Moving to Ireland: A Day Out and About

Can I get a hip-hip-hooray for Friday? I have a bunch of posts in progress to share with you, but I just wasn’t feeling it for today.

Instead, I thought I’d just share some random pictures. These all happen to be taken the day we got the keys to our new house, but have nothing to do with the new house.

In the last month, we have become quite adept at taking the DART train. We’ve taught the kids to swipe their own train tickets and to read the signs so they know which train we are taking and when it is due to arrive.

Tourist Tip: The trains are marked with their final destination. If you are going north, you will board on the platform on the left side because the Irish drive on the left side of the road. If you are headed south, you will board on the platform on the right.

The trains in Ireland (and pretty much all signage) are marked in Irish and English.

This guy has been a trooper.

He’s pulling close to 60-hour weeks to get things running smoothly at his new job.

We chatted with some random guys at a bus stop the other day about Pokemon Go. It turns out they work for a European video gaming company. They’d each had a stint working for an American company and they all swore they’d never do it again. “The hours aren’t worth it, man!”

Hopefully the long hours won’t last too much longer. In the meantime, I’ll just stare at his side profile…

One of our favorite towns in Ireland is Dun Laoghaire. (It’s pronounced like Done Leary.) On this particular day we stopped to buy a toaster at Argos before heading to our new home. Clearly, I have my priorities.

Dun Laoghaire has a super cute downtown, lots of shops, parks and a great pier.

It’s always bustling with people – even on the dreary days.

Dun Laoghaire also has a fun playground that these two like to visit. I had the camera out and my boy hollers at me, “take a picture, mom!” Then he puts his arm around his sister and makes that cocked-jaw, cool-kid smile.

Right after that I melted into a puddle of maternal goo.

Right after that he made a fart noise and punched his sister in the arm.

Ah, the yo-yo of motherhood.
This girl has really grown up this summer. Especially lately. Part of me says, “thank heavens it’s about time!” The other part of me says, “nooooooooo!!!!!”

Again with the motherhood yo-yo!

She’s been helpful and rarely complains about the miles of walking/riding/scootering we do each day, sometimes in the sideways rain.

I’m thankful that she takes all of the change we’ve dished at her in stride. I try to be more like her in that way.

I’m teaching the kids to ride their bikes ON THE ROAD. Yes, that’s how I feel about it, all caps letters. This is just the kind of danger my boy likes. Heaven help me.

From our house we have a 4 block ride to a large park with trails. While I have no intention of having us all out on a busy highway ~~ever~~ anytime soon, this is the safest place for them to practice. There’s very little traffic. I figure we all need to get used to driving/biking on the left side of the road. They are learning hand signals too.

This kid. These are all faces he was making on purpose for the camera.

So much has changed for us in the past month. There are ups and downs. We are real people, after all – just in case you were wondering. But the real core of things – our family unit and what makes it work – hasn’t changed. I think that’s why we can take this whole adventure in stride and have a pretty happy home wherever we reside.

P.S. Thanks for following along on our journey. It gives me all sorts of uncomfortable mushy feelings and I really appreciate it and you!

If you want to know more about living in Ireland, check out these posts:

Living in Ireland: Inside My Kitchen

Living in Ireland: Christmas in Retail 2017

Living in Ireland: Storm Ophelia

Living in Ireland: That Time a Tree Came Down

Living in Ireland: Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Living in Ireland: Back After A Month in the United States

Living in Ireland: As Seen On My Commute

Living in Ireland: A Trip to the Hardware Store

Living in Ireland: Spring Flowers In Our Yard

Living in Ireland: Grocery Shopping