Our time.

As I said yesterday, we have been here 5 full days, and it's crazy to think we have only been here five days considering we have done so much and seen so many great people.

Considering we are really only here for 14 days, we realized pretty early on we were going to have to make the most of our time.  Hence, the husband put together a google calendar considering I couldn't keep everything straight - all the dinners, all the engagements, all the people, all the fun.  And once we arrived, we were struggling to find an open night where we could go see the Hobbit.

The reality is...we just don't have enough time here.  Now we know for next time - we really should be here longer than 2 weeks, especially now that we have Jack and the beautiful thing called jet lag.

So what have we done with ourselves you ask?

Well we traveled the distance and flew the miles, and arrived in Dublin via Seattle.  You can read about that experience here.

One of the first things we did was venture to the Belfast Christmas Market, ate a bratwurst, ventured to Victoria Square where we visited Santa, got a photo and a present.

Jack's face in the photo on the left is hilarious..."Dad, what's that thing on your face??"  Jack's present from Santa - Peter kept saying the present was free, and let's be honest, the whole experience, with the photo, the present, and sitting on Santa's knee cost us 9 pounds.  So probably more than the average Santa experience, but it's the first so I can make an exception.

This is Jack's little face when he's angry and tired....and this is his sweet face when he's asleep.  Which do you prefer?  I kind of love the one on the left!  Poor bub and his jet lag (post here).  And more photos from the Christmas market.

And here we have the Santa photo, along with a mustache photo.  All the brothers grew mustaches for Movember, and they decided to keep them until they saw each other so that they could all shave together.  Which one has the best mustache?  I love Peter's face in this photo!  And we also have Waterworks Park in the bottom right.  Love that place.

And here we are with our food photos.  And Jack in his highchair that Grandma Gillian bought for him!  So thankful for that chair.  And I should say there are some things we have continued while away and there are some things we have not.  We have kept up with making our own baby food but we left the cloth diapers at home.  It's been so strange to use disposables for the past few days, and I must admit I feel a little guilty every time I toss one into the waste bin.  But I just didn't want to bother with transporting them across the atlantic and then having to wash them.  And if I'm honest, I'm so thankful with the decision we made, but I can't wait to get home and start cloth diapering again.

And here we have some family photos!  The past weekend was spent with both sides of the family.  Saturday was Gillian's family and Sunday was Jack's (father in-law).  And I couldn't resist this brilliant photo opportunity.  I realized about a month ago that ALL four of Jack's great grandmas are still alive.  Isn't that amazing?  And he's met them all now.

So many more photos to share...but this will do for now.

Sending so much love from the Emerald Isle,

Malia