More pictures than you ever wanted.

Sorry for not posting for a while, we've been busy taking pictures, and sorting through the deluge of pixels. Digital: a blessing and a curse.
In order that this post get published tonight, I'm going to rely on said pictures, what with each being a kilo-word.
Here's what we've been up to the past week or so.

Silas turned one! He's been crawling since about 6 months, and cruises like a pro. He climbs up and down stairs. When we put him on the bed he crawls to the edge, turns around and slowly lowers himself down the edge, feeling for the ground. If he can't find it he climbs back up. It's cute. He just started letting go while standing. It seems like he does it only if he's distracted. Like if you hand him something. I know standing up doesn't seem like something to get all worked up over, but I find it adorable. His pirate party went well. He had no idea why there were so many people in his house, but he liked watching the other kids run around. He didn't want anything to do with the cake, so we have no frosting smeared pictures. Or at least no frosting smeared pictures of Silas. Had the camera been turned on me you would have found some blue frosting in my eyebrows.

The weather has been beautiful so we went to the beach on Monday. Silas had a great sandy time playing with uncle Nathan, so much so that we had to have a musical bath when we got back home. We couldn't stop humming it.


Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men we'll test today
But only three win the Green Beret





Tuesday we went back to Mahon Falls after work. It was not nearly as impressive this time around since we hadn't had any rain for a week. Something we'll have to keep in mind for future visits. It was still beautiful and the drier bed made it easier to hike up the falls. Although Nathan still got up to his ankle in muck.

We also spend the early part of the week getting ready for our camping trip up north. Now, in Minnesota "up north" meant one thing, and in Michigan it means another, but for us, it meant going up to Northern Ireland, and the Giants Causeway. So, Wednesday I baked a deep dish pizza, strawberry corn muffins, and oatmeal raspberry cookies, and loaded up the car with camping gear.

Silas wanted to make sure we didn't forget some snacks for him on the trip.


This was Silas's first camping trip. I somehow feel a little sad that Silas spent the first year of his life without sleeping out of doors, but somehow an international move and all the other traveling we did in his first year, camping just didn't happen. But now that he knows the joys of it, he may never sleep indoors again.

The first night we drove about 3 hours and camped on Galway bay. Silas was enamored by the tent and stayed up very late exploring (again and again) the inside of the tent, slip sliding on the sleeping bags, making sense of the walls that couldn't quite support him. He slept as well as can be expected since the milk bar was open all night.

The next day we drove up through County Donegal and stopped at a few different castle ruins, and another beach. It was a nice warm day, and there were loads of people in the ocean, so we all donned our swimsuits and went for a dip. It was still the Irish Sea though, so pretty dang cold. Silas only went so far as his toes, but the rest of us went under. Bravery or stupidity? You be the judge. (Here, I'm talking about going swimming, not posting a picture of myself in a bathing suit, although the same question applies. Notice the bum was cropped right off the edge, how strategic!)

All the sun and waves really took it out of us, or maybe it was the late night tent party. Not all uncles are used to being up at all hours, apparently.

We camped at a very nice hostel on the Causeway coast Thursday and Friday night called Sheep Island View. Free use of the kitchen and showers, for just 6 pounds sterling per person. And within walking distance to the Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. Carrick-a-rede is Gaelic for 'rock in the road'. The road is the salmon route and the rock is a very small island just off the coast. Local fishermen would erect this rope bridge each year to get to the island for the prime fishing locations. How this ever became a tourist attraction, I can't say. Only in Ireland, I guess. Anyway, we had to get our thrills, so here were are crossing the bridge, some 90 meters above the swirling sea. It's not entirely rope any longer, steel cables, and wooden planks, and all, but still a little spooky if you look down.

The other big attraction on the coast is Giant's Causeway. It's an amazing place, if a bit over run by tourists. It was formed when volcanic rock cooled very slowly, they describe it as the surface of a puddle dries and cracks and forms squares, pentagons, hexagons, and other polygons. These shapes cracked deeply, and formed columns which form the causeway today. That's the scientific explanation anyway. Some people prefer to believe this version. Either way, the scenery is truly astounding. Silas, of course, loved crawling around, and up and down. I should say, we all enjoyed hiking around the area. There was a nice cliff walk where you could see the causeway from above, as well as a few other interesting rock formations in the area. We were surprised at the size of the actual causeway however. In many of the pictures we had seen the area looked very large. Even looking at our pictures now, it looks bigger than it actually was.

On Saturday we visited Mount Stewart. I'm getting lazy so I'm just linking to a site that has information about the house. If you are lazy too, and not clicking, I'll just say that the house has been in the same family for something like 300 years, and is still lived in by a family member. The house itself was gorgeous, but the gardens were spectacular. Formal gardens were around three sides of the house, in Spanish and Italian styles, with some very well done topiary. Modeled here is the emblem of Ireland, the harp. The lady of the house, around the time of the first world war started a society called the Ark Society in which members had animal nicknames. One section of the garden had sculptures of various animals and an ark and featured the dodo. Not sure who had that nickname.

We camped in Rostrevor Forest, which was unspectacular. Although we did see some mountain bikers riding off some "sweet jumps." Nathan cooked up some perfectly toasted cheese sandwiches and fried potatoes and onions. Silas was so interested in the dangerous open flame of the camp stove could only be distracted by the potential to become filthy. He accomplished this by placing both hands in the wheel well of the car and smearing them all over his face. He's got his mother's love of balancing tires, I guess.

Today, we stopped at St. Patricks College and Castletown House, just outside of Dublin. Castletown House had a very nice interior, but no pictures were allowed inside, so you'll have to go here to see pictures of it.

That pretty much sums up the week. I'm sure I'll think of something else later, but it's getting late here.