We headed off to church this morning, and it was such a beautiful day! The drive to church was about 20 minutes and we loved looking out onto the rolling hills of Cork.
We spotted the church from the road and the kids recognized it right away as one of our church buildings. I absolutely love that no matter where you go in the world the church is the same! Even on the outside sometimes...
Church was good and it was wonderful to hear talks in an Irish accent. One of my favorite parts was seeing all the missionaries in this ward, mostly I love seeing the sisters. So happy that there are so many girls serving missions now, and just seeing them interact with the members and their investigators reconfirms to me every time that sisters are so valuable and needed in missionary work!
Here we are after church...
We all changed our clothes in the car, and headed off to visit Blarney Castle, home of the famous, or infamous, depending on how you see it,
Blarney Stone. It was such a beautiful day, which I gather is not very common around these parts, so we felt very fortunate and spoiled!
When we got into the castle grounds I felt like I was in some kind of movie set, it was like going back in time!! With all the green moss and clover, with running streams and the old stone castle, I had a hard time not breaking out into song singing, "It's May, it's May...the lusty month of May...", you know, from Camelot? Except Camelot isn't real and it also was supposed to be in England. Okay, but this looks just like what Camelot should look like! To me anyway...Oh yeah, and it's not May, it's July! But whatever, it was gorgeous.
We ate our picnic lunch that we packed and then began exploring...
Tate looks less than thrilled here...
He's like, "you've seen one castle, you've seen em all guys!"
The boys really love these old castles. They get so excited about exploring them.
I didn't really expect that, but I do love it.
"Whatevs guys, just let me eat my apple."
I gotta say it, I just gotta....
"Better get used to these bars kid"...
...same goes to you!
You know I was thinking those exact words when I took these photos right? Who knows what movie that is from? It's a favorite line in the Monson family. Back to the Future!
RED HAIR ALERT!
Seriously, gingers are everywhere in Ireland! It's not just a myth guys! I do love me a good ginger! I am not being sarcastic either, I love red hair!
Pretty sure heaven looks a lot like Ireland. Just saying.
So we knew we had to actually see with our own eyes, and maybe even lips, this Blarney Stone and see what all the hub-bub-a-loo was about.
We followed the signs that said, "Blarney Stone This Way!" and started up these ridiculously tight woven circle stairs. About half way up I realized that this was really happening, and the stairs kept getting more narrow and narrow the further up we went! Uh nice. Here we are with our two young boys and a baby in a backpack! It was a little freaky-deaky I am not going to lie! Not to mention there were these openings that looked out from the stairway to the outside of the castle every once and a while with no bars, no glass, no plastic, NOTHING. I was trying to keep my cool, I really was, but I may or may not have screamed "BOYS YOU WATCH OUT!" a few times. Yeah, I was that American today, and I own it!
We finally got to the top and this is the view looking down into the castle....
Pretty right? And a little FREAKY. Especially with little kids! And especially if you are even a tad bit afraid of heights. Aghhh. My hands are sweating just thinking about it again!
So who knew the Blarney stone was some random stone in the sidewall of the top of this castle? Oh and you have to arch backwards while some rando holds on to you and leans you all the way back until you feel like you are about to fall to your certain death? Not me. But Todd is fearless and brave and did it! He kissed the Blarney Stone!
He now is full of blarney! He now will be able to have
"clever, flattering, or coaxing talk"...I'm so proud!
I got down to do it, to be brave you know, and just kiss the stupid stone since we were here right? Well once the rando guy told me to just lean back as far as I could possibly go with my head backwards I was like, "nope, not gonna do it!". I am too old for this stuff! #sorrynotsorry
(that's for all you hashtag haters out there!)
Here is the line for the stone from a lower level.
Here are the guys going back down the stairs from hell.
I am not kidding it was stressful.
We got out safe and sound and I was reached my high blood pressure quota for the day.
Isn't this a cool watch tower?!?
I will use this picture for a lesson someday...
My three sons...oh how I adore and love these boys of mine.
I think I see a leprechaun down in there!
We headed around the grounds to do more exploring. It was beautiful!
Family selfie!
Super cool plants with huge leaves...
Wait, is that a fairy?
The boys had a great time climbing on everything and anything...
I kept telling the boys I was seeing leprechauns and fairies and they weren't buying it. Gone are the days when I could trick my kids. Sad.
The boys played around climbing and searching for rocks and twigs for a little while, while Todd and I sat and watched them like good tired parents do.
Tate picked these dandelions for me...he is such a sweet boy!
We had a really wonderful afternoon at Blarney Castle, probably one of my favorite things that we have done thus far in our time abroad. Definitely a highlight of our trip to Ireland!
We came home and had dinner and put the boys to bed. Now we are sitting listening to the stillness outside, and the bugs, and smelling the nice country air through the open windows. A very different scene from listening to the traffic of London outside our bedroom window at home. Aghhhh, being in the country is good for the soul.
