Beautiful Ireland!!!!!!

The day after we arrived we went to a horse show, in a town close by. Any horse lovers will agree with me that these are just beautiful!!!! (Any non-animal lovers won't really understand why I'm posting a bunch of pics of someone else's pet...lol)

Niiiiice!

The kids, enjoying the show

A few contestants waiting.

The show was held on the grounds of this old manor/riding school

The old manor

Such beautiful horses...

Esta es para Abuela!!!

It was cooooooold!!!! This icy wind just chillin' to the bone...

A few more, just for fun. I took them in the garden, the other day.

Our Trip to Ireland!!

Well, in keeping with tradition, I'll post some pics of the trip over to Ireland.

It was a 17 hour trip, with several stops. Nothing too interesting, but I thought the animal displays in the San Diego airport, were both awful and incredible at the same time. Have a look!!!!

San Diego airport, waiting around for our 6 am flight.

Displays of animals native to the region....stuffed..
I didn't know whether to be horrified or interested.

In JFK, waiting for our connection to Dublin.

We arrived safe and sound, thanks to all who prayed for us!!!!!!

San Diego!!!

For Vitor's birthday, we went across the border to San Diego, and had a great day hanging out all together. We watched a movie, played games, ate out, shopped (whew...).

There were so many great things we would have liked to do in San Diego if we'd had more time, it's got so many great attractions. Guess we'll have to get back there sometime and check them all out!

Here are a couple pics from our day out:









And here's me...! We went out one night, with some great friends here in Tijuana, just before we all went our separate ways.

Updates...Updates!!!!

The view from the rooftop (Tijuana, Mexico)

Hmm, yes, it's definitely been waaay too long since I've posted anything up here, and as many of you know, plenty has changed in the meantime! But I thought you wouldn't mind seeing a few of the recent pics we've taken along the way.

I'll post the ones from Mexico first, then a few that we've taken since arriving here in Ireland. I hope you all enjoy this little update, and I'll keep you posted on the news and events!!

Thanks for you prayers, we're praying for you too!!
Love you all!!

The whole gang!
(This is actually Ensenada, about an hour down the coast, from Tjuana)

Silly

Meditation..

Focused...

My little man!

Father, son, moments...

He was chasing this strange seabird

Tallest flagpole in the world!!! (I don't actually know that...lol) But it was pretty darn tall.

This was the base...

Daddy and kids (mom's taking the pic of course...)

Our Central America Trip -- Day Five

Day 5: Saturday, April 25th, 2009

6:30 am, We're now closing in on the final stretch of the trip. Thank God it's almost over, it was fun, but we're getting pretty stir crazy now, and desperately need some exercise, a good stretching and the ability to sleep in a horizontally.

The kids have been very well behaved, I think I whined more than they did (heehee), I'm very proud of them.

(Later) We're supposed to arrive in TJ around 10:30 am, but we're locked in a military check (they're getting more frequent, probably because we're nearing the US border), for about an hour, with something like seventeen buses ahead of us...sigh.

I'm loving the cacti everywhere, and did I mention the desert sunrises...wow!! There's a mist hanging low over everything, and with the sun shining through it, looks almost magical. Wish I could stop and take decent pictures of this, but the bus is moving again now, thank God this checkpoint didn't take longer.










Funny how things seem to take so much longer when you're waiting around for them to happen. We finally arrived in TJ around 3pm, because of all the delays, a lot later than we expected of course (we kept our poor welcoming committee waiting at the station since 10 am...), but we've arrived safe and sound, and we're very thankful for that.

We're amazed that any of our bags survived the trip at all, given the rough treatment they went through, most are torn or a lot worse off...again, at least we're here safely!! (Tip: Don't take bags you're too attached to on a trip like this, you might be heartbroken :P)


Home SWEET Home!!!!!! We're finally here, YAY!! Ready and raring to get started, we unpacked in a flash, and are settling in for this next phase of our lives.

We'll keep you posted....

Our Central America Trip -- Day Four

Day 4: Friday, April 24th, 2009

8:30 am, The sun goes down very late around here, it also comes up pretty late as well, guess we're moving away from the equator now. Today we saw our first desert sunrise...Beautiful!! We have no map but we're about 16 hours north of Mexico City (guesses anyone?).

There were all sorts of police checks last night, and we've just passed a military checkpoint a few minutes ago. Main things they're looking for are drugs and weapons...fair enough.

11:30 pm, The day was pretty uneventful, sleeping, reading, etc. Oh yes, and I flashed one terrifically old man, I've since discovered that the lock position on the restroom door doesn't quite lock if pulled open, and...well, the rest is history. I think he went into shock from the surprise, hope it didn't give him a heart attack...lol.

After the usual plethora of movies, we can finally get some sleep...in between police checks...

Our Central America Trip -- Day Three

Day 3: Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

6:30 am, We're up bright and early, with the sun starting to come up over the hills. The landscape has changed so many times throughout this trip, and now it's mountainous. We've seen several smoking volcanoes with snowy peaks, pretty cool.

I have to comment on the roads (highways) here, (I don't know if it's just because I've come from Costa Rica) they're wonderful, decent road signs, nearly European standard...gotta say, I'm pretty impressed so far. It's going to be a pleasure to drive here.

10:30 am, We're now nearly to Mexico City, it's pretty dry here, starting to look a bit like desert.

Juan liked the police car...rsrsrs

2pm, Finally at Mexico City station, this place reminds me a lot of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

After nearly giving the porter a heart attack, and definitely a hernia from hauling around all our stuff, we bought the tickets for the final leg of the trip, to Tijuana. Our bus left at 4:30 so we had a couple hours to have lunch and wander around the station before boarding.



(Later on the bus) For the first four hours the bus was practically empty, just us and a couple of elderly men, so the kids had great fun running up and down the isles, somersaulting in the seats, and smashing their faces against the windows. All of which they managed to do so very quietly, they never disturbed our geriatric company, or the driver...




After watching another beautiful sunset, we settled down for the night.