Well it’s that time of year again, when I try to play catch up and let you know what we have been up to during the year. All I can say is yet again this year has flown by like no other. So far, as of October I have flown 83,385 miles. Most of the travel has been domestic travel as the last time I flew international is when I took a group to Paris, our Ireland and Costa Rica trips. Lately I have been going to Canada as well, but is that considered international?
In June of this past year, I was able to work Wal-Mart week. I can say that I am a shareholder of Wal-Mart especially since I worked there before Delta. But they do put on a show for their share holders. All kinds of celebrities came in. I got to see my friend David, whom I haven’t seen since I graduated from College. He has done well for himself and has a wonderful family. Katelyn got to go to several Vacation Bible Schools within our town. The first one that she visited was at her school and she really enjoyed the “Beach Party” that they had. She tried a Baptist Church one, but didn’t want to go as she didn’t know anyone. We tried to get her to stay with Amy Singleton, but she wouldn’t have any part of that either. In June we celebrated my birthday… well actually I did and had a meeting to go to the very next day. I was also introduced to this restaurant in downtown called “Fritti”. It has the best vegetarian brick oven pizza I have ever tasted. Thank you Josh for showing me that place!
In July, my friend Maryann got married. She had a lovely wedding at her house on July 4. She celebrated with “Fireworks” and a good ol’ fashion BBQ. It was a grand time that everyone had. James, Michele Price-Travers child celebrated his 2nd birthday and Katelyn and I attended a Braves game before she was wisked down to Florida to spend time with Mimi, Don, Lisa, Tony and Keith in Lido Key. Lido Key was very nice. I was able to make it down to have Friday, Monday vacations. The beaches were beautiful as that is pretty much all I was able to do. I understand that Katelyn went shark tooth hunting and went out on the boat. She was so brown during that vacation, she looked like she had baked in the sun every day. You can still see some of her tan lines from this past summer.
In August, we went to yet another Braves game. Katelyn and I love those and we go anytime we get a chance too. She got on the jumbo tron at one game this year with her friend Emily. On a sadder note, my friend Jeremy Fowler ended up passing away from Cancer. He left behind a wife and 3 small children. He was such a great guy and I can’t believe a young sole got taken away so fast off this earth. We will miss Jeremy! Katelyn also was able to go to Chuck E Cheese night for her school fundraiser and we hit Six Flags White Water as many times as we could during this month as we had to use every bit of our season pass during the year.
In September, we celebrated Katelyn’s 5th Birthday Party by going to Jump-a-Roos/Kangaroo Kids. She had a blast with all of her friends. Thank you everyone for attending and making her day special. She began soccer this month and we were able to attend a Rodeo and see Sesame Street and JapanFest. Logan, Katelyn’s cousin also celebrated his first birthday and on another sadder note, my friend Melanie’s dad passed away during this month.
In October, Katelyn went with her school to celebrate “Farm Day” by attending Southern Belle. A local farm and pumpkin patch. She also had to visit the Dentist and we had to put her on Flouride Pills as her teeth are so frail. She has had 5 cavities so far and she is only 5 years old! Katelyn had busy days at school as she started Kindergarten this year and also had to celebrate Hoe Down Day, 50s day, and Orange and Black day for Trick or Treating. She had a big surprise too by going to see Disney on Ice.
Early in November, Katelyn got to attend Steven and Ansley’s birthday parties. She had a blast at both of them. We had several Girl Scout events and mom had to go to several out of town visits during November for her work. We were all thankful when vacation came and we went to Banff, Canada.
During our vacation we had fun! It took us practically all day to get there on Sunday and when we finally arrived in Calgary we ate at an all you can eat Japanese and Korean place. The sushi and tempura were wonderful and Katelyn’s new found Japanese favorite is Tempura and noodles. Then on Monday, we went out and explored the town. We bought some groceries to last us for the week and then went on a historic walk through downtown. We found the playground and pool, which also had a hot tub and sauna for mom and dad. On Tuesday, we went out to Lake Louise. The snow there was so wonderful and powdery. There were several people ice skating on the lake so we went out and tromped around on it too. We didn’t have any Tobaggans to slide down the hill, but Katelyn and mom had slick pants on so we used our behinds to slide down the hill. It was so much fun and then later that night we headed back to head in the pool again. On Wednesday, we went to the Cave Basin and the Upper Hot Springs. The cave basin had an interesting tour and we smelt the sulphur water and then later when we went to the Upper Hot Springs, we got to spend time in the hot water. It didn’t smell like sulphur though as the Hot Springs has modernized their pools. They are heated naturally, but they also add chlorine to the water to neutralize the sulphur, which is great because it stinks. I am allergic to sulpha based drugs and they didn’t affect me one bit! That night we ended up eating Steak at Bumpers. Apparently, Alberta is known for their beef. On Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving. It wasn’t traditional at all for us. We ended up heading back to Lake Louise area again only with Tobaggains and ice skates in tow. We were going to do both there, but due to Global Warming, we were afraid to get on the lake today with our skates, so we opted for Tobaggaining instead. We must have done that for about 2 hours and then we gave up and headed back north. We ended up in British Columbia where it was much more colder and we were able to see Elk along the side of the road. After driving for about 1 hour in British Columbia and heading back downhill where the snow was melting we decided to turn back around and head back about 2 hours back to home. We ended up stopping at the lake that was one exit up from where were staying to go Ice Skating. I promised Katelyn that we would skate on a pond and then we did. She had so much fun, but she was worn out. Then later that night, we went out to the Grizzly House which was a Steak and Fondue dinner house. We absolutely did not have a traditional Thanksgiving feast. We had the following:
Salad, Neuchatel (cheese, wine and Kirsch fondue), Exotic dinner – Shark, Alligator, Rattlesnake, Ostrich, Frog Legs, Buffalo, and Venison. Hunter Fondue – Buffalo, Wild Boar and Venison. Dessert – Chocolate Fondue with melted Toblerone chocolate and fresh fruit. Cooked in oil and also on a Granite stone that had been in a kiln for about 6 hours.
We drove to British Columbia one day to see what that had to offer, and then headed home.
In December, we have done most of the traditional Holiday items. We had breakfast with Santa, saw Mr. and Ms. Claus and then also appeared in a parade. We attended Ryan's birthday and Katelyn was in her Christmas play. We also had a holiday party with Girl Scouts and a Christmas party with her school.
Christmas was somber this year as well. Katelyn ended up going to the emergency room on Dec. 24 for an ear infection. Luckily Keith wore his Fire Dept shirt and got in/out of the hospital fast (3 hours). She was put on Amoxicillin and Tylenol w/Codine. She is all better now, but she was not at all excited about opening up her presents that Santa brought. Her big gift was High School Musical phone, but really an MP3 player, but mommy tried to load it on the computer, and it didn't work. I ended up taking it back and Katelyn is fine with getting a regular MP3 player. We spent most of the time inside and contemplating about going to FL to see Nana, Aunt Jenna and Uncle Jake. Each day was viewed, but we either didn't feel well, or flights were full one way or another. I guess we can't win them all.
New Years Eve - Carolyn was the only one awake, so I rang it in with Dick Clark!
I hope all is well with you and would love to hear what you and your family have been up to.
Beginning in January Katelyn will be selling Girl Scout Cookies, so please let me know if you are interested in them. Katelyn has to go to Camp!
All the best, The Minnihans
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
Until June 2008
Hi All:
Is anyone really interested in an update on what has been going on with me? Well if anyone who “really” knows me it is the same old s***, just a different day. Ok, It’s June now and nothing has really ever changed. I still travel a lot for my job. I still am trying to be the best mom I know how to be and am in a loveless marriage. Go figure, like I said same crap just a different day. I’m sure if anyone reads this and doesn’t really know the whole story they will be shocked, but quite frankly, I am not. It’s occurred so much it’s not even funny. You try and try and it gets you no where, oh well. I am a desperate housewife!
So, do you want me to start from last Christmas or what?
Not much really happened during New Year’s. I miss my buddy Claudette and her kids celebrating this year as they moved to Wyoming and living it there. The best new years I have had recently is when Claudette brought her 3 children over and all we did was celebrate until the kids konked out until around 11pm and I brought in the new years by waking Claudette up to say “Happy New Year”. This past year I think was no different than any of the previous years as Keith had to work Jan 1 so it was no fun for us again this year.
I did bring in the new year on a kind of celebration. I purchased a new/ 07 with 7K miles on it.. Black Honda Accord. Yes, 3 days later I got in a wreck in it and smashed up the front of it. I think that car has been doomed from the beginning ever since as it is attracted to other things. Oh that was the 2nd wreck as in December, I also had a wreck with the Expedition by pressing the gas instead of the break as I was trying to back the car into the trailer to take it on a Christmas Daisy Troop parade. Go figure. I really have not had any luck with cars this past year.
As a Daisy troop, we earned our bowling badge and going to try to earn other badges during the summer. I will be hard with everyone’s schedule, but hoping with school out and things a little calmer with my job that it will be a little easier.
Also in January, I was suppose to be off to Denver to visit my friend Angela, but instead headed to Stuart area to bury Elenaor, Keith’s Grandfathers long term mate. They were so sweet together and they had so much fun together it was sad to see her go. She will be missed. She had a semi short battle with Cancer, only 8 months or so and it spread quickly.
In February, Katelyn and I were able to see Go Diego Go and she loved seeing it as Dora is always on an adventure in our house.
We also went to her school to have pancakes for breakfast for her and to see her in her play. In April she had an artshow where she got to show off all of her extraordinary work. Since it’s now summer, she has brought it all home to view and I hope to take pictures of it and post it online at an art website where her masterpieces can be purchased if desired.
I was also able to visit Chicago for work. I had never been there before and really only went shopping up/down a street near the river that runs through the city. I can say it is very eclectic and I do get a better feel for the city now. I only had a few hours of free time, so it was well spent to me.
Dr. Suess also celebrated his birthday during Feb and we were able to attend a birthday bash for him at the mall.
During the beginning of March my work allowed me to travel to NYC where Katelyn and my mom and Jenny tagged along and got to see the city. However during that weekend a storm erupted and they had a hard time getting home. At least they were able to make it to Ellis Island and we stayed near ground zero, so at least they were able to do a few touristy things while they were there. And the best of all it was all free to them!
In March, Lisa celebrated her upcoming nuptials with a Bridal Shower. She received several nice gifts and the shower was very lovely in Florida. Keith participated in a fight, but lost to his opponent in the last 10 seconds of his fight. Katelyn and I found as many easter egg hunts as we could find as she loved finding those eggs. I think they are still all over the house now. And my friend Angela also came into town from Denver and we were able to see her.
I also found out that on the last season of the Bachelor one of my co-workers step-daughters was one of the last 2 contestants. Now she is the Bachelorette, so I have been trying to follow that on tv as it comes on. She said that she has been having a blast with the show.
In April, Katelyn and I visited the Camp Expo. Let me tell you, prices of camps have sky rocketed to easily $150-$250/week. So if anyone is looking for a great gift idea for Katelyn, please be sure to get her a camp certificate. All or partial payments of camps would be nice. They have all kinds available and I wish that I could attend some of them with her as well. Some of the ones that I do want to send her too are Circus Camp, Gymnastic Camp, Girl Scout Camp, Computer Camp and even Cooking Camps. She will have a blast and next year is when she can really start making some choices for herself.
We also went to the Princess Breakfast at Chick Fil A. All the princesses were there and we stood in line for about 1 hour to see them. She got her picture taken with most of them and made a crown and then we got our food to go as it would have been even longer if we sat around and waited to be seated for breakfast.
I was also able to take a self defense airline training course that is usually given to flight attendants to fend off terrorists. I was lucky and was able to take it too since I fly so much. Look out terrorist, don’t mess with me!
Katelyn, Emily, Kelli and Myself all went to see Cinderella at the Center for Puppetry Arts. It was kind of similar to the classic Cinderella tale only they make the marionette puppets onsite and we were able to make a little puppet as well to take home. They also had a display there about Sabrina the teen age witches cat and how it was made and all it’s outfits as well as a display about the muppets. I didn’t know they were made around my year of birth too. They have been a huge success in the puppet world.
Katelyn also went on her first Girl Scout campout trip in April. Mommy got in trouble because I stayed with her in the evening as she didn’t make it by herself all night. She got scared. Another girl in her tent wimpered all night and 3 out of the 4 girls all toppled out of their twin size beds onto the floor at various times during the night. She had a great time being with the girls and went through a bridge up ceremony where she got “baked” into a brownie. She also earned her first try it brownie badge by making jewelry, planting flowers and making a pinwheel. I can’t wait for brownies, but I did learn that we have to sell Fall Product and Cookie Sales before we can earn any other additional money for our troop. I want to do lots of things, but I really dread fall product time and hope that others will volunteer for Cookie Sales as well. I am also now the recruiter for the county so Sept/October will be busy for me with Girl Scouts.
Lisa’s wedding was the last weekend in April. She had a beautiful ceremony in a Catholic Church and then a great reception at Jackaranda Golf Course (I could be spelling it wrong) She had 4 girls and Katelyn was a Flower Girl. She was so cute with 2 other little boys. I do have to go online and purchase some of the best ones to have in the house. She really had a great time and was the star of the show as she was the only kid at the reception. She was so very cute and the best photo that I wish turned out a little nicer was with her sitting on stage resting her feet and enjoying some cake and talking with Don on stage. She didn’t know what to think.
May has now come and gone and it has been another busy month for us as well. Katelyn got to have several celebrations at school such as Tooth Fairy Day, Ice Cream Social Day, Fairy Tale Day and Water Day. During Tooth Fairy day the tooth fairy came and visited them. Ice Cream day they got to make their own Sundae’s. Fairy Tale Day was the hardest one to do as we had to memorize a Fairy Tale and Dress up as one, so Katelyn was Hickory Dickery Dock. She said the saying to her class mates and I was able to find Gummy rats at the dollar store and she gave them out to all her classmates. She had a fun time. During the last week of school is when they celebrated and had Pre-K Graduation on Monday and then Wednesday was Water Day where they got to get wet at school and Friday was the last day of school party with Coke, Cupcakes, Chips and Dip and Veggies. Luckily all the same kids (6) will be in her Kindergarten class as well so she won’t be frightened away by not knowing anyone. Next year I will also have to save all of her work and hopefully get her into 1st Grade if she does well. I kind of dread it as I know it will be a battle and it’s just because the county’s cut off date is Sept 1 and her birthday is September 4.
I also got to take a business trip to Canada. We spent a day in Toronto, then off to Hamilton, then off to Halifax. We actually spent almost 8 hours flying standby on Air Canada between Toronoto and Halifax as it would have taken us about that long to fly confirmed and an all day trip just to get there on us. Let me tell you that if you need to fly intra Canada, Air Canada is a nice product. I should be saying that, but it is especially when you get first class! During our wait times in Toronto we ran into some Air Canada employees and they also advised to get some lobster in Halifax. They said it was the same price in the airport as it is at the fishing docks, but I don’t think that is true. I paid $10.99/lb at the airport and when I asked the airport guy where is the $5.99/lb lobster, he said that it is at the fishing docks. So needless to say I got ripped off but it was a nice big lobster. Before we ate them, Katelyn and I had a little lobster race and then off to the 2 pots they went. They did turn bright red and were very good to eat. Katelyn had a good time pounding their brains out of the shell. All I can say it was good therapy for me. When I returned I had to connect via Boston so a lot of people were looking at me because I didn’t get any Boston Lobster, instead I had Canadian Lobster and personally if there is a difference they might have been a little better because they seemed to be a little bigger.
Halifax was a nice place to go and I do hope to return there some day, but when I was there (in May) I had to wear my winter jacket and hope that I would not get too cold walking down the street. I will definitely have to return, but probably not until July/August time frame. I want to go back and see the graves where most of the Titanic victims were buried and also stroll along the wharf area to eat more seafood and to visit the memorial where SwissAir went down. You know I worked Pic calls for that flight… very sad!
On a happier note, Katleyn and I got to see Riverdance. She liked the foot tapping parts, but during the singing parts she was tired and looking forward to bed. It was a good show, but not sure if it is worth the high ticket price.
May has also been my month of Celebrity Sightings. I saw Barbara Walters going into the Four Seasons for lunch. Barbara Walters is a very smaller older lady and not what you would think she looked like on TV. Of course she had her entourage, but was able to move about the streets with ease. On the train at he airport I rode between concourses with Corey for Corey In The House. One of the lady’s that I late found out was on my flight was able to get his autograph. I also saw hottie Jason Lewis from Sex in the City. David (my boss) was able to sit next to him. At first I didn’t know who he was except that I knew he was on TV, but thought he might have been on the Bachelor or something like that, but later when I was able to go online, I was able to find out who he really was. Go to Google.com and click on Images and then type in Jason Lewis all of his pictures pop up. He is so hot! Maybe he was in town promoting the movie this weekend as I later saw him in Baggage Claim as well.
During the last weekend of May I had vacation time booked for Lost Wages, Las Vegas, NV. Well, if anyone wants to know. My Las Vegas vacation was a total flop! The first day we get in, we had the whole day ahead of us. We did get on the first flight out from Atlanta to Las Vegas and we checked into the Hilton Grand Vacation Club. The hotel was nice and was a typical Hilton Hotel. It was kind of small for us though as we were kind of cramped in the small quarters. We didn’t make it to the darkness as it doesn’t get dark until 8pm or so and Katelyn was so tired from getting up at 5:30 am to try to catch the flight. We headed to bed early in Vegas. Hence early to bed means early to rise. Well that is what we did. We did get up kind of early and had to stick around until about 9:30 am or so in order to go through our Time Share presentation ordeal. While we were at the presentation, we tried to get out of it so bad as we proceeded to tell the lady that we were going to get a divorce and it was really a waste of her time to try to sell us something as we were probably not going to get through the year together. She agreed and let us go. Finally we were free to have the rest of our “vacation”.
Well Day One (Sat) we walked all up and down the strip past Treasure Island and ate at one buffet at the Sahara – not good. The second day (Sun) we just hung around the cold pool as it was only about 72 degrees there. Needless to say when we were in the water it was mainly in the hot tub. Keith was pitching a fit most of the time so advised him to go home, but of course, he didn’t. I was going to hang around since I had already paid for it and couldn’t get out of it. We ended up eating at a kind of authentic Thai Chinese Food place and that was very good. We did that before we walked to the Stratosphere. I really wanted to go to Freemont street in the evening, but Katelyn got worn out from playing in the pool most of the day.
Monday was check out day and the flights were very full because most people were getting away for the long weekend. So I booked day three at Mandalay Bay only because it was rated as one of the best pools to be at. Caesars Palace was also rated as being one of the good pools, but I read remarks online that they were going under renovations so decided against that hotel especially since it was about $50 higher than Mandalay Bay as well.
Mandalay Bay was really nice and had a Casino below and a wave pool, hot tub and lazy river, but on the far end of the strip. It’s quite a long walk from Mandalay Bay to Treasure Island. On the last day that is what Katelyn and I did in the evening. I had to wake her up to see the pirate show at Treasure Island and then we walked back through the hotels to get to Bellagio where I woke her up to see the fountains. I assume she liked them as she watched them, but really didn’t talk about them the next day.
The next morning we got up kind of early and went down to the Mandalay Bay pool for about 1 hour. It was still kind of cool in the morning to go swimming in the wave pool, so we went to the hot tub for a while and about the last 15 minutes we went in the wave pool. She was loving it and wanted to stay longer, but kept telling her we had to get home to see Cletus. She was kind of grouchy from no sleep while on the plane and demanded her own stuff. She did real well as there was a TV on board the plane and I put it on Nickalodean for a while for her and then she had Animal Planet and then the map of where we were flying from Texas on. She also played the last hour of the flight with her VMAX. Finally got home almost close to 10pm EST to go to bed and then hopefully we will have a good day tomorrow.
She slept until almost Noon.
The only part that made the trip so miserable was Keith. He badgered me every chance he got to say something. He is so rude by telling me that I am fat in a swimsuit, doesn’t even want to be near us when walking down the strip, consistently tells me he wants a divorce and says he is going to fill out the paperwork, but never does and loses patience with everything that I say. So, I am not talking to him anymore. I really don’t need him anymore as this Las Vegas vacation was the last vacation I have planned with him. He tells me all the time he doesn’t want to be married, but refuses to fill out the paperwork. I tell him I will sign it, but not without my lawyers getting involved and of course he doesn’t want that. I think he thinks I am stupid or something. I don’t need to be around a person that makes me miserable especially when I was trying to plan something fun for us to do as a family. Oh well, Keith doesn’t want a family, he just wants someone who will look good for him, do things his way and not say something back to him. That’s not me and he should have realized that from Day one. I guess he never has known me or appreciated me for who I am. It’s was our Anniversary on May 28 and of course he forgot it (not even a saying of “Happy Anniversary”). Should I have expected more in my marriage? I didn’t expect much, but a simple Happy Anniversary and that wasn’t even remembered. I think I am chopped liver in Keith’s eyes. Why should I treat him with respect?
Also, we set up our pool in the back yard had vacation bible school work day and then went to White Water with Emily and later find out that our Air Conditioner fan has broken, so cost us $460 to get it fixed. Keith got upset with me again over the payment of the A/C, but if he would have read the bill he would have found out the truth, but he proceeds to tell me that I am a thief and the worst person in his life. I think he needs someone to seriously talk to him or to get on some kind of medicine because he is very screwed up in the head and I am nothing like what he keeps accusing me of. I have purchased a “For Sale By Owner” sign to place in the front yard of the house as if I hear any more attitude from him, I will put the house up for Sale and move. I don’t need the crap that I get from him, especially when he threatens me most of the time and tells me all the time that he contemplates Jail vs his happiness. Part of me wants him to think Jail as at least he would be out of my life and not make me miserable anymore. I honestly have never heard of anyone so messed up in the head as he is by thinking whatever stories are made up in his head are actually the truth and what I am. I think he needs some psychological help as I really believe he has seen too much disaster working in the crappy town he works in. He is really out of control and his job doesn’t provide any type of services to assist him with his issues or if they do he doesn’t take advantage of them because he thinks he is too macho for that. Oh well, his loss as I really don’t like the fact that Katelyn hears all his banter against me on a daily basis and I constantly toy with her coming from a broken home without her father vs hearing the sayings that she hears as “normal” Every chance I get, I tell her Daddy is being mean and that is not nice just so she doesn’t grow up thinking that the way he talks to me is “normal” because it is not. He has some serious issues!
Hope everyone is doing well and that if you want to see some pictures online they are at walmart.com and the username is my email address and the password is password. Love to hear what is going on with you.
This summer will be busy for us. I have to finish up Daisy Badge work and then prepare for Brownie Badge work for Girl Scouts. “Bake Some Daisy’s into Brownies” J Also, lots of summer movies playing on greens, VBS for first 3 weeks of June. July vacation in Lido Key and then Beginning of August - Back to School.
Be safe and enjoy the summer and until my next posting……Love, Desperate Housewife, Carolyn
Is anyone really interested in an update on what has been going on with me? Well if anyone who “really” knows me it is the same old s***, just a different day. Ok, It’s June now and nothing has really ever changed. I still travel a lot for my job. I still am trying to be the best mom I know how to be and am in a loveless marriage. Go figure, like I said same crap just a different day. I’m sure if anyone reads this and doesn’t really know the whole story they will be shocked, but quite frankly, I am not. It’s occurred so much it’s not even funny. You try and try and it gets you no where, oh well. I am a desperate housewife!
So, do you want me to start from last Christmas or what?
Not much really happened during New Year’s. I miss my buddy Claudette and her kids celebrating this year as they moved to Wyoming and living it there. The best new years I have had recently is when Claudette brought her 3 children over and all we did was celebrate until the kids konked out until around 11pm and I brought in the new years by waking Claudette up to say “Happy New Year”. This past year I think was no different than any of the previous years as Keith had to work Jan 1 so it was no fun for us again this year.
I did bring in the new year on a kind of celebration. I purchased a new/ 07 with 7K miles on it.. Black Honda Accord. Yes, 3 days later I got in a wreck in it and smashed up the front of it. I think that car has been doomed from the beginning ever since as it is attracted to other things. Oh that was the 2nd wreck as in December, I also had a wreck with the Expedition by pressing the gas instead of the break as I was trying to back the car into the trailer to take it on a Christmas Daisy Troop parade. Go figure. I really have not had any luck with cars this past year.
As a Daisy troop, we earned our bowling badge and going to try to earn other badges during the summer. I will be hard with everyone’s schedule, but hoping with school out and things a little calmer with my job that it will be a little easier.
Also in January, I was suppose to be off to Denver to visit my friend Angela, but instead headed to Stuart area to bury Elenaor, Keith’s Grandfathers long term mate. They were so sweet together and they had so much fun together it was sad to see her go. She will be missed. She had a semi short battle with Cancer, only 8 months or so and it spread quickly.
In February, Katelyn and I were able to see Go Diego Go and she loved seeing it as Dora is always on an adventure in our house.
We also went to her school to have pancakes for breakfast for her and to see her in her play. In April she had an artshow where she got to show off all of her extraordinary work. Since it’s now summer, she has brought it all home to view and I hope to take pictures of it and post it online at an art website where her masterpieces can be purchased if desired.
I was also able to visit Chicago for work. I had never been there before and really only went shopping up/down a street near the river that runs through the city. I can say it is very eclectic and I do get a better feel for the city now. I only had a few hours of free time, so it was well spent to me.
Dr. Suess also celebrated his birthday during Feb and we were able to attend a birthday bash for him at the mall.
During the beginning of March my work allowed me to travel to NYC where Katelyn and my mom and Jenny tagged along and got to see the city. However during that weekend a storm erupted and they had a hard time getting home. At least they were able to make it to Ellis Island and we stayed near ground zero, so at least they were able to do a few touristy things while they were there. And the best of all it was all free to them!
In March, Lisa celebrated her upcoming nuptials with a Bridal Shower. She received several nice gifts and the shower was very lovely in Florida. Keith participated in a fight, but lost to his opponent in the last 10 seconds of his fight. Katelyn and I found as many easter egg hunts as we could find as she loved finding those eggs. I think they are still all over the house now. And my friend Angela also came into town from Denver and we were able to see her.
I also found out that on the last season of the Bachelor one of my co-workers step-daughters was one of the last 2 contestants. Now she is the Bachelorette, so I have been trying to follow that on tv as it comes on. She said that she has been having a blast with the show.
In April, Katelyn and I visited the Camp Expo. Let me tell you, prices of camps have sky rocketed to easily $150-$250/week. So if anyone is looking for a great gift idea for Katelyn, please be sure to get her a camp certificate. All or partial payments of camps would be nice. They have all kinds available and I wish that I could attend some of them with her as well. Some of the ones that I do want to send her too are Circus Camp, Gymnastic Camp, Girl Scout Camp, Computer Camp and even Cooking Camps. She will have a blast and next year is when she can really start making some choices for herself.
We also went to the Princess Breakfast at Chick Fil A. All the princesses were there and we stood in line for about 1 hour to see them. She got her picture taken with most of them and made a crown and then we got our food to go as it would have been even longer if we sat around and waited to be seated for breakfast.
I was also able to take a self defense airline training course that is usually given to flight attendants to fend off terrorists. I was lucky and was able to take it too since I fly so much. Look out terrorist, don’t mess with me!
Katelyn, Emily, Kelli and Myself all went to see Cinderella at the Center for Puppetry Arts. It was kind of similar to the classic Cinderella tale only they make the marionette puppets onsite and we were able to make a little puppet as well to take home. They also had a display there about Sabrina the teen age witches cat and how it was made and all it’s outfits as well as a display about the muppets. I didn’t know they were made around my year of birth too. They have been a huge success in the puppet world.
Katelyn also went on her first Girl Scout campout trip in April. Mommy got in trouble because I stayed with her in the evening as she didn’t make it by herself all night. She got scared. Another girl in her tent wimpered all night and 3 out of the 4 girls all toppled out of their twin size beds onto the floor at various times during the night. She had a great time being with the girls and went through a bridge up ceremony where she got “baked” into a brownie. She also earned her first try it brownie badge by making jewelry, planting flowers and making a pinwheel. I can’t wait for brownies, but I did learn that we have to sell Fall Product and Cookie Sales before we can earn any other additional money for our troop. I want to do lots of things, but I really dread fall product time and hope that others will volunteer for Cookie Sales as well. I am also now the recruiter for the county so Sept/October will be busy for me with Girl Scouts.
Lisa’s wedding was the last weekend in April. She had a beautiful ceremony in a Catholic Church and then a great reception at Jackaranda Golf Course (I could be spelling it wrong) She had 4 girls and Katelyn was a Flower Girl. She was so cute with 2 other little boys. I do have to go online and purchase some of the best ones to have in the house. She really had a great time and was the star of the show as she was the only kid at the reception. She was so very cute and the best photo that I wish turned out a little nicer was with her sitting on stage resting her feet and enjoying some cake and talking with Don on stage. She didn’t know what to think.
May has now come and gone and it has been another busy month for us as well. Katelyn got to have several celebrations at school such as Tooth Fairy Day, Ice Cream Social Day, Fairy Tale Day and Water Day. During Tooth Fairy day the tooth fairy came and visited them. Ice Cream day they got to make their own Sundae’s. Fairy Tale Day was the hardest one to do as we had to memorize a Fairy Tale and Dress up as one, so Katelyn was Hickory Dickery Dock. She said the saying to her class mates and I was able to find Gummy rats at the dollar store and she gave them out to all her classmates. She had a fun time. During the last week of school is when they celebrated and had Pre-K Graduation on Monday and then Wednesday was Water Day where they got to get wet at school and Friday was the last day of school party with Coke, Cupcakes, Chips and Dip and Veggies. Luckily all the same kids (6) will be in her Kindergarten class as well so she won’t be frightened away by not knowing anyone. Next year I will also have to save all of her work and hopefully get her into 1st Grade if she does well. I kind of dread it as I know it will be a battle and it’s just because the county’s cut off date is Sept 1 and her birthday is September 4.
I also got to take a business trip to Canada. We spent a day in Toronto, then off to Hamilton, then off to Halifax. We actually spent almost 8 hours flying standby on Air Canada between Toronoto and Halifax as it would have taken us about that long to fly confirmed and an all day trip just to get there on us. Let me tell you that if you need to fly intra Canada, Air Canada is a nice product. I should be saying that, but it is especially when you get first class! During our wait times in Toronto we ran into some Air Canada employees and they also advised to get some lobster in Halifax. They said it was the same price in the airport as it is at the fishing docks, but I don’t think that is true. I paid $10.99/lb at the airport and when I asked the airport guy where is the $5.99/lb lobster, he said that it is at the fishing docks. So needless to say I got ripped off but it was a nice big lobster. Before we ate them, Katelyn and I had a little lobster race and then off to the 2 pots they went. They did turn bright red and were very good to eat. Katelyn had a good time pounding their brains out of the shell. All I can say it was good therapy for me. When I returned I had to connect via Boston so a lot of people were looking at me because I didn’t get any Boston Lobster, instead I had Canadian Lobster and personally if there is a difference they might have been a little better because they seemed to be a little bigger.
Halifax was a nice place to go and I do hope to return there some day, but when I was there (in May) I had to wear my winter jacket and hope that I would not get too cold walking down the street. I will definitely have to return, but probably not until July/August time frame. I want to go back and see the graves where most of the Titanic victims were buried and also stroll along the wharf area to eat more seafood and to visit the memorial where SwissAir went down. You know I worked Pic calls for that flight… very sad!
On a happier note, Katleyn and I got to see Riverdance. She liked the foot tapping parts, but during the singing parts she was tired and looking forward to bed. It was a good show, but not sure if it is worth the high ticket price.
May has also been my month of Celebrity Sightings. I saw Barbara Walters going into the Four Seasons for lunch. Barbara Walters is a very smaller older lady and not what you would think she looked like on TV. Of course she had her entourage, but was able to move about the streets with ease. On the train at he airport I rode between concourses with Corey for Corey In The House. One of the lady’s that I late found out was on my flight was able to get his autograph. I also saw hottie Jason Lewis from Sex in the City. David (my boss) was able to sit next to him. At first I didn’t know who he was except that I knew he was on TV, but thought he might have been on the Bachelor or something like that, but later when I was able to go online, I was able to find out who he really was. Go to Google.com and click on Images and then type in Jason Lewis all of his pictures pop up. He is so hot! Maybe he was in town promoting the movie this weekend as I later saw him in Baggage Claim as well.
During the last weekend of May I had vacation time booked for Lost Wages, Las Vegas, NV. Well, if anyone wants to know. My Las Vegas vacation was a total flop! The first day we get in, we had the whole day ahead of us. We did get on the first flight out from Atlanta to Las Vegas and we checked into the Hilton Grand Vacation Club. The hotel was nice and was a typical Hilton Hotel. It was kind of small for us though as we were kind of cramped in the small quarters. We didn’t make it to the darkness as it doesn’t get dark until 8pm or so and Katelyn was so tired from getting up at 5:30 am to try to catch the flight. We headed to bed early in Vegas. Hence early to bed means early to rise. Well that is what we did. We did get up kind of early and had to stick around until about 9:30 am or so in order to go through our Time Share presentation ordeal. While we were at the presentation, we tried to get out of it so bad as we proceeded to tell the lady that we were going to get a divorce and it was really a waste of her time to try to sell us something as we were probably not going to get through the year together. She agreed and let us go. Finally we were free to have the rest of our “vacation”.
Well Day One (Sat) we walked all up and down the strip past Treasure Island and ate at one buffet at the Sahara – not good. The second day (Sun) we just hung around the cold pool as it was only about 72 degrees there. Needless to say when we were in the water it was mainly in the hot tub. Keith was pitching a fit most of the time so advised him to go home, but of course, he didn’t. I was going to hang around since I had already paid for it and couldn’t get out of it. We ended up eating at a kind of authentic Thai Chinese Food place and that was very good. We did that before we walked to the Stratosphere. I really wanted to go to Freemont street in the evening, but Katelyn got worn out from playing in the pool most of the day.
Monday was check out day and the flights were very full because most people were getting away for the long weekend. So I booked day three at Mandalay Bay only because it was rated as one of the best pools to be at. Caesars Palace was also rated as being one of the good pools, but I read remarks online that they were going under renovations so decided against that hotel especially since it was about $50 higher than Mandalay Bay as well.
Mandalay Bay was really nice and had a Casino below and a wave pool, hot tub and lazy river, but on the far end of the strip. It’s quite a long walk from Mandalay Bay to Treasure Island. On the last day that is what Katelyn and I did in the evening. I had to wake her up to see the pirate show at Treasure Island and then we walked back through the hotels to get to Bellagio where I woke her up to see the fountains. I assume she liked them as she watched them, but really didn’t talk about them the next day.
The next morning we got up kind of early and went down to the Mandalay Bay pool for about 1 hour. It was still kind of cool in the morning to go swimming in the wave pool, so we went to the hot tub for a while and about the last 15 minutes we went in the wave pool. She was loving it and wanted to stay longer, but kept telling her we had to get home to see Cletus. She was kind of grouchy from no sleep while on the plane and demanded her own stuff. She did real well as there was a TV on board the plane and I put it on Nickalodean for a while for her and then she had Animal Planet and then the map of where we were flying from Texas on. She also played the last hour of the flight with her VMAX. Finally got home almost close to 10pm EST to go to bed and then hopefully we will have a good day tomorrow.
She slept until almost Noon.
The only part that made the trip so miserable was Keith. He badgered me every chance he got to say something. He is so rude by telling me that I am fat in a swimsuit, doesn’t even want to be near us when walking down the strip, consistently tells me he wants a divorce and says he is going to fill out the paperwork, but never does and loses patience with everything that I say. So, I am not talking to him anymore. I really don’t need him anymore as this Las Vegas vacation was the last vacation I have planned with him. He tells me all the time he doesn’t want to be married, but refuses to fill out the paperwork. I tell him I will sign it, but not without my lawyers getting involved and of course he doesn’t want that. I think he thinks I am stupid or something. I don’t need to be around a person that makes me miserable especially when I was trying to plan something fun for us to do as a family. Oh well, Keith doesn’t want a family, he just wants someone who will look good for him, do things his way and not say something back to him. That’s not me and he should have realized that from Day one. I guess he never has known me or appreciated me for who I am. It’s was our Anniversary on May 28 and of course he forgot it (not even a saying of “Happy Anniversary”). Should I have expected more in my marriage? I didn’t expect much, but a simple Happy Anniversary and that wasn’t even remembered. I think I am chopped liver in Keith’s eyes. Why should I treat him with respect?
Also, we set up our pool in the back yard had vacation bible school work day and then went to White Water with Emily and later find out that our Air Conditioner fan has broken, so cost us $460 to get it fixed. Keith got upset with me again over the payment of the A/C, but if he would have read the bill he would have found out the truth, but he proceeds to tell me that I am a thief and the worst person in his life. I think he needs someone to seriously talk to him or to get on some kind of medicine because he is very screwed up in the head and I am nothing like what he keeps accusing me of. I have purchased a “For Sale By Owner” sign to place in the front yard of the house as if I hear any more attitude from him, I will put the house up for Sale and move. I don’t need the crap that I get from him, especially when he threatens me most of the time and tells me all the time that he contemplates Jail vs his happiness. Part of me wants him to think Jail as at least he would be out of my life and not make me miserable anymore. I honestly have never heard of anyone so messed up in the head as he is by thinking whatever stories are made up in his head are actually the truth and what I am. I think he needs some psychological help as I really believe he has seen too much disaster working in the crappy town he works in. He is really out of control and his job doesn’t provide any type of services to assist him with his issues or if they do he doesn’t take advantage of them because he thinks he is too macho for that. Oh well, his loss as I really don’t like the fact that Katelyn hears all his banter against me on a daily basis and I constantly toy with her coming from a broken home without her father vs hearing the sayings that she hears as “normal” Every chance I get, I tell her Daddy is being mean and that is not nice just so she doesn’t grow up thinking that the way he talks to me is “normal” because it is not. He has some serious issues!
Hope everyone is doing well and that if you want to see some pictures online they are at walmart.com and the username is my email address and the password is password. Love to hear what is going on with you.
This summer will be busy for us. I have to finish up Daisy Badge work and then prepare for Brownie Badge work for Girl Scouts. “Bake Some Daisy’s into Brownies” J Also, lots of summer movies playing on greens, VBS for first 3 weeks of June. July vacation in Lido Key and then Beginning of August - Back to School.
Be safe and enjoy the summer and until my next posting……Love, Desperate Housewife, Carolyn
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
2007 in Review!
Wow! All I can say is that this year has been one of the busiest years for me in my life. I just got finished figuring out how many miles I have flown since January and would you believe that I have almost flown 100K miles. I will probably break it this year. I have actually flown 97,765 miles as of November 15, 2007 which is 4 times around the world. I wish I could say they have all been fun trips, but mainly have been work related trips. Which can be fun sometimes!
As you can tell by below we did our family trips in February to Ireland and then visited our friends the Walls in Texas in April, then Costa Rica in June (below), and then to New Orleans for a day trip to help my friend Carol Ammons film her hometown for a siteseer video for delta.com. We went a couple of times over the summer to Stuart to see Keith’s side of the family and then to Melbourne to see my side of the family and then in November we went to Branson, MO to see the leaves change colors.
Katelyn started school this year and is attending Stockbridge United Methodist Church. She is in the 4 year old pre-K program and loves her teacher Ms. Christy. They have a set schedule on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have concentrations on the alphabet, story time, and then also art time and play time. The only time I hear that Katelyn gets mad at school is when she doesn’t get playground time. She has her own little social network. I think her best friend at school is Anna and she has a couple little boys in her class too that she has fun with as well.
Katelyn was a hoot at Halloween. She didn’t get to dress up at school, but they did have a Harvest Festival and received some pumpkins. She carved pumpkins with Daddy and picked up a couple of small pumpkins at her schools pumpkin patch. She did visit a farm during the fall and we were suppose to visit another Henry County festival during the fall weekend, but mommy messed up the dates and ended up missing it. But at the farm she saw pigs race and played in corn and there are some really cute pictures on my phone so hopefully I will be able to get them off of there one day. If not, they should be on one of the many rolls of film that I have yet to have developed. On Halloween night, she decided that she wanted to do Trick or Treating instead of Trunk or Treating, so we began to head around our neighborhood. She only got down one street until she decided she had enough. We were just about to head home and then Joshua and Sadie showed up with some of our neighbors at a house we were trick or treating at and then she decided that she wanted to trick or treat with them. She didn’t want to stop then and finally we were out in the cul-de-sac passing out candy until about 10pm. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for passing out candy at our house while mommy and daddy got to take Katelyn trick or treating!
November has been just as busy. We have done some things with her girl scout troop and then went to Branson, MO and then about to celebrate Thanksgiving. Yesterday, Mommy and Daddy volunteered at Katelyn’s school to assist with Thanksgiving Dinner and Today, as I am writing this she went to a Santa’s Magical Workshop at the mall and got to listen to stories, and do arts and crafts, saw a magician and then helped to lead Santa to the middle of the mall area where it snowed on them. The mall did a great job in getting us in the Christmas mood! Later at night we had a girl scout movie night at Nash Battlefield and we took the Girl Scouts to see Shrek the Third. December 8, she will get to have breakfast with Santa and some of her Girl Scouts will be participating and then later we will have a Christmas Party for her Scout troop and a Christmas play at her school and hopefully will get to see the Nutcracker too. No time for the weak and the weary at the Minnihan household. At the Minnihan household, you are lucky to sleep!
As I go through my calendar, I wanted to highlight some other events that we did throughout the year.
In April, I got my first chance to serve on Jury Duty. All I can say for that is they really need to work on scheduling and weeding out folks early on. Hello, most people watch certain TV shows (CSI, Law and Order, etc). I love them, so why do I have to be chosen for Jury Duty. It was the biggest waste of my time.
Keith also started working for Milton Fire Department in June. He ended up leaving it after a while as it just got to be too much. It was a great fire department, but he didn’t get paid as much and probably wouldn’t use his skills as much and wouldn’t get his time there and it was very hard to give up 10 years at College Park when he had worked there so long.
In May, it was celebration for Carolyn at work as Delta finally exited bankruptcy. We celebrated Cinco De Mayo with Maryann and her gang. Katelyn also got a chance to be in a fishing tournament with Ansley. It was the cutest thing. Ansley actually got a fish and Katelyn caught a baby fish. I think Katelyn’s fish might have weighed an ounce. I also got to visit the new World of Coke, and Katelyn was able to participate in a Princess Tea Party with the Chrétien’s as they celebrated the girls birthday.
In June, we went to a Pool Party at Kelly’s house and celebrated all things Fondue. I had a birthday party with my family at The Melting Pot where we also celebrated my parent’s anniversary and Robin’s birthday as well. Later that month, I tried to make my own Fondue too. I like it, but only every once in a while.
In July, we went to see this house on the north side. It was near Lake Lanier, it had 2 acres. It was an older home with a pool. It was nice, but Keith didn’t like it because of the roof and the boat wouldn’t fit in the garage. We look every once in a while and get the itch to move, but if we move, we will have to do it up right and actually get on the lake as I don’t think I ever want to move this stuff out of the house. When we moved in here, we only had 2 lawn chairs and now it is out of control. I helped the Chrétien’s move to Wyoming and get some of their stuff out of their house and that really killed my moving bug! But we miss them!
Also, in July, we went to Melbourne and met up with Kelly and Emily. It turns out that our family’s don’t live too far apart from each other. Also, we met up with Laron as he was also visiting his girlfriend down there and we ended up getting stuck in the airport in the evening at Melbourne as it rained and then flights were delayed and a guy got too drunk so he had to be kicked off the plane… all in all, we could have driven back to Atlanta faster, but time flew by, especially when Laron’s girlfriend came and got us to take us back to her house to kill a few hours. We had a great time though!
In August, we celebrated the coming of Katelyn’s new cousin Login by attending a baby shower for Robin. She got so many nice things! I was also lucky enough to go to Paris, France for work. It was nice and cool over there and August is definitely the time to non-rev over there as the French people don’t work the whole month of August so you are almost guaranteed a business class seat. I also attended a seminar on how to become a pilot and Katelyn had 4 teeth filled. The dentist had to do it in 2 sessions and Katelyn was a good sport about it.
In September, we celebrated Katelyn’s 4th birthday at her house. She got so many nice gifts and so many kids were in attendance. We had a butterfly themed party where everyone colored their own butterflies and then played pin the butterfly on the flower and then had arts and crafts and then a few games and then traditional birthday cake and ice cream and opening of presents. It was a simple party, but lots of kids. I think that was another night that Katelyn went to bed early.
Also, in September, Katelyn, Nana and Grandma celebrated Grandparent’s Day at Katelyn’s school and she welcomed her new baby cousin / Logan into the world. Katelyn also attended Japan Fest and got pictures with Ronald McDonald.
Also in October, we went to the Greek Festival and welcomed Brodie Jones into the world as well as celebrated Ansley’s birthday. At the beginning of October is when we finally got the Daisy Girl Scout troop going where I am the troop leader. We have so many cool things planned throughout the year next year and just hope that we can accomplish all of them.
After Thanksgiving, we plan on heading to Gatlinburg, TN for some fall fun and then December is busy for us as well. With Girl Scouts, we have a Parade planned as well as Caroling at the Senior Center and have a Christmas Party planned for Girl Scouts, as well as Mom’s work. We also want to go Ice Skating and in January Bowling. We have so many fun events and can’t wait to see what next year will bring.
We hope that you and your family are having a happy, healthy, safe and wonderful Christmas holiday season!
Thanks for reading about what we were doing. We want to hear what you are up to! Keep in touch! We love seeing everyone!
As you can tell by below we did our family trips in February to Ireland and then visited our friends the Walls in Texas in April, then Costa Rica in June (below), and then to New Orleans for a day trip to help my friend Carol Ammons film her hometown for a siteseer video for delta.com. We went a couple of times over the summer to Stuart to see Keith’s side of the family and then to Melbourne to see my side of the family and then in November we went to Branson, MO to see the leaves change colors.
Katelyn started school this year and is attending Stockbridge United Methodist Church. She is in the 4 year old pre-K program and loves her teacher Ms. Christy. They have a set schedule on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have concentrations on the alphabet, story time, and then also art time and play time. The only time I hear that Katelyn gets mad at school is when she doesn’t get playground time. She has her own little social network. I think her best friend at school is Anna and she has a couple little boys in her class too that she has fun with as well.
Katelyn was a hoot at Halloween. She didn’t get to dress up at school, but they did have a Harvest Festival and received some pumpkins. She carved pumpkins with Daddy and picked up a couple of small pumpkins at her schools pumpkin patch. She did visit a farm during the fall and we were suppose to visit another Henry County festival during the fall weekend, but mommy messed up the dates and ended up missing it. But at the farm she saw pigs race and played in corn and there are some really cute pictures on my phone so hopefully I will be able to get them off of there one day. If not, they should be on one of the many rolls of film that I have yet to have developed. On Halloween night, she decided that she wanted to do Trick or Treating instead of Trunk or Treating, so we began to head around our neighborhood. She only got down one street until she decided she had enough. We were just about to head home and then Joshua and Sadie showed up with some of our neighbors at a house we were trick or treating at and then she decided that she wanted to trick or treat with them. She didn’t want to stop then and finally we were out in the cul-de-sac passing out candy until about 10pm. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for passing out candy at our house while mommy and daddy got to take Katelyn trick or treating!
November has been just as busy. We have done some things with her girl scout troop and then went to Branson, MO and then about to celebrate Thanksgiving. Yesterday, Mommy and Daddy volunteered at Katelyn’s school to assist with Thanksgiving Dinner and Today, as I am writing this she went to a Santa’s Magical Workshop at the mall and got to listen to stories, and do arts and crafts, saw a magician and then helped to lead Santa to the middle of the mall area where it snowed on them. The mall did a great job in getting us in the Christmas mood! Later at night we had a girl scout movie night at Nash Battlefield and we took the Girl Scouts to see Shrek the Third. December 8, she will get to have breakfast with Santa and some of her Girl Scouts will be participating and then later we will have a Christmas Party for her Scout troop and a Christmas play at her school and hopefully will get to see the Nutcracker too. No time for the weak and the weary at the Minnihan household. At the Minnihan household, you are lucky to sleep!
As I go through my calendar, I wanted to highlight some other events that we did throughout the year.
In April, I got my first chance to serve on Jury Duty. All I can say for that is they really need to work on scheduling and weeding out folks early on. Hello, most people watch certain TV shows (CSI, Law and Order, etc). I love them, so why do I have to be chosen for Jury Duty. It was the biggest waste of my time.
Keith also started working for Milton Fire Department in June. He ended up leaving it after a while as it just got to be too much. It was a great fire department, but he didn’t get paid as much and probably wouldn’t use his skills as much and wouldn’t get his time there and it was very hard to give up 10 years at College Park when he had worked there so long.
In May, it was celebration for Carolyn at work as Delta finally exited bankruptcy. We celebrated Cinco De Mayo with Maryann and her gang. Katelyn also got a chance to be in a fishing tournament with Ansley. It was the cutest thing. Ansley actually got a fish and Katelyn caught a baby fish. I think Katelyn’s fish might have weighed an ounce. I also got to visit the new World of Coke, and Katelyn was able to participate in a Princess Tea Party with the Chrétien’s as they celebrated the girls birthday.
In June, we went to a Pool Party at Kelly’s house and celebrated all things Fondue. I had a birthday party with my family at The Melting Pot where we also celebrated my parent’s anniversary and Robin’s birthday as well. Later that month, I tried to make my own Fondue too. I like it, but only every once in a while.
In July, we went to see this house on the north side. It was near Lake Lanier, it had 2 acres. It was an older home with a pool. It was nice, but Keith didn’t like it because of the roof and the boat wouldn’t fit in the garage. We look every once in a while and get the itch to move, but if we move, we will have to do it up right and actually get on the lake as I don’t think I ever want to move this stuff out of the house. When we moved in here, we only had 2 lawn chairs and now it is out of control. I helped the Chrétien’s move to Wyoming and get some of their stuff out of their house and that really killed my moving bug! But we miss them!
Also, in July, we went to Melbourne and met up with Kelly and Emily. It turns out that our family’s don’t live too far apart from each other. Also, we met up with Laron as he was also visiting his girlfriend down there and we ended up getting stuck in the airport in the evening at Melbourne as it rained and then flights were delayed and a guy got too drunk so he had to be kicked off the plane… all in all, we could have driven back to Atlanta faster, but time flew by, especially when Laron’s girlfriend came and got us to take us back to her house to kill a few hours. We had a great time though!
In August, we celebrated the coming of Katelyn’s new cousin Login by attending a baby shower for Robin. She got so many nice things! I was also lucky enough to go to Paris, France for work. It was nice and cool over there and August is definitely the time to non-rev over there as the French people don’t work the whole month of August so you are almost guaranteed a business class seat. I also attended a seminar on how to become a pilot and Katelyn had 4 teeth filled. The dentist had to do it in 2 sessions and Katelyn was a good sport about it.
In September, we celebrated Katelyn’s 4th birthday at her house. She got so many nice gifts and so many kids were in attendance. We had a butterfly themed party where everyone colored their own butterflies and then played pin the butterfly on the flower and then had arts and crafts and then a few games and then traditional birthday cake and ice cream and opening of presents. It was a simple party, but lots of kids. I think that was another night that Katelyn went to bed early.
Also, in September, Katelyn, Nana and Grandma celebrated Grandparent’s Day at Katelyn’s school and she welcomed her new baby cousin / Logan into the world. Katelyn also attended Japan Fest and got pictures with Ronald McDonald.
Also in October, we went to the Greek Festival and welcomed Brodie Jones into the world as well as celebrated Ansley’s birthday. At the beginning of October is when we finally got the Daisy Girl Scout troop going where I am the troop leader. We have so many cool things planned throughout the year next year and just hope that we can accomplish all of them.
After Thanksgiving, we plan on heading to Gatlinburg, TN for some fall fun and then December is busy for us as well. With Girl Scouts, we have a Parade planned as well as Caroling at the Senior Center and have a Christmas Party planned for Girl Scouts, as well as Mom’s work. We also want to go Ice Skating and in January Bowling. We have so many fun events and can’t wait to see what next year will bring.
We hope that you and your family are having a happy, healthy, safe and wonderful Christmas holiday season!
Thanks for reading about what we were doing. We want to hear what you are up to! Keep in touch! We love seeing everyone!
Since Gatlinburg....
Since the last Gatlinburg entry, we have been real busy. Katelyn has had Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner with the “man” aka Santa Claus. She has asked him each time for a swim doll and hopefully she has been good enough to receive one from him. We have also had her Christmas play with her school where she was a little pig and she has done a couple of things at the mall like Magical Winter Wonderland where they have made arts and crafts and welcomed Santa into his chair. With Girl Scouts, we tried to sing Christmas Carols to the Seniors home (but mommy ran the car into the trailer, so thank goodness other girl scouts were there) and then we also went to a Christmas parade where the Girl Scouts decorated the trailer and waived to all the folks that live in Henry County. This past weekend, we met up with Ansley, Karen, and Jamie and went to Pine Mountain to see the animals, and boy were there aggressive Ostrich’s there. Carolyn has also beat Keith in a couple rounds of bowling as that has become the new favorite indoor sport around here. As for Christmas, we can’t wait and we know it will be here before we know it. This coming Friday, Katelyn will have her Holiday Party at school and also with Girl Scouts and then Saturday, we plan on going to the Yellow River Game Ranch as they are having $1 days there and then Sunday, we are going to make Christmas Cookies and Monday is Christmas Eve so we will celebrate it with the family as well as Tuesday have Christmas Dinner at my house, then Christmas will be over! Down comes the decorations and straightening up for the new year and getting ready for tons of travel again! We hope everyone has a pleasant holiday and new year and keep in touch with us. Just let us know way in advance to block any dates out for any events so we can get them scheduled on our constantly busy calendar. Look forward to seeing you in 2008!
Boy how Katelyn has grown up in 1 year!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Thanksgiving 2007 Gatlinburg Vacation
We hope everyone had a very good Thanksgiving. At the Minnihan household, we are very thankful for all of our family members. We are especially thankful for Keith’s Aunt and Eleanor especially to be able to share another Thanksgiving with us even though we were in separate states.
Katelyn had a good Thanksgiving and we spent it with my parents sharing dinner. In the morning of Thanksgiving, Katelyn woke up with an ear infection. She ended up sleeping half the day away and we just hung loose until she decided to wake up for Thanksgiving dinner and then had dinner and went back to bed. Friday, I was going to go shopping, but 3am came very early and decided to just shut off the alarm completely because nothing was that worth it to get up that early in the day. My plan originally was to go to Kohl’s at 4am, then Wal-Mart at 5am and then Target at 6am, but sleep was more important when I awoke at 3am as Katelyn kept us up most of the night the night before and some Thanksgiving night.
Friday morning when we did awake, we had to go searching for an open doctor as Katelyn’s ear still hurt her and we were heading out of town to Gatlinburg. We finally found one open and only had to wait 1.5 hours until she was seen, which was good for a Friday when most were closed. She ended up being given amoxicillin to help her and we ended up high tailing it out of town to Gatlinburg. We went through the Smokey Mountains and saw an elk and at the top of the mountains, we saw winter wonderland and Katelyn got some pictures taken in the snow. On the way back down the mountain it took us almost 2 hours to get into Gatlinburg as traffic was tied up by something in the woods. Who knows what it was, but a lot of people were stopping. We ended up just going to the hotel and checking in as Katelyn and Keith were sick and needed to go to bed asap.
Saturday, we got up and walked the whole town of Gatlinburg up and down the streets. We were actually looking for the Dinosaur museum, but forget to check out what town it was in and it was actually in the town of Pigeon Forge which was 5 miles further down the street. We ended up doing that on Sunday though. As we were walking, we passed by several souvenir shops as well as Cooter’s and we saw Cletus from the Dukes of Hazard original show. We ate at Bennetts for dinner and had some ribs. Saturday night we saw a light show through the town that the city puts on. We also met someone from South Florida where Keith and him were chit chatting about people they knew.
Sunday, we just had to eat at another pancake house, but didn’t know exactly where to go. We ended up at an international pancake house where everyone who worked there was from another country. We learned on the light show tour thought that Gatlinburg has 0 unemployment, so maybe a place to go if you are ever looking for a job. After breakfast, we headed to Pigeon Forge to see the Dinosaur Walk Museum. It had replicas of dinosaurs, but very small. Then we ended up going shopping at some outlet malls and then headed for Dixie Stampede. Katelyn loved seeing the horses there and rooted for the South to win. After the show was over though, she had to get all the horse performers to sign her flag. She had a great time, but not as fun as swimming later that night.
Monday, our day was busy. We got up in the morning and had to go to the Pancake Pantry where we saw the line out the door and around the corner on Saturday. They were good pancakes, but not sure why the line was that long. I had cornmeal pancakes and Katelyn had M and M pancakes and Keith had blueberry pancakes. They were good and very filling. Then we went to play putt putt that was indoors with a black light. The score was very close between all of us, but that is the only putt putt that Carolyn remotely was going to win. Then we headed off to the aquarium. The Gatlinburg aquarium seems to be better than the Atlanta aquarium. They had a lot more unusual fish and they had a great tunnel for us to go through. After that Keith and Katelyn went to play putt putt again at a jungle putt putt indoor area and Katelyn was very good at it. She almost beat Keith and he was trying to win! Then at night we went to Black Bear Jamboree and saw their Christmas show. The food was very good there and the show kept Katelyn entertained. Of course though, she didn’t forget about swimming, so we swam then went to bed.
Tuesday, we headed for Cherokee and then home. While in Cherokee we visited the Indian Museum and Katelyn was very bored in that museum as the only thing she liked was the movie. We also stopped off at our time share to play a little putt putt golf again. Again, Katelyn beat us. She might be the next Tiger Woods if we don’t watch out. Then we made it home in the pm for mom to check her emails and then off to work again.
We hope everyone has a great holiday season!
Katelyn had a good Thanksgiving and we spent it with my parents sharing dinner. In the morning of Thanksgiving, Katelyn woke up with an ear infection. She ended up sleeping half the day away and we just hung loose until she decided to wake up for Thanksgiving dinner and then had dinner and went back to bed. Friday, I was going to go shopping, but 3am came very early and decided to just shut off the alarm completely because nothing was that worth it to get up that early in the day. My plan originally was to go to Kohl’s at 4am, then Wal-Mart at 5am and then Target at 6am, but sleep was more important when I awoke at 3am as Katelyn kept us up most of the night the night before and some Thanksgiving night.
Friday morning when we did awake, we had to go searching for an open doctor as Katelyn’s ear still hurt her and we were heading out of town to Gatlinburg. We finally found one open and only had to wait 1.5 hours until she was seen, which was good for a Friday when most were closed. She ended up being given amoxicillin to help her and we ended up high tailing it out of town to Gatlinburg. We went through the Smokey Mountains and saw an elk and at the top of the mountains, we saw winter wonderland and Katelyn got some pictures taken in the snow. On the way back down the mountain it took us almost 2 hours to get into Gatlinburg as traffic was tied up by something in the woods. Who knows what it was, but a lot of people were stopping. We ended up just going to the hotel and checking in as Katelyn and Keith were sick and needed to go to bed asap.
Saturday, we got up and walked the whole town of Gatlinburg up and down the streets. We were actually looking for the Dinosaur museum, but forget to check out what town it was in and it was actually in the town of Pigeon Forge which was 5 miles further down the street. We ended up doing that on Sunday though. As we were walking, we passed by several souvenir shops as well as Cooter’s and we saw Cletus from the Dukes of Hazard original show. We ate at Bennetts for dinner and had some ribs. Saturday night we saw a light show through the town that the city puts on. We also met someone from South Florida where Keith and him were chit chatting about people they knew.
Sunday, we just had to eat at another pancake house, but didn’t know exactly where to go. We ended up at an international pancake house where everyone who worked there was from another country. We learned on the light show tour thought that Gatlinburg has 0 unemployment, so maybe a place to go if you are ever looking for a job. After breakfast, we headed to Pigeon Forge to see the Dinosaur Walk Museum. It had replicas of dinosaurs, but very small. Then we ended up going shopping at some outlet malls and then headed for Dixie Stampede. Katelyn loved seeing the horses there and rooted for the South to win. After the show was over though, she had to get all the horse performers to sign her flag. She had a great time, but not as fun as swimming later that night.
Monday, our day was busy. We got up in the morning and had to go to the Pancake Pantry where we saw the line out the door and around the corner on Saturday. They were good pancakes, but not sure why the line was that long. I had cornmeal pancakes and Katelyn had M and M pancakes and Keith had blueberry pancakes. They were good and very filling. Then we went to play putt putt that was indoors with a black light. The score was very close between all of us, but that is the only putt putt that Carolyn remotely was going to win. Then we headed off to the aquarium. The Gatlinburg aquarium seems to be better than the Atlanta aquarium. They had a lot more unusual fish and they had a great tunnel for us to go through. After that Keith and Katelyn went to play putt putt again at a jungle putt putt indoor area and Katelyn was very good at it. She almost beat Keith and he was trying to win! Then at night we went to Black Bear Jamboree and saw their Christmas show. The food was very good there and the show kept Katelyn entertained. Of course though, she didn’t forget about swimming, so we swam then went to bed.
Tuesday, we headed for Cherokee and then home. While in Cherokee we visited the Indian Museum and Katelyn was very bored in that museum as the only thing she liked was the movie. We also stopped off at our time share to play a little putt putt golf again. Again, Katelyn beat us. She might be the next Tiger Woods if we don’t watch out. Then we made it home in the pm for mom to check her emails and then off to work again.
We hope everyone has a great holiday season!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Costa Rica June 1-8, 2007
Well we finally made it back from Liberia, Costa Rica. We went there from June 1 through June 8, 2007. We flew Delta of course to Liberia. Upon arrival we had to go through their customs and head to the place where we stayed. We stayed at Condovac La Costa, which was part of our time share. It was nice, but Costa Rica is definitely still a third world country. We had a nice place, but there was only air conditioning in the sleeping area that we stayed in and there was no air conditioning in the living area and kitchen area. We actually ended up getting use to it toward the end of our stay.
Saturday, we decided to scope out the place. We went to a local town called Tamarino. That place is nice, very touristy and there is a Best Western there. There are a lot of surf shops and local shops to shop in. We heard later that it was the place to go to purchase wooden goods. We ended up getting a fishing boat from that area for Monday.
Sunday, we went to another local town nearby and tried to find a volcano called Rincon. We drove down about 20 KM of a dirt, bumpy road and through a gate to find the place. We hiked in about 15 minutes to see a waterfall with very cold water. We hope we got some pretty pictures. We ended up driving around to return home and we ran across an animal rescue center where we saw local animals that are being re-habilitated to go back into the wild. They are building a monkey cage so that way the monkey’s that were burned by electricity could tell the other monkeys to stay off the electrical wires. That is the leading cause of monkey death! Did you know that? I sure didn’t. We saw toucans and local birds as well as a raccoon and something that looked like an aardvark, but forget the name. They had a butterfly garden area and learned that once you touch a butterfly, you have pretty much killed it as they have certain things on their wings that do not work well with human touch.
Monday, we went out on the ocean to try to catch a blue or black marlin. The only thing we caught was a 4lb dolphin and drank lots of beer. We saw a lot of the flipper dolphins in which Keith got mad at me for pointing those out to Katelyn because they are bad luck for fishing. Needless to say Keith was real disappointed in the fishing boat that we rented for the day. We did see plenty of the flipper dolphins which was real neat. We also saw a turtle floating in the ocean and a pelican was sitting on his back. We knew it was going to be a bad fishing trip right from the beginning because I even spotted a school of fish in the ocean and the captain and mate did not see them. If that is telling you anything about the fishing excursion. (I don’t see those things).
Tuesday, we went to the beach in the morning just down the hill from our resort and then we played the rest of the afternoon in the pool at the resort. Katelyn loved swimming and she even learned to swim to the edge of the pool by herself. She surprised us all!
Wednesday, we went to the Lake Arenal area and saw the larger more touristy of the volcanoes. It was about 3 hours from our resort. It ended up taking 1 hour just to get around the lake because they don’t have a bridge that crosses the lake. Lake Arenal area is very nice. We ended up eating at a German Restaurant that was very good and all of us had the Wiener schnitzel which was Devine. Later we ended up trying to find Tabacon. We thought it was a national park, but it was actually a five star hotel with a hot springs area. The hot springs were great, but because we were sunburned a little, it stung a little. Everything was very nice and we wish we had allocated more time for Tabacon. It costs $55 just to enter the area and they have a nice rainforest and several different pools at different temperatures to swim in. Katelyn was not fond of the hot springs because she thought they were too hot. She loved the slide into the large pool though. She went down it with her daddy! You can see more about Tabacon at tabacon.com.
Thursday, it was cloudy in the morning, so we headed out for the Canopy Tour to swing through the trees. Katelyn started out going on the canopy tour, but then she chickened out at the last minute and didn’t go. I had a couple of really great guys go with me through the trees and they allowed me swing like Spiderman as well as upside down and of course normal since I wasn’t afraid of heights. All things that I know Keith wouldn’t do. After that we went back to the resort and went swimming and packed our clothes up to head home. We swam for the rest of the day in between the thunderstorms.
Friday, we left to return back home. We ate our breakfast one last time at the resort and then headed to the airport to pay a $26 per person departure tax to head home through customs which took almost 2 hours. Katelyn and I had to get up early the next day because we were going to Melbourne to drop her off. We ended up missing three flights to MLB/Orlando area because it was so full as Friday had a blackout with the FAA system. I returned on Sunday to head to Jury Duty on Monday.
Henry County really needs to work on their Jury Duty process because we arrived at 8AM to be stuck in the room until about 11AM and then dismissed to lunch until about 1:15 pm to be asked a bunch of questions like what TV shows we watched to be dismissed from the Jury. Who knew that CSI and Boston Legal may dismiss me from a case for armed robbery. Funny though, all questions they asked us in person could have been easily answered with a simple questionnaire that we could have sent in.
Tuesday, it was back to work like normal.
Overall we had a great time. It went by fast, but just right. I still think Costa Rica is a third world country and they really need to work on their road structures and naming the roads. There are no signs on the roads so a map is virtually worthless and if you plan on going there, definitely rent a 4X4 for those bumpy unpaved roads. Hope everyone is doing well and we would love to hear from you too!
Pictures are online. If you need the username and password, let me know.
Saturday, we decided to scope out the place. We went to a local town called Tamarino. That place is nice, very touristy and there is a Best Western there. There are a lot of surf shops and local shops to shop in. We heard later that it was the place to go to purchase wooden goods. We ended up getting a fishing boat from that area for Monday.
Sunday, we went to another local town nearby and tried to find a volcano called Rincon. We drove down about 20 KM of a dirt, bumpy road and through a gate to find the place. We hiked in about 15 minutes to see a waterfall with very cold water. We hope we got some pretty pictures. We ended up driving around to return home and we ran across an animal rescue center where we saw local animals that are being re-habilitated to go back into the wild. They are building a monkey cage so that way the monkey’s that were burned by electricity could tell the other monkeys to stay off the electrical wires. That is the leading cause of monkey death! Did you know that? I sure didn’t. We saw toucans and local birds as well as a raccoon and something that looked like an aardvark, but forget the name. They had a butterfly garden area and learned that once you touch a butterfly, you have pretty much killed it as they have certain things on their wings that do not work well with human touch.
Monday, we went out on the ocean to try to catch a blue or black marlin. The only thing we caught was a 4lb dolphin and drank lots of beer. We saw a lot of the flipper dolphins in which Keith got mad at me for pointing those out to Katelyn because they are bad luck for fishing. Needless to say Keith was real disappointed in the fishing boat that we rented for the day. We did see plenty of the flipper dolphins which was real neat. We also saw a turtle floating in the ocean and a pelican was sitting on his back. We knew it was going to be a bad fishing trip right from the beginning because I even spotted a school of fish in the ocean and the captain and mate did not see them. If that is telling you anything about the fishing excursion. (I don’t see those things).
Tuesday, we went to the beach in the morning just down the hill from our resort and then we played the rest of the afternoon in the pool at the resort. Katelyn loved swimming and she even learned to swim to the edge of the pool by herself. She surprised us all!
Wednesday, we went to the Lake Arenal area and saw the larger more touristy of the volcanoes. It was about 3 hours from our resort. It ended up taking 1 hour just to get around the lake because they don’t have a bridge that crosses the lake. Lake Arenal area is very nice. We ended up eating at a German Restaurant that was very good and all of us had the Wiener schnitzel which was Devine. Later we ended up trying to find Tabacon. We thought it was a national park, but it was actually a five star hotel with a hot springs area. The hot springs were great, but because we were sunburned a little, it stung a little. Everything was very nice and we wish we had allocated more time for Tabacon. It costs $55 just to enter the area and they have a nice rainforest and several different pools at different temperatures to swim in. Katelyn was not fond of the hot springs because she thought they were too hot. She loved the slide into the large pool though. She went down it with her daddy! You can see more about Tabacon at tabacon.com.
Thursday, it was cloudy in the morning, so we headed out for the Canopy Tour to swing through the trees. Katelyn started out going on the canopy tour, but then she chickened out at the last minute and didn’t go. I had a couple of really great guys go with me through the trees and they allowed me swing like Spiderman as well as upside down and of course normal since I wasn’t afraid of heights. All things that I know Keith wouldn’t do. After that we went back to the resort and went swimming and packed our clothes up to head home. We swam for the rest of the day in between the thunderstorms.
Friday, we left to return back home. We ate our breakfast one last time at the resort and then headed to the airport to pay a $26 per person departure tax to head home through customs which took almost 2 hours. Katelyn and I had to get up early the next day because we were going to Melbourne to drop her off. We ended up missing three flights to MLB/Orlando area because it was so full as Friday had a blackout with the FAA system. I returned on Sunday to head to Jury Duty on Monday.
Henry County really needs to work on their Jury Duty process because we arrived at 8AM to be stuck in the room until about 11AM and then dismissed to lunch until about 1:15 pm to be asked a bunch of questions like what TV shows we watched to be dismissed from the Jury. Who knew that CSI and Boston Legal may dismiss me from a case for armed robbery. Funny though, all questions they asked us in person could have been easily answered with a simple questionnaire that we could have sent in.
Tuesday, it was back to work like normal.
Overall we had a great time. It went by fast, but just right. I still think Costa Rica is a third world country and they really need to work on their road structures and naming the roads. There are no signs on the roads so a map is virtually worthless and if you plan on going there, definitely rent a 4X4 for those bumpy unpaved roads. Hope everyone is doing well and we would love to hear from you too!
Pictures are online. If you need the username and password, let me know.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
We are back!
We had a great time in Ireland during our vacation and can’t wait till the pictures get developed.
Friday night, we left from the US and arrived in Ireland on Saturday morning. We were very lucky to get on that plane as we were the last 3 people to receive a seat. Keith and Katelyn sat together the whole way and I was towards the back of the plane. Keith said that she was a good girl for such a long plane ride. She made a tent and lulled herself to sleep after a few hours.
On Saturday after we arrived we trekked our way to the airport by taking the city busses and the DART tram service. Everything was fine until we got off at the Dalkey exit and the directions said that it was only a 10-15 minute walk. They left out the uphill part, so we drug our luggage all the way up the hill. Later we found a bus service to take us up the hill. Once we arrived we were in shock. It was a really nice place that was an old castle that was built in the 1700’s. Of course it was completely remodeled for modern times and had an inside swimming pool and gym. Once we arrived we had to wait for our room since it was so early over there and we had an official tea party. Katelyn had a good time and we explained how she should have a tea party with her friends like this. Later that same day we finally got checked in and went further up the hill to find a grocery store about ½ the size of our smaller bathroom. We got the essentials and then went back to the place to unpack and Katelyn and I went swimming and Keith went to the local pub where Bono from U2 hangs out at to watch the Rugby match of Ireland versus England. Of course Ireland won and everyone was happy throughout the town. Katelyn and I ended up going to bed early due to the time change.
On Sunday, we got up real early ~ 4am and tried to go back to sleep, but our course off from the time change. We got dressed and headed to Dalkey to see what was there. We trekked down the hill to walk to a park to have a better view of the bay area and Irish Sea. There was an old structure at the top of the hill, but it didn’t have any plaques or anything on it. All we know is we walked a long way uphill and then up probably about 75 stairs to reach the top for the awesome view. After that, everything was downhill and went to Dalkey to try to get some lunch. We ate at a local pub called the “In”. The food was real great almost everywhere we went. Of course I had the fish and chips and I believe Keith had the Guinness Stew there. Once we ate we went to the local Dalkey castle to do a tour. We passed through a graveyard that was as old as the 1700’s and as late as the 1960’s. The graveyard was finally closed in the 1960’s and it is a good thing as the plot of grass is about 20 feet above the street level. There were 7 castles in Dalkey that were built throughout the time. We saw Bulloch castle from the road when we passed by on the bus. We found another grocery store in town which we later visited almost every day to find our dinner. We also went to the next town over in Dun Laghoire to find the bus that would take us back uphill each time to the hotel.
On Monday, we ventured to Dublin. We practically walked the whole Hop on/Hop off tour through the town. At least we got a slower version of it. We ended up eating in the Temple Bar area at Fitzers which I believe is a fancy chain wine bar restaurant. Anyway it was real great food with a great presentation on the plate. Katelyn had the best tasting hamburger we have ever had. We took lots of video pictures of this area and went and did a tour of Guinness. Guinness was not like the brewery’s here in the US where you see the production line. Over there, they have videos of the production line and then afterwards you head to the 7th/6th/5th floor to the bar areas where you try a sample of the Draught. I will have to say that Guinness was very good. The 7th floor has the best view of all over Dublin.
On Tuesday, we actually purchased the Hop On/Hop Off tour and passed by most of the sites that we saw the previous day and then took the bus all the way to the Dublin Zoo. That zoo is great as they don’t have the barriers that we have in the US and the animals are real up close and personal. We hope to have some great pictures from that day. They are adding onto the zoo in the African Safari area and should have a great restaurant in that area. Katelyn played a little in between the rain and we found a really nice cell phone that we later returned to the rightful owner. We ate at the Marakeet restaurant where the back portion of the restaurant was the Marakeet exhibit. The food was great there. Later that same day we went to the Natural History museum and saw all the “dead” animals on display. That museum must have every animal known to man as there were 4 floors of stuffed animals. Then we went to the Art Museum and actually saw the 2 Monet’s that were on display. Then we tried to find another local grocery store and then find our way home. We took the long way home as the bus ride must have take over 2 hours to get back.
On Wednesday, we took the train to Wicklow which was in the outskirts of Southern Dublin. When we got off the train, we thought we were in a time warp. There was nobody at the train station and all the people walked down the hill somewhere to town. We found a public swimming pool and went in to see what there was to do in that town. They too agreed that there was nothing really to do but visit the jail that wasn’t open. We found out that most things don’t really open until after St. Patrick’s day and through the summer for the tourist season. After a trek to town for Katelyn and I we stopped into a café and had some coffee and desert and waited around until the train returned back to civilization. The train ride was beautiful to/from there, but that was definitely the country side of Ireland that we got to see.
On Thursday, we took the train to the North side of Dublin and went to Malahide Castle and did the tour there. It was great to learn that the castle had been owned by the Talbot family for over 800 years and was recently sold to the government in 1973 to become a tourist site. To this day they do dinners in the castle, but no overnight guests and it is said that the castle gets haunted when changes occur that one of the masters doesn’t agree with. We ate at the castle in a little café there where they had homemade soup and homemade bread and we tried a pear and cheese tart. It was great. Katelyn played at this awesome play ground and Katelyn and I got on one side of this gyro while Keith got on the other side and played on it. Later that same day we took to bus to see a 12th century castle called Swords. There was nothing left but stones and went up on the upper deck of it and then headed back to town to get a green shake at McDonalds and Katelyn a Smartie Sundae. ½ the people over there we couldn’t understand as we believe they were speaking Gaelic to us instead of English. Keith was funny as they had a non-dairy Sundae, Smartie, or Crunchy Sundae. So Keith thought Smarties were a smarter drink. Of course they were the chocolates that look like M&Ms. We later found a pizza joint near the bus stop and had some Pizza before the long trek home on the Dart. Later that same day when we were passing through Dalkey, Keith got to use some of his American skills on a guy over there because he was so drunk that he fell over himself and knocked himself in the head on this stone fence. He finally came through and we waited around until the ambulance came for him. We learned that you don’t want to get hurt over there as it will take about 20 minutes to get an ambulance and the police over there don’t carry guns.
On Friday, we took the train North again to Howth where we went to see the working fishing village. If we would have found that place beforehand, we would have had seafood galore each night. The fish there was great. We ate at the Waterside Wheelhouse bar and Keith had the best seafood chowder he has ever tasted and my clams were awesome in a butter and garlic sauce. Keith had the fish and chips and by that time I was fished out and I had the parmesan shrimp and chips. It rained hard that day too so we didn’t get to see much outside stuff and once we ate, we went back to the hotel to pack, clean up the place, and also do our last swimming of the winter. I was finally able to use the steam room for more than 5 minutes without a screaming kid in tow. Katelyn was good this whole trip except for the last day (Friday), she became a tyrant and was ready to come home.
On Saturday, we headed home and didn’t have a problem getting on the plane. We got 3 seats in the middle and Katelyn didn’t use the baby seat. She sure was happy about that. If you go to Dublin though be sure to arrive early to return home via the airport because there are tons of security check points to go through before you get to the gate. We got up at 6am, to leave the hotel at 7am to arrive at the airport around 8:30 am to check in our luggage and get some breakfast to head through to security about 9:30 am for an 11:40 am flight. Need I say more.
On the way back the pilot said that we got a rare view of Greenland from the right side of the plane. It was nothing but snowy mountains!
All in all we had a great time and the weather was better than what we expected. The people there are very nice and friendly. We do plan on going back to Ireland and doing more of a country side tour, but for that you need a separate train ticket or tour bus to go around and see the rest of the beautiful country. Cork, Kerry, and Shannon will definitely be places that we visit next. Now we just have to get back on track with our time again as Keith, Katelyn and I were ready to go at 4am here this morning.
Friday night, we left from the US and arrived in Ireland on Saturday morning. We were very lucky to get on that plane as we were the last 3 people to receive a seat. Keith and Katelyn sat together the whole way and I was towards the back of the plane. Keith said that she was a good girl for such a long plane ride. She made a tent and lulled herself to sleep after a few hours.
On Saturday after we arrived we trekked our way to the airport by taking the city busses and the DART tram service. Everything was fine until we got off at the Dalkey exit and the directions said that it was only a 10-15 minute walk. They left out the uphill part, so we drug our luggage all the way up the hill. Later we found a bus service to take us up the hill. Once we arrived we were in shock. It was a really nice place that was an old castle that was built in the 1700’s. Of course it was completely remodeled for modern times and had an inside swimming pool and gym. Once we arrived we had to wait for our room since it was so early over there and we had an official tea party. Katelyn had a good time and we explained how she should have a tea party with her friends like this. Later that same day we finally got checked in and went further up the hill to find a grocery store about ½ the size of our smaller bathroom. We got the essentials and then went back to the place to unpack and Katelyn and I went swimming and Keith went to the local pub where Bono from U2 hangs out at to watch the Rugby match of Ireland versus England. Of course Ireland won and everyone was happy throughout the town. Katelyn and I ended up going to bed early due to the time change.
On Sunday, we got up real early ~ 4am and tried to go back to sleep, but our course off from the time change. We got dressed and headed to Dalkey to see what was there. We trekked down the hill to walk to a park to have a better view of the bay area and Irish Sea. There was an old structure at the top of the hill, but it didn’t have any plaques or anything on it. All we know is we walked a long way uphill and then up probably about 75 stairs to reach the top for the awesome view. After that, everything was downhill and went to Dalkey to try to get some lunch. We ate at a local pub called the “In”. The food was real great almost everywhere we went. Of course I had the fish and chips and I believe Keith had the Guinness Stew there. Once we ate we went to the local Dalkey castle to do a tour. We passed through a graveyard that was as old as the 1700’s and as late as the 1960’s. The graveyard was finally closed in the 1960’s and it is a good thing as the plot of grass is about 20 feet above the street level. There were 7 castles in Dalkey that were built throughout the time. We saw Bulloch castle from the road when we passed by on the bus. We found another grocery store in town which we later visited almost every day to find our dinner. We also went to the next town over in Dun Laghoire to find the bus that would take us back uphill each time to the hotel.
On Monday, we ventured to Dublin. We practically walked the whole Hop on/Hop off tour through the town. At least we got a slower version of it. We ended up eating in the Temple Bar area at Fitzers which I believe is a fancy chain wine bar restaurant. Anyway it was real great food with a great presentation on the plate. Katelyn had the best tasting hamburger we have ever had. We took lots of video pictures of this area and went and did a tour of Guinness. Guinness was not like the brewery’s here in the US where you see the production line. Over there, they have videos of the production line and then afterwards you head to the 7th/6th/5th floor to the bar areas where you try a sample of the Draught. I will have to say that Guinness was very good. The 7th floor has the best view of all over Dublin.
On Tuesday, we actually purchased the Hop On/Hop Off tour and passed by most of the sites that we saw the previous day and then took the bus all the way to the Dublin Zoo. That zoo is great as they don’t have the barriers that we have in the US and the animals are real up close and personal. We hope to have some great pictures from that day. They are adding onto the zoo in the African Safari area and should have a great restaurant in that area. Katelyn played a little in between the rain and we found a really nice cell phone that we later returned to the rightful owner. We ate at the Marakeet restaurant where the back portion of the restaurant was the Marakeet exhibit. The food was great there. Later that same day we went to the Natural History museum and saw all the “dead” animals on display. That museum must have every animal known to man as there were 4 floors of stuffed animals. Then we went to the Art Museum and actually saw the 2 Monet’s that were on display. Then we tried to find another local grocery store and then find our way home. We took the long way home as the bus ride must have take over 2 hours to get back.
On Wednesday, we took the train to Wicklow which was in the outskirts of Southern Dublin. When we got off the train, we thought we were in a time warp. There was nobody at the train station and all the people walked down the hill somewhere to town. We found a public swimming pool and went in to see what there was to do in that town. They too agreed that there was nothing really to do but visit the jail that wasn’t open. We found out that most things don’t really open until after St. Patrick’s day and through the summer for the tourist season. After a trek to town for Katelyn and I we stopped into a café and had some coffee and desert and waited around until the train returned back to civilization. The train ride was beautiful to/from there, but that was definitely the country side of Ireland that we got to see.
On Thursday, we took the train to the North side of Dublin and went to Malahide Castle and did the tour there. It was great to learn that the castle had been owned by the Talbot family for over 800 years and was recently sold to the government in 1973 to become a tourist site. To this day they do dinners in the castle, but no overnight guests and it is said that the castle gets haunted when changes occur that one of the masters doesn’t agree with. We ate at the castle in a little café there where they had homemade soup and homemade bread and we tried a pear and cheese tart. It was great. Katelyn played at this awesome play ground and Katelyn and I got on one side of this gyro while Keith got on the other side and played on it. Later that same day we took to bus to see a 12th century castle called Swords. There was nothing left but stones and went up on the upper deck of it and then headed back to town to get a green shake at McDonalds and Katelyn a Smartie Sundae. ½ the people over there we couldn’t understand as we believe they were speaking Gaelic to us instead of English. Keith was funny as they had a non-dairy Sundae, Smartie, or Crunchy Sundae. So Keith thought Smarties were a smarter drink. Of course they were the chocolates that look like M&Ms. We later found a pizza joint near the bus stop and had some Pizza before the long trek home on the Dart. Later that same day when we were passing through Dalkey, Keith got to use some of his American skills on a guy over there because he was so drunk that he fell over himself and knocked himself in the head on this stone fence. He finally came through and we waited around until the ambulance came for him. We learned that you don’t want to get hurt over there as it will take about 20 minutes to get an ambulance and the police over there don’t carry guns.
On Friday, we took the train North again to Howth where we went to see the working fishing village. If we would have found that place beforehand, we would have had seafood galore each night. The fish there was great. We ate at the Waterside Wheelhouse bar and Keith had the best seafood chowder he has ever tasted and my clams were awesome in a butter and garlic sauce. Keith had the fish and chips and by that time I was fished out and I had the parmesan shrimp and chips. It rained hard that day too so we didn’t get to see much outside stuff and once we ate, we went back to the hotel to pack, clean up the place, and also do our last swimming of the winter. I was finally able to use the steam room for more than 5 minutes without a screaming kid in tow. Katelyn was good this whole trip except for the last day (Friday), she became a tyrant and was ready to come home.
On Saturday, we headed home and didn’t have a problem getting on the plane. We got 3 seats in the middle and Katelyn didn’t use the baby seat. She sure was happy about that. If you go to Dublin though be sure to arrive early to return home via the airport because there are tons of security check points to go through before you get to the gate. We got up at 6am, to leave the hotel at 7am to arrive at the airport around 8:30 am to check in our luggage and get some breakfast to head through to security about 9:30 am for an 11:40 am flight. Need I say more.
On the way back the pilot said that we got a rare view of Greenland from the right side of the plane. It was nothing but snowy mountains!
All in all we had a great time and the weather was better than what we expected. The people there are very nice and friendly. We do plan on going back to Ireland and doing more of a country side tour, but for that you need a separate train ticket or tour bus to go around and see the rest of the beautiful country. Cork, Kerry, and Shannon will definitely be places that we visit next. Now we just have to get back on track with our time again as Keith, Katelyn and I were ready to go at 4am here this morning.
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