Mimi, Marko & Simon in Dublin - Part 1

I apologize in advance - this will be bare-bones. I wanted to share some photos though so here they are. Many are not rotated as my brain is not working well and I forgot to rotate them before uploading them. Today I turned 30, which is great but two days ago, I got the bubonic plague, and that has been...not so great. So the first two days of their trip were fine, Monday I felt bad and Tuesday I could not stand up for nearly 24 hours. I finally took a taxi to the hospital last night and was given a cocktail of prescriptions to help get me better. It's not the bubonic plague, nothing that exciting, only a respiratory infection and sinus infection. So...while I will survive, I'm not sure I can run this half-marathon coming up in 4 days. I'll be very sad if I can't run it as I've trained steadily for the last 5 months but honestly, if I'm anything near today when I can barely walk, there wouldn't be a chance of jogging 40 feet if I tried. It wouldn't be the end of the world to miss a race -  that's what I keep telling myself. So here are some photos of the trip so far. I'll keep chipping away at these. (And tomorrow, I'll be able to make them larger)

(The photos in the pub are of the surprise party Wayne arranged with the running group friends, for my birthday. Bless his heart. So, the night when Mimi and the boys arrived, he said "I've taken care of dinner tonight" and I knew something was up) :)

And farther down, we took the kids to People's Park on Easter Sunday and hid our own chocolates for an Easter Egg Hunt. They loved it!

Doing my part for "The Gathering" - picking up family at the airport. 

First time meeting my nephew Simon, at the airport (5 1/2 months). He took the end off that finger. 

Happy to be in Ireland after his first trans-atlantic flight. This is a happy boy after 20 hours on airplanes or in airports.

Some running friends put together this frame with pictures from races and runs we've done together, over the last year. They are incredible.

It was REALLY hard! (but she was determined)

This is when we toook the egg away. :) She had her fill (at 10 am)

 

Easter Sunday in the People's Park with my chubba man

Random guy wearing a Seattle-based OR hat so we covertly took his picture

Also today I turned 30 and despite the plague that has...plagued me... for the last 3 days, it was a great birthday. I'm slow-moving, but at least I can walk today so I count that as progress. I had an incredible decade between 20 and 30 and I can only hope and pray my 30s will bring me as much joy. We were just recounting what has happened since my 20th birthday this morning and it kind of shocked me, to say it all out loud. At the age of 20 I was a sophomore in college and I bought my condo. Between then and now, I graduated college, studied abroad in Australia, travelled Europe, got a Master's Degree in Psychology, got married, was a therapist for 3 years, had a baby, moved to Ireland, have lived here for one year and four months and here I am at my 30th birthday. And now I nearly have a 3 year old. When I look back on this decade in this way, I feel pretty proud of what I packed into that ten year period. So.....here's to my 30s! (And a huge thank you to all of you for the birthday well wishes, emails, phone calls and cards. I feel so loved today) Alright, back to bed. :) This old asthmatic woman needs her rest.