Our week with the O’Reillys and beyond

We were up on Sunday morning and in the kitchen at 8 am. We had decided to go to Tayto Park, named after a beg of crisps (chips). We had breakfast and then headed out for a day of fun. The kids were so excited. They had orchestrated their plea to us the evening before and we agreed to the trip. 

The entrance to the park and in the background was the epic roller coaster we all went on. 

Ready for our crazy roller coaster experience. 

We spent the day on rides and laughing....a lot. The boys went off on their own and felt so grown up. Jack is the youngest of the boys so he was in heaven being trusted to be away from us in an amusement park. 

PDA is not allowed in the UAE, so when we can we smooch to embarrass the kids. 

This is the factory on site that makes the lovely crisps. Yummy!

This little race track ran the slowest cars ever. It was hilarious to see our way too large children fold up and get into these cars. 

Millie fit best of all. 

This was a sickening, turn upside down, ride. Blah!

Gemma, Clare and I came back to the house just after 6 pm to rescue the dogs from their bladders. There was only one wee when we got back to the house, which was pretty good since we had been gone nearly 8 hours. Gemma and Clare walked the dogs while I relaxed with a cider. 

The rest of the crew arrived just after 7 pm. Gemma whipped up some food for the kids and then warmed up leftovers for the adults. The kids had an earlier night, which was necessary. Millie was going to sleep in the house with May and Astrid, but in the end she decided against it. She did, however, learn the 5 rules of being part of the girls’ club, which proved to be beneficial to her parents. The rules were 1) Listen to adults, 2) respect everyone, 3) be helpful to everyone, and there were two more, but the first three were good enough for me. Millie was an angel the entire evening. It was bliss. Stuart and I stayed in the house once the kids were in bed in the van. We were all in bed by 11:30 pm. 

I was up on Monday morning just before 7. Farm commotion started just after I got up, so it made sense to get dressed and get going. We were going into Dublin for the day. We figured out that the Richardsons’ camper van wouldn’t fit in any of the car parks in Dublin city center. So Fechin followed Scott to a car Park and then came to meet up at the Guinness Storehouse for our 12 o’clock tour. They made it just in time. 

The girls are ready for the tour. What’s up with my chin? 

And now we are all ready!

The kids were intrigued by the quiz. 

We all got to pull our own pint of Guinness. 

And the final product!

Everyone had their appropriate drink. 

The girl

And the boys!

We had to stop under a scaffolding because it was pouring rain and we were all wet rats. 

In the middle of the picture you can see a man with a paper on his head. That’s Stuart trying to keep the rain off his head. Not sure it was a very useful umbrella. 

We found a cafe and had a coffee to get out of the rain. It dried up enough for us to walk to the Natural History Museum, but unfortunately it was closing in 15 minutes. The kids weren’t terribly upset. We carried on and walked toward our cars. 

We stopped to take a picture with the statute of Molly Malone. There is a song that tells the fictional tale of a fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin, but who died young, of a fever. In the late 20th century a legend grew up that there was a historical Molly, who lived in the 17th century. She is typically represented as a hawker by day and part-time prostitute by night. In contrast she has also been portrayed as one of the few chaste female street-hawkers of her day. So a picture was a must. 

We got to the car park and out of the rain. We traveled back to the house and tried to dry off. We did a load of laundry. We were going to hang them on the line but the rain had set in so the tumble dryer was the answer. The kids had pizza for dinner and the adults just snacked. The girls had an earlier evening, but the boys were still up until close to 1 am. 

The night’s sleep was great. Our camper van bedding is fantastic. We have no idea how cold it is until we take the duvet off and then it is icy in the van. We were up just before 8. We decided to have a bit of an easy morning. The kids just played around for the morning and the adults chatted and drank coffee. Fechin’s mother came over for a visit. Her house is a mere 20 steps away from Gemma and Fechin’s house. It seems to work for them. 

Just before 1 pm we headed to Trim for a walk around and then to Trim Castle. This castle is a Norman castle on the south bank of the River Boyne in Trim, County Meath, Ireland. It is the largest Norman castle in Ireland. There was an area called Newtown. Between the castle and the other structure there was farm land where the citizens grew their own food. It’s been a bit restructured and now looks like this. 

Trim Castle

Newtown

A grave marking in Newtown

🎶Over the castle on the hill🎶

Trim Castle behind us. 

We ended up walked all around the castle but not actually in it. Our walk was about an hour and a half. The dogs loved it. Around 2:30 pm we got the best fish and chips in the county.

Yum!

She loves her fish and chips!

We then decided to walk to a shop in a hotel with some Irish gear for sale. It started to pour, so it ended up just being Clare, Stuart, Gemma and myself who stayed behind. The rest of the crew went back to house and we followed shortly. 

The rest of the afternoon was a lazy one. I made banana bread, the kids played, and some of the other adults took a nana nap. The evening was a lot more of catching up on the year we have had apart. For dinner we made ham and cheese toasties. We had an earlier night than previously, which was good as we were heading to Northern Ireland on Wednesday. 

I didn’t have the greatest sleep as I joined Millie on her top bunch since I had promised to do so the night before. I had hoped she would forget, but no luck. I ended up sleeping there until 3 am which is when Mother Nature called. We all awoke to a cooked breakfast of sausage, bacon, black pudding (which I will never eat again) eggs and toast. Once we had everything sorted out and all of our things back in our van, we left the O’Reillys to head to Northern Ireland. 

We arrived at our campsite just before the rain caught us. Once we were set up, the kids stayed in the awning while the adults hung out in our van. 

This clever contraption hooks up to the Richardsons’ camper van. 

The scenery around was spectacular. 

Once the rain stopped we headed down to the beach. Naturally the kids had to get in the water. The temperature of the water was around 60 degrees. Too cold for me. 

We were sensible and kept warm, and out of the water. 

This was before they got totally soaked. 

The beach was beautiful. 

And she’s soaked!
All children had fun, but a hot shower was in order after our ten minute walk back to the campsite. 

We had a dinner of spaghetti bolognese and then everyone made their way into their sleeping accommodations. Millie has no desire to sleep anywhere but our van and Henry is dying to sleep in our van. She had an all out meltdown which was a bit embarrassing and irritating. I decided she would be having a conversation the next morning with me about how this holiday is not all about her. The adults stayed up for a bit longer while Jack and Millie went to sleep in our bed. When the evening was over, I went to take a shower and Stuart moved the kids to their bed. 

We had breakfast on Thursday and headed out for the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge as well as Giant’s Causeway. Wehad a bonus stop at Dunluce Castle which is one of the places where the Game of Thrones was filmed. 

Our first stop was the rope bridge. It was amazing! Jack clung on for dear life. 

The walk up to the bridge was stunning. 

She wasn’t scared of anything!

The view on the island wherethe rope bridge took us. 

That’s actually all of us, except Clare coming back across the bridge. Millie is the second little person from the left. I am in the white jumper and Jack is just behind me. Clare couldn’t come across with us because she had Biscuit. It’s a fab photo. 

We then headed to Giant’s Causeway. This is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, a result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. The columns are hexagonal for the most part. It is an amazing site and a must see. 

This is the entrance to the trail. 
The view along the trail. 
These are naturally formed rocks. It’s crazy!
Millie laid down on a flat bit of the causeway. 

The kids loved climbing around on these incredible formations. 

It was a lovely day. 

There was a great audio tour that went along with our tickets into Giant’s Causeway. 

The legend says this was Finn McCool’s pipe organ. The tale is a good one. 

The North Atlantic is glorious. 

The trail back was the most difficult one that went uphill, with 162 steps to the top of the ridge. Let’s just say we all got our steps in on this day. 

The view from the top. 
In the background is Dunluce Castle which was our last cultural stop of the day. 

In front of the castle. 
Rapunzel, let down your golden hair. 

This castle was pretty well preserved from the medieval times.  

Once we left the castle we stopped to get food for dinner. We then headed back to the campsite. Once there, the kids  played around and we decided to postpone dinner, which was best. Millie had a bit of a meltdown when she had to take a shower early, but in the end I think everything ended well. 

We ended the night in our living area. I had decided not to take a shower and instead take one Thursday morning. The plan was then to wash our clothes. We could probably survive without doing so, but we had a pile that was starting to stink. During the night a huge rain storm came up and literally lasted the entire night. It stopped raining around 6 am, but then the wind was brutal, even to the point of rocking our beast! 

While washing clothes there was there was an error code that caused us to have to rewash the load. Then the dryer shot an error code that caused us to have to stand by the dryer and restart the machine every 30 seconds or so for 45 minutes. In the end we took it to another dryer. Seems the washers and dryers in the complex had been acting up recently. It ended up taking us until 6 pm to get two loads of laundry washed and dried. It was ridiculous, but a memory I suppose. 

During the day, because we suspected there would be a day of bad weather, we decided to walk to a pub and then came back by a chip shop which was delightful. 

Millie and Stuart played a game in the morning because the weather permitted. 

This was our walk to the pub. 
A beverage at an authentic Irish pub. 
Our view from the beer garden. 
The beach and water called to us after we had our fish and chips. 
And although I took my flips off I only let the water hit my feet. 

These kids are crazy! The water was freezing again today. 
Millie swore by covering herself with sand she was warmer. All I know is that the sand ruined her swimsuit. Oh well. 

The boy tried to body board. The waves were not cooperating. 

After a bit more chilled water we headed back to camp. The laundry was the bain of our existence on Friday but at least we ended up with enough underwear to survive the rest of our holiday. 

We decided just to do pasta for the kids again and the adults simply ate cheese, salami, crisps, tomatoes and cucumbers with dip. It was easy and since we had fish and chips for lunch we decided to postpone the intended hamburgers for the following evening. It rained off and on for the rest of the evening. The boys ended up sleeping in our camper van, finally, and Millie slept between Stuart and myself which was cozy. 

We got up on Saturday morning and had breakfast. We decided to drive our vans down to the beach. 

The kids and dads spent a few hours surfing, with wetsuits of course. Clare and I supervised and drank coffee and tea. 

The crew ready for the freezing water. 

Jack got the hang of it rather quickly. 

It clearly wore Millie out. 
Doesn’t everyone have a cup of coffee in their wetsuit outside of their camper van?

A drive on the beach was a must. 

About halfway through their three hour rental, Clare and I managed to go to the supermarket for some lunchy bits. We snacked around 2 pm and then went for a walk around the campsite. We then came back and the kids had a game of tennis, sort of. 

About 20 minutes later there was a huge rainstorm. We then went inside and played Old Maid. Although we played with a regular deck of cards and the game was a bit different, Millie still figured out a way to give away that she had the Old Maid. We then played Oh Heck with everyone. It was fun!

We decided we would all get showered before dinner. Burgers were prepared shortly after we were clean, and then the entire van smelled like burgers. Scott and Clare did kitchen duty while Stuart and I sat in our van listening to the rain, and the kids were in the awning playing cards. 

We did our best to get Millie to bed by 9 pm, but she had another meltdown. It’s clearly time to get back to a schedule and back to our ‘normal’ life, whatever that is. After everyone had gone to bed and Millie had calmed down, Stuart and I played rummy. Millie’s meltdowns are nearly killing me, and I’m pretty sure I don’t handle them the way I should. I’ll keep working on that. Another week of fun to be had and then it’s back to school for us.