Our Last Ireland Pics

Stalwart soldiers amid the packing chaos:

We never did take pictures of the cool buildings of the UL campus, so Gary took these his last night there. This is the awesome pedestrian bridge over the Shannon he'd cross every day to get to the Irish World Academy Building. This is his little corner of campus where he spent most of his days:
The mosaic in his building:
Last day of school in Ireland. :-( Maggie's and Sophie's friends were all so cute - gave them big hugs again and again as we walked down through the parking lot to cross the street to go to our house. I wish I'd had my video camera!
We do love British Airways... and in-seat video players!

Jiggety Jig

This is what I posted on Facebook before we left Ireland:

"Heartbroken to be leaving Ireland. Boxing and cleaning up suck to begin with; leaving a place we love makes it all worse! Shouldn't be ungrateful though. Thank you Ireland for four wonderful months!"

I was heartbroken to leave Ireland. I'm not even completely sure why, but I cried on and off for a week before we left. I think it had something to do with adventure, with opportunity, with a simplified life, with seeing my children valued and loved in what we thought would be a foreign environment, with making new, unexpectedly close friends, with being together in a whole new way. I fell in love with Ireland and its people because we got to know them, go to their schools, eat at their houses, play with their children, see with new eyes. I loved all the tender mercies and beautiful moments we experienced there.

Hm, can't think about that right now. It's making me weepy.

The trip home was fairly uneventful. Our dear regular taxi driver Christy took us to the airport (at 5:30 AM, after being up till 2:30 cleaning and packing the last load of laundry - WHY do we do that to ourselves???), and we said goodbye to dear little 20 Compostella. We did have to absolutely tear through Heathrow to get to our connecting flight to Dallas after unexpectedly going through security for the second time (out of three, if you can believe that). We were a little sweaty from our jog up two flights of the most enormous escalators and down interminable corridors, but we made it. Kids did great on the flight, again due to BA's personalized tvs for each seat. We had a refreshingly yummy dinner of ribs and blue cheese wedge salad at TGIFridays in Dallas - our first time eating out at a restaurant, besides the one in Carcassonne, two Pizza Huts and our Golden Grill experience, in four months), then boarded the plane and slept, in spite of all our best intentions, all the way home to SLC where Nana and Papa brought the Black Beast to pick us up.

Only they didn't really need the huge car after all, because none of our luggage made the Heathrow flight. Two days later and we still don't know where it is. Sigh. But, we are currently comfortably ensconced in Nana and Papa's beautiful house, playing the Wii and dressups and working out (for the first time in way too long!). Ireland already feels miles and years away, almost as if another life. I will not ever forget it though, and am so glad I blogged about it so I can always remember this amazing journey we took.

I was VERY happy to see my car though!

We go to Gary's parents' house tomorrow for the Larsen Christmas, then it's off to Maui for ten days. And after that we return to the tundra... which I don't want to think about right now because I just finished three days of packing and cleaning in Ireland - too soon to think about doing it all over again in Idaho!

Merry Christmas everybody! And thank you again Ireland for a great ride.

This is the Lullaby song that Sophie sang for weeks before her school Christmas program (she's in the back):

http://youtu.be/zsJi7pYCQ9Q



And this is Maggie's cute little posse at school:

http://youtu.be/Gft8CpieWRY

The Botts

The Botts get a special entry all their own. Living just two doors away, we saw them almost every day, especially towards the end of our stay in Ireland. Heather is a bright, joyous ray of sunshine, who fills every day with adventure and cheer. Her husband Colin is an artist, musician and chef extraordinaire of mashed potatoes and Sunday night cookies. Liesl is Spencer's best bud, and Penelope charms us all every day with her exquisite petiteness, huge grin and constant hunger. The kids like to call her their American Girl doll because she's about the same size as one. Colin entertained the kids frequently on his various instruments, most often the mandolin and the concertina. Heather is the one who introduced us to the river walks, blackberry hunting, and the lunchtime concerts on campus. We shared almost two full days of apple almond pudding and Downton Abbey! I love girl time! She's a wonderful person and a great friend.
This is Liesl's birthday party on Dec. 7th, complete with Guinness stew and cheesecake. We gave her some dressups and a diamond L keychain.
Thanksgiving together (at the Botts) was a joint affair we were all excited about.
Our day out at Adare - in a rented car that Heather drove (much to Colin's dismay- he gets really carsick). The Manor is AWESOME, by the way, and Adare is the most charming Irish village. If you're going to western Ireland, STAY THERE! That same night, after getting fudge at the creamery and getting a peek at Santa, Heather drove me out to the church to so I could teach some world dances to the YM/YW. We got SO lost and ended up stranded in a deserted industrial park with lots of dead ends and evidently only one way out. We were laughing and crying and almost out of gas before someone finally drove by to save us. We made it to the church in time to teach the Virginia Reel and Missionary tag, so the evening was saved. A good time was had by all... eventually!
Gary, me, Heather, Colin
Sophie, Liesl, Spencer Who Doesn't Like to Be In Pictures, Maggie and Penelope
We hate saying goodbye! But we feel pretty confident that we'll see them again. Gary will be in and out of Ireland over the next few years and they'll be here for another year (maybe), so he has an open invitation to their spare bedroom. And who knows - they could end up next door to us someday! It's a small, small world. In the meantime, we will miss them desperately and look forward to when we can see them again!

More Friends!

Here are some of our best blessings in Ireland:

Okay, so these guys are actually from the States - they arrived and leave the same time as us - but we count them still. Dennis, Afton, and Julie Ferguson and Natalie Noakes were over here working for an American company in Adare, and got to live at the fabulous villas on the Manor Property. Julie, Natalie and I hung out a lot and went to see Twilight 4 together. You know, it's kind of a girl thing.
Here's Sophie's school class; we took in homemade chocolate chip cookies to her and Maggie's classes and the girls handed out CTR rings and notes with our contact information to all their friends. We were so lucky that they got to go t0 school and make these friends in Ireland!
Here is Sophie with her teacher, Mr. Kinnerk.
Maggie handing out the cookies to her class. Maggie's four special friends Laura, Lauren, Louise and Beibhnn ("Bay-van") were so sweet; they got together and filled a bag with notes, necklaces, a stuffed animal, a cool hat, and a bunch of little trinkets for Maggie to take home to remember them by. We lucked out with those girls, I can tell you that!

Here are the Extons: Dara, Geraldine, Saoirse, Odhrin, and Chris. Saiorse ("ser-shuh") and Odhrin ("Orin") are in Sophie's and Maggie's classes at school as well. Chris is technology faculty at UL, and Geraldine is a teacher. They've been so kind to us so we had them over for dinner our third to last day here in Ireland. Here are Dara and Odhrin playing their tin whistles in our kitchen. We tried to get Maggie to clog with them but she was too shy.
Kids on Stairs: note Sophie's tear-stained face. Ever my tender one, she was bawling when it came time to say goodbye to her friends! All three of them were very teary tonight as the realization that tomorrow is their last day in Ireland sunk in.

We also got to hang out this week with Mats (also faculty from UL) and Emma (from Sweden), and their three kids and two dogs, at a farewell dinner at their house. Of course, I forgot my camera for that one which was typical but too bad. I also give a shout-out to the Kelly families from church, particularly Michael and Ann, and Alex and David. Dear, wonderful people the lot of them! We will miss them very much!

2011 Christmas Card Text

Larsen Lessons Learned 2011
*Kids who want horseback riding lessons can be conned into doing all kinds of crazy chores!
*Grandparents are treasures and good friends and neighbors are blessings from above.
*We are dog people! Every kid needs a dog. Every mom, too.
*Sometimes your kids are ready for milestones before you are, like Spencer (4) taking off on his 2-wheeler bike and Maggie (10) and Sophie (7) braving it out in a new school. On a new continent. Who told them they could all grow up so fast?
*Dancing is a great way to stay fit and have fun. So is hosting 26 people at your house for 10 days during the Idaho International Dance Festival! Good times.
*Sophie can get motion sick in 6.21 minutes, while Spencer invariably throws up when there is 1.8 minutes left in the road trip.
*Healthy food will make you strong. But candy will make you rich! Or will it? (see Kid Histories Episode 6 on YouTube)
*Starfall.com and Leap Frog dvds can teach your four year old
how to read.
*When moving to Ireland for four months, be sure to take: valid passports, Taco Bell taco seasoning, legos, a Kindle or IPad, and good walking shoes. And don't miss the Medieval Feast at Bunratty Castle, Killarney, the Burren, the Chateau D'Usse, and the top of the Eiffel Tower! (Yes, I know those last two are in France.) And don't tear your Achilles the day before you leave.
*Eating dinner in a castle was cool, but spending the night in one was even better!
*Getting back into academic lingo after being on the creative side of University life for ten years is painful,
but the PhD is a worthy goal.
*You don't have to be an adult to appreciate
the musical Les Miserables.
*Starting the day with a Mormon Message and scripture time at breakfast totally changes our morning dynamic!
Bribery doesn't hurt either.
*Ireland's weather is nasty but it's people are just lovely.
*San Diego, Aspen Grove, Ireland, France and Maui in one year = one very lucky family
*We have had so many amazing adventures, both in faraway lands an in our own backyard. We thank the Lord for these experiences, and for having wonderful friends and family like you! Merry Christmas!
Love, The Larsens
http://www.rexburglarsens.blogspot.com/

It's late and I'm emotional...

How terrible that this is our last week in Ireland! I'm really quite depressed about it. Firstly, I hate goodbyes. Secondly, we've been SO happy here. Looking through this blog, I relive what we've seen and done and it awes me a bit. Bunratty, the Burren, Dublin, Killarney, Kerry, Dingle, Adare, Carcassonne, Nimes, Paris... did we really just do that? Holy cow!

I will miss my kitchen here, my electric kettle and the sofa where I read with Spence every day. I love that I did Zumba dozens of times right in front of the mini fridge. (I won't miss the mini fridge though! or all the black and white - so hard to keep clean!) I'll miss the basil growing in my window, and the view of the garden out the sliding glass doors. I'll miss the kids' cosy bedroom with the beds all pushed together, Spencer and Liesl's giggles as they hunted for "ghostes" in their play, and snacks of panda toast, white cheddar and muesli (not all at once). This house has more than filled our needs and has been the backdrop of some of the happiest times our family has ever had. Hard thinking that in another week, it will be empty, or someone else will be living here, using these plates and chairs and looking out my windows.

I'll miss the walk to the college, through avenues of trees which changed from green to gold to gone during our stay here. The pool at the Rec center. The big field where we played soccer and watched rugby and had picnics on the hills. I'll miss the beautiful river and its tranquil, scenic pathways and ruins. About a month ago Maggie planted an acorn in a pot that we placed in our kitchen window. It sprouted and we planted the graceful little seedling by the wooden throne along the river walk - someday we'll come see it again!

We gave Christy, our regular Sunday taxi driver, some frosted sugar cookies, and a book of Mormon with a picture of our family in it with all our contact information. I totally choked up as he drove us to church for the last time last Sunday! He's been good to us as well. Always on time, chatty, and kind. He showed up with boxes of chocolates for the kids as well. Good people here.

I'll miss Heather and the Botts - I almost feel bad leaving them here in this neighborhood full of students and transient renters. I'm sure they'll make more friends and do all kinds of good around the area, but, I know I'd be heartbroken if they left us! :-) Thanks Heather for all the good talks, outings, and recipe- and child-swapping. And for being a true friend!

I will NOT miss walking or biking to the grocery store, and taking the bus to get downtown. Can't wait to get my lovely car back!!!

I've been very happy here, enjoying the simple life of just keeping house and being Mom. Spence and I have gotten so close that I almost don't want to send him to preschool when we get back - what will I do without my little buddy? The girls have learned so much from school, and Gary's been stretched in all kinds of new ways. How have I grown you ask? My epiphanies include realizing that I needed to watch my everyday tone and make sure it is positive and happy. I need to keep working on not treating motherhood responsibilities as a chore and to do them better than I have been. I need to increase the humor and axe the grumpiness. And have FUN with my kids and husband as a priority to keeping a family together and happy. We've upped our family scriptural and spiritual dialog, and have set good habits that we are determined to continue. Amazing what time and absence of distractions will do for self-awareness!
Plus let's be honest - I just really don't want to have to go back to my house and unpack everything. Moving is very near the top of my "Least Favorite Things to Do" list.

A few years ago, I made a list of things I wanted to do before I died; among the "see the grandchildren" and "be to my kids' marriages" (hopefully not in that order), on the list was "visit Paris again" and "have one last trip to Maui." Since we were at the top of the Eiffel tower just over a month ago, and will be in Maui in about two weeks, guess I need to find some new dreams and fast! I've had so many dreams come true, so many wonderful (and stressful, and crazy, and growth-inducing) things happen to us. And I am very grateful.