Dalkey Island, Paris, Visit from Uncle Billy Willy & Half Birthdays.... whew...

Excuse my sick face. We are all fake smiling here :)

Work has been quite intense lately and I have been traveling nearly every week for the last two months. This pace finally got the best of me and I had to make my first visit to the doctor after nearly a year here. The bummer of the sickness was mostly the timing. We had a Bank Holiday (not sure what these day's are for exactly, but all businesses and schools are closed randomly throughout the year)... We were hoping to take advantage of a long weekend and find something new to do in Ireland, but I wasn't feeling up for it. We couldn't let the long weekend get away without doing something, so the girls decided they needed to take me to see Dalkey Island!

Shortly after arriving last July, a visit to Dalkey Island was one of the first things Russ and the girls did while I was at work. The fact that I missed this visit left a definite impression, because every time they have seen "Ken the Ferryman" since that trip, they have reminded me that I have never been there! Ken's sign was out in front of the harbor, so we decided to take a boat ride. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, perfect weather to visit the island... or so we thought!

Racing to the Tower

Queen of the mountain!

Resident goats... they were very tame... just observed us walking around, but really seem to care less about our visit.

This seagull was SCREAMING as we walked past her... pretty sure those 3 little eggs were driving her crazy behavior!

In front of the island church

Beautiful blue skies and pluffy clouds for days... so we thought!

I loved how these clouds looked like they were right behind him... as if he could jump in!

My guy... doesn't make enough appearances on the blog!

Who knows with this one... she looks like she is holding garbage and has to use the toilet, not to mention the outfit choice for the day happened to be blue and white patterned pants, grey and white polka dotted skirt and who know's what shirt.

Storms rolling in... a little quicker than we anticipated!

After an hour or so on the island, we saw the storms rolling in and headed to the shore to be picked up by Ken the Ferryman. But, true to Ireland's reputation, the rain started and was "lashing" before Mr. Ken was even in his little dingy headed over to pick us up. We were soaked but laughed hysterically while the rain was pouring down and we had no place to take cover! Memories to last a lifetime and two more loads of laundry for Russ!

Half Birthdays

Request for purple and yellow turned out to be more like lavender and gold.

One of our family traditions is to celebrate the girl’s half-birthdays. They get a big kick out of being able to officially announce they have reached the half-way point through the year and proclaim their age to be whatever and a half! SUPER.BIG.DEAL!

Each half birthday, I bake a cake, cut it in half and then decorate it in icing colors of their choosing. Typically these are very ugly cakes, but they adore them and the idea, so it’s perfect. This year, Annelyse opted for a purple cake with yellow writing and Loralye, a pink cake with purple writing.

You will see the pictures, my color-mixing abilities are lacking a bit in this department… good thing buttercream frosting is delectable no matter what color it is.

How are you 6 1/2...

While she looks like she is throwing gang-signs, she is actually trying to hold up a "half of a finger"...

It always escalates so quickly with this child... cracks us up!

Yep... this kids expressions are priceless.

Both are very animated in their expressions, I have no idea where they get that from :)
Who me?? I'm not 4 1/2!?!

Just trying to get one good picture... "Annelyse, put your hands down"

"Stop Talking Please... "

"We can dance after the picture... Yes, Lo, you can eat your cake in a minute... can we PLEASE SING FIRST?!?"

Alright, I guess that is good as we are going to get...

We even found the playground under the Eiffel Tower! Perfect view for everyone!

P~a~R~i~S!

With being on the road for 5 of the last 6 weeks, I was missing home and ready to find any excuse to bring my little travel buddies along with me. With my next destination being one of the places the girls have been itching to see, the stars aligned and we were off to Paris!

The big difference with this trip was Russ was brave enough to get on a plane with the girls alone! I headed to France ahead of them to get a jump on work and they joined me later.

Big, white tower blocking our view.

We found another apartment which continues to be our preferred lodging accommodation. In this case, we had a view of the Eiffel tour which was slightly obstructed by a massive white tower, who’s purpose remains unclear. Each day, when the girls pulled the blinds open they expressed their disgust with this tower and its poor positioning. For the entire stay, they pulled up a table and chairs right next to the window so they could enjoy the view! In the evenings the large Ferris wheel would illuminate in the distance which was also a big deal!

Breakfast with a few... a nice one at that, even if it is slightly obstructed!

One night at around 1030, Russ and I were up talking and all of a sudden the tower started twinkling… I tried to wake the girls, to no avail, but managed to catch some of the “sparkling” on video to share with them the next morning.

The first couple days, I have not much to report because I was cooped up in an office while the 3 musketeers were out exploring the streets of France. Rides on the metro, exploring the local brasseries /boulangeries, stocking the kitchen with local foods and lots of swimming were the highlights the their days. They even found out new iPhones are secretly waterproof when it fell to the bottom of the pool one day! An unplanned trip into the pool was necessitated by the combination of water wing free swimming and a little too much bravery on Lo's part at which point Anna attempted to "save" her. Dad to the rescue. iPhone on bottom of pool. It was a bit tense after that, but it all worked out and they were ready for some dinner with Mom. By Friday, we were all ready to do a little sight-seeing and taking in all the city has to offer.

True to form, we opted for a version of the Hop-On, Hop-Off tours, only this time, boat transport along the river Seine was included in the tour! We headed for the stop next to the Eiffel Tour and set off for the day! With still having not recovered from all the museums and tours in Italy, we opted to stay on the outside of the Art Galleries and Museums. Surprisingly, with all the souvenirs along the streets we still managed to get some good lessons and facts in along the way. One that was particularly funny was regarding the Mona Lisa...Obviously her picture/face was on more than a few items, which helped reinforced the lesson. When I quizzed them on who she was and the artist, Loralye would reply, "that is the Mona Lisa and she was painted by “Leo” da Vinci… Leo instead of Leonardo… Annelyse did not find the use of his "short name" acceptable and made it a point to correct her... EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. {insert loud, argumentative, squabbling over a dead painters nick-name... or lack there of.} Deep breaths...find my zen place...

Opera Building

Le Madeleine Church - was designed in its present form as a temple to the glory of Napoleon's army.

In front of the Louvre... had no desire to go in!

Arc du Carrousel opposite the entrance to the Louvre.

Trying to emulate the girl on the sign behind her which was the logo for the infamous La Cure Gourmand...
In English... a candy store!

The one disappointment was that we weren’t able to tour the Eiffel Tour. As usual, we went into this trip with a flexible plan, knowing that life is subject to change with little ones. Needless to say, I didn’t think to purchase tickets for the tour ahead of going and upon arrival discovered there were no tickets available until the middle of June! Even though we were all a bit bummed, we decided that it was just another reason to return! Regardless of the fact that we didn't get to take a ride, we took lots of pictures around it!

This souvenir salesman photo-bombed every single picture I took...

I waited forever for the guy to leave and then this lady in the pink shirt shows up...

One of our first stops on the tour was the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The highlight by far was hand feeding the pigeons out front. Annelyse got a huge kick of the experience; however Loralye wanted no part of those birds sitting on her. When the guy who was passing out the food suggested she put her hood on so one could sit on her head, she gave him the most evil death stare and yanked her hood out of his hand. If looks could kill, that old man would be dead 34 times over. Not impressed.

Feed the birds!

Annelyse wanted to hold and snuggle all of them.. Lo was perfectly fine chucking food on the ground and keeping a safe distance.

After 2 gallons of hand sanitizer, we explored around the outside of the Notre-Dame cathedral on the Île de la Cité, noting a statue of the Pope John Paul the II… Funny both girls remembered the Pope and that he lives in the Vatican! The cathedral is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture.

CAPTION - From left to right: Pope, Annelyse, Loralye

Our stroll also took us past the Pont de l'Archeveche bridge (Archbishops Bridge). The bridge links the 4th Arrondissement, at the Île de la Cité, to the 5th Arrondissement. The tradition is sweethearts locks place a love lock on the bridge to symbolize their love. Typically the sweethearts' names or initials are inscribed on the padlock, and the key is thrown away to symbolize unbreakable love. Russ has carried locks engraved with initials in his backpack ever since seeing the locks in Amsterdam. Seeing that this bridge was covered in locks and we were in the city of love, we felt it fitting to find the perfect spot for our lock. After much deliberation, the girls decided on a location.

Finding just the right place for the lo

So much love in one little place

Lo & Anna... our little sweeties!

After the Cathedral, we headed towards the fountain and the Champs-Élysées. Prior to going, we got a book from the library called Eloise in Paris. Eloise is a precocious little girl who loves adventures and causing trouble. Of course the girls think she hysterical and love reading about all the trouble she gets in while traveling. In this book, there is a picture of Eloise in the Fontaines de la Concorde fountain... Without skipping a beat, as we approached the fountain, Loralye announces, “Hey, that’s the fountain Eloise was splashing around in! Can we jump in too??” To be honest, I didn’t even notice it was the same fountain as the one in the book. Of course, we had to take some pictures trying to emulate Eloise, outside of the fountain of course. I am no where near as fun as Nannie from the book!!

Making a fish-face while using her foot as her fin/tail.

Always finds a way to get a scream and a giggle

After the fountain we moseyed down the Champs-Élysées. The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is about a mile long a boulevard which runs between the Place de la Concorde and the Place Charles de Gaulle, It is known for its theaters, cafes and luxury shops. The French have proudly nicknamed this world-famous avenue "la plus belle avenue du monde" ("the world's most beautiful avenue").

The whole area reminded me a lot of Central Park and also The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. While thinking this Annelyse says... "You know what this place looks like... remember when we walked to Buckingham Palace?" Two seconds later, Russ says... "This looks a lot like the area around Buckingham Palace." Needless to say, as much as I question whether or not we all will remember these adventures, these comments encourage me to have faith that these experiences are leaving a lasting impression!

The next day, we set out on a different route and headed to the northern part of the city. We passed quickly by the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, commonly known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica and barely caught a glimpse of it. The tour bus then proceeded to pass through the Moulin Rouge district which reminded us a lot of our stroll through the red-light district in Amsterdam. Once again, the girls were too engrossed in something else to notice the countless “adult” shops lining the streets. Thank you Jesus!

To try something new and indulge the girls love of music. We opted for lunch at the Hard Rock Café. The girls even spotted some things from their favorite band the Beatles and enjoyed watching all the music video’s they had playing throughout lunch.

Another prominent landmark featured in Eloise in Paris was the Arc de’ Triomphe. In the story they describe Eloise racing around the massive traffic circle. True to the story, there appeared to be 7 lanes with 12 entrance points around the circle. We opted not to try and cross the pedestrian death trap and just snapped a few photos from the side of the road!

After some research on the best things to do with kids while in Paris, we decided we had to find this restaurant that specialized in the most delectable hot chocolate ever made… Berthillon, offers delicious hot chocolate, made from melted chocolate and cream, and chocolate ‘affogato’ (a ball of vanilla ice-cream, served in a white porcelain mug with hot chocolate poured on top and topped with praline cream).

Hot Chocolate fit for a queen.... or little princess.

Pouring melting chocolate over hot milk and vanilla ice cream.

Lo opted for just a couple scoops of ice cream... probably because there was a whole lot less fuss before she got to enjoy her treat!

At our site in Paris, they are currently running promotions for baby products featuring characters from the Arthur books. One of my French colleagues insisted that the girls needed some of the promotional materials to take home. After much deliberation (begging and pleading on my part) to her to not make me take these things (knowing full well I would be carting them all the way back to Dublin) I lost the battle and we came home with two life-size monkeys, and two very, very, thankful ladies. Thank you Ms. Elizabeth, this is just what we needed! Good thing we didn't have to buy two extra plane seats!

The girls got to practice swimming a lot during this trip and Annelyse even learned to float on her back. One day while playing in the pool I said, why don’t you try to float if you are getting tired, to which she replied “I can’t… I then told her to think of her lungs as internal floaties and take a deep breath and relax… sure enough, she was floating… and giggling like crazy thinking about those internal floaties. Lo asked me if her internal floaties were orange like the ones on her arms. I can only imagine what the picture in their head looks like thinking about that description!

Floating with those internal water wings...

In front of the Loueve

The rest of the days we spent walking along the Seine, the lovely parks and just taking in the scenery... no shortage of things to look at in this place!

Tossing coins in the Seine... no shortage of wishes around here!

The Hop on Hop Off Boat!

Boat Buddies

The miniature Statue of Liberty

While boating down the River Seine, we noted a familiar face; a quarter scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, 22 meters tall. Inaugurated by President Marie François Sadi Carnot on 4 July 1889, nearly three years after its US counterpart, it was given to the city of Paris by the Parisian community in America to mark the centennial of the French Revolution.

The girls always keep themselves busy with drawing and writing. These were some of the masterpieces from this trip. Both are pictures of the Eiffel Tour with all of us standing around it.

Also, Annelyse decided that since I again forgot a book for bedtime stories, she wrote one for us!

Busy Lady...

Of course, with Paris being a highly sought after tourist spot, there were no shortage of souvenirs. Nearly every square inch of pavement was covered in cloths with all kinds of trinkets spread out for sale. Seeing that the girls have observed the police chasing after these guys in the past, each time, we walked past goods on display Lo would say... "I don't know why they do that, they know they are going to get in trouble and hafta run away, then all their Eiffel Towers are going to get jumbled up and broken." So concerned for the Eiffel Towers made in China.

One tiny snag in the trip was that our flight home on Sunday was cancelled. This resulted in unplanned overnight stay. Needless to say, two of the four of us were excited about this development, however the other two of us obviously had other plans, including getting all unpacked, sorted and prepared for a visitor! Fresh (or maybe not so fresh) off the plane Monday morning, we headed straight for the Dublin Docks to pick up Uncle Billy Willy!

UNCLE BILLY WILLY!!

The girls were ecstatic to have our first family visitor join us in Dublin on May 23! Uncle Billy Willy was on a cruise through the British Isles and we were able to meet him at the port and explore for a few hours. Of course, upon arrival in the port, the girls were in awe of the sheer size of the cruise ship. After our mini-version of Where’s Waldo… we spotted Billy Willy on the 7th deck and he headed down to be greeted with giggles, shrieks and big hugs!

Lunch at the famous Finnegans in Dalkey!

Giving Uncle Billy a true taste of Dublin by taking the Dart to city-center!

Exposing Uncle Billy to the Selfie-Obsession!

The girls insisted on showing him our apartment (which I later found out was only because Annelyse wanted to change her clothes). The drive to our village did let Russ show-off his left side of the road driving skills and brag about his recently obtained Irish driver’s license. I won’t go into details; however obtaining this license was almost as hard as immigrating to this country. Anyway, we drove along the coast and the girls were able to show him some of their favorite places before heading to the famous Finnegan’s Irish Pub for some lunch and a pint! After lunch we hopped on the Dart and headed downtown. Seeing that Billy Willy didn’t have any tourist traps in mind, we wandered down the Grafton Street, pointed out some of the main sights, got some gelato and ended up at a playground in Merrion Square. The perfect setting for both the girls and BillyWilly.

Walking Grafton Street eating gelato... our pace slowed down dramatically after procuring the ice-cream, however Billy got a break from the constant hand-holding and swinging by the monkeys...