UK and EU Trip

• July 12th, 2019

  Royal Armories, St. Peter's Felkirk, Sherwood Forest and HOME!!

  Today was a bit surreal as we realized our first trip was coming to an end! We absolutley needed the rest, but it was also bittersweet to have the end looming.

  Since we were already in Leeds, our trip to the Royal Armouries only took a couple minutes, which was a nice change. Lauren had messaged them ahead of time, and we were allowed to use the coach parking right in front. Yay!

  Out in front, the British Army had some stalls set up, and the kids stopped at one and performed some first aid on a giant stuffed puppy. Then another man in uniform came up and asked if we wanted to go to the shooting range. Of course!

  So we followed him around and they had set up an obstacle course for the kids to run through. All those who gave it a try did surprisingly well! Even Bowen and Winter!

  

  Once they ran the obstacle course, they also got a chance to shoot with some paint ball guns.

  

  We did eventually make it inside the Royal Armoury itself, and there were ~6~ floors to see!! We didn't make it all, but we saw quite a bit.

  Including the last remaining complete elephant armour.

  

  And two sets of armour completed for King Henry the VIII.

  

  They saw children's armour.

  

  The kids got to try on some gauntlets.

  

  Some headdresses.

  

  Try out a bow.

  

  Austin had been saving his money so he was able to shoot a crossbow (and the lovely lady let Winter shoot as well)

  

  He did quite well!

  

  The other kids were a bit sad that they hadn't saved up for this! Poor kids!

  

  In one of the display cases, I saw a pretty tapestry.

  

  What I didn't realize was that is was created out of butterfly wings! On closer review, it was in a display of Endangered Aminals that had been poached. It was quite sad.

  

  And see some other amazing things.

  

  There was a set of decorative armour, carved with lions.

  

  There was even a display in the stairwell going up six stories!

  

  We were about to leave when we were told they were going to have a swordsmanship display! Heck, yeah, we'll stay for that!

  

  They were quite fun to watch!

  Eventually we did have to leave, and a couple hours worth of driving, we stopped at a church, St. Peter's in Felkirk. This is Lauren's great(x6) grand parent's church and where they were buried. So we stopped and the kids did a little hunting for their graves stones, which they found surprisingly quickly! Yay for family history! It's rather fun to see these places that where family members came and worshiped.

  Back in the van again, and a bit more driving and we reached Sherwood Forest!

  

  At the entrance they had a fun area for the kids. With dress up.

  

  And Stockades

  

  We took a little bit of a walk and headed to the Major Oak.

  

  Along the way there and back, the kids found raspberries! Yum!

  

  And there was a playground!

  

  Eventually we did have to leave and get back in the van. More time driving and we stopped to get fuel for us and the van! Yay for KFC! And even bigger YAYS! for finally making it home!! I get to sleep in my own bed!

  Go To Next Trip

• July 11th, 2019

  Driving, Brewer's Fayre, Driving, Thirsk Birds of Prey Center, Driving, and Playgrounds

  We were able to get a bit of a late start since we had driven a bit farther the day before than originally planned, and the first thing on our schedule was lunch!

  We went to a Brewer's Fayre in Lakeland, with the intent to let the kids play in the indoor playground and have an ice cream, while Lauren and I got some food we hadn't prepared. However, several of the kids were too old or tall to play inside, and it cost £3 for each child to play. They had an outdoor play area that was free and didn't have an age limit, so we went out there. We got them some ice cream and chips. Austin had been saving his money from the trip, and he decided it wanted to buy a meal, so he and I split a Black and Bleu Burger, and fried Halloumi and Lauren got Chicken Tikka Meatballs and the Ploughman's Salad.

  The kids played for a while more, then we were back in the van for a couple hours to Thirsk, where they have a birds of prey center and demonstrations.

  

  We got there a little early for the last show, and wandered about for a while and checked out the birds in their cages, and some tied out on their perches.

  

  They even had a small playground and sand pit the kids played in for a while.

  

  After a little while, the demonstration started, an dit was quite impressive! They brought out a number of birds and would have them wander and fly around the central area, and even around the whole valley and they would always come back.

  

  They even had two American Bald Eagles, one of which was in the show and beautiful!

  

  At the end of the show, they brought out one last bird and allowed those who wanted to to hold it. Of course all the kids wanted to!

  

  (And so did I!)

  

  As we were leaving, there was a gorgeous Peacock that led the way to the car park and saw us off

  

  And on we went, to our final AirBnB in Leeds. This one had some amazingly steep stairs and was three stories! Yikes! The kids decided that even though there were unused beds, they almost all wanted to sleep together in one room. <3 Awe!

  The neighbors were having a birthday party that went reasonably late into the evening, but I ended up putting on my (sanity saving) noise cancelling headphones, did some work, and by the time I was done, they had quieted down and I went off to sleep!

  Go To Next Day

• July 10th, 2019

  Driving, Loch Ness, Driving, Blair Castle, Driving, The Farkirk Wheel, The Kelpies, and More Driving!

  This was definitely a day with a LOT of driving!

  We started with a trip to Loch Ness, where, unfortunately, we didn't get to see Nessie. Sigh, maybe next time!

  

  After this quick stop, we drove back a bit to Inverness and made another stop at Whin Park. We had some lunch and the kids played on the playground for a while.

  

  A couple more hours led us to Blair Castle.

  

  Lauren took the kids to the playground in the garden, and I again got to tour a castle sans kids! Woot Woot! And again, they would have been quite bored, whereas I loved it. This castle had some amazing rooms,

  

  but the bedrooms were absolutely my favorties!

  

  But the most impressive was the huge room that held all the china! Top to bottom and all around the room!

  

  This room also held some amazing examples of lace.

  

  Eventually I dragged myself out of the castle, and we drove even more and headed to the Falkirk Wheel. The visitor's centre was closed when we arrived, but we could see the wheel, and more importantly, the playground was just amazing! I wish we had had more time to spend here!

  

  But with the visitor's center closed, no bathrooms and tiny bladders, we headed off for the last adventure of the night, the Kelpies!

  

  After the kids wore themselves out even further, we had more driving to do before we made it to our next AirBnb. I was quite tired and this was absolutely the latest we'd driven, getting in after dark, but we made it! This place was an apartment in an huge old house, and was pretty cool actually. This kids originally thought we had the whole house to ourselves! Lol

  Lauren and I were hoping for some kebabs, so I went to the one listed on google, but it was closed, and I was a very sad girl, as I headed to bed without my kebabs! I guess we can't win them all.

  Go To Next Day

• July 9th, 2019

  St. Magnus Cathedral, Bishops and Earls Palaces, Paying my Ticket, Orkney Museum, Harbour Fry, The Wireless Museum, Groceries, The Jacket, The Italian Chapel, Another Ferry and more driving!

  Today was a bit hard for me, mentally. I just wasn't okay. I had received some news from work that was a bit scarey and I was hormonal, and honestly still dealing with the accident from Sunday, and then I hit a bird that flew up in front of me as I was driving. So I just wasn't okay. Thankfully, Lauren let me be not okay, and took on more of the kid-dealing than I did.

  We got ourselves packed up and into the van reasonably early. While yesterday was a bright, sunny, beautiful day, today was back to being gray and a bit cold. We headed into Kirkwall, eventually found some parking and walked a little ways to the Saint Mangus Cathedral. This was quite an amazing cathedral and the was founded in 1137 by a Viking!

  

  Inside, there are these cool carved tombstone sort of things in the walls about those who are entombed here. Some of them date back quite far and they have interesting carvings. Overall, it's just a beautiful work of art.

  

  We walked around the Cathedral a bit and admired it.

  

  Next, we went across the street and Lauren took the kids to the Earl's Palace, while I went to the sherrif's office to try to pay my ticket from the accident. Unfortunately, beauocracy intervened and my ticket wasn't in the system yet. This was made harder by the fact that I don't have a UK driver's license, so it was more difficult to look up my information. The police had informed me that I needed to pay the fine in person, in Scotland, or an arrest warrant would be put out on me. Eek! So I was really trying to get this handled ASAP. She ended up not being able find it but would talk to someone and see what she could do if I would come back. So I went out and explored the Palace a bit.

  The palace is quite ruined and yet, you can see how magnificent it would have been.

  

  Austin showed me around to see some of the cool places they had explored.

  

  And the turrets make a wonderful place to be a damsel in distress!

  

  After the Earls Palace, we crossed one more small street and were at the Bishop's Palace. This was also quite grand!

  

  We climbed the tallest tower, which had an amazing view of the Cathedral, and then the kids played the floor is lava and climbed all over the walls.

  When they got tired of that, we went a bit further down the road and to the Orkness Museum at the Tankerness House.

  

  This was kind of an eclectic collection of all things Orkney,

  

  including Orkney chairs. They are woven chairs that come in two basic varieties. One that has a rather high back and the other that has a sort of hood. The hooded chairs were meant for the men, so they could be protected from drafts and settle back from the noise and busy-ness that is home life. The un-hooded one was for the wife, so she could check on the fire and tend to the children while still being somewhat protected from the drafts.

  

  One of the things at the museum was the kids had fun making paper flags with nautical information while those who wanted to looked around a bit more. I hadn't realized that Orkney played an important part in World War 1, and there was a video about the sinking of the German fleet of battleships at the end of the war and some information reguarding that.

  

  What was really interesting was we'd seen some of the remains in our driving around the island before we even knew what they were!

  

  We finished up there and I headed back to the Sherrif's office to try a second time to handle my ticket (successfully this time, thank you kind lady!) and the rest took off for lunch! Lauren had found a cool restaurant called Harbour Fry where she ordered a huge amount of fried burgers and chips for the kids, and I got fried haddock and chips and there were also a couple of fried sausages for a surprisingly cheap price tag!

  

  After that delicious heart attack on a plate, Lauren took the kids for a walk on along the harbour while I went to the Ornkey Visitor's Centre, where they kindly let me use their Wifi so I could get in on my work call.

  After I finished up, I headed back towards the van, where I spotted Austin running to get me. They were all at the Orkney Wireless Museum, which had a huge number of radios, a Morse code machine and one of the first ever video games! This kids had fun here!

  We headed out of there and had to swing back by the AirBnB we'd left that morning as we had misplaced a jacket. Luckily, it was relatively on the way to our last stop in Orkney, the Italian Chapel.

  

  This chapel was used in World War 2 by Italian POWs. They turned a barracks into a place of worship, and it's actually quite beautiful. The inside is painted to resemble stone works and it's quite impressive when you realize it's not real!

  

  We had to make this a really short visit, as we had to head back and catch our ferry. This ferry ride was much smoother than the trip over, which was a bit of a relief and I attempted to take a quick cat nap, but was woken by Winter's scream as she caught her poor finger in the hinge side of the bathroom door! Poor girl! It really, really hurt!

  We did manage to make it back to mainland Scotland with all limbs attached! We drove through the town where Harrison had left his personal box and the host had been kind enought to set it aside and we grabbed it on our way through! That was super nice! Then we drove a bit more before reaching out AirBnB for the night. I was absolutely ready for the day to be done, even though everything was quite amazing!

  Go To Next Day

• July 8th, 2019

  Brough of Birsay, Kirbuster Museum, Broch of Gurness, Orkney Brewery Tour, Skara Brae and Skaill House

  After a bit of a rough night, we started out the morning with a couple bathroom accidents and just sort of struggled a bit, but we still needed to head out rather early, since we had to make the Brough of Birsay for low tide.

  

  The brough is a island that's only accessible at low tide. There is a pathway most of the way to the island, but the kids had fun walking on all the rocks NOT on the pathway. There was a lot of seaweed and some cool tide pools. The kids, of course, played the *blank* is lava, so had to stay off of rocks, or seaweed or the path.

  

  Once we made it across, there were some cool ruins of a small settlement, though the kids were about ruined-out by this point, and it didn't hold their attention for long. So they played tag amongst the ruins.

  

  Another accident, and a couple near misses happened while on the island, as there is no toilet available. Luckily, we had the extra clothes in the car, so that made clean up relatively quick and easy. The rest of the kids beat me soundly at tag, and then we headed back to the van. What I didn't find out until later was this was the best place to look for puffins. And Winter has had a strange attachment to all things puffin since we got to Orkney. We missed out!!

  We headed on to the Kirbuster Museum When we first arrived, it didn't look like it was open, but we pressed on a little further and Lauren found the buildings were in fact open. There was a man out mowing the fields, who ended up coming in and telling us a bit about the place. The building is the "last un-restored example of a traditional 'firehoose' in Northern Europe." The farm house is quite old, though it has had several additions added over time, and was, in fact a family home until the 1960s.

  

  There was even a peat fire going in the center of the house and fish smoking above it. It was interesting to see the use of a central opening which caught the wind to help increase a draft to pull the smoke out of the house.

  

  One of the later additions was a Victorian style drawing room, which was an interesting juxtaposition against the rustic-ness of the original building.

  The out buildings had some cool old-timey farm tools that the kids tried to chop their fingers off with.

  

  Eventually they headed to the garden in the back in search of the Trow, the Orkney version of a leprechaun among other treasures.

  

  I had a good time talking to the gentleman in charge. He was impressed with the fact we were traveling with so many kids (as many people are) and we talked to him about some of the experiences they have had. He mentioned he'd never had haggis! (He was maybe my dad's age, so not a youngun.) We told him about how much the kids had liked it and he said he was going to be going to Dingwall soon and he might just give it a go after all. #ChangingLives

  After Kirbuster, we headed to the Broch of Gurness. Well... Lauren and I did. Most of the kids played at the beach for the vast majority of the time.

  

  While I watched the kids, Lauren got a chance to go and check out the ruins (yup... more ruins). I sat and had an interesting conversation with Austin about parenting. He asked if I was going to teach him how to parent (I was dealing with Bowen and some missing shoes which encouraged the question). I asked him if he wanted to parent like I do, and he said yes I was honestly a bit surprised but so happy. So we talked for the next half hour or more about parenting and the challenges and blessings that come from it.

  

  When Lauren came back, I headed to the ruins, and Austin and Harrison both tagged along. These ruins were of a village of maybe fourteen closely spaced houses surrounding a central building.

  

  The boys had a fun time jumping around in the ditches

  

  Laying in the bedrooms

  

  And sitting on the toilets

  

  But we couldn't stay here too long as we had to head to our next adventure, which was supposed to be Corrigall Farm Museum, but we skipped that entirely and had to run to our Orkney Brewery Tour. Now, there aren't many breweries that allow children on their tours, but this one does! Luckily for everyone involved, we were the only ones on the tour, and the kids really did quite well... mostly. But the lady running the tour was patient with us and we learned quite a bit about the brewing process. Well... I did... And the kids got juice in the end! Yay Juice!

  

  Our last stop was Skara Brae,

  

  which is, SURPRISE! More Ruins!

  

  We got a picture with the kids, and they walked through on their way to the beach where they spent their time while Lauren got a chance to actually read the information.

  

  After the juice, we had several toilet emergencies even though we'd literally JUST gone to the toilets at the visitors center! Most kids found a bush, but we did have a couple accidents. Luckily we were at the beach so they just went and rinsed off in the water and they could change when we got back the van eventually.

  The kids found some rock piles, and decided to add to those, which made me quite nervous as the piles were getting as tall or taller than them! They did eventually get pushed or tumble down on their own.

  

  Lauren finished up, and came and sat with the kids as I went to the Skaill House, just up the hill a bit. As I was heading up the hill, several of the kids decided to jump off the small cliff into the sand below. So they wanted me to video it. Of course, the time I videoed Harrison, he ended up twisting his ankle! Oh no! But that didn't stop Moses and Autumn from continuing to jump! Oh boy...

  I headed up the hill anyways. Skaill house is a 17th century mansion and the owner was the one who discovered Skara Brae in 1850. It was quite cool to see, but not so interesting for the kids, so I was grateful to be able to go through it on my own.
  

  As I was leaving the house, Lauren was herding the kids back towards the van. As I caught up to them, Harrison and Autumn were crawling along in the grass, because BOTH of them had twisted their ankles!! I ended up giving Harrison a piggy back ride back to the entrance, as his ankle seemed to be the worse of the two. I should have worked out more before this trip!

  We headed back to the caravan, which I was grateful stay in one place for a couple nights. After the long day I was pretty surprised that while I made dinner, the kids found new friends in our hosts' daughters and played together on the trampoline. Some how it came about that they put soap and water on the trampoline, in the cold, cold Orkney-ian weather! Crazy children?!?!

  I did make the kids rinse off and change clothes before coming in for the evening, and while we were staying in one place, there is always a bit of musical beds going on. I left Lauren to finish putting kids to bed as I passed out! I was WORN OUT!

  Go To Next Day

• July 7th, 2019

  The Ferry to Orkney, an accident, and a busy, busy day!

  So, the night before, neither Lauren nor I had slept well and both of us were rather grumpy. But we still had things to do and places to get to, so we powered through. Mostly...

  We had done three days of washing while we were here, but there was no dryer, so it was all hung. As it had sprinkled again through the night, the clothes outside were still pretty damp, so I brought them in and set them in front of the fire place. We've been trying to wash each set of a day's clothes separately, so theoretically, it's easier to manage. I tried to pack up what I could that was dry and keep the days separate. We did end up packing away some slightly damp clothes, but didn't have much choice. We also had a full days worth of clothes hung up inside the van.

  We had packed breakfast bags with croissants, doughnuts and fruit and left them on each child's seat. Since we had done baths the night before and had everyone dress in the next day's clothes, getting the kids up and ready was relatively simple. We did a quick check and were on the road early to meet our ferry.

  Once we got to the ferry, Harrison realized he was missing his personal box. it had been left at the house! Oh no! He was quite upset about it, as it has his journal from the trip, some small toys and his wallet with his money in it. We told him we'd try to contact the AirBnB about it once we made it to Orkney.

  This ship was quite a bit smaller than the other's we've been on, and we were supposed to back on to it. Luckily, when I told them I was a bit rubbish at backing up, they had a driver come and do it for us. And like the pro he is, he did a quick job and made it all look quite simple.

  

  Now the passage we were on is one of the fastest and most dangerous in the world as you get flow going in two directions, both from east to west and west to east. So it was no big surprise that the ride, with a smaller ship and rougher seas would be a bit wobbly. Most of the kids seems to actually enjoy it, though Meadow and Lauren were feeling the effects a bit.

  

  Lauren and I could both feel our patience wearing thin early on, but the kids did reasonably well, and we met a nice man from Orkney who had been over in Scotland the last three days on a motorcycle/camping trip. He said he hadn't slept in three days and it was COLD! I didn't envy him at all and was even more grateful for Lauren finding us the AirBnBs for when we were supposed to camp!

  The ferry ride was about an hour and we were quickly off once we reached Orkney. Lauren decided since we were a bit early we could try for the Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn before our scheduled tour at the Maeshowe Tomb. It was a bit of a drive and I repeatedly missed several turns. I was tired and distracted and when I missed the final turn for Cuween Hill, I decided to simply back up. But I didn't check my mirrors well, and with the clothes, and baggage in the back, I didn't see there were several motorcyclists behind me. I ended up backing up over one of them!

  Luckily, he was able to get clear quickly and wasn't hurt, though the van did end up on top of the front of his bike. One of the three motocyclists behind me was a police officer, which I was surprisingly grateful for. It took about a half dozen police officers, a couple breathalizer tests (standard), and at least a solid hour to figure everything out. I was completely at fault, and received a ticket for careless driving that I will need to pay before I leave Scotland, but everyone was very, very kind. Even the man who's bike I smooshed. I kept thinking I could have seriously hurt someone and would start crying. And then everyone would tell me how lucky we were that it was just property and it could be fixed, and I'd start crying again! But it really could have been so much worse, and everyone was so kind in how they handled it, even though I was totally at fault.

  After trading insurance information and being charged with my ticket, the police officer kindly guided me out and we were let go. Lauren decided we could still make it to the tour at Maeshowe tomb, so we headed there. Luckily it was only about 8 minutes drive as I was still quite shaky.

  At the visitors center, we made another toilet stop and Lauren offered to stay behind with Bowen and Winter. So I took the others on the tour, which was a short bus ride over to a hill a couple minutes away. under the hill is the Maeshowe tomb, which is a surprisingly large underground room with several compartments off of it. This was built around 4,000 years ago. It's quite impressive as it was built in neolithic times with only stone tools, yet there are slabs of stone probably three to four feet wide, at least ten feet long and ten inches tall that were moved without any sort of machine. They were fitted together without mortar and retain a tight seal.

  

  The tomb doesn't have any bones in it, and hasn't as far back as we are aware, but it was broken into in the 1200s by the Vikings who left ruinic inscriptions on the walls. It's thought they might have emptied the bones out of the tomb, but again, we don't have record of that. The ruins themselves are pretty amusing. One states that he is the best ruin inscriber and is carving them with the axe of a great warrior. Another, quite high up, says, "I am carving this very high up". Another just a bit higher, says "I am higher". It's so funny to see that human behavior hasn't changed that much!

  The kids did quite well on the tour, and we headed back to the visitor's centre, where Lauren had sandwiches ready for us and there was a picnic table. The kids ran around as much as they ate, but did finally manage to finish lunch (with many rounds of Pudgy Bunny with the grapes), and we headed back to the van.

  

  Our next stop was the Standing Stones of Stenness, which we had to yell at them not to climb on! (We forgot that reminder in the car!)

  

  Once the kids found they weren't allowed to climb on the stones, they quickly lost interest in them and found a poor old sheep that they managed to get to pet for a while.

  

  A couple more minutes there and we were back in the van and headed just a couple minutes down the road to the Ness of Brodgar. This is an archaeological dig which the kids had been watching a three-part documentary on for the last couple days. Unfortunately, they were more interested in climbing on the tires than checking out the dig. And Lauren's and my patience were about done, so we headed back to the van again rather that go on the tour that was forming.

  

  Just a bit further still there was the Ring of Brodgar. This pre-dates Stone Henge and is likely where the stone circle cult began. It's not quite as imposing as Stonehenge and doesn't have the top stones, but it's still an amazing piece of history. The kids were patient enough to take a couple pictures,

  

  then quickly ran off to the field to play at being cows and picking flowers.

  

  I took the time to sit and chill out, which was the first time I'd been able to do so since the accident. I was grateful for the time, and the beauty of the place. The wind made it a bit chilly, but the sun had come out a bit more and the view of the stones and the water just past was really something amazing.

  We corralled the kids and headed back to the van again. This time the drive was a bit further, as we headed to the Yesnaby view. It's an amazing view of the the sea from some very scary cliffs, which the kids decided to get right up close to the edge of! I reminded them again and again, that dieing was against the rules, but they just made both Lauren and I so very nervous, we pulled them back from the edge (after a couple pictures of course!).

  

  Lauren said that she liked this view much better even than the Cliffs of Moher, in part because there is no fence to block the view, but it did make us both quite nervous.

  That was the end of the schedule for the day, but Lauren decided we should head back to the Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn where I'd had the accident, as we hadn't gotten to see it, and she hadn't gotten to see the Maeshowe tomb. So we headed back that way, with a bit more care. Just as I was about to turn on to the road, I got honked at, as I'd been so intent on not missing the turn, I hadn't used my turn signal! Argh! This place might be the death of me!

  Up another windy road, and a hike up a steep path and we made it to the Cairn.

  

  This one, the entrance was so small, we had to crawl in on hands and knees, though you could stand up once inside.

  

  Like the Maeshowe tomb, this was a central chamber with several smaller chambers off of it. According to the guide at Maeshowe, instead of being intured as we think of it today, they would generally leave bodies outside the tomb to "deflesh naturally". The skulls would be placed in one chamber, legs in another and so on. Luckily Cuween is also lacking in bones.

  

  The kids checked out the Cairn and then decided that rolling down the hill was infinitely more fun, so they spent quite a bit of time rolling, falling and scooting their way down. I just don't understand how they have so much energy. But again, the view was fantastic so I took the moment to just... chill for a bit. I told Lauren that, while this is by far our worst day of the trip, both in attitude and circumstances, it's still a freakin' amazing day and we agreed we are so grateful to be able to make this crazy trip with the wacky kiddos. #Blessed ;)

  After Cuweeen Cairn, we headed to our AirBnB. This is another caravan or mobile home, though it's bigger than the one we stayed in a couple nights before. The kids played in the field and with the electric fence surrounding the pony. Sigh.... what's a mom to do?

  The view here is simply amazing. Orkney really is a gorgeous place with amazing history!

  

  Go To Next Day

• July 6th, 2019

  Strathy beach, Grocery shopping, An early check in and Work/Movie time

  We woke to the gorgeous view from the caravan, and out the window, we saw four beautiful deer with big ol' antler just getting some breakfast in the field just outside.

  

  I mean... the kids were more intersted in the TV, but still...What a great way to start the day!

  

  Since we'd done so much the day before, including Smoo Cave and the Coco World, we took a slower start to the day and headed off to Strathy Beach. Now, something I hadn't expected to find in the wild Highlands of Scotland was so many gorgeous, white sandy beaches, but they seem to dot the landscape. I wanted to stop at every single one, but we just couldn't... darn it...

  We did head to Strathy Beach, which Lauren said had won Scotlands best beach for 2019. The road there was another tiny, hilly road, but not quite at bad as the one from yesterday. The walk was farther, along a grassy hillside, and Bowen and Meadow decided they didn't want to make the trek, so they stayed behind.

  The rest of us, headed down the hill (me carrying Winter, as the grass was pokey) to the beach. The beach itself was quite nice, but to the left, there were some cool rock formations and a couple small caves we went to explore. It was another windy, drizzly day, but the kids didn't seem to mind much as they played on the rocks. They are pretty much pros as "The Floor is Lava" as I think they've played it every day of the trip, multiple times a day. So keeping away from the waves just became the new version of that.

  

  After a bit of exploring, Lauren headed back up the hill with Winter and I just sat and enjoyed the waves while the kids played. I was pretty impressed that they managed to stay mostly dry even while climbing on boulders out in the water.

  After the beach, we headed to Thurso and the grocery store here. We had a reasonably short list, so while I got the necessities, Lauren took the kids around to buy their treats.

  We were supposed to camp tonight, but, again, no, so Lauren had found us an AirBnb in Thurso. Originally, we had been told we could check in at 1, so we headed there after the shopping, but the cleaner hadn't quite finished yet. She said she was just finishing up, so we started bringing in alllll the things!

  We made a quick lunch of eggs and toast, and Lauren took all but Winter with her, for a 20 minute walk to the movie theatre to watch Spider Man. I stayed back, worked on laundry and work, and just took a bit of time to chill.

  They came back around 5:30 and I started dinner. We took turns around the small table, as we were having Chinese food, with all the colorful sauces. We still managed to get some on the seat cushion (why do so many AirBnB's have white EVERYTHING!?!?!). But at least it wasn't all in the carpets and lounge furniture.

  This was only a two bedroom AirBnB, so we had to kind of squish everyone in as far as sleeping goes, so all big girls and Moses slept in one room. Winter, my boys and I slept in the other and Lauren and Bowen got the couches downstairs. Unfortunately this did NOT lead to a good night's sleep for either Lauren or I. Uh-oh!

  Go To Next Day

• July 5th, 2019

  Rogie Falls, Corrieshalloch Gorge, Archmelvik Bay, Ardveck Castle, Smoo Cave and The World's Best Hot Coco

  This morning was another morning of packing up and cleaning out. The cleaners actually arrived before we left as they had to clean up before different guests arrived for that night. Somehow, even though we go round each house several times before we leave looking for little bits of stuff, we still end up losing things along the way. This time, it was a brush and a couple items of clothing.

  We did end up on the road about 9:00 and headed to Rogie Falls. When we pulled into the car park, we were met by a teenager in full Scottish kilt playing the bag pipe! What a fun surprise! the kids listened for a bit, we gave him some coins and took some pictures before heading on a short hike to the falls.

  

  The falls were quite pretty, and there was a bridge over them where we continued the hike for a short ways. The whole area was really pretty. The kids decided that the falls were to be renamed the Coke a Cola Falls, as the water looked brown and a bit fizzy like the soda. I love how creative they are.

  

  The kids played on the rocks in the water, no one fell in. Thank goodness! There were a few close calls, however. So before we had several very wet children, we headed back along the trail to the van.

  

  The next stop on our busy day was Corrieshalloch Gorge. This was again a bit of a hike, mostly down hill, to a bridge over a massive gorge. Only six people were allowed on the bridge at a time, which inspires a lot of confidence in it's strength. Or not... It had also started to sprinkle so we were getting a little wet along this hike.

  

  We almost stopped here at the bridge, as I was getting a strange vibe from a guy in the car park and wanted to head back, but we went a bit further along the other side to a viewing platform where you could see the waterfalls that seem to be right under the bridge. The platform also limited the number of people to 6. Luckily the kids are light, as some of them struggled a bit with the concept.

  

  After a quick view and some necessary photos, we headed back, this time mostly up hill, where Winter's legs were tired and I carried her on my shoulders. In the rain. Up hill. Whew, that gets tiring. But I have to remember she is taking probably three steps to each of my one. And for the most part has done really well on the hikes we've done.

  We make it back up to the van, where I double checked a couple things and my bad vibes seem to have been for naught. I didn't mind being wrong, as the passports had been out in the backpack instead of the safe, which was in the front seat along with my work laptop. We put stuff away in the safe and headed back out on the road again.

  Because it was windy, cold and raining off and on, Lauren and I discussed cutting Archmelvik Bay from our itinerary. But, it wasn't far out of the way, and we decided, if we didn't like it, we could cut the visit short. So away we went. Now, I don't think I've mentioned Scottish Highland roads so far. let me say, that while they are generally better than, say, Wales, were it is a single lane and high hedges making visibility pretty awful, they are still single lanes and very windy. However, the road to Archmelvik Bay was scary! Still a small, single lane with occassional passing places, this was the twisty-est, hilly-est road and a bit too popular for my tastes! We did eventually make it to the car park, however. Yay!

  When we got there the rain had mostly stopped and we headed out to a gorgeous white sandy beach where the water was an almost tropical blue. As we walked, the kids started finding a ton of jelly fish stranded on the beach. We headed toward some rocks and the kids, of course, started climbing around on them. They found a number of tide pools, some of them even having live jelly fish in them along with some small sea **anenomies that they would poke and it would grab on their fingers. There were also snails and barnacles on just about all the rocks. All of the kids really loved climbing around and finding all the critters. I'm so glad we didn't cut it from the list.

  

  After the kids had checked every tide pool for it's contents, we headed back to the car park. A quick visit to the toilets, and a foot rinse and we were back on the road again. On the drive to Archmelvik Bay, we had passed a couple of ruins. One of these happened to be Ardveck Castle, which, with a bunch of Ards in the van we had to stop and visit. Several of the kids were tuckered out, and as the walk was a short ways from the car park, they stayed warm and cozy in the van.

  The rest of us treked out in the drizzle to see the castle ruins. It was resonably small, but you could see the cellars (or were they dungeons?) and the tower which was strangley circular at the bottom and square at the top. As we were getting wet and muddy, we cut this visit short and headed back to the van.

  

  Two things were close by but were on the schedule for the next day. We decided to bump them up and do them today, so we stopped by Smoo Cave.

  

  Because of the recent rainfall, the caves were flooded, so we couldn't go on a boat tour, but we could go part of the way in, so down, down, down the hill we went, and up, up, up on a giant boulder the kids climbed. I'm pretty sure they're actively trying to give me a heart attack, as, when they were jumping around, several of them came quite close to falling off the edge. This would have been a ten foot drop only rocks.

  

  I reminded them of the "No Death" rule, had them climb/jump down, and we were off to visit the cave itself. It was a large cavern with some interesting dimpling on the stone to the left from moisture falling on the rocks below. Over a short bridge and path to the left we were able to go a bit further into another cavern and saw a giant waterfall. It was really impressive and we quite understood why there were no boat tours today!

  

  After some more looking around, we headed back up, up, up the other side of the hill. Again, part of the way up, this was just too much for Winter, so I carried her on my shoulders. We got towards the top, and the flatter but slightly longer path led alongside the road and I decided to take that. In doing so, I could see where the stream above fell through and became the waterfall below. Mother Nature is pretty spectacular! Especially up here in Scotland!

  

  Another potty break, and on to our final destination: Coco Mountain, home of the world's best hot cocoa. We got the kids each a kid's size cup and Lauren and I shared a full sized one and a couple of chocolates. The kid's size is about the size of an espresso cup, but they add melted milk chocolate around the rim, and to the bottom of the cup, as well as white chocolate. I'm not sure what else was added, but it's also topped with swirls of milk and white chocolate and marshmallows. The kids were soooooo sad that they only got a tiny cup but, after tasting it, they couldn't stay too sad. I was actually glad Lauren and I were sharing. I might agree that this is the best hot cocoa I've ever head, but it is so rich, I don't think I could have finished a mug on my own. It was delicious, as were the chocolates we got with them.

  

  The kids started to get a bit restless, so Lauren and I took ours to go and (after another toilet trip) headed back to the van. A bit more driving led us to our AirBnB for the night. This was on yet another windy, tight road and I missed it the first time. But once we found the caravan, the view was simply amazing. The caravan was a bit older, and kind of small for this many people, but our host was nice and showed the kids her pig named Peppa! The whole back side of the caravan was windows overlooking a spectacular view, but once the TV was on, that was the only thing the kids looked at. Boy, were they missing out!

  Wow, what a jam-packed day!

  Go To Next Day

• July 4th, 2019

  Dunrobin Castle, Clootie Well, Haggis and groceries

  Hallelujah! We're spending two nights in one place! No giant pack up this morning! We did a simple breakfast of bagels, cream cheese and jam and I spent some time working. Lauren, the wonder woman she is, spent her time on laundry and kid duty.

  About 10 am, I headed out on my own to visit Dunrobin castle. We had discussed the need for some alone time along the trip and this was one of my big breaks. It was about a 40 minute drive from our farm house AirBnB, but the drive was quite nice without 9 kids talking and a loud movie or music going. The whole trip, I just enjoyed the quiet!

  When I arrived, I was already impressed, as Dunrobin is fairly touted as the jewel in the crown of the Highlands. And it is fairy-tale gorgeous!

  

  When I arrived, it was just before 11, and a falconry exhibition was scheduled for 11:30, so I started my tour in the gardens and headed, slowly, to the corner of the garden. It was amazing to look at some of the plants along the way and see the beautiful design of the gardens as a whole. There were some plants that had leaves taller and wider than me!

  

  Eventually I did make it to corner where the falconry is and the birds were tied out on perches. It was interesting to read that, while it might appear cruel, this is for their benefit. While I was looking around the falconer was out talking to people and you could really sense a care for the birds.

  

  After checking out the birds, including a gigantic Eagle Owl (the largest owl species), several goshawks harris hawks and even a golden eagle, I headed over to the benches and was lucky enough to get a front row seat. After a couple minutes of setting up, we watched as the falconer trained and worked with his birds, flying them directly overhead and all around the grounds. It was pretty amazing to see the speed at which the falcons can reach. The hawks don't fly nearly as fast but are impressive in their ability to land prey several times their weight. We even saw a peregrine falcon fly which is the fastest animal in the world when it dives.

  

  The whole show was really impressive and informative and the kids would have loved it. The Castle itself, they wouldn't have enjoyed. But boy did I! It's a beautiful, but just the sort of thing to bore the children. I was so grateful to get to see it on my own. The castle is one of the oldest inhabited houses in Scotland, but with multiple additions, it's much changed from it's earliest versions from the 1235 onward.

  I'll save the description, and try to minimize the number of pictures, but it is fair to say, this is one of the most impressive castles I've ever seen and absolutely lived up to the fairy-tale dreams I may have harbored when visiting any castle in the past.

  

  Lauren also suggested I eat at the cafe at the castle before heading back, so I did, with a simple baked potato, veggies and a hot cocoa (it's cold up here in Scottland, even in July).

  After that, I headed back and picked up everyone else before headed a short way to a Clootie Well. "Clootie wells like the one here at Munlochy are found in Celtic places like Cornwall and Ireland and are linked to ancient healing traditions. The rag or cloot is dipped in the well and tied to a tree in the hope that a sickness or ailment will fade as the rag disintegrates."

  

  The spring itself was a quick walk from the parking lot, and it was interesting to see the bits that had been left along the way. There were lots of rags, full clothes and even shoes nailed to some of the trees. I do wonder if someone has to go through and thin the cloots from time to time.

  

  After the Clootie well, we headed to Dingwall (yes, one of the suitors in Disney's Brave is surnamed Dingwall!) and George Cockburn & Sons. This was listed on one of the documentaries we watched as a great place to buy haggis. We found a prime parking spot and so most of the kids came in the small shop with us. We ended up buying, not only the haggis and black and white puddings were were planning to, but some Scotch pies and steak slices, as well as some Rabbie's Haggis sauce. The sauce was a sort of red currant sauce with a bit of a horseradish kick to it.

  

  The kids started to run amok so I took them up while Lauren finished our purchase, then we headed on to the Tesco for the rest of the groceries we would need for the next couple days.

  Once I finished the shop, we headed back to the farmhouse. Again, it was really nice to have the same AirBnb for a couple nights. We started wrapped the haggis in foil and tossed it in the oven for a about an hour and a half. Towards the end, we tossed in the black and white puddings and the steak slices (the Scotch pies were for the next day).

  The kids and I have had haggis once before, and while it wasn't bad, I hadn't been very impressed. However, This haggis was soooo tasty. The kids earned their dollar by trying a bit each of haggis, white pudding and black pudding, though there was more should they want it. Everyone ate it and several of them wanted more! Success!

  Go To Next Day

• July 3rd, 2019

  Doune Castle, Pitlochry Dam, Highland Folk Museum, and Leault Working Sheepdog Demonstration

  Can I mention again how much I appreciate Lauren's planning on this trip? Yesterday and again today, she had the kids watch (an edited) Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail. Why, you ask, would we watch the movie twice? Because we visited Doune castle today!

  

  They watched it yesterday and Lauren would mention different parts that were filmed at Doune Castle. Then, this morning it was our first stop along for the (very busy) day. The castle walls were under a bit of restoration, but we were able to see most everything inside. This admission also included an audio guide, which I was happily surprised at the kids attention to.

  

  The guide not only talked about the history of the castle and what the rooms were used for, but did mention not only Monty Python's filming there, but apparently Outlander (a Netflix show) and the pilot of Game of Thrones were both filmed here as well.

  

  I was quite impressed with the kitchen. One whole end, about 17 feet across and maybe 5 feet deep was the oven. They were able to roast an entire oxen in there! There was even a seat for the spit turner boy and a window for when the fire or smoke got to be too much for him.

  

  As with most castles like these, they are more ruins than not. I'd love to be able to see one fully restored to it's medieval glory. There was a part that was restored in the 1800s, but in a different style.

  

  All around it was a cool castle and the kids got to dance where the knight of Camelot danced and got to run away from the castle in a fully Python-ian way.

  

  We re-watched the movie and they kids got to see the places they'd just been. I think it was a fun experience for them.

  After an ever present toilet break, we were back in the van and on to the next stop: Pitlochry Dam visitor's centre. This was supposed to mainly be a toilet break for a long drive, but I was happily surprised by the information. And the kids got to turn generators and make lights turn on, or show how the salmon are able to use the fish ladders enabling them to reach their spawning grounds.

  

  Back to the car, where we ate a lunch of ham and cheese roll ups and tried to watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Unfortunately, the version we had was in Spanish. Whoops!

  Ever on-ward, after a lot more driving, we reached the Highland Folk Museum. This was a bit like Cragganuowen, in that it was a living history museum. Unfortunately, by the time we made it here, we only had about an hour and a half. The lady at admissions said it was about a twenty minute walk to the older section, but right where we were, they had a 1930's school house we could visit with a teacher presenting.

  

  So that was where we headed. We were each sat in a school desk and given a quill, blotting paper and a small sheet to practice our penmanship. It's really hard working with ink and quill not to end up quite splotty! But most of the kids seemed to have fun trying, even Winter received a smiley face and a star for her efforts! next, the kids tried some old-timey games, like **hoop game.

  The kids had seen a playground as soon as they entered, so they really wanted to head there rather than explore more old stuff, so that's where we spent most of the remainder of the time we had there. I was able to get a quick glance at a traditional cottage before yet another toilet break, and back to the van.

  

  The next stop, we thought might be a highlight for the kids. It was the Leault Working Sheepdog Demonstration. It started with the kids getting to hold some 6 week old boarder collie puppies as we milled around in a surprisingly large group waiting for the demonstration. Unfortunately, on passing one of the puppies, it got dropped, and so kids were no longer allowed to hold them, though they could pet them.

  

  After a bit, we headed to the field, and the man in charge explained a bit about how the dogs worked and the whistles and calls he used to tell them what to do. It was amazing watching the dogs swing out wide and almost sneak behind the sheep so they could move them in the direction the man wanted them. It as very cool to watch the dogs all work together in gathering the sheep.He could have the dogs get them in a circle, or even a line. He could get them to isolate only one of the sheep.

  

  He then caught one of the sheep with his crook, and held it on it's back against his legs. It was strangely calm there, though when he moved it, it tried to get away. He showed us how quickly he was able to sheer it. Then he allowed those who wanted to to come help him sheer the other side. Almost all of the kids wanted to and got a chance to help sheer, except Winter, who watched on excitedly.

  

  Leault himself was rather interesting. He apparently comes from quite a long line of shepherds and was born on the farm in the house that still stands there. While he used to compete in sheepherder competitions, since he inherited the farm 18 years ago, he's never spent a night away from it. He has 4 kids, who he has never sent to school (schools teach kids to hate farmers) and he's raising them all to be shepherds as well, so he can continue the legacy.

  After the demonstration, he brought out not only the 6 week old puppies, but also a litter of 10 day old puppies. I again said the kids couldn't hold them, but could pet them. Which made them quite sad. I'm a mean mom, what can I say.

  Back to the van we go and off to our AirBnB. This one was bit of an adventure to find, as the original directions led us to a dirt path that I almost go us stuck on. We back tracked and double checked the directions and made it via a much safer route.

  We were staying in a farm house with 5(!!) bedrooms! To the kids, I'm pretty sure the best part was the 6 (!!) TVs! I rather enjoyed the large kitchen and two bathrooms.

  On the drive to the AirBnB, Lauren had found a castle hotel that offered fine dining and a Scottish tasting menu. We decided this was well worth the cost. After all, when would we get another chance like this?! So, After we got the kids settled in and fed, we took ourselves off for our 7:45 reservation.

  The castle itself was only about 8 minutes from the AirBnB, and was quite pretty. We were led to the lounge where we could have drinks and our order was placed. I got the tasting menu and Lauren ordered a la carte. This way we could share and try even more Scottish food.

  

  After a bit, we were led to our table in the dinning room, and received our appetizers. I had pan seared scallops with a pea puree,

  

  and Lauren had Cullen Skink Risotto. Both were absolutely fantastic.

  

  This was followed by an amuse-bouche of raspberry sorbet.

  

  We had some haggis truffles that were amazing, along with neeps and tatties(aka turnips and potatos) which were delicious. I didn't get a picture as we inhalled them too quickly! For our mains, I had the Highland lamb rump with an amazing Dauphinoise potato (similar to scalloped potatos, but much thinner and the best I've ever had!)

  

  and Lauren had a braised pork belly with savoy cabbage and wild mushrooms.

  

  For dessert, she had lemon posset

  

  and I had the raspberry Cranachan, which complemented each other so well.

  

  After dessert, there was a cheese platter that came with the tasting menu but was definitely enough for two with grapes, Morangie Brie, Blue Murder (my fav), Apple-smoked cheddar (Lauren's fav) and Mull cheddar. Neither of us fancied the Scottish oatcakes that were rather like crackers, but we finished the rest. The final course was an offering of coffee and Whiskey fudge and hand rolled chocolates.

  

  This might well have been the best all around meal I've ever had. Everything was so very well done and tasted fabulous. Sara, our waitress was attentive and amusing, and the setting was beautiful. It was just a-maze-ing!

  We did head back to the AirBnB, the kids and reality afterwards, however

  Go To Next Day

• July 2nd, 2019

  Castlewellan Forest Park, Ballynoe Stone Circle, Carrickfergus Castle and another Ferry

  This was another reasonably early morning, as we had a lot to do and see today! I worked a bit while everyone got a bit more sleep. Lauren had hung up one load of laundry in the house the night before and started another. I hung the second load of clothes in the van on a clothes line strung from front to back. After a bit, we woke the kids and they all worked together to get ready and to get the last bits in the van. Lauren had made overnight oatmeal the night before, and found some hot cocoa powder which she added to the kids bowls this morning.

  There were a couple kids who tried to shirk their part of the work, which did not do great things for my attitude. We had so much to do, everyone needed to help. It has been interesting to see how the different kids react to this. Some go out of their way to ask if anything needs to be done. Some will ignore repeated requests and go and hide rather than do a simple task. And there are those in the middle, who won't look for ways to help, but when asked will do it. And we have some of each in both families! Almost like they're all individuals... Woah!

  We did eventually get on the road and headed first to Castlewellan Forest Park. Though the castle could be seen in the distance, and there was more an arboretum, we were there for one very specific reason...

  The Peace Maze!

  The Peace Maze is a large and quite intricate hedge maze. Everyone but Winter sprinted to it. Winter saw the playground next to it, and decided that was a better destination, so I went with her. From the playground, I could see a bridge over the top of the maze to the center, so I got to watch as the kids (and Lauren) twisted and turned their way through the maze. Harrison and Cozy were the first to finish and meet me at the top. Though some of the others asked for help, the center had a high hedge, we we couldn't see which turns they needed to make to get to it! Eventually everyone did make it out. Eventually...

  

  We headed over to the playground, which had some very cool wooden sculptures and even a giant spider to climb on. Some kids played here a bit while others tried the maze for a second (or fifth) time.

  

  We had more to see and do, so after a toilet break, we all got back in the van and were off to the next destination! This time, we were going to the Ballynoe Stone Circle. It took a bit of trial and error to find the right location, as it didn't come up correctly on Google maps, but we did, and parked in front of a seemingly unused farm gate.

  The path to the stone circle is a shrubbery tunnel, and was quite pretty, once we made it on the right side of the fence. Along the way, some people had left small tokens, like a teddy bear or sea shells which interested the kids, but we had to tell them to leave them alone.

  Generally, I'm at the back of the heard of children, making sure we don't lose anyone along the path. By the time I made it out of the path and could see the stone circle in the field (which was pretty stinkin' cool), half of the kids were already climbing all over the stones. I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to be doing that, but I also figured, the stones were about 4000 years old, so they couldn't realistically do much damage... right?!?

  

  The kids played The Floor is Lava whist trying to break their ankles jumping from stone to stone, and all around had a fun time without much if any contemplation of the reason someone 4000 years ago spent the time and immense effort to move these stone to this location, in this shape.

  

  While there, we meet a couple of lovely ladies who had brought their kids and the kids they mind to the circle. (Child minding is the British term for babysitting or day care workers, which honestly makes more sense.) They said they only lived about 10 minutes away, but had never been here before, and isn't that just the way it goes? We take for granted the things closest to us, but will drive hours and hours to see something else. All around, it was lovely to meet them and I hope they enjoyed their trip as much as we did (and didn't think we were terrible for climbing on the rocks!)

  Our terrible tourist-ness didn't stop there. Oh no! We got out to the road, thorough the cool tunnel, and found a man with a trailer waiting (quite kindly and patiently) to turn into that gate we had assumed was unused! He was even kind enough to say we could park in his drive way just a smidge up the road! I jumped in the van and got out of his way as soon as I could, but just used the drive way as a place to turn around and swung back to pick up everyone, and we were on our way again. Sorry, kind sir!!

  We had started the day on the western coast of Ireland, and our next stop was the Carrickfergus Castle. This castle is on the east coast of Ireland, and we had driven pretty much the whole width of the island in one day! Whew that was quite a lot of driving! Luckily the kids have generally been doing quite well in the van. Thank goodness!

  

  This time, we got to go in the castle, though the main hall was under reconstruction from a major storm a couple years ago. The kids played for a bit while I tried and failed to do my work call. Then on to explore!

  

  This castle is in a pretty amazing location in a beautiful bay, and was well situated for defense. There were a large number of canons on rolling tracks so they could turn and aim at different parts of the bay.

  

  Because... canons.... Of course the kids had to climb all over them. Unfortunately Meadow did not make it up and back down successfully on one of her attempts, and managed to fall, hit her head and cause a bit of excitement with a head wound. So everyone else went back to the play area and built wooden castles, while Lauren took Meadow to the bathroom to try to clean her up.

  

  Luckily, though there was blood and a lump, Meadow seemed to recover. She did decide to stay in the play area while the rest of us explored the dungeons, murder holes, though she did join us for the dress up areas with clothes, crowns, swords, and spears!

  

  We did have to leave, as we had another ferry to catch. So on we went to another harbour and to our ferry. We checked in without incident and went to the security check point. Of of the officers, said he had to check the back, and so he peeked in and found a plethora of children. He asked Winter something, to which she replied "Meow", because... she's a cat 90% of the time right now, so of course she did. Well, this man thought that was quite cute, but he likes dogs better, so he had a chat about dogs and showed us pictures of his 4 huskies, which were quite adorable. He chatted a bit more with the kids and then were off to wait in line.

  Eventually, we did make it on the ferry, and they, thankfully, had a kids room. What I didn't expect, was a ship employee to come in with us and keep us company. Heather was lovely and set the kids up with a movie and chatted with us all as Lauren and I set up a cured sausage, cheese and cracker dinner for the kids.

  The ferry ride was only about 90 minutes, and we were back on the road. We had originally planned to wild camp this night, but Lauren had found us a reasonably small AirBnB instead. We were getting in reasonably late, and it seemed quite far off the beaten track. We even passed a beautifully spooky looking abandoned house, and started to feel a wee bit concerned. But we "Kept Faith" and did find the house. The house only had two bedrooms, so Lily, Winter and I slept out in the van, and the others bedded down as they could. And off to sleep we went (except Lauren, who made the ham wraps for the next day's lunch!)

  Go To Next Day

• July 1st, 2019

  The Caves of Keshkorran, no lunch, Slieve Gallough park and another AirBnB

  We had an early start to this morning. I woke up about 6:00 and started packing up the last few things into the van, such as the food from the fridge and the chargers and phones. We also needed to do a little bit of last minute cleaning up, and put the furniture back the way we found it (specifically, we'd turned the table to better fit everyone) and pack away the mattress toppers that made sleeping on thin beds infinitely more comfortable. A bit before 7:00 Lauren woke up, and then we started waking kids. We needed to strip the beds, but once that was accomplished, and socks etc were donned, we were ready to go about 7:20, which was great time!

  We'd spread bagels with cream cheese and jam the night before, along with hard boiled eggs, so these were passed out amongst the chilluns for a quick breakfast on the go and we hit the road.

  Our first stop was at the grocery store where we picked up what was needed for the next few days. So far, we have averaged under about $50 a day at the grocery store. That doesn't include eating out, which we haven't done a ton of. Still, $50 a day for 11 people, that's pretty stinkin' good! We could have done it for less if we'd wanted to either cook more from scratch or do more basic foods. But I think we've had a good compromise of eating reasonably healthy, interesting and culturally appropriate foods when possible.

  We're constantly trying to figure out the best way to organize the van, as there is just a lot of stuff in a rather confined space! When I checked out at the Tesco, I tried to keep each day's food in a separate bag but we didn't want to have that on the floor in the middle as kids would inevitably climb all over it. So we put it in the back. Unfortunately, a big bump led to a jar of jam on Bowen's poor head! We did a bit of rearranging after that, and I've decided the green bins are less likely to cause concussions than the bags.

  A wee bit of driving lead us to the Caves of Keshkorran. These are pretty stinkin' cool to look at from the road, high up on a hillside. However, the hike didn't appeal to everyone. Meadow decided she would hang back and wait for our return. I almost joined her! But up the hill the kids went, and up the hill Lauren and I went. I was quite impressed with Winter and Bowen hanging back with us old folk as we trudged. That was a STEEP hill. It honestly would have been more comfortable as steps, but I was grateful it was a reasonably dry morning!

  

  We did eventually catch up to the rest of the kids at the top with the caves. There are a number of caves set in the hillside, though we were only really able to explore three of them that were connected. The kids didn't seem to mind as they crawled back as far as they could in each cave. The view from here, however, was spectacular.

  

  After more exploring, lots of picture taking, and several incidents with stinging nettle, we were ready to head on down. Again, the kids beat us down, but they all made it in one piece, which was a good thing!

  

  We had planned to visit the Fox's Den for lunch, but were a bit early, so we headed to a lovely park we had seen in our attempts to find parking for the caves. It was a bit windy, but the kids didn't seem to mind as they ran off some of their eternal supply of energy. (Seriously! They'd just hike a mountain and they wanted to run around!! Ah, to be young.)

  After a bit of play, we headed just down the road to the pub, but found it closed! Nooooooo!!! Luckily, the owner was there, and while he said the pub wouldn't be open this afternoon until 4:00 because of the weather (??) he was more than happy to show us a reproduction Irish cottage with real live chickens, and a pig. He showed us around the cottage and said he'd built it over the winter. It was really amazingly well done and I was thoroughly impressed! The kids seemed to enjoy it as well.

  

  He was also kind enough to let us use the toilet, since we had litle bladders among us.

  We got back on the road with a new pub in our sites. The kids were hungry, so we shared out the leftover chicken goujons (tenders) and the last of the eggs, and promised them ice cream at the pub. Unfortunately, when we got there, they were closed too! Oh no! By this time, Lauren was feeling a bit grumpy as her plans had gone awry and we both feeling a bit hangry. But we decided to drive on.

  As we passed through a small town, I happened to see a sweets shop with parking just in front! It must be a sign from above! We pulled over, and bought everyone an ice cream cone with a flake (kind of a wafer of flaked chocolate). There was no seating inside (it's more a candy store) so we had the kids sit in the van while we ate. I didn't want to manage eating ice cream and driving. The kids apparently so impressed the proprietor of the shop, that he brought out a tub and offered them each a lolly as well for being so well behaved! Yay!

  After our sweet stop, we headed on, through a quick gas and toilet stop, a short stop as Harrison threw up from car sickness, and on to the Slieve Gullion Forest Adventure play park.

  

  This was a nice park where the kids played while Lauren bought the adults some yummy food! We had some bread topped with veggies and goat cheese, a sausage roll, both with chips and a mix of salads. We both definitely felt better after some food! It's amazing how quickly one can get hangry!

  

  The kids played for quite a while, and Lauren took a couple of them on the walk to the Giants Lair, which I thankfully avoided as it was another uphill adventure.

  Originally, we had planned to camp for the next two days, but with as un-fun-ly as that had gone before, Lauren had found us an AirBnb instead! We headed there next. With all of the driving, we had driving from the very west side of Ireland and made it to very east side of Northern Ireland. That was a LOT of driving!

  Our host met us just after we arrived, and though we'd told them to calm down and be quite, the kids were being very loud and rambunctious. So once she left, Lauren and I both had a stern talking to them, and they earned themselves individual quiet time until dinner was ready.

  We made a quick dinner of couscous, peas and chicken and fed the kids outside as Lauren worked on the laundry (again!) and I sorted food (again!) They ate, worked on their journals and were quickly sent off to bed.

  Maybe the hanger lasted longer than expected...

  Go To Next Day

• June 29th and 30th, 2019

  Lazy days in Louisburgh.

  After several days of running ragged, I was very grateful that Lauren had planned in several breaks along the way! We had three whole nights in one spot! And what a beautiful spot it was! The house we were staying in was outside of a small town and close to the ocean. It was calm and relaxing, just what we needed at that point!

  We had a slow start the first morning with giant pancakes, honey and bananas and a bit of TV while everyone just relaxed a bit. Lauren worked on laundry as this house had both a washer AND a dryer. Hallelujah! I caught up a bit on work and this blog. For some reason I'm struggling to get the panoramic pictures to format correctly. But I'll fiddle with it later.

  On our off days, we're really trying to limit the screen time, so the kids had to find ways to entertain themselves, **GASP** And they did a fantastic job of it. Moses found several snails and made a habitat for them on the dresser. The kids all made up a dragon game and played together. There was wrestling and running around outside. Books were read. Just good, relaxing fun.

  On Saturday, we took a walk to the beach. Well, that was the plan. We started down the road next to the house that looked like it would take us to the beach. But about halfway down, it turned pretty marshy, and a gate blocked us off. So we headed into the field next to it. The big kids did fine running through the field, but Winter doesn't like "pokey" grass and it was up to her thighs, so I ended up carrying her about half the way.

  

  Before we quite made it to the beach, Cozy found some eggs in the rocks. They kids were all quite excited and we had to keep them back a bit, and still one decided to walk right over them. Somehow the eggs survived us! Whew!

  

  Now, we had warned the kids. This is Ireland, the water is COLD. There isn't much sunshine and it's windy. Lauren didn't think the kids would want to get in, and I just laaaaaaaughed!! Once we got the beach, the tide was out, but the kids, stripped down to swimsuits and several of them were out in the water in no time flat. Meadow had found a bucket at the house and brought it along, but was a bit upset when the sand wouldn't cooperate. She decided pretty early on she hated this beach. Harrison, knowing full well that he was going to get in the water (he was the one I was positive would) didn't bring a towel!! And when I made Winter, who wasn't going in the water, share, she was not happy! Sigh. The struggles are real!

  

  But, aside for the cold, the sand and the towel incidents, most of the kids had quite a good time. After a bit, Moses came back in from the water and was pretty cold, so he, Autumn and Lauren hiked back to the house. The kids both took hot showers to warm up, while Lauren drove the van the "long way" on a different road and came to pick us up. Another 40-point turn, and we had turned around on the tiny road and were headed back.

  The kids all cleaned up and warmed up inside for rest of the day. They worked on their journals and workbooks as well as more independent play. Yay!

  That evening, Lauren and I headed the 8 minutes into Louisburgh, as she had found a pub for us to try. Unfortunately, when we got there is was jam-packed! So we went to the small shop for a couple last minute additions that I'd forgotten the day before on the shopping list. Then we checked out a different pub where we got a couple drinks and people watched as the football match was on the TV. This pub was supposed to have live music, but by 9, apparently it was still too early for that, and we were fading.

  We tried again at the first pub, but were told they were hosting a mock wedding fund raiser and all the food prep was being used for that. We headed back to the small shop, where we'd seen some lemon tarts, but they were all put away. We just wanted some dessert!! We did find a small take away shop that, while they didn't have dessert, had some amazing chips with spicy mayo and bacon. Even better!!

  After the chips with bacon, we headed back and I headed off to bed, while Lauren continued the fight with the laundry!

  The next day was pretty similar, only we skipped the beach, as it was raining in fits and spurts and just all around a cooler day. The kids did a really amazing job of entertaining themselves, Lauren trudged through the ever present laundry piles, and I did a bit more work.

  For lunch, we all had pizza and dough balls as an early birthday celebration of Cozy's upcoming 10th. She had gotten to pick out her own birthday cake at the shop on Friday, and so we lit some candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to an amazing almost 10 year old.

  That evening, Lauren and I tried the pub again, and this time we got a seat and ordered. The seafood chowder was quite good, but I think the StoneCutter's was a bit better.

  

  We also got some goat cheese fritters with a tart apple chutney with nuts that was fantastic!

  

  We shared a plate of curry with prawns as a main and it was pretty good. The profiteroles for dessert weren't great, but... dessert!

  

  We chatted a bit with the table next to us, which had a group of four. When I asked if they were from around here, they said, "No, we're from Scotland. Can't you tell from our accents?" Which, no... no I couldn't, lol. But they were quite friendly and nice, just over for a holiday, like us, only sans kiddos.

  After the pub, we headed back again to the house and got everything ready for an early morning the next day. To make this happen, we had the kids dress in their clothes for the next day, packed up all the laundry, most of the food, their personal boxes after journal time and just about everything else. Ready for the next adventure!

  /p>

  Go To Next Day

• June 28th, 2019

  Quin Abbey, Craggaunowen, the Pigeon Hole Loop with Guinness Tower, and Grocery Shopping

  After a late night, and rather early start, we broke camp while the kids played at the playground and we attempted to keep them quiet(ish). Getting everyone dressed and ready, as well as tents packed and sleeping bags stowed all happened with surprising speed and we were on the road before 9 am.

  We had a quick breakfast in the van with a sampling of flapjacks, Welsh cakes and sausage rolls, plus some fruit. Some of these were more of hit with some of the kids, but, again, with this many everything is going to be a bit hit or miss! I consider it a win if they're not starving, and so far, so good!

  A reasonably quick trip led us to the ruins of Quin Abbey. I think finding a place to park might have taken about the same amount of time as the drive! Parking and driving poor Bertha sometimes takes 32-point turns, though more experienced drivers seem to get in one go.

  

  Quin Abbey is quite beautiful and grand. It would be amazing to see it as it was when it was first built. As with so many things along this trip, I'm impressed with the workmanship of the long-ago craftsmen that created these works of art that have stood the test of time... More or less, any way! We did have to remind the kids (repeatedly) not to climb on every. single. thing. We don't want to be the ones at fault when the next wall comes tumbling down!

  

  Once we made it to about the farthest part of the Abbey, Winter decided she needed to potty, so she and I enjoyed a rather quick retreat and I left Lauren with all the remaining trouble makers. Since there was no easily accessible toilet available, we had to avail ourselves of the multi-purpose toilet bucket. Yay for being prepared! (My mama taught me right! Thanks Mom!)

  Once everyone else made it to te van as well, we were on the road again to our next destination: Caggaunowen! Craggaunowen is an outdoor, living history museum.

  

  We started with a picnic lunch while the kids admired the tiny goats in the field and tried to pet them. After paying for our admission (and being warned by the man at the desk that the guides would talk our kids ears off) we started our circuit. First off was the Castle.

  

  The Castle is a 16th century castle. In the bottom, there was a guide who was working at a spinning wheel spinning yarn. She was so enthusiastic to share her art with the kids. They kids got to help with some of the spinning as well as see some finished works and touch different fibers, such as thistle, and even banana fibers! They use all natural dyes to color the wool and other fibers, and she showed the kids a shawl she had woven out of the wool she had spun, dyed and woven. It was quite impressive!

  

  Since this is a castle after all, the kids had to climb to the highest heights of the tallest tower, and look over the edge. On the way back down there were several bedrooms set up. One with a bed frame made with only wood, even the connections were wooden! In another room, they had a simple box on the floor with a straw mat laid in it.

  

  Once we chased all the children back down the stairs, we continued on to Crannog, which was a tiny man-made island with a couple thatched dwellings on it. The fire was left smoldering, so the kids decided the best thing to do was to add straw to the embers and start a fire!! Yikes! These are THATCHED DWELLINGS. Ie, incredibly flammable! And even after the lecture telling them why it's so important not to play with fire, we turned our back and another kid tossed on more straw! Argh! We're all going to die!

  

  But we didn't this time! This time...

  Once we were sure the flames were out and we weren't going to destroy an irreplaceable piece of history, we continued on out way and found a replica of the wooden roads that were used in this area. The kids decided this looked like a stage and where in the middle of a dress rehearsal when who should come along but the Chieftain!

  This guide carried swords, which of course drew the kids directly towards the danger. (How did we survive as a species!! They go searching for death!) They did each get a brief lesson in swordsmanship and had the chance to fight with the Chief. We chatted for a while with him before the kids returned to their dress rehearsal and put on a very brief play for a rapt audience.

  

  Once the play was over, we continued on to the Bronze age settlement. We learned that they cooked by digging a big pit in the ground and lining it with wood, and filling it with water. Then they would start a fire and heat rocks, which would then be put in the water to heat it. Meat would be wrapped in straw and put in the water to cook. Which makes one think how much easier it would have been to just cook the meat over a fire! And makes me even more grateful for my microwave at home!

  Next we saw the Brendan boat in a giant greenhouse sort of set up. For some reason this didn't seem to hold the kids interest as well, though I had learned from the first guide that the black oil used on the exterior of the boat was the oils that were boiled off of the wool and helped to waterproof the vessel.

  

  We walked by the semi-wild bores as the snuffled along in the mud before reaching the Souterrain, which included a "secret" entrance down below on the trail, which, of course the kids all had to try out. The adults refrained, somehow. For which we were even more grateful when they came back and said there was a black widow in the passage way. I still refrained for checking it out, but a bit of research leads me to believe it might have been a false widow spider which is in fact venomous! We left it alone, whatever it was. The small settlement area was pretty cool to look around and see different weaving and trades being displayed as well as a pot of what might have been someones lunch several weeks ago but the fire pit! (Ew!)

  

  This was the end of the tour at Carggeonowen, but as the kids ran out of the exit, towards the van, the caused a small stampede in the resident goats who all started running with the kids. They thought that was the coolest thing ever. And I might have to agree a little!

  Back in the van, once again, and with a snack, we headed on to Cong, which is a town where the movie "The Quiet Man" was filmed, which I have not seen and have not reference point for it. But in this town, there is a beautiful wood with a "short" hike through it. We took a bit finding a place to park poor Bertha again, and off through another ruined abbey,

  

  and we found the bridge that started the trail. Just before crossing the bridge, there was a monk's fishing hut which did seem like an amazingly calm spot on the lake... until the kids climbed the walls and through the windows! Ahhh, kids...

  

  The trail we were following was the Pigeon Hole trail and it lead us through a beautiful green, green forest, a tiny bit reminiscent of Puzzlewood from a couple days ago, only the trees seem taller. In fact, we even found some redwoods here, which surprised me.

  

  When Lauren showed us the map, she said the trail was about 1.5 km. However, this ended up being a dirty rotten LIE!! What we didn't know when we started was that the trail is actually 4.7 km!! This path, however, was incredibly well maintained, wide and smooth, which made a huge difference. Though we still had the littlest people telling us "My legs are tired!" Mine too, sweetheart. Mine too!

  A bit over half way around the trail, there is Pigeon Hole Cave, which is really quite impressive. There are (very steep!) stone steps leading down. I was a little surprised all of the kids wanted to head down. Hahaha! No, no I wasn't surprised at all! We got to the bottom where there was still plenty of light (it was open to the sky at that part. And the kids scattered like cockroaches into the shadows to the farthest parts of the cave. We hadn't brought enough flash lights though a couple had brought the ones Dallas gave them, and between thoes and cell phone lights, the kids explored quite a bit.

  

  Eventually we did have to climb back up those slick, steep steps. Again, parenting win as no one died! Go us!

  We continued on, past the ruins of the Prient's house, and on to eventually find the Guinness Tower. This is a tall tower in the middle of the woods that you can actually climb up and look out the window at the top. It is very reminiscent of Rapunzel's tower, only there's a door at the bottom. Most of the kids decided the ascent was worth the effort and headed up the stairs. Lauren did as well, though I remained below.

  After the tower, we realized we were taking much longer than expected (again the trek was almost 3 times what we expected) and we needed to head back and move the van before the lot we parked in closed at 6:00, so I trudged on, carrying Winter on my shoulder's through the remainder of the hike to hurry along. Luckily, the tower was closer to the end, and most of the kids and I made it out of the woods with enough time. Still, once Lauren caught up, the kids were all in need of a rest, so I went and got the van and drove to pick them up.

  Unfortunately, the road I pulled onto to pick them up on turned into a one-way road going the wrong way and the parking lot had a height restriction bar. So, about an 18 point turn, while traffic waited was in order. But,whew! We did it!

  On the road again, we headed towards the AirBnB that would be our base for the next several days. But before we could get there, we needed to do some grocery shopping. We stopped at a Tesco Extra about a half hour from the house, and while I overloaded yet another shopping trolley, Lauren took first the boys, then the girls to spend their "good behavior" money. Most all of the kids bought cups of mixed candies. Then, because I had forgotten the dinner for tonight, Lauren had to run back in AGAIN and grab the some rotisserie chickens, while I tried to fit all the groceries in the van without them falling on children!

  With such a long day behind us, we were exhausted! We did finally make it to the house about 8:30 and fed the kids chicken and salad. After that, we still had to make up the beds, including putting covers on all of the duvets. We had planned to bathe all the kids before tucking them in to nice clean beds, but, it was just too much, so we sent stinky, sweaty, dirty kids off to bed at 10:30, and simply crashed for the night!

  Whew! What an amazing and exhausting day!

  /p>

  Go To Next Day

• June 27th, 2019

  A Park in Limerick and The Cliffs of Moher, a Saint and a Pirate Ship

  Laundry, laundry, laundry! Why does it seem all my posts involve laundry!?!

  

  This morning, surprisingly, the clothes we washed yesterday weren't dry, even the stuff we'd managed to put on the clothes horse outside. Sigh!

  

  Instead of focusing on that, after work I cooked up some farm fresh eggs with bread and jam our host had supplied us with. Cozy helped with making and buttering the toast, and Autumn and Meadow worked together to smash a bunch of eggs Lauren had hard boiled the night before and Harrison had peeled so we could make egg salad sandwiches today for lunch.

  Breakfast was a bit of a production, which, honestly it often is with this many people. While we were making it, Lauren helped make sure all the kids were dressed and the van was packed up. Once breakfast was ready, everyone tucked in outside (inside was still covered in clothes and we didn't want sticky, jammy fingers near the clothes!)

  Breakfast was followed by a couple more rounds of Where is My Sock?!, and Don't Feed the Dogs! accompanied by the sounds of the corralling mothers and their melodious, Put That Thing Back Where It Came From, Or So Help Me (a la Monster's Inc, of course).

  We had a couple hours to drive so we made a stop in Limerick around lunch time. Lauren had found a park, though we ended up changing and going to a different one after all. But a park was still had. We chose the second park because it was supposed to have free toilets, and many members of our group have bladders the size of children! Unfortunately, that was a LIE! It did have pay toilets and thank goodness for Austin, who happened to have Euro coins (I only had bills with me). However, the toilet decided to be mean and stop working correctly, until a lovely maintenance man came by and saved the bladder of many a small person.

  While Lauren was fighting with a toilet, I was making the egg salad sandwiches, which the kids grabbed and ate (mostly) before running off to play in the park area. It was a nice break for most of the kids, though Meadow had a bit of a tiff with an Irish lad at the park who didn't want to share the swing.

  After the park, we drove some more and headed to the Cliffs of Moher. Again, Lauren had found some interesting documentaries and podcasts for us to learn about the Celtic and Irish history. This kids have all done reasonably well in the car, considering it's such tight confines for long periods of time. There have been a number of small arguments, much like any group of siblings... only more! But all around, they've been doing great!

  We reached the Cliffs, and before exiting the van, we reminded them of the main rule for the Cliffs: Don't Die! They laughed a bit, but... seriously, these cliffs are like 700 feet up! And most of these kids are climbers! We didn't need the paperwork that would cause ;)

  The price of parking gave us entry to the Visitor's Center (and, more importantly, the bathrooms!). After a quick-ish trip to the toilets, we checked out the visitor's center. There were a several interactive displays, including a green screen with a number of backgrounds to take pictures in front of.

  Once we dragged them away from the screens, we took them outside to see the actual cliffs! They really are amazing, but this is definitely one of the more touristy type activities we've done so far. There were just a lot of people, and, you know... that whole kids climbing and death thing! We did a short walk along the cliffs, got a couple of pictures, and the kids played the floor is lava. I reminded them that death was against the rules, to the amusement of others along the trail. And, then we were done! Some quick pictures, and we headed back to the van.

  

  The next stop was nearby, though when you make the wrong turn, that doesn't always mean it's a short trip. Eventually we did find the right stop and we found St. Brigid's Well next to a cemetery. This well is supposed to help heal the sick and afflicted. It was interesting to see the tokens and photos that have been left around the well as well as the statue of St. Brigid herself. She is kind of the female patron saint of Ireland.

  

  That stop was pretty short, as we still had a bit of a drive to get to our campsite for the night. We checked in there and were so pleasantly surprised to find that they had a playground, and campsites right next to it! Well, the kids were pleasantly surprised, as they ran off as we got tents set up and pegged down so they didn't blow away in the wind. Once the tents were stuck, we tossed in a couple sleeping bags and the mattress topper in the biggest tents, as well as a couple bins so they really wouldn't fly away.

  Once camp was set, we fed the kids a quick dinner and headed back out to StoneCutters Kitchen, just down the way. They had a pirate ship play ground and ice cream, so the kids were happy. They also had an amazing seafood chowder, Guinness beef and potato stew, and Irish beef burgers which Lauren and I enjoyed along with some complimentary Irish soda bread and butter. We were definitely stuffed but it was a delicious meal.

  

  By the time we got back to camp it was time to hit the sack, though the kids wanted 10 more minutes on the playground. They got a little more, and were quickly sent off to bed. Unfortunately, we discovered the less desirable effect of being close to the playground, in that other kids didn't go to bed until close to 11:00! To be fair, the sun doesn't set until somewhere around then, and getting kids to fall asleep when it's still full light out is a bit tough!

  /p>

  Go To Next Day

• June 26th, 2019

  Carreg Samson Doleman and the Ferry to Ireland

  Each morning, I've been waking up about 5 am and doing a couple hours of work. This worked well this morning as we needed to keep the laundry going! We did get through all but the last load or two of shirts. Of course, as soon as the kids got up, we had more laundry! But such are the struggles of traveling with this many people.

  We had made overnight oatmeal, so it was a quick meal for the kids as we finished packing up the van and cleaning the house before we left. Because we're traveling with so many people, I do try to be extra conscientious of cleaning up before we go so that they will continue to want to let groups like ours stay in these great places

  Once the house was clean and everyone was loaded up, we headed towards the ocean. We had a stop planned along the way at a dolemen. A doleman is an ancient stone monument. To get to the Carreg Samson doleman, we had a bit of a walk along the coast, climbing a number of sets of stairs.

  

  This Doleman was pretty impressive, especially when you consider it's 5000 years old! How in the world did they get those stones up there like that!?!?

  

  On the walk back, the kids had a chance to play for a couple minutes at a stony beach. They found some interesting critters in the cliffs surrounding the beach. Harrison practiced skipping stone, as there were a lot of great stones for that. But we only had a few minutes before we needed to get back on the road.

  

  After that stop, we headed the rest of the way to Fishguard and the port so we could board a ferry over to Ireland. When we first arrived, we were just a smidgeon early and I thought we had missed the crowds. Once we got through the check in process, however, we found them. We sat for quite a while waiting to board. It was interesting seeing some of the other vehicles waiting to board. There were even a number of horse carriers with horses. Some of the trucks would simply drop off their trailer, and these were then pulled on- board by a tractor. The tractor drivers were really impressive in their ability to maneuver around all the traffic and hook up quickly to the trailers to bring them aboard.

  Once we made it on-board, we got everyone out of the van and up the stairs to the lounge area. We set up a quick lunch of meat and cheese sandwiches. As we were eating, the ferry started off! This ferry was actually pretty expensive, but it didn't cost much more to add a 4 berth cabin to the trip, so Lauren had planned ahead and done so. Once everyone was more or less done with their sandwiches, we got the key to the cabin, and went to explore.

  The cabin area was past the VIP sort of lounge with comfy looking chairs and big TVs. We quickly found our cabin. It was actually rather impressive. There were four beds, two of which were folded up above the two stationary ones. There was also a bathroom with a toilet, sink and even a shower. This would have been great if we had indeed camped the night before. But, as it was, Winter was extra grumpy and Lily said she wanted to nap, so I stayed there with those two, and we all three took a bit of a nap.

  

  Lauren took the rest of the kids to the toddler and arcade areas, and after about an hour, we swapped places. There was a movie playing in the toddler area so they stayed reasonably still, until the end of the trip. By then, they'd just been still and stationary too long. Luckily there as only one other little girl, with her mum and gran (I think?) and the kids were quite careful with her, and they were very friendly.

  About the time the kids had reached their breaking point, we were told we were docked and could return to the vehicles. So we headed back down the stairs. Apparently that took longer than I expected as all the cars in front of us had already gone! But it takes us a bit to get everyone in, even if their not situated and buckled. As quick as we could, we got everyone in and got off the ship.

  Next, we were faced with immigration. We drove up, and they asked for our passports, which, of course, were in the back. Then, once they realized there were eleven of them, they told us to pull off and wait as the checked them all. We did so, and put all the passports away in the safe, only to drive another 100 feet and come to customs! Who, wouldn't you know it, needed to see out passports too!

  Whew, we finally made it through and we were back on the road again. Another couple hours and we made it to a beautiful house in the country that would be our home for the night by about 6:30. Luckily for us, this one also had a washing machine, but unluckily, no dryer. We finished up the next batch of laundry and had laundry strewn about the house for the remainder of the evening and the next morning trying deperately to get everything dry before we needed to pack it away again!

  The kids really liked this house, as there were horses in the field opposite, a family of pen fowl, including chicks,

  

  and two dogs that really, really wanted their dinner of chili nachos (but they were told not to share!). There were several outdoor sitting areas and the weather was so gorgeous, we all ate outside.

  

  By the time dinner was done, it was past time for us all to attempt to head to bed. It's hard to get the kids to want to sleep, even at 10 pm because it just stays so light, so late. But eventually, they all succumbed! Even me!

  /p>

  Go To Next Day

• June 25th, 2019

  Oh the fun we had! When I left off, it was raining. Well, the rain got worse and worse. I hoped that since everyone was still in their tents, the waterproofing Lauren and I had done on Sunday was effective... But no! Soon, kids started shrieking so Lauren and I grabbed their jackets and ran them to the tents. The kids bolted to the van. Lauren and I grabbed a big bin and she started tossing soaking wet sleeping bags in it while I attempted to fold up the drenched tents. We haphazardly tossed everything in the van. Luckily we had paid the night before, so we were able to hit the road early.

  There was no wifi nor cell signal at the farm, so we headed to the closest McDonald's. Lauren helped the kids change in the van while I ordered everyone a McMuffin. The kids came in and ate while Lauren and I discussed our options. Everything really was soaked, but we were supposed to camp again that night! She found a couple options on AirBnb (with dryers!!) and messaged them, hoping they would let us stay last minute with more people. Luckily one replied and was happy to let us stay and it was closer to where we needed to be the next day. Win-win!

  With a plan in place for the evening, we went along with our day. We headed to the Big Pit National Coal Mining Museum. Before going in, everyone had second breakfasts, because one egg McMuffin is insufficient for these kiddos! And we had plenty of walking to do today! While we were eating, the school buses started arriving, packed with kids to go on the tour as well. So we hurried the kids along to finish and got in. Luckily, even with multiple school groups, we were able to get in quite quickly!

  At the top, we were all fitted with hard hats, headlamps and belts with the battery packs for the lamps.

  

  We weren't allowed to have anything with a battery in the mine, so no cell phones, not even watches were allowed. We ended up with just our group going down with a guide, who really was quite good, once we were able to listen through his lovely accent. We descended 90 meters, or close to 300 feet, in an elevator, which felt a bit snug with the 12 of us, but the guide reminded us that when the mines were operational, they would have fit many more people in these at a time!

  

  One we reached the mining level, he pointed out some very heavy mining carts. When the mine first opened, these carts were pulled by horses known as pit ponies. These horses would be brought down into the mine at around 4 years old, and would stay down there the rest of their lives, even being buried down there. Often, because of the dark, they would lose their sight. It was not a happy life for a pit pony.

  And it wasn't much better for the people who worked there. There were three or four sets of doors that had to be kept closed at all times to keep the air flowing correctly and avoid a build up of gasses put off by the coal. Keeping these doors shut was the job of a child, boy or girl, of about 6. They spent their day in complete darkness, except when a child around 12 years old would lead by one of these pit ponies with a single candle on their way to the elevator. By 12 or 13 children would either help with the ponies, including mucking out stalls, or they would already be working the mines. This was amazing, as all but Bowen and Winter would already have been working in 12 hour shifts around the clock. And they were only paid enough to eat, not much more!

  Since these mines were used for so long (over a hundred years) we could see how things changed when electricity came to the mines and the mine carts could be pulled, 20 at a time, with a single great engine. Each cart contained (I believe) about a ton of coal, and at it's peak, the mine would pull out 1,000 carts a day!

  Mines are, obviously, rather dangerous places. One of the many dangers is the build up of gases. A little research led to a some interesting information about Firedamp. Because the gases were so dangerous, canaries were brought to the mine, and if the bird stopped singing and/or died, the miners knew to immediately exit the mine! Today, the gases are still a concern, and workers frequently take a small lamp down and watch the flame. If it goes from a traditional red/orange flame to a flat blue flame, the workers know to get out! The levels of gases are managed by constantly pumping in oxygen from the surface.

  

  After a neato tour of the mine, we were put back on the elevator. We all shut off our head lamps and as we ascended, we got our first glimpses of daylight. What a relief that would have been to the miners as they resurfaced... but only in the summer time. Often, miners would go down at 5:30 am and come back up at 6 pm. In the winter, it would be dark as the went to work, and dark when they came home!

  After the mine tour, we briefly explored the out buildings, but the kids were pretty much done, so we trudged back to the van, via the gift store, where the kids spent the money they earned this day and the day before for good behavior. Yay for candy!

  

  Next, we drove on to Aberdulais Falls. When looking this up previously, I had thought it was a hike to some falls in the woods, but this is actually smack dab in the middle of town. The falls have been used over time as a source of power. One of the main industries was as a tinplate works.

  

  There are a number of building ruins around the site, but I was pleasantly surprised the paths were all well paved and it was a short jaunt to the falls, which can almost be seen from the road.

  

  A couple buildings are intact and one showed a video about the tinworks of times past. The kids sat through some of it, but were ready to move on to the falls themselves quickly. We did manage to keep them all on the right side of the fence and no one fell in. Again, a parenting win!

  

  Several trips to the toilet later and we were ready to head back to the van and a bit more driving to get to our newly booked AirBnB. Luckily this was along the route and took us closer to our destinations for the next day. The drive itself was quite intimidating however! It seems Wales doesn't see the need for straight roads, or any road wider than a single lane, even if it's a two way road! But the views are amazing and so picturesque! Eventually we made it to our home for the night.

  We had the kids all help bring literally everything in from the van. Those things that hadn't been soaked in the rain had been soaked by the things that had been soaked in the rain. One of the biggest draws of this house was that it had a dryer, something I believe most American's take for granted, but isn't as common as expected in the UK and EU. I'm pretty sure the dryer ran 90% of the time we were in the house! And we still didn't manage to get through all the laundry!

  

  While Lauren worked on sorting, packing, drying, and over all dealing with the giant pile of stuff that came out of the van, I drove on the tiny, windy roads and headed to Fishguard to the Tesco Express. We decided to grocery shop a day early, so I needed about 3 days worth of food, which, for 11 people more than over flowed the mini trolley that was available. I was quite worried I was going to tick off the locals with my massive shop, but the lady at the til was very nice.

  Once I returned, Lauren had managed to get through a lot of the organizing, though the dryer would continue most of the night and all of the morning. I threw some Cornish pasties and steak slices in the oven while I helped out. The kids got a bit of time on the television because they'd been such a great help clearing out the van.

  Once dinner was ready, we served those up, and had birthday cake for Lily and Autumn. Happy Birthday girls! We now have FOUR 9-year olds!

  Go To Next Day

• June 24th, 2019

  The first day of our trip! How exciting. I woke up early and got some work done before everyone else was awake. About 6:30, Dallas woke up the kids so he could say goodbye before heading in to work. Autumn asked if he was going to be sad to be all by himself, to which he said "Yes!" with a great pouty face. She then asked if he was going to be scared to be home alone, which was a bit too far, even for a dad, and he had to say "No."

  Once everyone was awake, we passed out the clothes we had organized the day before and everyone got dressed. There was a bit of a fight with Winter, who didn't really want to wear something that wasn't pink, but I told her this is what she had to wear to go on the trip (which she's be begging to go on for weeks now), and while she continued to fight, she didn't try to take it off. Oh, boy, did everyone look so cute once they were dressed!

  Since everyone was up early, we tossed the pre-made burritos in the oven to heat while We ran around gathering the last minute supplies and the cold foods from the fridge. At this point, even though I'd asked repeatedly the last several days, a lot of the kids grabbed extra books to bring along. I reiterated again that they could only bring stuff that would fit in the game/book backpack or in thier personal bins, so they ended up having to put many of them back. Space is definitely an issue will 11 of us traveling together!

  Originally, we had planned to have the burritos on the road, but we changed plans and had them eat at the table at home instead. This did save the van from the first large mess of the day. Yay!! After breakfasts the kids were very eager to hop in the van, so they did as Lauren and I finished up the last minute things.

  

  We had planned to leave at 9:00, but were actually on the road EARLY! Can you imagine?! We got going at 8:15, but did have to add a stop along the way at the Huntingdon Halfords to grab a new gear shift knob, as the original broke they day before, and more waterproofing for the tents, as the much of the first can had spilled.

  This first stop was about an hour and 15 minutes along the way, which gave us a chance to see how well the entertainment tablet would work, and it was a great success! The volume can be a bit much in the front seats, and that's even after Lauren fiddled together a cover for the speakers with cardboard and duct tape, but generally, it worked like a charm. The kids got to watch a short video about the filming of Harry Potter at the Gloucester Cathedral, as well as the first Harry Potter movie. This kept them almost entertained enough to not fight! Almost... There were a couple of small squabbles, but generally, I've been quite pleasantly surprised with how well the kids have been getting along. Hallelujah!!

  However, the first official stop along the way was the Gloucester Cathedral in, of course, Gloucester.

  

  Miss Lauren, the amazing, had already found us suitable parking for Bertha which was a short walk to the cathedral. I paid for parking, while Lauren filled the kids in on the cathedral and their expected behavior inside. This was the first location where they could earn a dollar/pound/euro with good behavior, so she explained how that would work.

  

  The cathedral itself is quite beautiful. It has intricate carvings in the light stone of the exterior. Along the top there are framed "windows" along the edge that were quite impressive period, but especially when you consider how long ago the cathedral was built. Just before entering, we reiterated what behavior we expected. And the first stop was, or course, the toilets! To get to them, we had to enter the cloister, which was simply amazing. The ceilings are absolutely gorgeous and honestly took my breath away. Miss Lauren, in all her planning, had printed off a couple pictures and locations from the film, most of which were in the cloister area, and the kids had a great time hiding from imagined trolls in the lavatorium and seeing where the words "Enemy of the heir beware!" had been written along the hallway.

  

  In the cathedral, they had an interactive area for the kids, and they were able to dress up in period clothes, work a wench, make prints from embossed plates and put together a stained glass window puzzle. This was on the second level balcony area, and the view to the interior of the cathedral was separated by glass. It's amazing how nervous a mom can be while they watch their children press against the glass 20 feet above a stone floor! But no one died! Success!!

  After I popped in to the shop and bought a post card, Lauren got a couple pictures of the kids striding down the hallway a la Harry Potter, and a final trip to the toilets, we were ready to continue the adventure. We headed back to the van, handed out some snacks and hit the road, heading to the Forrest of Dean. Somewhere in here I managed to missplace my camera. I'm pretty sure this will be an on-going thing with me! Miss Lauren had managed to find some interesting information via a podcast about the area and we all listened to that on the forty-five minute drive to Puzzle Wood.

  

  Once we reached the parking area, we all watched a short clip showing where in Puzzle Wood parts of the Star Wars film were recorded. A quick jaunt through the parking lot and paying for entry and then we were immediately stopped by the kids adoration of the farm animals! Forget the forest when you can watch the ducks and chickens peck around and pet a donkey!

  

  We were able to eventually pry the kids away and we entered the forest.

  The forest here really is gorgeous. They said on the podcast that it was like entering another world, and it is honestly like nothing I've ever seen before. It's an amazingly lush green area. There is moss growing on pretty much every conceivable surface and the landscape is incredibly varied. The trees provide cover and the light filters through, casting a dappled light on everything below.

  

  We did try to keep the kids reasonably together and for the most part that worked quite well, even though they all wanted to explore EVERYWHERE! Before we entered, we had to remind them to stay on the paths, and that was absolutely the hardest part for them as there were so many excited areas they wanted to explore and couldn't. Even still, we managed to walk through a tremendous about of beautiful areas.

  

  At one point, where there were benches, we all sat down and I had the kids be quite for 2 minutes and just listen. You could hear birds and bugs and it was a nice time to try to just be calm and enjoy nature. The bigger kids generally did quite well with this, though the littles struggled. Two minutes is a long time to be quiet for a "kitty", don't you know?

  

  While the forest was beautiful, it was also incredibly muddy. Even with some level of care, all of the kids ended up with their new shoes pretty caked in mud along with thier pants. There went the plan of trying to limit laundry! But I was pleasantly surprised that they weren't completely covered in mud by the time we left the woods!

  Another quick stop at the bathroom, and we let the kids play in the obstacle course playground and the maze. Surprisingly, we'd achieved everything on our list and we had plenty of time to spare, so I walked to the van, grabbed some trail mix and brought the snack back for those who were hungry. Miss Lauren and I sat while the kids continued to expend some of their limitless energy. It was a lovely garden spot in the shade, so we didn't mind.

  About 6, we finished the last 10 minute drive to the campsite. Miss Lauren drove this leg, and while I could tell she was nervous, I think she did great. The campsite is mostly just a large field with several caravans along one edge. We parked near the port-o-potties and away from everyone else, and the kids ran amuck. Again, it's so great how well they're all getting along. They're basically all siblings at this point!

  There were chores be done as we set up camp. Cozy helped me make dinner of butter chicken, rice and peas. Lily did a great job setting up the tents. Moses put in pillows and sleeping bags in each one. Autumn and Meadow worked together to clean the shoes as well as they could with wipes. After dinner, Harrison washed the cooking utensils, and ended up spraying down Miss Lauren's tent! I do hope that waterproofing took!

  

  Over dinner, Miss Lauren read some cool Welsh stories, as we're quite close to the Welsh boarder. She continued after dinner, for the kids who didn't still have the energy to run around and play. There were some really interesting ones, though my favorite would have to be the one about the giant king who collected the beards of his rivals.

  By then I was pretty exhausted (which generally means I start losing what little patience I have) and about 9 we got all the kids changed into PJs, collected all their dirty, dirty, DIRTY clothes, and sent them off to their tents with some books. Miss Lauren shared a two-man tent with Bowen. Austin and Harrison had the other two-man tent and all four of the big girls slept in the larger tent. Moses, Winter and I lucked out and slept in the van.

  All in all the first day was an amazing success!

  The first night? Less so...

  Winter peed in her sleep, Moses fell off of his and then started crying about missing his mom. Then there was the potty trips in the dark, I had heart burn, and it started raining! A lot! We hadn't brought the shoes in anywhere, so they're quite soaked. As of 7 the next morning, everyone else is still asleep, and it's raining again. But it will be interesting to find out how well the re-waterproofing of the tents worked. Fingers crossed!!

  Go To Next Day