While I was decorating our home and listening to our Christmas CD’s it was fun to get texts and messages about what our kids here and there have been up to so far this Christmas season.
Our oldest were able to fly down to Southern California for a quick trip to enjoy the annual ‘Cousin Christmas’ party and they fit in a day at Disney with several of their cousins, too. Our local kids had their annual Christmas tree hike on their own property and found this year’s tree.
Our youngest and hubby have been trying to keep their cat and kitty out of trouble. The curiosity and skills of the newer kitty have necessitated safety locks on all their cupboards. That sneaky kitty can open the cabinet doors and has even figured out how to work around the basic child proof locks!
We’ve been pondering again the passages about our Emmanuel and the wonder of it all.
In the midst, Greg and I finished this eye straining puzzle of a historic Story Map of Ireland. Thankfully it was only a 500 piece puzzle. It was actually easier than the tea cup puzzle we finished last week. We did have to get out our magnifying glasses for parts of it. Taking the time to put this together while listening to Christmas music is relaxing for us as we ignore other distractions.
I’ll add posts next week of our tree and the rest of the decorations at Our Country Bungalow.
Our travel journal will come to an end with this post, our last several hours in Dublin on Monday, September 25th.
Our tour guide was great and the tour at Jameson was well done and we all enjoyed it.
After our Jameson Tour it was a straight shot along Mary’s Lane to the Church Cafe. We had a great table for the 6 of us right up front in the balcony with the Irish music and dancing right below us.
We had a lovely view of the Stained glass window.
Saint Mary’s (former) Church of Ireland was begun c.1700 to the design of Sir William Robinson and was completed by his successor, Thomas Burgh. It was the first classical parish church in the city and was the site of Arthur Guinness’s marriage in 1761. Wolfe Tone was baptized here and the church also witnessed John Wesley’s first Irish sermon.
The triumphal east window was designed at least in part by Robinson and has a grace and vivacity unusual in a city largely bypassed by Baroque influences. The style is supported by the tracery windows and represents the only extant exterior Baroque flourish in Dublin city. The plan form adds further to the site’s unique identity, with the convex quadrants being a departure from the usual rectilinear shapes found in similar churches, contributing a distinctive design and striking presence.
Lord how I love the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth.
I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord
Holiness becometh thy house O Lord forever.
I felt torn that this church didn’t survive for whatever reason but am pleased that it wasn’t torn down. The Stained glass window still echoes some of God’s truth for those with eyes to see.
We all enjoyed our dinner here and when it came to dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding was on our minds. The Church Cafe did not have it on the menu so Andrew googled and found a restaurant in the Temple Bar area of Dublin that had it on the menu. We decided we would enjoy that to top off our last full day in Dublin so we walked across the river to the Temple Bar area.
How great it was to see this particular bar that was one of the jigsaw puzzles I completed before we traveled to Dublin.
The restaurant that was serving Sticky Toffee Pudding was packed and getting a seat for six didn’t look promising. With some gentlemanly coaxing, Andrew convinced the staff to fix up two servings for us to enjoy outside around a bench along the way with promises that we would certainly return the plates and utensils. It was a nice way to end our time before we ordered the last Uber of the day to take us back to our hotel for the night. Slainte!
This wraps up my travel journal for our time in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Dublin and England. On Tuesday the 26th of September we had our buffet breakfast in the hotel, checked out and traveled by Uber to the Dublin Airport for our 9-10 hour flight home. We went through customs in Dublin so we did not have to be delayed at all after landing in Seattle. Andrew and Katie drove straight home from the airport in Seattle and we drove back to Josh and Laura’s for the night with a stop for dinner at their local Mexican Restaurant. We settled in for the night to try to sleep before our next day departure by car over the mountains to our home. When we woke up earlier than expected due to Jet Lag we loaded up and drove home. Thankful for God’s providence in reaching our driveway safe and sound or half sound. Jet Lag is real!
We had nine at our Thanksgiving table this year before three more family members made the drive on Friday. My sister and her husband traveled from Texas to be with us locals from Colville. I’m happy to announce that we were pleased with cooking the turkey in the convection oven. It took half the time and the results were good. We’ll make a couple tweaks next year…if we remember.
On Friday, later in the afternoon, this carload of three arrived from their six hour drive and we were eleven for a pulled pork dinner. Our daughter’s hubby unfortunately was under the weather and stayed home.
On Saturday our group split up and spent the morning and afternoon with separate adventures.
The older folk ventured across the line into Canada for some fun in Rossland and Trail, B.C. We had good interactions with the Border Agents again.
The sun was out for another glorious squinty day! Rossland is at a higher elevation and known as a skiing destination. The shaded sidewalks were icy. We tried to walk on the sunny side of the street.
We enjoyed the artwork around town and made some purchases before we traveled a bit further to enjoy lunch in Trail.
Persian food is a favorite in our family and we were happy with the quality of food at Kootenay Kabab in Trail.
Our carload made it back across the border to our Country Bungalow in time to watch the second half of the Cross state rivalry between the University of Washington and the Washington State Cougars, known as the Apple Cup. Having three University of Washington alumni in our family we are Husky fans. We are outnumbered on the side of the state that we live in now. Our Huskies waited until the last second of the game to win! With that win they are undefeated this season.
While we were in Canada our kids enjoyed time in Colville on our local kids’ property.
We all gathered together again for dinner and fun on Saturday evening.
Addy enjoyed time with her aunties and great auntie and JJ enjoyed his Uncle JOSH-SHU-WA. This weekend for JJ, Uncle Joshie was Uncle Josh shu wa.
Ember enjoyed the visiting hands that stroked her head. The large Thanksgiving banner was a great project for everyone to contribute their coloring skills to. Mexican Train was the game of the weekend.
We are thankful to be able to spend extended time together any time of the year but it is always a special time at Thanksgiving. So grateful for all who traveled a long way to get here! We don’t take that for granted.
As you can imagine the last several days have been very busy and I’ve had little time on the computer and for visiting. Hopefully I’ll catch up soon before the next grand adventure the end of this week!
Thank you to all for your visits and your comments. I appreciate every one of you!
Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo arrived to Colville on Thursday evening last and we enjoyed a few days together. On Friday October 27th we arrived at the Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze when they opened at 4pm.
Addy was keen on reading the map and leading us to find the 9 stations of the maze.
JJ was interested in other discoveries.
We mastered the maze in forty minutes and then it was time to pick a few pumpkins to carve.
Carving happened the following day on Saturday after the pumpkins had time to warm up. We’ve been experiencing lows in the teens and 20’s here in Colville.
Saturday evening we enjoyed dinner at our Country Bungalow with nonstop fun and I even got a back massage by my favorite little boy.
Sunday we were all in church for a wonderful service and afterwards enjoyed lunch together at Rancho Chico before Auntie and Uncle hit the road for home.
A special Fall weekend enjoyed and one that will be remembered. Thank you, Joshie and Lolo for taking the time to drive over the mountains to visit us. Loved our time together.
Happy Reformation Day and Halloween to you all. We are looking forward to our two very special trick or treaters to ring our doorbell tonight!
There is no Hodgepodge this week so it’s a good time to go back to our time at the Marcus Cider Fest this past Saturday and get caught up with what’s been happening around here recently.
Every October the little town of Marcus hosts a Cider Fest that is well attended. It starts with a parade on Saturday. This year the weather was so nice it seemed the attendees and cars in the parade doubled!
Granny Great and Jim rode in Jim’s car for the parade.
His car was so shiny that we could see our reflections!
Our kids entered our DIL’s Thunderbird in the car show.
Jamie created all the t-shirts. Dan’s said, It is her car but she lets me drive. Jamie’s shirt said, It is my car but I let him drive and the kids shirts said, What’s the Word? Thunderbird.
We enjoyed the parade with our Grands and then we walked about the craft stalls, bought a caramel apple and headed home for the day.
The last Saturday in September I attended our Women’s Retreat and one of the workshops I attended was on Hospitality and Flower Arranging.
This was my arrangement. Those flowers were spent after a week and I replaced them with these Dahlias I purchased at Trader Joe’s keeping the same filler greens.
Last in this catching up post are photos from our back acres showing some Fall color.
Speaking of Fall, we finally had conditions that allowed us to take care of our burn piles. Branches that fell throughout the year were gathered up and burned. We worked as a team and accomplished a lot on Tuesday.
It’s been good to catch up with many of your blogs.
We are praying for Israel and the conflict on that side of the world. So distressed at how prisoners of war have been treated in such a barbaric and inhumane way. I can’t even imagine the sadness, terror and grief of losing loved ones in this way and the feelings of despair while huddled in a bomb shelter.
Borrowing the verses that Joyce shared on her blog.
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day” Psalm 46:1-5
Up while it was still dark to get ready for our all day Paddywagon Tour to Dark Hedges, Dunluce Castle, Giant’s Causeway and Belfast. We were the second pick up spot at 7:20 am, Saturday the 16th of September. That meant we ended up in the back of the bus with 50 of our one day ‘friends’ in front of us. Looking a little blurry in that selfie I took.
This day will have to be split up according to our stops or else I’d have way too many photos. I’m sorry to have to mention that we were not enamored by our bus driver and the information he chose to dwell on and drone on during our trip. We did choose joy at each of our stops! We were last off at each stop which meant we had a few less minutes at each of our stops. We were last back to the bus on most of our stops because of that…
There was a stop about an hour into our trip at a motorway stop with many choices for food, drinks and other conveniences.
A while after our convenience stop, we pulled into a parking lot for cars and buses and were directed to the path to Dark Hedges. There were minimal services here. We were beginning to see the chance for some blue skies ahead.
Stop #1 ~ The Dark Hedges
None of the four of us are fans of Game of Thrones but we were happy to see this row of beech trees.
The Dark Hedges is an avenue of beech trees along Bregagh Road between Armoy and Stranocum in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Our daughter-in-love has an eye for photography and putting it all together in a collage. I’ll be sharing many of her photos and collages, too.
We were only at this stop for 20 minutes. We beelined it to the restrooms first and onward to the Hedges. The lines for the conveniences could take a while so we tried to be quick on the draw when we could.
Our next stop would be Dunluce Castle and it was my favorite of the stops on this day.
Thank you for following along.
Back to the present…
We are already enjoying Fall colors out our windows here at our country bungalow. How about you?
We arrived in Dublin and were welcomed with some typical rainy weather. We are hoping to have some sunbreaks here and there during our time in Ireland and England.
I don’t have much time on the computer so any posts before I return home will be postcards with few words. I’ll create my travel diary here on my blog when I return home. Slainte.
This is another tribute to Dear/Greg upon his 70th birthday. Some photos with our children in their growing up years. Some are out of order and I haven’t transferred all the photos from when our kids were young onto the computer so these are limited but more than you might be interested in. 🙂
Joshua’s baby dedication at Huntington Beach E.V. Free church with pastor Bob Thune.
Daniel’s baby dedication at Huntington Beach E.V. Free church with Pastor Bob Thune.
For those who don’t miss a trick there isn’t a photo from Katie’s dedication but it did happen.
Our kids appreciate their dad and his wisdom, integrity and faithfulness.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 