I know we’ve been home for a few days now but getting around to posting about such a long trip is difficult. I don’t know where to start, so I’ll just start from beginning of trip to the end of the trip!
Started great in LAX
 |  |
| Bottles to help Owen’s ears for take-off and landing! | DVD player has been the best investment we have made. Owen got to watch Jacks Big Music Show & Wonder Pets over and over…was wonderful! |
The flight to JFK, New York was great. Owen slept most for 2 hrs of it, our lay-over was wonderful, giving Owen time to run around the airport. And then he slept 4 hrs from JFK to Dublin. We landed, got our rental car, checked into our hotel at Liffey Valley and had to keep ourselves awake (the time change was killing us). Next morning we were up very early and headed west to Foxford, Co. Mayo
First stop was Irishtown (thats what they call my grandmothers home…not sure why its called that, but it just is!) Visited for a bit and then headed to the McDonnell house (my cousin Alan and his wife Denise). There Owen and Jayden finally got to me!
Parents came into town after us (they didn’t have a child on Cali time with them to worry about so they took their time leaving the hotel in Dublin). But I think one of my mothers proudest moments was getting to bring Owen into Irishtown to see my Nanny for the first time (it was actually Owens 2nd time there but we won’t tell her that).
Here is the cottage and car we rented…and loved it!
We did lots of stuff but I’ll only be able to give little highlights or this blog posting will be 500 pages long!
4th of July
 |  |
| Spent the day with my Nanny but thought American all day (note our patriotic shirts :) | That evening we went for an adult night in Ballina for drinks and fun with Catherine, John, Alan and Denise. |
Heritage Day in Ballina
 | At the Salmon Festival they had donkeys which Owen LOVED but kept calling them “Dogs”. Nana and Granda had fun showing Owen around. |
| Granda babysitting…yes my child’s head is through the gate! haha |  |
 |  |
| Owen and Baby Jayden play together! | Cute cousins! |
| My aunt Majella’s birthday gathering in Irishtown |  |
 |  | Fun day at Enniscrone. Owen loved the water and oddly enough the water temp was way warmer than our California beach water! |
 |  |  |
We decided to climb Croagh Patrick on a nice wet morning, but after about 30 mins of rain it turned into a beautiful day. Was the hike of a lifetime…very difficult but so worth the feeling of accomplishment we felt when reaching the top after 2.5 hours. Once at the top, your in a cloud, I said my prayer for Baby Daylon Edling (his blog is http://lovingbabydaylon.blogspot.com/) But to get the full meaning of the mountain google Croach Patrick and see the details. After the long hike we drove straight to Galway and had a wonderful night out (without taking naps!)
| Spent a day in Tumble Jungle in Ballina so the kids could have some fun! Top row: Caoimhe, Shannon, Caolan and me Bottom row: Derek, Carmel, Riley, Alan, Jayden, Owen, Yosh and Denise |  |
One of the main reasons we all came together this year was to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday. Her actual birthday is in September but with work schedules we couldn’t all make it in September…so a huge early birthday party was a MUST!
 | There were about 120-130 people, family and friends, there to help celebrate Nanny’s birthday. This is all us singing her happy birthday around midnight (yes parties are late there) |
| |  |
My grandmother is 1 of 10 children in her family. They are all very close, only having lost 1 of them a few years ago. They all came together to celebrate with grandma and was amazing. We lined them up, oldest to youngest and HAD to take pictures.
| A few days after grandma’s wonderful party we baptized Owen. Father Gerry was wonderful and performed the ceremony on a Monday afternoon at 3:30pm in St. Michael’s church, in Foxford. |  |
  | The fact that Owen was baptized there is so meaningful…its the same church that I was baptized in 28 years ago, and to make it more special, both my godparents (Majella and my Uncle Gerald) were both able to be present! Pretty cool blast from the past huh!?!? |
Owen did great…he just wanted to be down and running around the church. So Yosh, myself and Alan all took turns trying to keep him sitting and quiet. It was tough!
After the ceremony, Alan & Denise hosted a WONDERFUL reception party at their house. While we were all there we got a picture of my grandmother, all her grandkids (minus Jason who is living in Australia right now & Paul) and her great-grandkids. Was tough to get everyone sitting and looking but this one is probably the best one.
We all hate saying good-byes but it has to be done every trip. It made it a little more easy b/c we had the babies and were trying to get them to sit still so we could take some pictures…you know the only day we saw sun was the day we were leaving :(
The flight home was tough…it was a day-time flight so trying to get Owen to sleep was MUCH harder. He actually didn’t really sleep much at all but did great entertaining himself (MOST of the time). Granda did some entertainment at the window seat and Owen admiring our plane while we were in Atlanta.
All in all it was such a wonderful trip. We did lots of fun stuff and also had a lot of down time to finally relax. Owen got to meet all his Irish family and loves them all so much. Thank you guys for everything while we were there…love you and until next time…roll on December 2011 :)
