Help Us Plan a Route

By March of 2009 our car will be waiting for us to arrive in Dallas, Texas for our journey to Utah to visit family and friends. Tricia wants to hurry home with no delay after having been gone for so long and many family members never having seen Jeffrey in person, but I would like to make the most of the trip since we have to go any way. I have planned a route that takes us from Dallas to South Jordan, but I may be driving right by great things to see without even knowing it. If you have any suggestions for things to see along the way, or alternate routes that will allow us to have a worth while adventure, please respond to this posting.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Dallas,+Tx&daddr=South+Jordan,+UT&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=36.633162,-104.370117&sspn=14.160192,19.6875&ie=UTF8&ll=37.282795,-104.370117&spn=14.041109,19.6875&z=6

Scrap Book

Tricia is always up to something crafty. Here she is working on her scrap books of photos taken when her family came to visit us this last summer in Germany. When we get our photos in the mail printed from SnapFish we are always pleased with the results, but Tricia is able to take a few printed photos together to a whole new level of visual art by adding coordinated colors, accents, ribbons, bows and paper cut outs. Her books are much more interesting that a simple collection of photos bound together. The book itself becomes a piece of art work that makes it fun to go back to memorable events.

Change Jar

I have been saving this change in my drawer for a very long time now and just a few weeks ago brought it out to my dresser top to make it more visible. By doing so my intention was to make saving my change more purposeful. It is easier to not make many purchases when I can tell myself that I will save that same amount of money for something specific that I am looking forward to getting on another day.

The change in this jar was enough to pay for this months phone bill. It adds up quickly.

Jeffrey Plays the Wii Too

Jeffrey plays the Wii too. He can get very jelous of us when Tricia and I are both playing, so Tricia found a great Christmas gift for him. Jeffrey now has his own Wii remote. The best part is his remote is scaled down to size for his hands and dispenses candy.

Jeffrey is pictured here with the full sized remotes obtaining a new high score on his favorite game.

Passing Time with the Wii

Tricia likes to pass a little free time with the Nintendo Wii. We have come to enjoy all of the Lego games by Lucas Arts. So far we have played and won Indiana Jones, Batman and Star Wars. The best thing about this set of games is that after you have won all of the levels you can go back again as different characters and play through areas that were not available the first time through.

Closing the Christmas Season

At church today we sang Christmas hymns in all of our meetings, but it is inevitable that the season come to a close. Tricia makes Christmas a wonderful time in the MacNeil home. We put up a tree, drink cocoa, watch a collection of Christmas themed movies, make cards, take a family photo, deliver goodies to friends and neighbors, decorate the rooms of the house, go to the Christmas market, wrap gifts, and listen to Christmas music from morning until bed time. I will be excited when next year comes around again.

Jeffrey Is No Dummy

Jeffrey loves to play with the mop and brooms. To keep him from getting to them we locked them away in the laundry room, but he soon learned to open the door. I began locking the door, but soon found that if I left the key in the door Jeffrey knew just what to do with it to get his broom and mop out again.

Our Trip to Ireland

We arrived in Ireland in the evening time and had arranged for a cabby to pick us up at the airport after having obtained our keys from the Baggot Court Town House. It was strange getting into a car that was driven from the right hand side and going quickly through the dark streets and onto the freeway on the right hand side of the road.

Tricia: I almost got out of the car.

As always, Tricia arranged for us to stay at a great place for a nice price. Our room was walking distance from all the sights we wanted to see in Dublin and we began each day with a hot breakfast of sunny side up eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, toast and half a tomato.

Tricia: I made Cory eat my eggs, I'm not a sunny side up egg kind of gal.

First on our list of sights was Trinity College where we were to see the Book of Kells. To our surprise the Book of Kells was not on display, but we were able to see in its place a museum quality copy of the book.

Tricia: Yep, the one thing I wanted to see, wasn't even there. It was still pretty cool to see.

While we were walking around in the museum we spotted a man that was taking copious notes in a small book. It was obvious that he was more than a casual observer or an interested traveler by the amount of note taking he was doing. As I walked by I saw a small monogram on his courier sachel: National Geographic Society.

Trinity College itself was interesting to walk around. While Tricia looked around the souvenier shop I took Jeffrey out with me to get some photos of the place.

Tricia: We also saw the oldest harp in Ireland, the one that is the symbol of Ireland. It was pretty cool. We also saw a copy of the 1916 Proclamation that began the Easter rising.

Since our trip was during the Christmas season we were able to see many of the street decorations that the Irish put up. We spent much of our time passing through the shopping districts to get to our destinations and some time there to shop ourselves.

We did take the tour bus for one day to get around. This is Tricia waiting for the bus to pick us up for the first time. While on the bus the drivers gave us narratives of the city and its history, a lot of which centered around Irelands pursuit of freedom from the British.

Jeffrey has been a wonderful traveler on all of our adventures. We have some friends with several children that have traveled Europe and loved it. We know others with kids who lament that they have not seen what they inteded to when coming to Germany. We have learned that we should not let Jeffrey hold us back from doing fun and memorable things for the sake of having his afternoon nap in his own bed.

Tricia: Of course it helps that he'll sleep with us just as easy as anything else. It's just funny that he has more stamps in his passport than I ever had and he won't remember any of them!

If this portion of Kilmainham Gaol looks familiar to you, it may because you have seen it in one of several movies that have been filmed here, or maybe you were at the U2 concert that played here.

Our tour took us through much of the jail and we were introduced to several of the cells that held the prisioners of the Easter Rising of 1916. I wish that I could have had my tripod with me to get some better shots in the low lighting conditions.

Tricia: The Gaol was my favorite thing, creepy as it may sound. I learned lots of Irish songs that I've sung at competitions and to actually see the places where they took place was pretty cool. It was also amazing to know that it had happened so recently.

Jeffrey spent most of his day looking over my shoulders, which allowed him a higher view of Dublin. We did go back to our room on several occasions to give him a break, but otherwise he was quite happy to be with us. We kept him warm by dressing him in the German strumpf hosen we had packed. Strumpf hosen are a pair of warm tights worn under the pants to give an added layer of heat collection.

Tricia: I wore some too! Brrrrr! It was chilly in Ireland.

Saint Patricks Cathedral was great for taking photos in. When you enter during the hours that a mass is not taking place, the cathedral is treated like a museum with a small charge at the door, but then photographs and flashes are welcome. I had a blast here working in such a rich environment of light and shadow intertwined.

Tricia: That Eagle lecturn is unique to Ireland (or so the brochure said) we actually attended a service later in Christ Church Cathedral and they had one too.

Most of the streets that we walked on were full of people shopping, going to work and doing daily business. While on the move we found and entered several book stores where I bought a book of Irish Poetry and a copy of Bram Stokers "Dracula." I had no idea that he was Irish.

The Christ Church Cathedral was much like that of Saint Patrick; treated like a museum when not in mass with photographs welcome. This was another highlight of the trip for me to be able to photograph in such a fun place.

We did return one evening to listen to the Even Song.

Tricia: The choirs at St. Patrick's and Christ Church are world renown and in competition with each other. We only went to the Evensong service at one of them so we can't compare, but it was an amazing experience.

Merry Chirstmas

Merry Chirstmas to all. We had a wonderful day at the MacNeil home in Germany and we hope that you also did too to everyone back in the USA.

I awoke at 0400 and could not get back to sleep. I must have been excited to get the day started. I went out to the livingroom and read a book until 0800 when Tricia was willing to get up.

Jeffrey was more responsive this year to opening up presents, but he still does not fully understand the significance of a wrapped box and the surprise that it contains. It took a lot of prompting to get him interested in packages labled for him.

Granpa MacNeil sent this train set to Jeffrey. I helped him put it together and gave him some instruction on how to make a good train sound with his mouth.

Ready for Church

Today is the Christmas program at church and Tricia will be singing in the choir. To get ready she put her hair up in curlers last night and woke up early to finish it off this morning.

Christmas Goodies for Friends

So very many people have been good to us this year and been an important part of our experience in Germany. We decided to select a few to whom we could take a home made treat as an expression of our appreciation.


While we were making treats in the kitchen we enjoyed some chocolate covered cinimon bears. Thanks Mom.



This is a snow ball, a new recipie that we tried out togther. Making cookies is a great Sunday activity.

Tricia was all about the detail for our gifts, so when it came to adding a touch of color to the center of the cookies shaped like poinsettia she picked out all of the yellow colored candies from our multi color mix.

Just when I thought we were done and ready to put our cookies on a paper plate Tricia brough out plasic bags to emboss and add a paper label with a wool ribbon. Our fudge we made the other night was wraped up and placed in small glass jars with a ribbon of paper to add color and embossed with a seasons greeting on the glass.

Nuremburg Christmas Market

The Christmas Market has become one of our favorite family traditions while in Germany. During a day off from work we took the train to Nuremburg for the sights, smells and tastes unique to Christmas in this part of the world.

Since Chirstmas excites children of all ages there are of course many toy makers at the markets. It is very common to see wooden toys of all sorts, from simple cut out animals to complicated games and contraptions.

Any event involving selling items in a booth must include jewelry of some sort. They just go together.

The Christmas Market is of course a great place to purchase Christmas ornaments for house and tree.

This is a large collection of smokers and nut crackers.

There is a lot of good foods and snacks to eat while walking around. There are many traditional items that only make an appearance at Christmas time.

The market is normally used for selling daily use items, so some of these vendors also appear at the Christmas Market to extend their wares to shoppers.

Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree went up the day after Thanks Giving, our traditional family time to make the most of the holiday. We had initially thought of not decorating the bottom two feet of the tree to keep is safe from Jeffrey, but later we decided to place the sturdier ornaments on the bottom and take the time to train him not to use them as toys. After a few days when it came less of a surprise to see a tree in our living room he took less notice of the dangling toys and has left it along since.

Fudge

I worked in the kitchen as Tricia's sou chef while she master minded our fudge project. The double sized batch barely fit inside of our pans making it necessary to take care in stiring so to not make a mess on the hot stove. To add an extra flavor to the already rich fudge, Tricia make peanut butter balls and placed them on the bottom of the pan into which we would pour the hot fudge for cooling and forming.

99 Things

To participate just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold all of the things you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept over night on a train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23.Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo's David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone Deep Sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

You Better Not Pout, You Better Not Cry...

...Well, maybe not. We saw Santa Claus in Ireland this last weekend. Jeffrey was so excited to be getting out of his backpack that he ran to the little hut that Santa was in...until he saw him. Then he started to cry, then he started to scream, then he started to sign "help". Cory and I just couldn't help but giggle at it, we did rescue him though, not before we got this picture first.

BTW, the mark on his head is all that remains of his Thanksgiving tumble down the stairs. We just call him Beanie Gorbachev.

29

Tricia made my favorite brownies to celebrate my birthday. We went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant with some friends and had a wonderful evening together.

It is hard to believe that I am 29 years old. Where does the time go to?

Vacuuming

Jeffrey used to be very afraid of the vacuum and the loud noise it made when I used it. His acquired tolerance has turned into a fascination. I hardly ever come home to the vacuum in its place in the corner. It is usually out in the hallway with several of its attachments spread throughout the house.

Cow

While Tricia and I were talking in our room Jeffrey came in and Tricia began to ask him what sounds some animals make. When it came to the cow Tricia prompted with a moo and then asked Jeffrey to go get his cow. He left the room and we resumed talking again when a few moments later Jeffrey came back in and proudly presented his Play Mobil cow from the farm set. We were both impressed at this performance. Jeffrey is learning all the time and has a new surprise for us each day.

Tricia has even decided that Jeffrey is big enough to eat without his high chair, so that will get a good cleaning and go to the basement. In its place Jeffrey has a booster seat that puts him at the table with us and sitting on the same chairs that we use.