If Heaven were Green...

My favorite part of our trip to Ireland?

First off, how are you supposed to pick a favorite part from a trip to heaven???

Ethan's wondering the same thing.....(:

This past week we went to HOBY, and for some reason we decided to always end the day in group time with "Highs and Lows" of the day. Two problems with that end of day tradition(well more like three but whatever): there are no lows at HOBY besides being almost dead from no sleep and not being able to pack enough fun stuff into every day, and basically EVERYTHING is a high. Like everything. I usually would end up mentioning like three highs cause I couldn't choose just one.

 That's kind of how this trip felt(:





Hence, I'll split favorites into two ways: the best FEATURE of the trip, and my favorite EXPERIENCE of the trip. Other wise this blog post will be ridiculously long, and there will be lots of usages of the word "LOVE" and "SO GOOD", and WAY more smiley faces than any blog post actually needs. Just understand that the following post is constantly highlighted by continuous smiling, and life will be much simpler(:

In terms of the the best FEATURE of the trip, that would probably have to be being together as a family(: Being together proved to me yet again that for us as a cohesive whole, there are no dull moments: we're either competing, or breaking rules for an unusually thrilling experience, or we're doing something a little out of the ordinary and having the time of our lives! Highlights included: dressing up in "era-appropriate clothes" at Dunluce castle

(#fashionstatementoftheyear, especially cause we are all NOT ordinary sized with our tallness),

playing Harry Potter trivia and Quidditch, (#Pufflepants),

or going running with Daddy on the Giants Causeway cliffs.

Seriously threw fun never stopped. I'm distinctly reminded even of driving through Ireland playing the "Gaelic naming game": as we pass highway signs, we would each take turns pronouncing (or attempting to) the Gaelic names of locations printed beneath the actual English version of the place. Inevitably (and predictably) we sounded like Klingons with a bad lisp. Yeah we never stopped laughing!

                                      

                    As weird as it sounds, I was more worried about dropping the phone than falling off(:

In terms of EXPERIENCES though, our trip to the cliffs of Carrick-a-rede would definitely rank highest on the most classic, fun Kennedy experience of the trip. It had everything a Kennedy visit should: slightly risky, kind of dangerous, lots of opportunities for pictures, and lots of opportunities for adventure off the beaten path! Of course, we started with the Carrick-a-rede cliffs and the rope bridge there. It used to be little more than a rope that fisherman would use to get to a good fishing site, but later a bridge was made. It is now for sure the coolest feature too. Suspended over 150 ft between two cliff sides, it's made out of rope with wooden foot boards in the middle to walk over. Given the wind (being next to the ocean) and how walking involves shifting your weight from side to side, the bridge ends up swaying and bending as you go across. Yeah that fulfilled our danger quota for the day(:

Super girl off to save the leprauchans(:

What isn't advertised though is this lovely path in the opposite direction from the bridge that leads down to the rock beaches right next to the ocean! Loving experiences off the beaten path, this was probably the coolest part of the day. Exploring huge caves in the cliffs, climbing up rock faces with Glo and Allison, finding Daddy's glasses after he lost them, sitting on the grass and watching the ocean... Yep it was SO cool. And not just cause it's Ireland and it's beautiful and the experience was new, but cause it was with my family(:

Note: I don't think I could write this post though without mentioning that having Allison (my girlfriend, but she doesn't like that word so *insert your preferred other word for that here*(: ) with us in Ireland was just the icing on the cake. One of the first things I found out about her when we started dating was that she had three dream vacation places: New Zealand, Italy and Ireland. Naturally I invited her JUST IN CASE she might be able to come, and miraculously, she worked it out so she could! For anybody who knows me though, I have a big problem with multitasking; talking while typing, talking while watching TV, doing anything while watching TV... Yeah it's like impossible(: Anyways, I was a little worried that in the balance between focusing on my family and her that I wouldn't be able to handle it all on the trip. Looking back, I don't know why I was worried, cause she integrated perfectly! Between her BOSS personality, and her absolute fascination with Ireland and being in Europe for the FIRST TIME (WOOT!), she was the perfect person to bring along. Shout out to her for being so chill, and flexible and excited to come! Couldn't have asked for a better person to join us(:

So like the beginning of this post, I'll compare Ireland to heaven again, but that heaven actually is achieved not by the places you go, but by the people you are with(: While being in Ireland definitely helped, probably the best thing about the trip was being with mah peeps(: When I mentioned coming off my mission that I wanted to go to Ireland, I thought the things we saw would be the best part.

But isn't a place so much prettier when you have the greatest people to share it with?(: