Today we meandered down to the LUAS station boarded a tram and took it to the end of the line; Stephens green in the old part of Dublin. We’re on a mission to explore, check out some more thrift shops, see a castle, open another bank account and put some money in the account we already opened. (we accomplished everything but depositing money)

The Buttons – Dealing with kids

Life in Dublin involves pushing buttons to access things. They kids love to compete and argue and about who gets to push buttons, which was getting a bit annoying. To end the annoyance we’re assigning button pressing to one kid a day from here on out. Today is Khaleesi’s day. She gets to push any button she can reach; Elevator call button, Elevator floor, LUAS doors, cross walk, controlled access door release buttons, anywhere we find buttons Khaleesi gets to push them for the day. (turned out to be a brilliant plan)

St. Stephens Green

First stop after exiting the LUAS was St. Stephens Green park. Maddex and I were walking along near the pond and he says “ we’re in a park there must a play ground here some where we should find the play ground” Michelle said she doubts they have a play land. Which turned out to be a FakeNews. I’m typing this paragraph on my phone sitting on a park bench watching the kids play in a play area. Nice play space, rubber ground covering, plenty of things to climb on, benches for he adults to watch, elephant for Khaleesi to ride, rope course, spinning things the kids enjoyed.

Playing together on a spinning wheels of death!!

Dublin Castle

Our next destination was Dublin Castle, because Mila wanted to see a castle, and Mila gets what Mila wants. Along the way we found a few thrift stores to pop into and check out. They are so small, nothing like we are used to back in the states. It only takes a minute or two to determine if they have any clothing or treasures for the kids; most did not. We did pick up some sun glasses for Maddex and Mila at one of the shops. Mila looks fabulous in her shades.

20170811_103405930_iOS (2).jpg — Mila showing off her new shades with her hair blowing in the win

We figure we’ll hold off paying for tours untill we have someone with us who wants to see the tour, or we’ll queue up on the days of the year they are free, or if we’re not comming back then we’ll think more about paying for the tour. Today we skiped the guided tour of Dublin castle; we’ll be back. Even cheaping out on the tour there was plenty to see. We walked around the court yard, used their washrooms, found some fountain to look in, and checked the outside of the building.

We had the kids bring their phones with them today and practice taking pictures. Maddex was into trying to take as many as possible. We went through his at home and deleted about half of them. After deleting them we still uploaded 145 pictures to cloud backup. Of those he took a few pretty good pictures.

Mila with her “look cute” pose in the Dublin Castle Court yard

From the castle walked to Christs Church Cathedral and walked along the back side of the church. We’ll find some time to tour the church another day I’m sure. On the back side of the castle is the Dublin City Counsil building, which has a nice out door auditorium we figured was a grand place to stop and have lunch. When we sat down we were the only ones there. Then about a hundred and eighteen million people in a walking tour group showed up. They were nice enough to allow us to listen in on part of their tour before they all vanished again.

Minus all of the wind a grand place to have lunch

Banking – Sleeping K

From the Counsil building we carried on to the river Liffey and walked along and over the river. After a good 7k of walking around Dublin Khaleesi started to give up. Some where around the ha’penny bridge Michelle picked her to and carried her for a bit and she fell sleep in Michelle’s arms with her head on Michelle’s chest. After Michelle wore out I took over lugging around a sleeping K untill I started to hurt then asked her to walk. Khaleesi was mostly sleep walking at this point and not making much progress.

30# of baby and suff on back, and 30# of princess in my arms – balanced out, right?

The bank we had an appointment at was about 1k away at this point. I’m already wearing a superman shirt, figured, might as well. I picked her up and carried her passed out In my arms the rest of he way to the bank of Ireland branch. When we arrived I laid her down on a bench and she didn’t even notice the transition. Michelle has been back with our banker for the last 20 minutes and I can ever so subtly hear Khaleesi snoring. girl is passed out.

Khaleesi passed out and Roxi trapped – no problem watching these kids

After the bank I picked her up again and carried her another kilometer, about 90% of the way to the LUAS station – I’m sore, but Khaleesi had a nice nap. From the bank we ended up at the Dublin Grand Canal and walked along the water way untill we made it to the Charlemont LUAS station.

Nice walk along the water way. Adding to our list see some boats pass through the locks, and walk the entire canal.

A short LUAS ride later we made it home, cooked and ate dinner, then Michelle and the kids walked to Dunnes and picked up some kinder eggs. Our children were amazingly well behaved and adventurous today and deserved a reward.