lemme just give me ma a wee call.

Every morning I wake up I wonder how this new glorious day could possibly get any better than the previous splendid day. How can I have so many days filled with so much joy? Seriously I am so blessed!

Our days are long and full of excitement but can you blame us for getting sleepy throughout the day? It is a wonderful thing we always have Gavin to lean on. Such a great guy he is!

This picture reminds me of one my sister, Brittany, took while she was here with all her friends. She looks a lot cuter in her picture, oh well I still love her!

My mom asked me if that was long fringe on my shirt, the answer would be yes. Yes that is long, rainbow fringe gently flowing in the salty air of Ireland. I love it.

Oh the stories I could tell about Ireland...

I was surprised at how pleasant the French were, tickled by the Scots and simply blown away by the hospitality of the Irish. What marvelous people they truly are! A survey was conducted (I think this may be made up, but I believe it) it was said that the Irish were the nicest people in the world and that the Londonites on the other hand were the rudest. I wish I could have put money down on that bet before knowing the results because I would have just made bank.

I love maps. I am queen of maps. No map is ever to big. Sorry I didn't rotate this picture or enhance the color of the flowers but this to me describes the word 'cute'. I day dream often of a sex pot of a man being ever so charming, stopping at a precious flower stand like this, purchasing the most adorable flowers and then skipping all the way home to great his perfect little wifey with a kiss and flowers... this wifey would be me, and the sex pot man would be my husband...

Our plane to Dublin left sometime in the morning before nine. I honestly don't know when though, all I remember is setting an alarm for four thirty in the morning and laughing at the thought of getting up before the time I go to bed many nights. leaving my stinky flat at 5:00 in the morning feels like such a blur, gathering passports and ritz crackers were all I could focus on.

My hair was unbrushed as well as my teeth and there was absolutely no time to put underwear on, which would later come back to haunt me, as I forgot to pack them all together forcing me to be panty-less for four days... it was tough, but I managed to do unexpectedly well with out them.

Sitting outside the rest of our groups hostel.. love the cobble stone road and our sleepy faces.

We literally arrived in Dublin before the 24 hour coffee shops were opened. I have no idea what we did for the first few hours. For all I know I could have stared at thecigarette butts below my feet and listened to the monkey chimes of the cross walk. A long nap in the sunny park and a classic subway sandwich later I was ready to hit the town. Swigging down the last of my Coke with crushed ice from subway we did our favorite touristy thing to do, the red bus tour! How could any one ever go wrong with such a great invention? Accurately drives you all throughout the most important parts of the city while giving you a live commentary from a local fat man, brilliant.

I learned more than I would have liked to about the Irish's only claim to fame, the Guinness Beer, also I was lucky enough to be enlightened about other unimportant historical facts about the country I have already forgotten, I don't know if I ever actually remembered them... That night we went to a pub as a group and listened to live irish music and chatted with 2 girls from Ireland who successfully made it to my top 5 greatest people to enter my life, they only get one spot though. We talked to them for hours about their lives and ours and really just had such a fantastic time learning about these strange creatures. We were even able to record them saying 'they're tryin to steal me lucky charms'. My favorite part was at the end the girls were sharing their candy with us and offered to give us the entire bag, I said,"Oh I feel bad" and they were freaking out that I said that, they thought they made the phrase 'I feel bad' up. Hahaha, no sweetheart you did not make that up!

Eventually we made it to our first humble hotel. I knew our hotel had to be special since the price was well under a good pair of shoes. I just had no idea I was buying my self a pair of Sketchers. Our 'elite' family room had 3 lifeless beds squashed so close together you had to crawl across one to get to the other sheetless bed. Had a great nights sleep despite the security light and pub music blaring in through our ally way window view.I was however fortunate enough to wake up to a full irish breakfast including a great slab of hagus (sheep intestine shoved into a little sack of skin like substance, yum). Unfortunately I wasn't able to sneak any of this, or anything else, into my purse to snack on throughout the day...

That day we were blessed with the most amazing weather the Irish have ever seen. Although every weather report in the UK for told thunderstorms and gloomy days the only thing we saw raining was men. Every person warned us of the dangers of the sun and headed us to slather on our sun cream. Don't worry though, I still had a sweater on. Their hottest-day-of-my-life- weather for is around 80.

There were a bountiful amount of historical things to see, the only issue I was having with them was the fact that they all wanted to burn a hole in my pocket. I decided to just appreciate the outside and call it good. We took lots of fun pictures, once again causing a plethora of people to stop and stare and be envious of our great lives.

After two notable days in Dublin we left the cobble stone roads, colored doors and amazing shopping. We took a train straight out of Harry Potter to Belfast, Ireland. Don't judge, we had to stay in a hostel one night. Awful, it seemed like an awful idea at the time of booking and even more so at the time of check in. How could I ever be okay with sleeping at a place that was 9 pounds a night? This is a story to be told...

This was the glimmering sunset we were able to behold while eating our addicting Pringles and reading teen-bop magazines as we glided along with the chugging train. No doubt was this an amazing sight, even with the our smudgy fingerprints all over the window.

After walking a few short miles in the foggy night from the old train station to our creepster filled hostel I knew Belfast was going to be a riot. Never have I seen so many drunk people wondering the streets being so friendly to one and all. Check in at the abnormal hostel was smooth as molasses until I found out the point of check in wasn't exactly where we slept. The scrawny reception man reassured us that check in and the sleeping lodges were only a few miles apart and we would have no problemo finding the 'apartments'. He circled our new destination on a crisp map and sent us on our way. This dumb emo boy happened to star a destination not only miles from the check in location but also from the sleeping location. So, there we were, roaming the drunken city of Belfast with our burdensome bags and an aggravated, pony-tailed professor.

Asking for directions from stumbling men has never done anyone good. We were no exception. Somehow we managed to back track and find the correct hostel/apartment place. Of course things couldn't be a glass pond from there though, oh no, not with me there. We were then presented with the problem of the wrong keys. None of the keys the dumb emo boy gave us fit the lock to our door. After walking up and down this street trying our keys in every door I realized we were pretty much just trying to break into peoples houses. We were once again in the wrong location. This wasn't found out until after we had gone back to the hostel reception area and requested new keys, twice. Then finally pointed to the right drug-dealing-house. It was now sometime after 2 when we opened the door to our apartment/hostel combination only to find that the main key worked, but none of the bedroom doors.

To cut a seriously long story down I will sum it up by saying drunk men on the street told me all about the bombings that had been taking place in this neighborhood for 30 years and the shooting that took place the night before. They also explained why the street had broken glass all over it and emphasized the fact that this neighborhood was scary and unsafe to say the least. Our professor finally told us to find a place to camp out on the wooden hall way floor, fortunately he was able to get the keys to the rooms and we were able to sleep on our concrete slabs. The beds were so foul I refused to sleep on them. I laid my sweaters down make a sheet, used a long jacket for a blanket and put t-shirts over the pillow case, I felt much more at peace after this was complete. To make my adventure of a night even better I woke up from my fleeting moments of rest to a very unhappy little stomach. Vomiting in the mostdisgusting bathroom ever built, what perfect way to end a lagit night.

Waking up and getting ready to catch a 9:00 bus was unusually difficult in the morning. Can't really be to upset with myself though, it wasn't exactly the peachiest of nights.

The hard morning was well worth it. I had one of the most surreal days.

I thought baby sheep in the hills of London were cute... this was like the cuteness of baby sheep in London on crack. We took a bus tour (sadly not the red bus tour) up through the most northern parts of Ireland. Our tour was 90 percent 90 year olds, 5 percent asians and 5 percent us. I was so tired from the night before and I honestly think I might have been dreaming for the first half of the drive. Everything was just what the doctor ordered; rolling hills of lush grass, precious baby animals grazing, fluffy white clouds puffing by, azure blue sky highlighting the crackled boats floating in glistening water and quaint coastal towns to charming to describe.

Stopping to visit these old-world towns put every phrase I had ever google imaged about Ireland to shame. Pictures can not do the these treasured towns justice.

We were trying to get a jumping shot of me. My new pink gel shoes had no grip on them though and I fell and slid down the slope when I tried :(

Eating my box of Cheerio cereal and looking out the thick glass window made me a very happy girl. When we stopped at the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge I was flabbergasted at the beauty my eyes beheld. I thought I might die. One because the scenery was so beautiful I kept forgetting to breath and also because we had to cross a rope bridge across the Atlantic Ocean and the fear of death was actually positioned in the center of my heart. Without my consent Kelsey did video tape my crying, shaking and freaking out while crossing the bridge... even I can admit it is a pretty good laugh though,I will download it if I have time! I once again conquered my fears and made it across the rope bridge with all twenty fingers and toes still wiggling.I then was able to find my self in a bit of paradise.

Gavin sprained his ankle pretty bad at the first stop and was fortunate enough to get a wheelchair for part of the exquisite walk.

We also made a stop at the Giant Causeway. How unbelievable was that? One of the many mysteries of the world. We had a remarkable time playing there.

We love cheesed up pictures anywhere we go! I think it is because we just can't capture the beauty or our excitement in the photos and we feel like if we make a super big smile it will somehow come across more beautiful/fun

Our bus driver was the most anal man I have ever encountered. He gave us very specific times to be back at the bus each time we departed and did not tolerate anyone who was a moment late.

At our first stop he told us the time was 17 to 2 and told us to be back on the buss 47 to 3... um, yeah that was a lot of math to figure out how long we had at this location. One man (asian) had troubles doing the math with his lack of english and barely made it back onto the bus after flagging the driver down. He got a good yelling, teaching all of us a lesson we didn't want to learn for our selves. Fat Irish bus drivers mean business.

Our last night we were able to stay in another humble hotel. No wake-up calls or ice machines to be found here. Only a great nights rest. We slept in till 11, the latest we have slept in on our entire trip. So nice to not wake up to a blaring alarm clock or drunken professor yelling at you.

Back in London now, 5 days left. So excited. Love it here.

This first video is us singing little mermaid, I wish we could have captured the faces of the hundreds of people who stopped dead in their tracks to watch us morons. The second is the promised video of me crying while crossing the bridge. Kelsey has played it about fifty-six times since we got home because she loves it so much. And for kicks and giggles here is the girls saying their famous irish phrase.