A Quick Trip

This weekend Jason came back to Ireland on his way home from Europe. He didn't make it back to Belfast so we headed to Dublin to see him there.

After checking into our hotel, we ventured out to the city night life! Jason directed us to a quaint little restaurant called The Winding Stair.

The food was great and we had a fun time being together.

This is the Half-Penny Bridge that goes over the Liffey River in downtown Dublin. It was quite late and raining so the picture didn't turn out very good....but it was fun to see.

Standing on the bridge.

In the rain.......at 11:00 p..m.

The Leprechaun Museum was closed.....

The next day we had breakfast and then dropped Jason off at the airport. It was so nice to have him come for visit. We enjoyed being with him. He's now back in America after a great summer trip to Europe! He promised to come see us again next summer!!

August Activities

At the beginning of the month we had a mission assignment to go to Londonderry with the McBrides. We enjoyed the ride and the chance to go back to this historic city.

There is a wall surrounding the inner city that has been standing for many years! We took a wee walk around some of it.

Beautiful view of the city.

The wall is high enough that you can see for miles....good view of the enemy approaching!
I think Elder Holt is getting tired of me wanting to take his picture!!!

At our last zone development meeting in Belfast the missionaries played their favorite game....Mafia!

Elder Evans does a great job as the mediator.....

I haven't figured out the game completely, but everyone has a good time playing

The Sisters are pretty good!

We had 28 missionaries go home this month....only 8 came! But the work is still progressing!

Belfast

Monday, for our preparation day, we headed to Belfast with the McDowell's. We first went to the McBrides flat and had a nice lunch with them. Then we all went into the city to watch a bagpipe show at City Hall. The streets were busy!

Victoria Square is very nice with lots of fun shopping. I had to chuckle....we saw a beautiful old bank building, now it's a Tesco's!

City Hall. When we got there the bagpipe show had been cancelled, so we took the tour of City Hall.

The McBrides, The McDowell's and us. This is where the Lord Mayor of Belfast sits. Wow, we met him, last week with Jason!

Pewter chess set of the Titanic. The Titanic was built in Belfast, but sailed from England....there is actually a sideboard chest in this room that was suppose to go on the Titanic, but it wasn't quite finished.

After the tour we walked around downtown for a while. Many beautiful old buildings.

We left the city, after a hour in the souvenir shop..... and drove over to Shaw's Bridge.

We walked along the trail a couple of miles. This is where Jason ran two weeks ago.

Good friends, good missionaries!

Wee Cottage......

We enjoyed the day and made it back just in time for Family Home Evening!!!!!

District Meetings

Every week we have either a district meeting, a zone development meeting, or a zone conference. This is our newest district with the zone leaders. Elder Mecham is a new elder from Montana, Elder Lasjak, Elder R Evans, Elder Johnson ZL, Elder Holt, Sister Holt, Elder Barber ZL and new Elder D Evans DL that just came over from Scotland. It's fun having two Elder Evans, especially since they are companions!

This was the last district meeting that Elder Ranger was here for.

Elder Watt's last district meeting. He was in Portadown for six months. Now he is serving in Scotland. We miss him!!!

Visits and Visitors!

This week we went for a visit to the Tollymore campground. The Keery's were camping there. We took Lynda Ross with us. It was a nice ride through the Mourne Mountains.

It was fun to see camping in Ireland. Not much different than Minnesota except no mosquitoes!!

Jacob and Matthew eating their lunch. They just got back from a wee hike to the river....where they fell in!!! Such cute wee boys!!

Holly on the tire swing. It was a very nice relaxing day and we enjoyed the change of pace.

Friday we had a very fun day. Our good friends Marianne and Dennis were in Dublin for a couple of weeks. Marianne was here on a business trip. They caught the bus and we picked them up in Banbridge. It was so fun to see them! We had a successful trip to the Ferguson Linen Center and then went to E&B's to get lunch. Since it was raining, we came back to our home to eat and visit.

Later we went to the Tanaghmore Gardens.

We enjoyed catching up on all the news from home and about their life in Wisconsin.

There are many wood sculptures throughout the gardens. This one represents the potato famine.

This picture is for Dylan and Kade! See, we have alligators here too!!!

Pinocchio, for Vincent!

We had fun running through the rock maze. It reminded us of the corn maze we went to with Baylie, Bryndie and Payton.

Interesting sculptures. After the gardens we drove them around the town and went out to see Lough Neagh.

They were going to leave to catch the bus at 5:30, but ended up leaving on the 8:30 bus! We had such a wonderful time.

Again, WE LOVE VISITORS!!!!