Over in Killarney...

A long, long time ago there was a red van that weaved it's way through the Irish country side. In it were 7 children, and 2 parents. Apparently back then there were no car seats, so the 1 year old baby sat in the van on her umbrella stroller. I think, there was also a serious lack of seat belts, because the 5 year old (me) recalls coming to a stop to allow some cows to cross, and hitting her head. Then applying some frozen Irish peas to the welt on her head. And to think there was time to video tape the entire trip...

The incredible journey taken nearly 25 years ago seems even more astounding having just returned from Ireland with my 1 child, a 1 year old. Having myself and him adjust to the time change took four days, and it wasn't pretty. It took some tantrums, lack of sleep, refusal to eat or drink the foreign milk until I made it into sweet tea, it was quite a sight. I praise mom a thousand times more for doing it with 7 children, and can't quite imagine how it all worked out. I called her about the first or second day into the trip to let her know how we were. After informing her that Xave wouldn't eat, she recalled how we had pretty much survived on soft serve for the entire 3 weeks we were there, oh so long ago. Thank goodness, that although much has changed in Ireland in 25 years, the soft serve/ice cream stations are almost as easy to find as the pubs. So we (I mean Xave) ate ice cream and sweet tea for a week.

More stories to come....