15 months

Gavin is (more or less) 15 months old today! (His birthday is the 30th, and since there's no 30th this month we'll consider today his 15-month mark.) He's into EVERYTHING. Below, he broke into a KitKat bar. Chocolate got everywhere, including the carpet.

He's also a total delight--when he wants to be. Below, he's clapping while swinging. He was loving that swing.

He can now climb onto the dining room table. I can't look away for a second...

The next photos are from one such incident when he climbed onto the table and got the salt shaker. He then poured the salt into a little mound on the carpet, which he tried to eat...

I can't get enough of this sweet little face!

...and huge gorgeous eyes.

Emerald Isle

 We started our Ireland trip at the Cliffs of Moher where both the scenery and the wind took our breath away. Seriously, the wind was INSANE. It knocked me off my feet a couple of times and made my hair look crazy.

 We stayed a night in Limerick (below), which is just a fun place to say we've been. Perhaps I should have written this post in limerick...How many of you would have rolled your eyes and stopped reading?

Blarney Castle was fun and beautiful. We were there primarily to kiss the Blarney Stone, of course. The legend of the Blarney Stone says that those who kiss the stone will have eloquence (all the more reason to have written this post in poetry, right?). Jacob and I both kissed it, and it wasn't an easy feat. We had to lie on our backs at the top of the tall castle and precariously dangle our heads into a crack, leaning back just far enough that I thought I might fall and die.   

 We stayed the last night in Killarney, which is the gateway to Killarney National Park and the beginning of the Ring of Kerry. I loved the way this green moss grew on everything. It was so very beautiful.

We drove the Ring of Kerry, which we don't regret but didn't love. We thought the scenery elsewhere in Ireland was prettier, and the quality of the road was awful. Plus we had a toddler in the car.

Overall we had a great time in Ireland.  Gavin's country count is now 16.

4 years

As of tomorrow we've lived in England 4 years! The time has flown by; we've tried to make the most of it. We love it here and will be devastated to leave.  We recapped the past year recently in this year-end post if you want to catch up on our adventures. In order to commemorate this anniversary on the blog, I walked through our village this afternoon and took a few photos. All of the photos in this post were taken today in our village. As much as we love all the traveling we do, mostly we just love living every day in this lovely place.

Lest you think I'm capable of writing this post without a shot of Gavin (who is, of course, the #1 highlight of the last 4 years)...

(our house is still part of our village, so I didn't cheat)

Les Miserables

 Over the weekend we saw a West End musical for the first time since Gavin was born. We saw Les Miserables and had a great time! But first we ate lunch at Bodeen's, an American-style barbecue place. The next photo is apparently the best sandwich in London (it really was delicious).

The tickets were Jacob's birthday present; he LOVES Les Mis. 

When we first saw the West End production of Les Mis in 2008 we mentioned the theatre was basically in Chinatown; because of Chinese New Year there seemed to be even more colorful lanterns this time. It was a great day, and thankfully we saw the matinee and made it home before the snow got really bad.

Meeting a snowperson