We arrived on Sunday morning, August 17th. It was about 7:30 AM Irish time, but just 1:30 AM Texas time. Needless to say, the three of us were worn out from our journey. We flew from Austin to Newark, and Grace was great on that three and a half hour flight. She slept for about two hours and played nicely the rest of the time. The first half of our trip was great! In Newark, we had dinner and tried to wear Grace out. She ran all around the airport; she loves having big, wide open spaces to run free. When we boarded the plane bound for Shannon, Ireland, we had high hopes that Grace would sleep much of the trip. No such luck :-) We ended up sitting on the plane for an hour and a half before taking off, and Grace was really not impressed. All she wanted was to run around the plane, which of course she couldn't do. We managed to keep her somewhat tame, but then we had 6 hours of flying to get through. I'll spare you all the details, but suffice it to say that 2 nasty poops and several "baby meltdowns" later, we arrived at the Shannon airport. In spite of being worn out, we were thrilled to land on Irish soil!
Grace got to use her Irish passport for the first time, and she and Martin sped through the EU line, while I waited in the long American line. Grace had fallen asleep toward the end of our journey (FINALLY) and slept through our arrival, getting our bags, and walking through the doors to her anxiously waiting grandparents! She finally woke when I changed her diaper in the airport and gave lots of cuddles to her Nana as we walked to the car. We drove back to Clogheen and had an awesome Irish breakfast waiting for us. It hit the spot! We met up with Martin's sister, Sharon, and her two kids, Michelle and Conor, plus Martin's nephew and Godson, Liam. It was a great way to start the day!
After breakfast, we headed to Martin's parents house to get ourselves showered and dressed for Melissa's Baptism. The Baptism was beautiful, definitely the most unique one I've ever witnessed. It concluded with the priest singing to Melissa, who smiled away at him. After the Baptism, the party got rolling at Martin's sister and brother-in-law's house (Caroline and Willie). The party raged on all day long and was fabulous. Loads of family and friends came to celebrate Melissa's Baptism and Liam's 8th birthday. The day was complete with typical Irish weather...in other words, it rained all day long! That didn't stop Liam and all his friends from playing on the bouncy castle though :-)
When we finally got to bed at midnight, all three of us were exhausted! But guess what? We slept in until Noon the next day and felt a world better! Monday was a day of relaxation and hanging out with the fam. Grace got comfortable in her new surroundings and had a blast playing with her cousin, Liam. I got my long-overdue cuddle time with my new niece, Melissa, and fell in love with her! Grace was really sweet to her and gave her lots of kisses!
Tuesday was the long-awaited trip to the Cliffs of Moher! I've wanted to go there ever since seeing my brother, Billy's amazing pictures from his trip a couple years ago. Martin has never been there either, which still blows my mind. The Cliffs are about 100 miles from Clogheen, and we all set off for the journey. We arrived JUST IN TIME to see the Cliffs...as we were snapping our photos, we watched a huge cloud roll in from over the Atlantic and sure enough, it started to dump rain on us about 20 minutes after we arrived. NOTE: This pic is not from our visit to the Cliffs...I'll post ours later, but the backdrop wasn't nearly so clear. Alas, such is life! It was quite the adventure, as we tried to keep Melissa and Grace dry and warm. It was certainly worth the trip because the Cliffs are absolutely breathtaking and the scenery on the drive was equally as magnificent! I saw my fair share of "fields of green and fences made of stone."
We made it back to Clogeen around 8 PM and got Chinese food for dinner. We just chilled out, ate dinner, and relaxed after our long day. It was another great day in Ireland! That's all for now; keep checking back for more about our time here! Love to all back home :-)
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