July 2009

Ciara and I celebrated our birthday's by going to Monterey for the weekend. We spent a whole day at the aquarium and even though it was very crowded we still got to be amazed by all the exhibits. It wore Fiona out so much she fell asleep eating her dinner.
The rest of the time we spent playing on the beach and even went in swimming, we were a bit lazy about taking the camera out and have no picturres to prove it.

Camping at Caleveras Big Trees Park, June 2009

April 2009

We celebrated Easter with Grandma Joan and Uncle Diarmuid here, we got back to an old tradition and went horse racing. There were lots of things for the kids to do there including pony rididng which kept Tara very happy. During the Easter break, Ciara, I , Uncle Diarmuid and Grandma Joan took a trip to 6 Flags, we persuaded Grandma Joan to go on a "junior" rollercoaster, Diarmuid surprised us by going on the most extreme roller coaster there, he was on his own, no one else was attempting that one but Ciara was adventurous enough to go an elephant ride with him.
Ron also realised a dream and bought a boat, he and Bill went in together to buy it (and really me too!!) and started a huge project of restoring/remodeling that boat. I have to admit though we have had a few good trips in the boat which i will post about later.

March 2009

In March, Fiona, Tara and I took a quick trip to Ireland. The girls got to meet a bunch of cousins and neighbours and especially got to get to know their first cousins Sean and Cian better. We were in Fermoy for St. Patricks Day.
Ciara and Ron got to spend some time together without us at home and they went to watch the St. Patricks Day parade in san Francisco.

Trip to the Snow

Last weekend (President's Day weekend) we took a spur of the moment trip to the snow. Ciara had the week off from school, and all the kids were asking about going to the snow. Luckily we managed to get a rental and get everyone geared up in time to go. We set off on Sat and managed to avoid the holiday traffic, still ran into some as we got closer to the mountains, mostly big rigs being turned around. It started to snow as soon as we got there and I do not think it stopped the whole time we were there, the snow ploughs were constatntly going. We stayed in Soda Springs right across from a ski resort, we checked that out on Sun and they had a special play area for kids under 8, that worked out perfect for us, they were able to try tubing and sking. Ciara had one bad wipe out that set her back for a while but she got going again. The next day we just played in the snow around where we were staying, Ron managed to make a sledding hill from the piles of snow around the deck and they had a great time going up and down there. Next day was time to head home again, in order to get home we first had to dig the truck out of the snow, chains were required on the way home and driving on the white, snowed out freeway with no other cars around us made it feel like a real adventure.

Tara's Birthday

Tara just turnrd 2 the end of January and sure is turning into a little girl. She is really starting to talk a lot, has become quite defiant and insists on being included in everything her sisters are doing.
We just had a little family party for her, it was my regular day off so I picked Ciara up after school and we got some balloons and made her cake, Ciara did most of the decorating. Tara understood exactly what presents were and it was even better that they were all for her.

Christmas holidays