stroller ramps were quite steep.

Love the warning symbol in the background!

Dromoland Castle

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday night in an actual castle. Here are a few pics including our formal dinner (coats required) on Wednesday. Anna Kate did fair at first and then finally fell asleep.

Galway

There is nothing around Clonmacnoise and most restaurants we found were closed this time of year, so we went into Galway for an early dinner before heading on to our hotel. It was filled with cute shops including Wooden Heart, a really cool children's toy store where we got Anna Kate a handmade baby book about Ireland. We immediately had to break it out in the restaurant to avoid a meltdown.

Clonmacnoise

On Tuesday, we picked up our rental car and I managed to get everyone out of Dublin, around the M50 (like 285 in Atlanta or the beltway in DC), and across the country to the west coast of Ireland safely. It was quite the experience driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right, but no incidents so far. Here are picture from Clonmacnoise, some monastic ruins in the middle of the country.