Dublin

We got a chance to take our big kids up to Dublin for a night and visit a few kid friendly places.  We left Maggie with Nana and Granda and went on our mini vacation in a vacation. 

It was crazy how easy the 3 hour drive was with only our 2 big kids! Stopping for ice cream and snacks (since the sun was out)…

First stop in Dublin was meeting our besties, the Brogans in Imaginosity Children’s Museum. Its the Irish version of our Pretend City in Irvine.

We left there and enjoyed some good ol’ American pizza at Pizza Hut. You know how places have different menu options in different countries…well I found this “option” in Ireland VERY weird…especially since they don’t eat hot dogs!

We still had plenty of time in our day so we headed to another kiddie place called Funtasia!  This place was nuts.  It was a mix between a HUGE arcade, with a huge indoor playground, bowling alley, mini golf, reptile attraction, indoor waterpark, food court….it was nuts!

We let the kids play a bunch of arcade games and run their lives away in the playground. We headed out and decided to meet at a super cute place for dinner before visiting Catherines sister in Drogheda (just outside of Dublin), which actually was the same town we were staying in for the night!

This table was the cutest thing ever!

Joby strikes again…

Catherine’s sister is a special person to Yosh and I.  She’s come to California for work a few times and once she even stayed with us! Yosh and her are long lost soul sisters…they like all the same dorky shows and games! They are able to talk FOR-EVER about all their geeky stuff! heehee. Love them. And Yvonne’s husband Paul is an awesome guy too! It was a BEAUTIFUL night in Dublin…the sun stays up for a LONG time.

Catherine’s oldest son Gavin doesn’t warm up to people very easily! So watching him and Ella get along was ADORABLE!

It was fun having just the big kids in a hotel for the night. We don’t get to sleep in the same bed as our kids very often…so it was a special little treat.

The next morning it was POURING cats and dogs. But we headed over to the church across from our hotel in Drogheda (pronounced DRAW-HE-DA), St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church.  Its a BEAUTIFUL catholic church that houses St. Oliver Plunkett’s REAL human head! yes. A REAL head. I was mind-blown.

Inside it told the whole story about Oliver Plunkett and how he was imprisoned, executed and then years later deemed Saint.

YES thats a real mummified, skeleton head! And yes I showed my kids. I have to say, this makes us Catholics look like crazies! hahaha

We lit a few candles!  Owen said he lit his for Papa, Daddy did one for Mya and her fight with breast cancer, Ella said “I think Nanny needs a candle”  and I lit one for a friend who was trying dearly to conceive a baby via IVF.

Before heading home to Foxford we spent a few hours at Funtasia again!  First the Reptile Thing…then the indoor waterpark. They ddin’t allow camera’s which was so weird to me. BUT if forced me to be that fun parent…like Ella was SHOCKED I got my hair wet and everything. But I took a pic in the dressing room before heading out to the craziness of slides, wade pools, and freezing my butt off! haha

It was a fun little get away. Spending time doing “big kid stuff” without poor ol’ Maggie holding us back was fun! I know my big kids appreciate it and I KNOW Maggie enjoyed her time in Foxford too!.