The beginning of our Irish trip log

Our first day of our Ireland trip was completely devoted to flying there. We left Sunday p.m. and arrived in Dublin at 8:45 a.m. The flight was on-time which was nice, but sleep eluded me on the plane. Arriving in Dublin was great, Casey pointed out the sun rising as we came upon Ireland (it was 1 a.m. EST) and that was pretty weird. We got our suitcases and headed to customs. To me it felt like the kids going to Hogwarts on the Hogwarts express as most people had carts loaded with luggage and were being herded into a single line.

CIE met us promptly and before we knew it we were on our way to the Burlington Hotel where we would stay the first night. We got our rooms and decided that a nap would be best before our tour of Dublin at 2.

That is just what we did and it helped a little. Following a hurried lunch, we boarded the tour bus for a trip around Dublin. Our tour driver and guide, Jim Lynch, was great. An absolute riot to listen to as well. Our first stop was a tour of Dublin Castle. It was okay, but we were still pretty tired and a castle tour was not the best idea. The tour guide, Mave, was very nice and informative, which helped.
As you can see from the picture, the kids were pretty wiped and didn't seem too happy about the tour. It was interesting though and, like I said, the guide was very good. One phrase used by the guide when discussing the fact that two people were supposed to get married, but the groom left the bride at the altar, she referred to it as the groom "pulled a runner." I loved that phrase. It turned out that the groom's friend ended up marrying the bride to avoid her embarassment and they had a happy life together. Neat story.

More to come another day.

June Catchup

June marked a big month in our house as Greg graduated from middle school and Casey graduated from high school. Let me back up one day and say that I had knee surgery on Thursday, the day before graduations, to remove a cyst from my knee. Of course things did not go as smoothly as possible as I aspirated something during the surgery and they wanted to keep me overnight in the hospital to check so that I don't get pneumonia. After 2 chest xrays, they finally let me go home even though I spent the entire day in the hospital.


Greg's graduation ceremony was at 9:30 a.m. and we enjoyed the ceremony. Greg got the Honors Geometry award for excellence. Christi was able to attend his promotion ceremony and hung out with us at the house afterwards. I got a little teary-eyed at Greg's ceremony as it hit me that he would be a high school student. After the ceremony, we went home and did some preparations for the after graduation ice cream party. Christi was a big help and it was so nice to just sit there and gab with her. She is such an important part of our family. Larry and Mark had gone to the Philadlephia A's historical society and out to lunch.


Casey's ceremony started at 7:30 p.m. and Larry and I had front row seats. The ceremony was fantastic and the school did a great job honoring each student. Casey's valdictorian speech was wonderful and she got applause during and after the speech. She was so polished standing up there. One of her teachers commented that "she taught her everything she knew" which Dani Buckman overheard and laughed about. Both Dani and Christi were able to attend the ceremony, as well as Chad. We were happy to have such special people join us. We had a "dessert party" after the ceremony which was well attended.

I was pretty wiped out, but the weekend celebrations were far from over. On Saturday, Casey and I went to Christi's baby shower at Dani's house. Their mom Geri was there and it was fun to see them. After that, Casey and I went to Casey II's graduation party. The boys went to the Phillies game that day. Boy was I ever tired after a busy 3 days. On Sunday, after Mark left, I basically crashed.

Greg celebrated his 14th birthday on June 20 and we had presents and cake and dinner out the next day. Greg was attending sportsbroadcasting camp all week at Villanova and having a great time. Hard to believe Greg is 14 and a freshman in high school. He gets taller every week and is handsome as ever. He is a great guy and has handled following in Casey's footsteps just wonderfully. He is going to go far in life because of his personality.

We had company from Maine - Reed, Erica, Tommy and Gracie.

They basically just used our house as a hotel, as they had other plans, but that was fine with us as it was just nice to see them. Greg and Tommy hit it off perfectly - 2 boys, lots of baseball cards, baseball games, and baseball talk. Gracie is still as cute as ever and it was nice to really talk to Erica and Reed. We met them again in Reading after they had left our house. We had gone out there on a rainy Sunday to stock up on clothing. We actuallly ran into them twice!



Finally we took a trip to the Jersey shore. The Flowers loaned us their beach condo in Ocean City and we spent the day on the beach and boardwalk. It was fun watching the kids ride the rides again after a 5 year absence from the Jersey shore. We ate pizza on the boardwalk and bought saltwater taffy and fudge. We all agreed, though, that we prefer the South Carolina beaches and trips. Just seems to be a different class of people.

Also, in June, my brother John celebrated his 50th birthday. I hope he is taking stock of where he is and what he wants to accomplish. I wish him well. I hope to see him on his trip back East.