seaweed on the irish sea on the happy list
Family,  Ireland

Living in Ireland: Exploring Our New Country

For our friends and family back home, today is just a little bit of random life as viewed through our iPhone lens.

We know Ireland’s beautiful summer weather is fleeting, so we paused for a picture one night. I’m not 100% sure, but I think Handy Husband was trying to blend into his surroundings. This is hard to do when you are standing next to a kid wearing multiple colors and prints.

I admire her sense of style bravado. Wearing an uniform to school is going to be a big adjustment for this 9-year-old. She did ask me if she could wear any headband she wanted to school. My answer? Well, they didn’t mention anything about headbands…yet.

fatherdaughter
The kids and I have been spending a fair amount of time exploring the villages close to us and have found some cool parks and trails. Multiple times on these adventures we’ve also found a carnival. Oh goodie.

My kids have some sort of built-in radar for carnival rides. If there is a carnival ride or cotton candy in the vicinity, they will find it. Mark my words. This one was in the small seaside town of Bray.

Yes, the sky really was that blue that day. You can see a small slice of the Irish Sea in the background too.

bungee-jump
Handy Husband still run commutes to work. If he runs the entire way, it is roughly 13 miles one way. That’s a half marathon, so he doesn’t do that everyday. Slacker.

What he usually does is some sort of split commute. He hops on the train for part of the way and then hops off at whichever train station suits his fancy and runs the rest of the way. I believe he’s averaging about 60 miles per week.

On part of his commute, he runs past Bono’s house. Yes, that Bono. Part of the compound’s gardens are visible from the road.

For some reason, Handy Husband hasn’t been invited in for tea yet. Keep trying, honey.

bono-house
I’m not sure if I’ve whined about mentioned it, but we don’t have a car here in Ireland. Public transportation is pretty good, so we don’t technically need a car.

There have been a few times when it would have been convenient to have a car though…like when you need propane for the barbecue and the closest place to buy propane is a mile away.

It turns out that buying the Berg Pedal Car and Trailer wasn’t a completely frivolous expense. Our little guy, thankfully, LOVES to haul stuff in his trailer. You should see him back that thing up…he does a better job than I would.

propane
Part of our reason for moving south of Dublin was the beach. We have three different access points to the beach – all within walking distance from our house.

At this particular location we found a large pipe covered in seaweed. Why is the pipe there? I don’t want to know.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll recognize this photo. My sweet girl wanted to see how the seaweed felt on her feet.

seaweed
We also learned about how tides work that day. When we got to the beach the kids could walk quite a way out on that large pipe.

As the tide came in, they saw how the pipe slowly became covered up with water.

And, yes, they stood there for a very long time..at least 30 seconds…before one of them pushed the other off the pipe.

tide
I’m just sharing this photo because it makes me laugh.

Handy Husband and I do not have a ton of photos of just us. We’d much rather take pictures of our cute kids. So on this particular day we gave both the kids a phone to snap a shot of us and this is the best one we got.

I love the angle.

jeffandannisa-august-2016
Handy Husband snapped this photo while out and about in the Temple Bar area of Dublin recently.

Yes, those are umbrellas hanging above the street.

umbrellas

How happy is that?

The streets of Dublin are quite entertaining.

So far, living in Ireland has been quite the adventure and we are enjoying the time spent exploring our new country.


If you want to know more about our experience of living in Ireland, check out these posts:

Living in Ireland: Life Without a Car

Living in Ireland: Inside My Kitchen

Living in Ireland: Christmas in Retail 2017

Living in Ireland: Storm Ophelia

Living in Ireland: That Time a Tree Came Down

Living in Ireland: Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Living in Ireland: Back After A Month in the United States

Living in Ireland: As Seen On My Commute

Living in Ireland: A Trip to the Hardware Store

Living in Ireland: Spring Flowers In Our Yard

Living in Ireland: Grocery Shopping

Living in Ireland: What to See my Hot Press?

Living in Ireland: Merry Christmas 2016

Living in Ireland: Christmas in Retail

Living in Ireland: Groceries

Moving to Ireland: Grocery Item Look Alikes

Moving to Ireland: Primary School 101

Moving to Ireland: First Week of School

Moving to Ireland: A Day Out and About

Moving to Ireland: The Great Purge

Moving to Ireland: Human Kindness is Overflowing 

Moving to Ireland: House Viewing #1

Moving to Ireland:  House Viewing #2

Moving to Ireland: House Viewing #3

Moving to Ireland: Temp House First Floor

Moving to Ireland: Temp House Second Floor

Moving Tips to Keep You Sane

My #1 Moving Tip

Thinking about visiting Ireland? Read on!

The Cliffs of Moher and the Aran Islands with Kids

Galway with Kids

Our Favorite Irish Castle Tour with Kids

Belfast with Kids

Dublin: Talking Statues

Kissing the Blarney Stone and Blarney Castle


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