Bath Time

Stella and Reace were two little dirty kids after eating pizza together the other night. Jordin and I decided to give them a bath together to save time and allow us some more fun time together. They thought it was pretty cool.

















There was also time for reading. Both would squeeze on my lap for a book or two. I realize I am biased but these two kids are adorable!

Seriously she is good

Stella has a love for music which must come from her father. I bought her a little kids band for her birthday. She is starting to get how to blow on the horn. Here she is

Stella's Party in NJ

Stella had a blast at her Birthday Party in NJ. Thank you everyone for taking your time to come see Stella and celebrate with us. I know the traffic was not the best. Here are some pictures of the BDay Girl

Galway Street Band

I thought Kent would enjoy the band that was playing on the street. Apparently they just jump in with each other and play for awhile. We would see a guy playing with one group in the morning and another at night. There was a lot of music in Galway.

Check out this Video

Here are two videos of the band at the BBQ in Ireland. I know the picture is not the best but you can at least hear the music.

Galway

Our last stop was Galway City - where my great grandmother was born and raised. We stood across from the home at 6 College Rd. It looks very new so we suspected that they demolished the original building and rebuilt. But here it is nonetheless.

















Here is the center of town with the 13 flags representing the original families that founded Galway.

















Here is a park where they were showing a movie on the green. There were tons of people just sitting around and enjoying the outdoors and movie.
















Here is the lawn I am looking for when we move to DC. No need for a ride on mower. We watched them mow the grass with a contraption that resembled a vaccuum. But it only took 10 minutes.















The Cathederal was in Galway. Interestingly it was founding less than half a century ago. So clearly not an ancient establishment. Unlike the bar we drank in that was founded in 1620 (hehe)
















This is a distant picture of the lighthouse that was run by my family. They closed the gate so we couldnt get too close and it was a bit foggy.

Kinsale

The wedding was in a town called Kinsale - an old fisherman's village in Cork County. It is a beautiful town. Here are some pics from Kinsale
























There is also a picture of dad driving on the right side of the car in the left lane. Very weird and I should add dangerous.

Ireland

We returned from our trip to Ireland. It was a quick trip and jet lag certainly got the best of us. But we had a fantastic time and the wedding was wonderful!

Karen looked stunning! Their family and friends were very welcoming to us as we only knew the bride and groom. ALso we were the only ones from the states there. Here are some pics from the wedding. The celebration was several days long. First was the BBQ on Friday complete with a band. Dad jumped in and tried to get the bonfire started (It was quite cold so the warmth of the fire was much appreciated.

The band that played during the BBQ in the bar.















The front of the home complete with flags from Ireland and Wales representing the homelands of the bride and groom. Very sweet, very Patrick and Karen :-)
















And then two become one.... Mr and Mrs Bradley

Visitors

Stella and I have had visitors for the last week or so. Brenda, Mrs Bennett (Brenda's mom) and my mother have been visiting. They came to help celebrate Stella's first birthday. It was so nice to have some company. Things are lonely here without Kent and the added noise and conversation was wonderful. She had a blast with everyone. She is so spoiled. She is going ot bored when it is just me and her. Thank you guys for coming to visit and making her first birthday special despite missing her daddy. And we are very excited to spend time with the rest of the family in 1 1/2 weeks. We cant wait to see you all! Til then xoxo

Florida Sun

It has been really hot these last few weeks. The temps are usually in the high 90s with a ton of humidity. We spend a lot of time inside or in the water. Here are some pictures of Stella enjoying the Squirt Pool. Clancy also loves the pool because she can drink from it.

Stella - Just Like her Daddy

As Stella's personality continues to develop she is showing more and more features of Kent. For example, she is an eating machine much like her daddy. She even likes vegetables but her favorite (beside pizza) is fruit. She loves them all. Here are some pictures of her eating a dozen green beans after she finished 2 hot dogs (not baby hot dogs but Ball Park full bun size hot dogs). She is quite the character and check out those baby blue eyes.

Lessons Learned

As many of you remember in the week prior to Kent's deployment I was in the ER with kidney stones and narrowly escaped surgery. So I met with my urologist today and thought I would pass along some tips.

His first question or better a rheotorical question was "do you drink water?" To which I laughed. He knew from the tests that I don't drink water. But if he only knew that I drink about 1 glass of water and 2 sodas a day. Apparently that is not good for you :-) The second question was "do you have any citrus in your diet/" To which I also laughed and said it causes heart burn. The urologist and I had a good laugh and then said lets not do anymore tests because we know it is my poor water intake.

My new goals:
1) Drink more water everyday
2) Drink 1 glass orange juice a day

Ahh the pains of learning. He was nice enough to give me a color picture of my stone. What a nice guy. What in the world am I going to do with that picture? Haha

May none of you ever have kidney stones!