Anele and Emmanuel's Wedding

On March 20th, our friends Anele and Emmanuel were married at the Finglas Ward Building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (our church) in Dublin. It was a beautiful day.

The happy couple!


Ivana (the maid of honour) with the flower girls and flower boy. Aren't they cute?


The ring bearer (yes, that is our Jake.) In fact- a few of our family were involved in the wedding. In addition to Jake, I played the piano (for 30-45 minutes prior to the service starting. Sadly, I should have had a larger variety of music prepared...) and Danny spoke (and did a wonderful job.


Claire and Shelby with Anele, the flower girls and twin boys (who weren't thrilled to have their photos taken).


The Carrells with Emmanuel and Anele (Claire was off playing with a new friend and we didn't even notice until we uploaded the pictures...). Congratulations Anele and Emmanuel! Thanks for letting us be part of your wedding day.

St. Paddy's Day- Dublin Style

Last year we were in Switzerland on St. Patrick's Day. The year before, we were in London. So- we decided to actually stay in Ireland for the most Irish of all holidays. We even braved the crowds and went into town to see the parade.

All of us (including Kirsten) after purchasing hats (Danny said my green shirt was putrid- but it's the only green shirt I have.)


A few of the kids had to get whistles as well (Can you say LOUD!?)


Kailey and Kirsten


Drake, Julian and Jake (we found their families at the parade)


Emery, Claire, Shelby, Madi and Dad


Madi and Daddy (things are always more fun with a lolly!)


Shelby amid the throng of people


We just missed the bagpipes...


St. Patrick looks a bit different than I had thought...


The littlest leprechaun


We also saw Ivana and Simona Stefanokova (sisters we know from our church) and I thought the statue behind us was cool. (Too bad you can't see the top. It's a statue of Daniel O'Connell)


After the parade we found a little carnival area and Madi and Emery rode this ride. You can't see Em very well- but Madi laughed the entire ride. She kept saying, "This is fun!"


By the statue of James Connolly (another famous Dubliner). You can see that some of our people are less than thrilled!


Shelby, Claire and Emery in back of the Customs Building

We enjoyed our St. Paddy's day Dublin adventure but were happy to hop on the DART and come back home to our (relatively) quiet home and finished off the holiday with a lovely pizza dinner while watching HOLES. (What a classic movie- plus it does have Camp Green Lake in it- so it's fitting for St. Patrick's Day.) And- the yellow spotted lizards only gave one person nightmares...

Weekend with the Halls

Our friends, the Halls came to visit from Paris a few weeks ago. We think they are so great.

We met them at the Hard Rock cafe in Dublin. (We had never even been to the Temple Bar area in Dublin City.)

We walked across a bridge over the River Liffey and the sunset was beautiful! I think my family looks pretty good, too.

We don't see the Halls super often, but our kids get along so great together.

Emery and Axelle at a Youth activity at our church on Friday night.

The Halls stayed at our house Friday night and most of the kids had such a great time. Sadly, I wasn't as prepared as I should have been and I did not have an extra crib for one of the twins- so neither Parker or Penelope (or their mom) slept very well. (Sorry guys! I will do better next time.)


On Saturday we went to the Dublin Zoo.


Parker thought Emery was really funny. (Kailey took this photo and was fascinated with Parker's cool cochlear implant. What a great invention.)


Claire and Hannah


Axelle and Emery


Hannah and Claire with Penelope. They are such good sisters!


Shelby and Abby with the rhinos.


John carrying around Axelle and Em


(the moms in the background) John carrying Claire and Hannah


John with Shelby and Abby


The dads had to show their immense strength. John and Danny are actually picking up 6 little girls! It was impressive.

It was so fun to reconnect with these great people. Sweet Parker has had more than his share of medical issues in the last year. He was diagnosed with meningitis and the nasty bacteria attacked the hearing center of his brain. Hence- he has had a cochlear implant so he can hear. The Halls showed us several different signs. Kailey has always been interested in sign language and the next day started to teach Madison new signs. (Her ipod touch has an ASL app.)

Thanks for coming Hall Family. We love you guys.