Ireland 2009

I know it took a long time to get these up, but the Ireland pictures are now ready for viewing. Matt and I had the absolute best adventure in Ireland. Matt is having a hard time letting go and is already planning a trip back. We highly recommend going. At the risk of sounding trite, it is truly magical. We flew in to Dublin on Saturday and immediately took off. It didn't take Matt long to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road. My one and only job was to tell him "LEFT." On the first VERY long day, we drove the the Wicklow Mountains which were everything you would imagine Ireland to be. We stopped at Glendalough and Wicklow National Park and finally came to Kilkenny were we stayed overnight. Kilkenny was playing in the All Ireland hurling championship the next day, so everyone was in good spirits. The next day we stopped at the Rock of Cashel on our way to Kinsale. Kinsale was a highlight - super cute and great people. The owner of our B&B was fabulous and friendly. Check it out at desmondhousekinsale.com. There is a picture of us on the website. =) After two days in Kinsale, we were off to Dingle. We intended to drive through Killarney National Forest, but I had a bad bout of car sickness, surprise surprise. When we arrived in Dingle, that all went away. Right on the Atlantic, Dingle was by far the most beautiful place we went in Ireland. Just look at the pictures. From Dingle back to Dublin for two days. Not really a pretty city. Highlights were Guinness Factory, Kilmainham Gaol, and Book of Kells.

We had great, fresh seafood everywhere we went and spent our evenings in pubs with great music and a pint. Matt preferred Guinness and Murphy's. I always had Bulmers. The sweeter, the better.

Best trip ever. Click below to see pictures!

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Gotta story for ya ags...

As much as I do not agree with Jerry Jones's business decisions and his separating of classes in the new Cowboys Stadium where the only way for the average middle-class Joe to see a game is to stand the entire time, I did enjoy experiencing the stadium at least once in my life and watching my Aggies in the Southwest Classic (despite the loss). A little about the stadium -

1. From the outside it looks like a giant spaceship.
2. Everything on the inside is so big that you do not feel like it is big at all. Everything is giantly (is that a word?) in proportion to each other.
3. The screen is as big and crystal clear as they say.
4. The food is actually pretty good and does not cost any more than any other professional sports arena.
5. People that live and work around the stadium charge more for parking at their establishments than parking at the actual stadium.

Now about the Aggies - the game definitely proved we are better than last year but still have a lot of work to do. I'm just proud that we are improving!














It rained quite a bit on us, but we were still excited to be there!














Ready for the game!

And I'm Back!

Many of you have scolded me over the last week about the lack of updates to my blog. So for your reading pleasure, a little recap of my weekend. It was Port Neches for me this weekend while Matt stayed behind in Austin to eat all of the things I don't let him eat and watch all of the boy movies and tv shows that I can't bring myself to watch with him.

I got in some good shopping time with Mama, happily watched Houston beat Tech with Daddy, had a great visit with Grandma and Uncle Jerry, was attacked by a million mosquitos, AND spent some quality time with my hometown girls (minus Kathy who was there in spirit) at Blair's shower!

Blair is beautiful as ever and is going to be a great mom!
So while I was away, Matt was on a mission to find Irish food. He found Irish butter, cheese, and made his own Irish soda bread!














I know everyone has been waiting for the Ireland post. Stay tuned...

Carrens Family Vacation 2009

This picture summarizes the whole vacation. Mama's determination to catch enough fish for a fish fry. Unfortunately, we only caught enough Perch to eat as a side dish for lunch, and the turtles ate all of the catfish we caught.





























The fam thoroughly enjoys dock time.













Including Gracie!













The blind leading the blind. Jenna has taken a handful of violin lessons, so she is teaching Uncle Jerry how to play his violin.










Uncle Jerry was bored. He prefers more active games. Wish you could have been there for Catchphrase. It was quite entertaining.








Matt spent most of his time reading up for our Ireland trip.






Tara, Christine, and Sara were excellent fishermen.















It's becoming a tradition for Matt and I to cook breakfast (mostly Matt actually). This year's main attraction was blueberry pancakes!














All tuckered out after a huge breakfast. Even Lucy was resting, and that doesn't happen very often.













Later that day...we went tubing. Now, at some point in life, tubing can be more painful than fun. Please ask my mom to tell you how she thought I broke my back when I flew up in the air followed by my legs coming up over my head. My toes almost touched the front of the tube. Naturally, I scored some major lower back pain for the next couple of days. Despite that, we had a great time, especially riding around the lake.










That's the end to another relaxing family vacation!

Happy 26th Matt!

Is he cute or what?



















Faith insisted Matt have this cookie cake and wrote his name in icing herself. Quite the little homemaker.







Chandra hit the big 5-0 the day before Matt's birthday.










Everyone was much more interested in her red velvet cake than Matt's cookie cake.











The boys were a little bored and finding things to climb and throw in the backyard.











Everyone had fun, including Lucy!

Seaside, FL!

It rained almost the entire first day and the entire morning of our second day in Seaside. If you looked at the radar, the rain was coming in a thin line straight through Seaside with no end in sight. Our second day there, we decided to drive east to Panama City in hopes of finding a little sunshine. We had about an hour of decent weather when this storm suddenly came up on us.

Luckily, our little inn was super cute and offered a nice place to stay out of the rain. Our room was called Checkerberry.

After a delicious crab cake dinner at Red Bar, the weather finally cleared up!

Beautiful evening walk on the beach!

We ventured over to Watercolor to eat at Pizza by the Sea. Some of the best pepperoni pizza we have ever had!

Another beautiful evening on the beach!

We were incredibly sunburned but not ready to go!

Kitty Attack!

Just thought I would share a picture of our sweet little intruders. Four little kitties and their mama have taken residence under a rose bush in our backyard. Lucy is quite intrigued by them. Yesterday she attempted to get close to them. They were swatting their little paws at her in defense, which was very comical. For now, they are co-existing peacefully.