CLOSE Family Time!

Saturday 21 June 2014

Last night, after dinner, we decided to go to the sandy beach near our house.  We saw what appeared to be dead jelly fish everywhere.  I counted 50 in one area.  I say appeared because they were just the tops of the jelly fish--not the tentacles!  So we renamed the beach "where the jellies go to die beach."  The family had fun with sand art and rock art.  Anneliese made shapes to say "say yes to being yourself;" Shelby and Randy made (another) rock wall, and Joshua made a sand castle.   I just took pictures and read for a bit.

The jellyfish top

Another one on it's side

Anneliese's  "Say yes to being Yourself"

sand castles

The start to Joshua's sand castle

Randy and Shelby working on their rock wall

Where the jellies go to die

The seaweed dried on the sand reminded me of photos of mountains

Joshua's more developed castle--used in a rock battle with
Shelby (she used the rock wall to protect herself)

The rock wall to protect Tully

Anneliese's sculpture completed

cows in the sunset next to the beach

Good-bye Connemara

Today we were very close as a family since we were all in the car for most of the day!  We checked out of our cottage, then drove north and east.  We stopped twice along the way (in addition to bathroom breaks)--once for lunch and once to see the Slieve League cliffs.  We didn't see any cafes, so we stopped at a gas station with a convenience store to see what there was for lunch and were surprised to find that they had a deli area with real plates and a dining area so we ate there.  Then we also stopped to see the cliffs.

A tower from the Napoleonic wars

a hidden lake I found by climbing up

The cliffs

family photo!

dramatic family photo!

goofy children photo

I said "pretend that you like each other" after we'd spent many
hours in the car together (all three of them in the back seat of
our compact car).

More goofy kid photos!

On our vacation last year, we listened to Anne of Green Gables (recorded on my iPod from the library) on our way to Nova Scotia and to Cabin Pressure (a BBC radio show Anneliese has downloaded) after that.  This year, Anneliese downloaded the "Da Vinci Code" book on tape and we've been listening to that.  It keeps us all from driving each other crazy and keeps the children engaged in the views.  (Except for Shelby, she preferred reading her own book.)

Finally we arrived at Bushmill's, chosen because it is right on the Giant's Causeway.  It is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic erupiton.  There are many folk stories as well about a giant named Finn MacCool (Fionn mac Cumhaill) as well.  We checked into our hostel--a six-person room with a loft!  The kitchen looked kind of scary to cook in, so we found cash (they don't use Euros here in Northern Ireland) and did Chinese take away (take-out) which we ate at the hostel. 

Mommy-I want to grow up to be a fruiterer!

Then we went to the Giant's Causeway.  The basalt columns are primarily hexagonally shaped.  Very cool--see what you think:

Don't you agree?  Totally cool!  

Joshua and I tried some selfies, but since I only have the screen on the back of my camera and I didn't have my iPod, they ended up pretty funny.  Here are a few:

This one Anneliese took!

This one Randy took with his timer.