We're Here!

On Friday, October 3, James, Tyler, Ryan and I packed up for a month in Dublin, Ireland. James is doing a 2-month oral surgery rotation at St. James’s (not a typo – it’s how the Irish really spell it) Hospital here in Dublin, so we decided to come with him for the first month. We took the red-eye from Newark and landed the next morning. The boys were amazing on the flight as evidenced in the picture below. Tyler closed his eyes right after take-off (in his seat) and slept there for a few hours. All of a sudden I felt him twist around, fall out of his chair and land kneeling up on the ground. I think he would have fallen all the way to the floor, except his seat belt got stuck around his neck. We unbuckled him and made a little bed on the floor for him.

We took a cab to our new apartment, which is about a 5-minute walk from the hospital, but not in the greatest part of town. It’s not exactly scary at night, but I probably won’t be doing a lot of walking around after dark. It’s fine during the day. But I wanted something close to the hospital so that if James ever got called in, he wouldn’t have far to go. When we got here, the rental agent was “scrubbing” the apartment, even though I had been told that it would be professionally cleaned before we got there. I’m not going to fill you in on all the disgusting details, but we spent the next 2 days cleaning, and it’s not that big of an apartment (in fact the whole apartment is smaller than our kitchen and family room). But we got it all clean and then spent the rest of Sunday afternoon walking around Dublin.

Dublin is a beautiful city – everywhere you walk, there is an important historical site. I think I could spend the next 3 weeks exploring, and I would still not see everything there is to see. We first went to Christ Church Cathedral, which Tyler was not that excited about. It is so huge and impressive. We are planning on going to Evensong there tomorrow night.


We then walked around Temple Bar, the party section of town. We ate a good late lunch at a bagel shop and then made our way to Dublin Castle. Tyler was so excited about seeing the knights and swords so we bought tickets for the next tour and then headed back out to walk around for a while. Of course Tyler fell asleep in the stroller and so we opted to forget the tour (they were nice enough to give me a refund when I explained how grumpy Tyler would be if I woke him up and how he would probably ruin the tour for the rest of the group) and headed across the Liffy River to explore that part of town. Luckily Tyler had seen a knight in the gift shop so he was ok with that decision when he woke up.
The highlight of the day was finding ourselves in beautiful Phoenix Park. This park is twice as big as Central Park and bigger than all the major parks in London put together. We’ve only explored a small part of it so far, but will go back soon to go to the zoo and keep exploring. It was a gorgeous day and we saw so many people playing soccer, lounging with their families, hanging out with friends and playing at the playground. Tyler loved playing at the playground after being in the stroller all afternoon.

There is lots more to post about, and I will. But right now I am going to go to bed because in the morning I have to get up early to go to the airport to pick up Jill!!! Yes, my little sister, Jill, e-mailed us Monday asking if she could come visit! We are so excited! I am especially excited to have her come play with me and keep me company during the day – you can only have so many meaningful conversations with Tyler and Ryan. Plus the “lift” broke in our building on Wednesday and getting out the door by myself, both boys and the double stroller is a little difficult. But not as difficult as getting back up to the 3rd floor when we get home. So I am excited to have another pair of hands around here.