THE RATCHFORDS: Ireland, Part 1

I am finally beginning the daunting job of sorting through over 500 pictures taken on the best family vacation we've ever been on.

Our flight left Salt Lake the morning after the Preston Rodeo. I thought we could easily fit in a night of rodeo before we left and carefully packed a separate Preston bag full of cowboy boots and other rodeo essentials. Not my greatest idea yet. Because what actually happened was this: we got home from the rodeo at midnight and had to wake up the kids at 5:30 to drive down to SLC. Note to self: when flying internationally with four kids, make sure they get a good night's sleep.

Our first leg was to Chicago and the kids did great on the 2 1/2 hour flight. Then we got off the plane and into the airport for what was supposed to be a long, 7 hour layover. And the kids fell apart.

And then we found out that our flight would be delayed.

Another three hours.

And that was the only part of the trip where we seriously questioned whether taking four kids to Ireland was a good idea. But then we finally got to board and all four kids slept almost the whole eight hours to Dublin. And at 11:00 the next morning, we groggily but happily arrived here:

Stephen and Ciara's house. And the good times began.

The kids were so excited to see their cousins.

Roisin, Declan, and Muireann.

Painting nails with Saoirse and a neighbor girl, also named Muireann.

Grace, Saoirse, and Muireann heading to the shops.

The kids spent most of their days in Glasnevin out playing in the cul de sac. The green machine was a favorite.

Breen and Declan.

Flagging down the ice cream man.

Sam was obsessed with their pet rabbit.

We spent the first day just hanging out at the house and kept the kids up until their regular bedtime, trying to get them over their jet lag. Sam lost a tooth and was excited that the Irish tooth fairy left him 2 Euro. Declan slept until 11 the next morning, woke up for breakfast, then went back to sleep for another two hours! It seemed like the worst of our jet lag was coming home, we all adjusted pretty quickly over there, probably because there was so much to do.

While Declan napped at home with Ciara, we took a walk over to the street where the Ratchfords all grew up.

Garreth's old house. It is across the street from a huge field and we took soccer balls to let the kids play.

It was very cool for Garreth to take our kids back there, tell them stories about growing up, and see them play where he played as a kid.

The people who live in the house connected to theirs are Paddy and Una Vivian, who are also Garreth's godparents. So we stopped in to say hello. Paddy Vivian might just be the cutest old man to ever live, and Una forgot to put her teeth in that morning and couldn't get over the fact that Davy and Garreth were still involved with "those Mormons!" I have heard so many stories about these two, it was great to finally meet them.