Summer has made it to Dublin

I know some of you have been concerned about summer showing up for us...and I was beginning to get concerned as well. All of May has been grey, breezy and cool. Until last week. The glorious sun came out and it hasn't left. The shorts are out, the grill doesn't have time to cool, and we have tans!!!!

Max, Oscar, and Sieb trying to feed the nice dog sticks and the rest of their school lunches.

Surely these cones don't mean "stay away." Max, Conor, and Oscar "working"...much more fun than any actual playground equipment.

Max and Emile climbing.

On Saturday we went to a football (soccer) match at Aviva stadium. We walked to the stadium from our house and the streets were just buzzing with people. It was a gorgeous day and it was the last home match that Ireland played before the Euro 2012 tournament in Poland. We had great seats, great craic, and they won!

Probably the coolest stadium I have been in. So amazing.

IRELAND!!!!!!!

<---Some Craic

Yesterday we spent the day at the beach. The tide was way out so there was loads of sand to play in and a perfect wading pool. Max, well all of us, were in heaven.

Three beached kids. The water was quite warm, so I can't really blame them.

Happy as a clam.

Shearing

Hiya! How are things? What's the craic? This is what I was listening to on the radio the other morning. Sheep Shearing. What you miss in the video is that this man is a third generation champion sheep shearer, and his son is currently away at a shearing competition as well. I want to say that this man can shear a sheep in 17 seconds....but I don't remember exactly. It was super fast. And also, that is not his real hair, it is a Jedward wig. For your viewing pleasure, sheep shearing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BAWZvWkGXQ&feature=player_embedded

Today is an epic day for Kevin...and others I am sure. The Champions League Final in soccer and his most favourite team, Chelsea, is playing. Countdown to game: 8 hours and 34 minutes.
It is also the Heineken Cup Rugy Final, Leinster vs Ulster. Two Irish teams, and by demographics we are Leinster fans. Like I said, epic day....oh the craic to be had. Lucky for us, Lisa is coming over to hang out with Max while we watch the matches in a pub.

Max on his bike. Now we are off to find him a helmet. We haven't had luck finding one that fits his large brain :)

still alive

Hello everyone...I hope you weren't worried due to my long absence. Things were pretty eventful here for a while. Max had a nasty cold and was wheezing so we got to experience and Irish doctor's visit. I wish I had my camera because it was an experience. From the outside, you would never know we were at a clinic. It was just in a row of houses. The waiting room was like a dining room...there was a fireplace (not burning), chandelier, dining room table full of books and magazines. The doctor came in and took us to the patient room. The room was HIS office...the desk was full of his stuff, photos, papers, there was a mini fridge. It wasn't like your typical clinic where the room was just white floor, white walls with nothing but canisters of cotton balls and gloves. The doc was super nice and took care of business. He gave us a couple prescriptions and we were on our way.
The medicine comes in glass bottles! I don't know why I love that fact, but I do. When Max was on the mend, Kevin was out of commission for several days. He stayed home sick a Wednesday through Friday when Max was on spring break (WOOOOOO) from school. We tried to stay out of the house as Kevin moved from couch to bed throughout the day. Kevin took himself in for the Irish doctor experience as well.
THEN on  Friday Max and I came back from the park and he had a fever. He was so exhausted and was coughing and coughing more and more as the night went on. He didn't sleep well but didn't have a fever Saturday morning. Kevin and Max laid low and I still felt like a million bucks. By Saturday night Max was wheezing again and had a temp of nearly 104! Then we had the Irish Urgent Care experience. The hospital experience was more typical to what we are used to, but still had a different feel. Max had a virus and asthma (most likely, they won't officially diagnose) and they told us we needed to stay for 3 hours to do a series of inhaler treatments. It was close to 9pm at this point...Kevin still wasn't at 100% and I looked up and saw the sign by the TV that said "out of order." NOOOO It was a long 3 hours. Home by midnight and straight to bed.
On Monday Kevin returned to work but by Tuesday Max still wasn't feeling better and was staying home from school. We were leaving on Thursday to head to Minnesota and I couldn't imagine taking him on an 8 hour flight coughing the way he was. We went back to the hospital for a follow up and they gave Max some steroids. By Wednesday night he was ready to play and by Thursday morning he was ready to go.
So, that happened. BUT, before that we went to a farm in hopes of some lamb holding.

This mama scared me. She was FIERCE.

No lamb holding..........:( :( :( but, lamb feeding

Max just loved cruisin' on the tractors

a KID!

I am still on a quest to hold a lamb....but serious progress was made this day with some petting of the lambs. Despite the evil eyes from mama sheep, the lambs loved it. But I probably did more :)