We lost our camera so pictures could be lagging for a while. We are however heading to London in a few days so hopefully we can figure something out by then. Who's been to London? We went last December and it wasn't the best trip...any tips on what to see?
Also, I said a long time ago that I would post some of our family pictures that Stephen took...so I'll just put them up in the header and change them from time to time.
I will post a photo of our newest family member:

Yep, that elf in the photo is Ben...from Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom on Nick Jr. (the UK version.) Ben has become Easton's best little imaginary buddy. Everything includes Ben...'can Ben come to the store?'...'did you put Ben's jammies on?'...'does Ben have to go into time out too?' It gets a bit exhausting remembering to include Ben all the time (and facing Easton's wrath if I forget) but hey, at least he's got a healthy imagination!

Whoa. It has been a while. We have been busy with trips to California, and London, and just living life here in Dublin. Here is what we have been up to:

The London Temple:

We went on a day trip to the temple in London. We were glad we went but decided never to do a day trip involving airplanes and airport security pretty much anywhere with our kids. It was exhausting. But the temple was beautiful and the kids were fine wandering around temple grounds for a few hours.



Easton actually jumped into this little pond...awesome.

Then we were off to L.A. Rob had to go for work and we all decided to tag along. We were excited to see friends and even our family came out to meet us there. We stayed in a house with a pool that was pretty much in our old neighborhood.

We love the pool. And it was HOT there! I was loving it.

Grandma got to come and hang out.
And we got to go to the beach. Twice. It was really fun and Easton especially loved the waves
and sand.

Easton and buddy Josh.
Owen was a good beach baby.

Owen and Anna chowing on watermelon.

And we of course went to Disneyland. Once again, it was HOT. But we powered through and had a good time. I'm kicking myself for not getting more/better pics while we were there. But we did get a few.

Easton in Toontown. Hot.

Easton and Josh having a sword fight with their suckers. Easton proceeded to whack his sucker on the nearby trashcan which, aside from being gross, also attracted the attention of the Disneyland police and we were gently reprimanded...yikes.

The boys waiting for the carousel. Can I just say how much I love these boys (and a few very cute girls that aren't in the pic)? It was so fun to get to see all these kiddos again.



Anna and Owen in the stroller. Owen was a champ riding in the back of the stroller most of the day. We had a blast in California...thanks to all of our friends and family who were able to hang out with us...we miss you guys.
We came back to Dublin to some rockin' weather. We went to a neighborhood b-day party and the kids enjoyed the inflatable pool for the 2nd (and probably last) time this summer. It was probably only 65 degrees, mind you, and the kids had blue lips and were shivering after about 20 minutes but ya gotta take what you can get.


Owen isn't crawling yet...and doesn't seem too close to it either.



And here is Easton conked out. He fell asleep like this after church last Sunday.

We have all been busy but it has been a fun summer. Fall has for sure come to Dublin...time to whip out the coats and the stroller rain cover!

Razor Scooters and Bowling Balls

This last weekend we finally had some down time that we were all looking forward to. And as you would expect, it decided to rain, well it is Ireland you know. So we did what any good family does when it rains....we went bowling. It was Easton's first time, but he did great. The whole two turns unless you knock all the pins down really didn't make much sense to him. Well here are some pics.


Here Easton and I are rolling the ball down the little ramp. About half the time he used the ramp and half the time he wanted to throw it like mommy and daddy.


Here are the present and the future of the bowling world. Ok, maybe that is overstating it some. The best part of the afternoon was the "special" shoes. Easton thought they were so cool and wasn't too excited to take them off.

The Razor Scooter

I just have to say that this picture makes me proud to be a dad. Isn't it just awesome?


Easton is showing off his pads and helmut. He usually doesn't wear them for more than 3 minutes, but we do require that he wear his helmut when he rides his scooter.


This picture for me holds a lot of symbolism. I think it tells a story in itself. Here is our boy, padded up and walking down the long path to find his scooter. Someone should write a poem.

Easton is actually getting pretty good at pushing himself around the house, patio, and the street out front. He is really diligent at looking both ways for cars. Our poor son is going to be so confused when we move back to the States, he is used to looking left, right, left, because the cars drive on the left side here. It will be so tough to look right, left, right. We will just have to cross that street when we come to it...

Paris

We just got back from a 4 day trip to Paris. It was great. We laughed at our guide book's suggestions for "Your Romantic Paris Vacation" because it wasn't exactly romantic with our boys but it was fun. We never set foot in a museum or church but we saw pretty much every big tourist attraction and park and walked miles. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Paris has tons of these public bikes that anyone can just take and ride and then park in a new location...pretty cool.

This was our apartment where we stayed...it was in the Latin Quarter and very nice...except that it ended up having no doors or walls which was a little rough putting the boys to bed but we survived.

We took a cruise on the Seine...Eiffel Tower in the background.


Eating FRENCH onion soup and FRENCH fries...we are lame American tourists.


Owen got in on the FRENCH food too.


We stopped at lots of playgrounds to give the boys a break from the stroller. I love that Paris has playgrounds right in the middle of urban areas.

This was a full on carnival right behind the Louvre. Easton and Rob rode the Ferris wheel.

The Louvre


Notre Dame. There was a massive line to get inside here. No thanks. Maybe someday when our kids are older or Rob and I go without the kids it would be nice to check it out but this time it was cool enough just to see.

Man carrying lots of french bread.

This is how Easton and Owen saw Paris. We got tons of stares and comments on our stroller...from everyone. Have they never seen a double stroller before?

The Jardin du Luxumbourg. This was an awesome park that was beautiful, had a cool pond with toy sailboats that Easton loved, and a sweet playground (that you had to pay to go into, by the way). We lounged on the grass, played by the pond and ate crepes. It was a good time. (This pic came from Rob's camera and doesn't quite do the park justice...and it wasn't quite so dark and scary looking outside!)
It was a really fun trip and we were really thankful that our boys were such good and happy travelers. Rob and I felt like stupid American's a few times for sure. I was buying stuff at the grocery store and the lady told me how much the total was and I had a 20 euro bill and a 5 euro bill in my hand. I handed her the 20 and she gave it back to me and took the 5 from my hand. Righto. I think it inspired Rob to take some French lessons.
We can't wait for our next European vacation!

Our Weekend

We had a weekend of firsts. Easton and Rob's first father-son camp out and Rob and I's first concert together.
Easton and Rob went with our ward up to the Wicklow mountains and camped out Friday night. Easton had some of his buddies there too and was sooo excited. He got to cook- not roast- a hotdog, sleep in a sleeping bag and tent, and use a flashlight which were pretty much the things he was looking forward to the most. Funny that there were no fires allowed in the campsite for fear of wildfire...I mean it rains nearly every 3 hours here!? Better safe than sorry I suppose.


Easton at the campsite.

With his buddies and heros Caleb and Noah...Easton LOVES these kids and follows them like a little puppy...good thing they are such sweet kids.

Rob finally put Easton in bed at 10:30pm...here he is just before crashing.

Funny that Rob and I have never been to a concert together huh? I guess not for Rob who doesn't love the concert scene but I used to be pretty into live music in my younger days so it was so fun to get to go to U2 here in Dublin. I will admit that niether Rob nor I are huge U2 fans but Rob's work got tickets and I actaully got really stoked. Seeing U2 in Dublin was an extra bonus as they are from here...it was just cool to know that they were just a little band here on this tiny island and that now they are serious rock stars. I mean, like them or not, who doesn't know at least 10 U2 songs? It rocked. So fun. And it ended by 11pm...bonus! Wow...I am getting so old.

Our friends Seth and Charlotte came with us...she is 9 months pregnant and totally rocked out...awesome. We are flashing our V.I.P. passes...that's right.

At the pre-party we came to the realization that me and our friend Aaron pretty much have the same hair style. Verdict is still out as to whether that is worse news for me or for him.

In front of the cool space ship stage. We had good seats. It was a madhouse...80,000 people there!

U2

Bono...total rock star.

The Edge. Also very rock star-ish.

It was a fun weekend. We ended it with church and hanging out on Sunday. And Easton ended it by perfecting his photography skills...here is a self portrait:

Buddies

We have been really grateful for the good friends we have here in Dublin without which we could not survive. Seriously, we would be sitting inside while rain pounded all day long. Grim, I know. So here is a tribute to some buddies and a few other pics too:

Owen and his buddy Jaden

While Wyatt and Easton were playing the other day it suddenly became very quiet...never a good sign. We came upstairs to find them covered in suds.

They thought it was hilarious. It kind of was.

Easton and his friends Connor, Clara, Wyatt. This was at this great farm/petting zoo...really cool.

I do have friends too...really...I do. But this shot of me with the giant chocolate slab that Rob brought me back from London will have to do as my 'buddy shot'. Chocolate is my friend...yikes...good thing my sister is going into psychology.



Unfortunately this huge thing lasted only about 4 days.


Here is Easton at that same farm. Delinquent child.


And here are some shots of our sweet Owen. He is sitting well on his own now and is pretty much the sweetest thing.