Our Day with the Alpacas

We took a drive up to an Alpaca farm today. It turns out that it's 5 minutes away from Jason & Chrissy's place. We asked a lot of questions, including about spinning the yarn, and had great fun petting the babes. Fr. Rod owns the half sibling to the gray multi-colored female. The little one, Alana, that hasn't been shorn yet is going to a show in November.

We had great fun!!!

IKE plus hits Columbus, OH

After a nice visit from Jason, Chrissy & Grandma Dodok on Sunday afternoon the wind started picking up. The winds from IKE and a system coming out of Chicago combined to form a storm. We only got the wind, places north of us also got the rain. We had gusts up to 70 mph. I know it's not nearly what those in Texas went through but it sure scared us. We busied ourselves battening down the hatches...taking down our patio sunscreen, stacking chairs that were blowing around, moving plants inside quickly.

Quit of few roofs in our neighborhood will have to be replaced as most now have shingles missing...including ours. There are several trees down just on our block. I took some pictures before Kevin fussed for me to get inside.

We were without power for 48 hours almost exactly...375,000 were without power in Columbus area...still 175,000 today. AEP had sent a large group of it's people to Texas to help there. Now crews from other states are coming here to help. They say the power might be fully restored by Sunday. We didn't have phone or internet either. Kevin & Jami went to work but my office had no service, phone or internet, so I came back home both days. I went out to get ice for the fridge & to charge my phone in the car...also to get COFFEE! I laughed because the lines were out to the street in both the car lane & store inside.

Jami cooked fabulous meals on the grill. We had some camping equipment so our inconvenience was kept to a minimum. We read books by candlelight & went to bed early both nights. Nothing in the freezer went bad but had it gone one more day, we would have lost it all. We send our thoughts & prayers & a bit of cash to those that have gone through worse. This kind of thing makes you count your blessings & realize just how good you have it. My heart goes out to the families that have been challenged by nature over the last few years.

Miss Scarlet

This new member of our family has just lightened our lives in the year she has been with us. She's taking a much needed bath in these photo. Kevin made Scarlet a shower perch & occasionally she takes a shower with one of us...she prefers the bath though.

She has several phrases that she's picked up from both of us. She also loves her evening cuddle from Kevin. The vet said she could tell that we cuddle with her. Kevin wraps Scarlet in a towel & scratches her head...so when the vet wrapped her to do her maintenance, Dr. Crafton said she could hear Scarlet's heart beat slow as it calmed her.

Wedding photos

Wedding pictures can be seen & purchased at:

http://weddings.bellapictures.com/gallery/do/wed/home?wid=200801-329252

I want to go back!

Here a few more pics from our trip. As you can see, I'm so enthralled with the countryside. We drove the coast road several times. Two of the photos show a storm coming in off the Atlantic & two show just how close we were driving on the EDGE of the country.

Jami & I took the walk we had followed on horse back the day before. We saw an even more beautiful view from the top of the mountain looking down to the shoreline. When we got to the top, we remembered the mud pit that the horses had struggled through...oops. We somehow made it with just a bit on our pant legs but I need a pedicure to dig out the black Irish mud from under my toenails. My sandals had to be left behind...didn't come out of it so good.

Our trip to Galway was fantastic. The city is geared to foot traffic in the shopping area & is so lovely. It surrounds a couple of beautiful parks. There we found some street musicians setting up & had to stop for the entertainment. They were great!!!

The road crews are constantly repairing the roads in Ireland...either stabilizing the chips on the path or cutting the vegetation that is crawling up the stone walls along the edge of the road & reaching out into the road. The photo with the dump truck & the cow is funny. We were driving out of our street & the cow had somehow gotten out of her pasture. She was trying to get back as the road crew was continuing their work. Of course I had to jump out & snap the shot.

More from Ireland

It's been crazy catching up at work...the beginning of the school year. I knew when we scheduled our vacation during this time that I'd be stressed out this week but it was so worth it.

Here are a few more pictures from our time in the beautiful country of Ireland. The Heather in the fields, the rows of fuchsia bushes...EVERYWHERE!, the views from our cottage. I never wanted to leave. It was such a relaxing place to be.

Our neighbors

One of my favorite houses. We walked past it on the walks we took.

Our trip to Ireland

One week after Keith & Jenna's wonderful wedding, the 7 of us ventured across the pond to Doolin, Ireland. I can only say that Ireland was more than I could have imagined. Doolin is in the western side of Ireland in The Burren. Even though the first few days were very foggy & rainy, the countryside was sooo beautiful...so picturesque...so full of color & history. To describe it wouldn't do it justice but I'll try. The rolling hills were covered with a patchwork of green pastures each surrounded by stone walls of different shapes & sizes. We all expected to see some walls of stone but just not EVERY WHERE!!! The hillsides were dotted with darling cottages & ruins. The Cliffs of Moher & the Aran Islands could be seen from our front porch. Each cliché that you hear or postcard picture that you see is no exaggeration...it was happening right outside our lovely cottage. We even jumped up from our breakfast table one morning to watch the local farmer's wife close our driveway gate so she could move her cows down the rode to a neighboring pasture.

We stayed mostly in County Clare, venturing out to visit the different sites in the area. Jason, Chrissy, Jami, Keith & Jenna went to the different pubs in town several times during our two week stay. We took a 2 hour horseback ride through the hills of The Burren one afternoon...we were all sore the next few days. Kevin, Jason & Keith all had fun learning to drive on the wrong side of the road, drive on the tiny single lane roads as well as to navigate around the local villages that don't use addresses. I decided the back seat side window was the best place to view the countryside...not looking at oncoming traffic.

All in all, it was a lovely vacation. Kevin & I will go back again someday. We'll do the same thing we did this time, stay in one place & visit the local attractions.

This is new to us...

Kevin & I are planning to use this blog to keep you all informed. We'll learn as we go.