Titanic Belfast

We just got home to Alaska from our big trip to Northern Ireland and Florida.

I downloaded all our photos onto the laptop and I've got a lot to catch up on here on the blog!

Our first week in Northern Ireland we got to go to the Titanic Belfast exhibit. It was voted one of the worlds top Tourist Attractions and I can see why! It was pretty cool and very interactive!

Here's a short walk through...

We learned what Belfast was like back in the early 1900's and how it was a booming city with industries like linen. Elijah's looking at the different steps it takes from flax to linen.

The ship yard is still in use but is now "focusing less on shipbuilding and more on design and structural engineering, as well as ship repair, offshore construction projects." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harland_and_Wolff)
Throughout its lifetime the Harland and Wolff shipyard produced over 1,700 vessels and at its peak, employed a workforce of 35,000. 

The Titanic and the Olympic were built side by side in the slips you can see in the photo above. This is where the Titanic was first launched from on May 31st 1911.

The SS Nomadic is located right next door to the Titanic museum and is defiantly worth a visit as well.

The hat Elijah is wearing is one that Geoff wore as a little boy. :)

In both the Titanic museum and also on the Nomadic were hidden little stuffed animals or people. The boys were given a map and had to keep their eyes out for a character in each section. If they found all the hidden characters they were given a certificate and official looking ticket. This really kept their attention and they did find them all.

Sunday Stroll

Our walk the other night took us by some bright blue hydrangias! They were so bright and beautiful!

Elijah wanted to help push Ethan and he does great for the most part but then he would get distracted and almost drive poor Ethan into the hedge or off the curb! So i took over while he picked flowers and chased ladybugs.

Ethan's pretty calm in spite of being pushed around by a crazy big brother.

This sweet kitty cat found us and both Elijah and I were hopeing it would follow us home so we could keep him. We may or may not have walked extra slow on the way home just in case he decided he wanted to follow us and see where we lived in case he ever wanted some lovin'!

Elijah with Sketrick Castle in the background. He calls it "our caslte" and loves to climb on it.

See that tower on the right side of the photo on the hill? That's Scrabo Tower and I have pictures to share of our trip there next!

An Early Morning Visitor

There's just no foolin' you all!

Yes, the mystery photo was a dandelion cropped from this picture...

I'm going to make it really hard next time! =)

It's been really wet so we've been trapped in side most of the week. I try to get Elijah out in the back yard between rain showers.

Speaking of the back yard, look who was there yesterday morning...

We have a big window in our kitchen over the sink so I had a great view of him and I could tell he saw me too! It was so nice to have his early morning company as I poured my first cup of coffee.

We had a meeting with our pastor last night. So i'm going to be sharing what our plans are in the next day or so.

I hope you all are enjoying your week. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Country Roads

After visiting our friends Raymond, Rebecca and their new baby on Saturday we went for a drive around Strangford Lough.

We wound around the country on these back roads. Don't know what we would have done if we met another vehicle coming the other direction. It's fun though, you see a lot of the country side this way.


These roads will take you to some beautiful views...


And you'll meet the locals. Or at least their farm animals...

You might pass a thatched roof cottage like this one.

And you'll see lot of sheep and lambs in fields like this.It worth exploring those back roads once in a while, isn't it?

Now tell me what you'd find on your country roads.

This started out as a quick note...

Geoff and Elijah are both in bed, Ethan is finally getting sleepy and i'm about to change the clocks. My poor little body is getting worn out and confused with all these time changes! First we moved our clocks ahead a few weeks ago while we were in Florida, then we fly over the ocean and have to adjust to the 4 hour time difference and now we're jumping ahead another hour! Can we just quite playing around with the time? Now we'll be 5 hours ahead of our family in Florida.

The view this afternoon from one of the back roads near us.

It was a beautiful day today! The wind was bitterly cold though. We had a good day. Our original plans of going to Belfast and getting the boys British passports applied for got moved to another week. Our day ended up being rather relaxing. We had a late breakfast out and then did some grocery shopping.

Daddy and son at breakfast.

I surprised Elijah when I stuck the camera back and took his picture! He's such a good traveler!

Tonight at church was a speical once a month meeting. This month they asked us to share. It was sort of an informal Q & A with Geoff and Melissa. I was nervous as usual to be in front of a group of people. My plan was to take Ethan up with me so that every one would be distracted by his cuteness and wouldn't notice if i stumbled over some easy question. =) I thought it was a good plan... everyone would rather look at a baby anyway right? But I didn't do it. And actually it went rather well and I enjoyed talking to people afterwards. Ethan got passed around and gave out a few smiles and goos. Elijah was busy making friends with every one as well and gave out hugs and waved goodbye as people left.

And since we've got a picture of each of the other family members, here's me...
In my favorite place to be... behind a camera taking pictures!

And here is what I was taking a picture of... Sketrick Castle