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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 tha...

Allison's favorite moment of the week was (in her words) "Climbing the cliffs around Carrick-a-rede and Cliffs of Moher.  Or just climbing cliffs in general." As it turns out, we did a lot of climbing.  And it was obvious that Allison loved every minute of it. Allison flew into Dublin on Tuesday.  Mark, John and I got up early to make the three hour drive down to the airport.  Turns out, the Dublin airport doesn't expect anyone to actually be picked up from the airport, because there is absolutely no signage or availability to pull over and wait for someone.  Judging by the number of lanes for buses and taxis, I'm thinking that's the normal way to go. John just picked the least busy lane, and feigned being a taxi.  It wasn't hard after all, because no lay person in Ireland actually drives a BUS  :-)  Mark went into get her, and was back out in a few minutes. It was so good to see Allison!  The cutest part about her arrival (besides s...

Being the Kennedys, there was no way that our trip was going to be anything close to the tranquil and relaxing vacation that most consider to be the goal when they go on a trip. We are always looking for some kind of new adventure of experience for us to enjoy. This year, our trip planner extraordinaire (Mama) found a fun new thing for us to try in the waters of the North Sea: Paddleboarding! I think most of the time people try to do this in a Caribbean location, where if they fall into the water it's like falling into the world's largest bathtub. Oh no, not for us. If you fell off your paddle board, it was into the fifty degree water that our wet suits and booties didn't quite protect you from. It was seriously my favorite part of the trip. Our instructor John had this laid-back demeanor and soothing voice that made you realize that everything was going to be okay. He showed us how to stand up on the paddle boards, how to move around, and then gave us different ways to t...

Rebecca's favorite moment of our trip?  "Spending Monday afternoon getting lunch and walking around Bushmills in the beautiful sun!" Yes, we were blessed to have sun every single day we were in Ireland.  I had been watching the weather for weeks, and it had been rain every day until we arrived.  In fact, most of us came with sweaters, jackets and a change of shoes (in case one pair got wet).  As it turned out, we should have packed shorts and t-shirts, because not only was it sunny, but it was in the 70's everyday. After paddle boarding Monday morning, we decided to head into Bushmills to get lunch.  We found what will surely become one of our favorite eateries in all of Ireland:  The Hip Chip.   It's a fish and chips place, but really, they deep fry anything and everything. The awesomeness of Ethan's shirt in the window of a fish and chip shop in Northern Ireland was not lost on me! I do believe all of us ended up ordering fish and chips,...