Friday, March 21, 2014

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

We decided to celebrate St. Paddy's Day in Dublin this year with some good friends of ours, and it was really a great trip (minus a 15 hour bug that we almost all managed to acquire at some point during the vacation). We managed to see a lot and although the two toddlers we were toting prevented us from really celebrating the Irish way, we still had a lot of fun.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Noah & Aidan!!
We started our tour of Dublin off with some beers at the Porter House Microbrewery.


Luckily the boys let us enjoy


Noah & Aidan
What's St. Paddy's Day without some clovers?
Aidan LOVING his babychino


Checking out Irish ducks at St. Stephen's Green



More St. Stephen's Green- a lifesaver when trying to tire out toddlers
The most crowded playground I have ever been to in my life





Incidentally, there was an Irish Craft Beer & Cider festival going on in Dublin while we were there. It was certainly small relative to the beer fests in the US but it was neat to try some local brews.The boys had fun... maybe too much fun.




The animals came out at the Irish Craft Beer & Cider Festival 
Noah & Aidan hanging with the revelers
Stopping to smell the flowers
Unfortunately I got sick just in time to celebrate St. Patrick's day, so we got off to a slow start. We sadly missed the parade, but eventually got out the door and checked out the Jameson Distillery.

Whisky tasting at the Jameson Distillery
Feeling Irish in his new cap
Christchurch Cathedral
Tuesday morning Matt, Noah, and I headed out to Kilmainham Gaol, a famous Jail from the Irish Famine days. Youngest inmate: 5 years old! He was incarcerated for stealing a length of chain. During that time there was massive overcrowding, people were intentionally getting locked up just to get food!

Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol


Behind bars at Kilmainham Gaol

In the afternoon, we met up with the Goguen's again to go to Howth, a shore town about a half hour outside of Dublin. We had some incredibly fresh seafood and enjoyed a somewhat sunny but VERY WINDY day before heading back to Dublin.

GIANT oysters 



 Once we were back in Dublin, we strolled around Merion Square to see some Georgian doors, and moseyed our way back to the apartment.


On Wednesday we went to the Guiness factory, Mike grilled some amazing steaks for us and then it was time to get on the plane back to Zurich.
I guess this is how you spell Lynn in Ireland?




Saturday, March 8, 2014

Noah's First Haircut


Noah got his first haircut today! While his hair wasn't extraordinarily long, it was terribly uneven and starting to lean towards mullet. Waleska, who cuts Matt's hair, cut Noah's hair right after Daddy's regular appointment. Noah was pretty darn good- there was no crying, just some mild annoyance at having someone tug his hair a bit.

Me & my two freshly cut boys