Christmas!

This year Christmas was very...active. I would say busy, but it wasn't stressful busy, just active. We started out with our annual ski trip up north (year 8, trip 7) with our family friends. Our family friends are basically like relatives to us since our relatives and their relatives all live out of town. This year we survived winter storm Ernie. They started naming their snow storms up north and we're not sure why, but it keeps life interesting. Up north we skiied, had "Christmas" dinner of steak, ate pizza at Sven and Ole's, watched movies, and played games. My sister-in-law and I also made snow angels! Fun! The snow was very fluffy...kind of hard to ski in a foot of that. We had some great falls. We drove home on Christmas Eve and I went to church to help out with the kids for two services and attend one. Christmas is a fun time to help with children's church because the kids are so excited and in awe of everything. Christmas morning we opened presents (I slept in until 11). My dad (the bestower of terabit hard drives, digital cameras, and anything technical) bought me pink soakers for my ice skates! He had looked at them with me the other week and I was surprised he not only remembered but bought something that doesn't require a battery or wires! Way to go dad! Then my little brother and I went and saw "Valkyrie" with our family friends at the movie theater. I've never been to the movie theater on Christmas and was surprised how busy (ie. sold out) it was! After that, we had ham for dinner and then I made my family play the "Ticket to Ride" game I got for Christmas (which they all loved!!!). I had played it with friends in Ireland...definently a great game! Yesterday was coffee dates with long lost friends and today is a day to finally relax...maybe. :-) I'm so thankful for my family and friends and especially GOD!!!

Playing "Ticket to Ride" in Ireland with Stacey, Jon, and Erin

Finally Photos

So, I narrowed my 395 photos down to a measly 49! Enjoy. Click here.

That's Going to Be A Nightmare...That's Just Our Policy

I love Brian Regan's quote when talking about customer service "That's going to be a nightmare. That's just our policy!" Let me start out by saying that Ireland was great!!! I loved it!!! It was so much fun to explore and visit and make new friends. Photos coming soon. Getting there and back however was not great AT ALL!!! Let me draw it out for you.

We were scheduled to leave August 2 MSP to JFK to DUB
Our MSP to JFK flight was cancelled due to rain
So, after 4 hours on the phone, a rush to the airport, and 4 hours of running back and forth between ticket counters (I won't elaborate as to why) we got booked for a flight the next day through Atlanta. We arrived at DUB 24 hours later than expected and went through Atlanta not JFK but we and a bunch of other interrupted travel people got First Class from Atlanta to Dublin, so that was nice.

We were schedule to come home August 16 DUB to JFK to MSP
Our DUB to JFK flight was delayed 5 hours because the JFK to DUB flight our plane was making was delayed leaving JFK 5 hours again due to rain. So, we checked in, collected our food vouchers, hung out at Starbucks, met some neat Irish people, and 5 hours later boarded our flight. We were scheduled to make our connection if we landed on time. We landed on time but sat on the tarmack for a good half hour or so and missed our flight to MSP. We wandered around JFK because it is HUGE and poorly marked and the staff is of little help (told us to walk to terminal 4 when a very helpful man later told us to ride the tram!!!). We found our ticket counter and the ticket agent told us all the flights were booked, but told us the times for the next day and gave us a hotel and food voucher (again). We went to the Ramada bus pick up area. The bus came and had a fender bender with the Holiday Inn van so we had to wait for another Ramada bus! Then we spent the night (a whole 9 hours of it) in Ramada Plaza Inn at JFK and left 5:30 am to check in for standby for the 8:00 am flight to MSP! We sat and sat and sat and I almost threw up from stress! Then, the agent called our names!!!!!! We made the flight!!! We were soooooo happy!!!!!!!!!!! Horray.

In the end, out of our four originally scheduled flights we flew ONE of our flight numbers and NONE of the times. So so so frustrating!

We are home! I miss Ireland, but am glad to not be at JFK anymore.

Ireland - Part 2

It has been raining loads and loads!!! We have even had thunderstorms (odd for Ireland). Usually it rains for 20 minutes and is done for the day. Ethan frequently exclaims, "I con not bewieve it!" and everything Caiden does is "more than I've ever been" as in "my feet hurt more than they've ever been!" or "I'm hungrier than I've ever been in my life!" So funny! In a few days the crew comes home from conference and we will get to do some more touring (not that the Kildare Play Zone and Maynooth Spar haven't been grand)! Tomorrow Erin and I will minister to the neighbors the best we know how (by making them chocolate chip cookies). Unfortunately, there are no semi-sweet chocolates in Ireland and the Irish know little of soft cookies (their "biscuits" are usually rather hard and crunchy). So we make these every year and they love them!!! Well, I'm off to watch Failtre (full chur) Towers...an Irish show with pseudo celebrities running a hotel and one by one they get kicked off (Erin and I are curious how long it will be until we have it in the U.S.). Its the best we could find. Cheers!

Ireland - Part 1

After a canceled flight and a bump to first class to make up for it :-) we've finally arrived in Ireland!!!

We are having fun. At 5 and 3 years old, the boys are so sweet and funny. They even have accents. Yesterday morning, we were chatting about various things in the kitchen and they boys yelled "let's make gingerbread!" and we said, "um, maybe later. I'm not sure we have everything for that" and they replied "well, we have bread!" :-) Ha ha ha.

Dress Rehearsal

Our flight to New York (to continue to Dublin) was cancelled today due to rain. So, after 3 hours on the phone (mostly on hold), a rush to the airport (they told us we were on a flight leaving for France soon), and 3 more hours at the airport being tossed from airline counter to airline counter (flight confirmed to Chicago, bags checked, flights Chi-town to Dublin oversold so unschedule flight, find bags) they informed us we will have to leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will have 4 hours in Atlanta. Upon checking out the airport website I am please to learn they have a Starbucks (though I doubt we'll need that) and a family favorite...Chick-fil-a!!!!!! Plus Coca-Cola is made in Atlanta. So being more stressed than I have in about a year, I am excited for these little things!!! Yum!