Oh how we love this child. And can you believe this girl was this little baby just over a year ago??
Ok...I'm back. Momentary trip down memory lane. Wayne and I got swept up in watching videos of Norah last night from when she was a small baby and we're just shocked at how much she has changed! (and we've only had her in our lives for TWO years!) =)
Norah takes her hosting duties seriously when she does 'picnics' for her friends.
The feast for all her friends!
Today was a beautiful sunny day but the Bay was filled with fog. These smoke stacks are a bit of a landmark here in Dublin and you can usually figure out where you are if you can see them. It was cool to see them covered in thick fog except for the tippy-tops.
We never tire of this view and the beauty of it still blows me away. (view from our roof)
Thick fog creeping into the city
Norah in corner of picture by the planter.
She was telling me something very serious here when I snapped her picture
On August 6th 2012, I ran my 3rd 10K Race (6.2 miles) here in Dun Laoghaire. My friends from the running group also ran it - there were 9 of us total so it was a really fun day. As they say, "It was good Craic" (pronounced Crack) meaning "it was good fun". OR they say, "It was a good buzz" (meaning, well, meaning just that but that it was "exciting with all the 'buzz' of the crowds, etc."). Love their little phrases!
Norah on our front balcony waiting for the first runners to come by, and most importantly, Mommy. =)
And here's mommy! The roads were all shut down for this race so it was pretty fun to run past our apartment. After seeing us pass (this is at Mile #1 of 6.2), Wayne and Norah made their way into town to meet me at the finish! I've got a pretty great support team. =)
To see pictures afterward is hard because, at the time, I think I'm just flying into the finish but the images show I'm just barely moving.
I shaved a couple minutes off my last time and I heard afterward (thankfully) that this was considered a very tough route so I was happy as could be.
A few days after we returned from Seattle we went to the Dun Laoghaire Fair at the People's Park. Apparently this used to be a huge affair where they shut down all the roads through town but somewhere along the line, things changed, and now it's just a few booths in the park with some people on stilts. Ah, well, we still had a good time. =)
This guy was very good and genuinely hilarious. He kept saying to this woman, "Don't look up, I'm juggling 3 pins above your head and this could turn out very badly. Just don't look up here."
Had to take this to show how sad we were to come back to "Dublin-sized-swings". Seattle swings (and maybe all of the rest of the world) are amazing but for some reason, here, they like to make them about 5 feet 9 inches tall so you have to push your child every 1/2 second. They're absurd! Wayne is only 5'10'' and his head reaches the top beam on these swings.
At the fair, this was the cordoned off area where you could learn "Circus Skills". I told them she has none so we better get to work.
There was a plate-spinning station, hula-hoops, juggling, and baton-twirling.
Norah was very afraid of this guy but you can tell this little boy wasn't phased by it.
Humans are so weird. On our way back home we stopped off on the East Pier and came across this Zumba class going on, right in the middle of the outside world (Zumba=fitness class where you dance to impromptu choreography). I can understand the thought behind these Zumba classes and I've only ever heard people rave about them but isn't part of the appeal that you're in a closed room where no one can SEE you make a fool of yourself? I had to hand it to these ladies (and the male instructor) - they were loving it and couldn't care less that they were shakin' it, out on the pier, for all the world to see. There were crowds of people watching. It was mesmerizing.
On one day we made our way into the city centre but seeing as how it was monsoon-rain, we had our little one quite bundled. Uncle Marko, she's wearing the new dress from you!
On the train. (Wayne looking like a foxy eyeglass model here - always deep in thought) =)
Seeking shelter in a doorway on Grafton Street during one particularly torrential spell.
It stopped for a moment so we hauled it to our next destination
Our friend Graham got a new puppy, Jimmy, and he's Norah's new best friend!
Dalkey Market. The most enchanted little village on earth. And it definitely gets better with the summer months.
This musician was really, very good. He sang every genre you can think of - songs from the 20s up through "No Diggity". So...he was versatile and had a great sense of humor which is always nice.
I forgot about our tiny video camera/camera and it had these gems in it! I had to share!
Norah sleeping like a QUEEN (in a California King). During our three weeks away, she developed the habit of coming into our bed at 6 am, every single morning. But here, in this bed, it didn't matter. None of us even knew the others were there. Unfortunately, here in Dublin, beds are doubles instead of Queen's or King's so now we feel like kids at camp.
Uncle Marko keeps his kayaks at cousin Suzy's new house in West Seattle and Wayne and Nick got to take one out! This is a really cool, WWII era kayak, and while it's beautiful, it made the guys slightly nervous out on the water. They survived though and received their antique-kayak-merit-badge upon return.
"Is that ferry wake coming right toward us?"
One of my favorite places ever - the Alaska Junction on California Ave. in West Seattle. And Uncle Nick likes it too!
He was impressed with the Soundgarden Burger at Easy Street Records.
Lovin' it!
Our Angel Reese
Cousins - happy to be together!
Norah still thinks "giving a kiss" means offering her cheek - to be kissed.
We'll keep working on that.
Also this short clip of Norah "driving" Auntie Tara's car. This was at Snoqualmie Pass and she had just spent a couple minutes telling us how to get back to Megan's House. Unfortunately I missed the great parts of her talking but this is when I turned on the camera:
