Sabine will strike a cute pose even in front of an instrument of destruction! We visited the Ross Castle in Ireland (I'll have to blog London after we return :-) ) Max and Sabine loved exploring the ruins and having a picnic lunch with the swans.I can't believe their mother let them climb those stairs! With Papa and Momo, we rode a horse and carriage through the National Forest (amazing) on our way to the castle. The horse named Ruby was a hit with the kids and max got to feed him an apple.

Ross Castle and Mo and Terry
The kids all got along splendidly. Here is Max with Jack, Frank and James. The au pair is in the background others. This is our last day in Killarney and they all came to wish us farewell.The whole gang: Vanya, Max, Sabine, James, Ben, Jack, Frank, and Elizabeth. Max, Jack and Betty - and ice cream after 10pm!!

As I am posting we only have one day left before our travel day home, but there is still so much to share about Ireland! As an update, we are just begining today our last play-day in London - a very cool city. We will land in SFO at 6:30pm. You have to click on this to see how happy Max is here at the Walled Garden in the Dromoland Castle. This incredibale garden looks exactly like one would picture a castle garden to look. Max interviewed the gardener in pure Max fashion and loved running about the place!

Yikes! Those cars are on the wrong side of the road!
We visited the Cliffs of Mohr on our way to Killarney. Here we are at the ruins of a round tower there. Sabine is napping in her deluxe stroller at the bottom. We left her with a nice lady.... her Momo!
Pop, carry me to the top!
We had lunch at Lahinch. In this terrific seaside town, there is a pub with a man who has been tending bar for 84 years! He knew the Darcy family and told Mo he remembered her gradfather (He was a tall man and wore a hat). Mary is in the bottom of the picture with her husband - they are relatives :-)
Max and Sabine tried not to let Vanya ever get far from their site. Here are the boys playing near the ocean in the rocks. They decided that they should throw the rocks and thought that I was very strange when I stopped them.
In Ireland most signs are in English and Gaelic! This means "One hundred thousand welcomes." (I think) Their complements seem exaggerated, but so kind. Mo was told she was "famous" and Max and Sabine are told they are "gorgeous". Wow, those Irish are addicting!
We took a bus from Dromolond to Killarney and rode on a ferry in the bus! Many people also called this ride "naptime."

The view...

This is at Cliffs of Mohr. For the record, that is Max's hot chocolate in Vanya's hand. That guy would do anything for Max! He also took charge of Sabine's stroller whenever the need arose - what a guy! Sabine can be heard all day shouting "Banya! Banya!"

This is video of our visit to Johnny and Betty's home. Max hit it off with their youngest son, Jack. This is video of them telling eachother knock knock jokes. Can't wait to get home and talk with everyone!

The Dromolond Castle: That's right, a castle! We stayed one night in a castle in Ireland! It has been around since at least 1534! You wouldn't believe the beauty of the castle and the grounds. There is a Rolls Royce donated to the castle by Laurence Olivier, golf courses, boating, ducks, a Secret Garden, and more! It was breath taking.

Our room was fabulous. Here are Max and Sabine after a 7 hour plane ride (beginning at 10pm)and a large tubby. We filled the tub to their chins and it still had room for more water!
After a three hour nap, we went exploring in the rain. The weather here is quite drizzly, but so beautiful! It's about 60-65 with little showers every once-in-awhile - perfect!!!! Can you believe the castle????
Sometimes the wind felt like it could pick up Sabine and carry her off to the little people!
Here is the entrance to the Dromolond Castle. It feels like a dream that we were there!
More Ireland to come! I have to show a few pictures of the gardens. But when we get home you all will have to see more. It is unbelieveably beautiful.

Here is video of Max livin' it up at the castle. He had fun learning Chess and then the bagpipes came by! This castle really made an impression!

And we're off! Here is the pics of our New York leg of the trip. There are so many more pictures and fun stuff to show when we return, but here is a taste of what we were up to.

The bus picked us up at 4am and had a starry sky on the top. The kids were excited and a bit scared of it all. Max and Sabine snoozed all the way to Lodi, Sabine woke up when we got to Papa and Momo's house and said "this is fun!"

Wake those kids up! They have a five hour plane trip to go on!

Everyone was plugged in! The family had a few competitive plane trivia games in which Ian and Josh mostly dominated. The plane had a TV for each passenger where one could watch TV, play games, or rent a movie!
Max and Sabine were tickled that they got to sleep together in their own big bed! Here they are, watching a movie and trying to go to sleep on New York time. Just wait until Ireland hits us! Whoa, that's a tough adjustment!

The next day we visited the Natural Scinece museum and boy was it impressive! We saw many dinosaur bones, as well and myriad other prehistoric animals. On this excursion were Momo, Vanya, Jim, Colleen, Josh, Emily and MaxnSabine.

Which jaw has more teeth?

a real T-Rex!!!
Sabine was set up! We laced some speakers through her new stroller and loaded Disney music on my IPOD. She was rocking out and even can be seen sleeping in this position in many photos of this trip!
Trump Tower: Can you find Josh in the crowd?
From the museum, we went to Central Park and bought hot dogs on the street (yea Max!) We walked all around the park and climbed trees and saw 200 year old bridges. We also found the tribute area of the park for john Lennon. Yoko Ono funded the development of the site which overlooks their home near where he was killed. It is a very beautiful and peaceful area.Central Park!
We went to Mars 2112 for lunch where we went on a space ship ride to Mars! Max really believed in it and thought that we went to outer space! We were served by astronauts and there were many Martians walking around, and dancing too! They have surprisingly good food on Mars...

Max likes Mars... Josh and I went out on the town in New York. We saw a show at 8pm (night night Max and Sabine!) and saw Spamalot! it was a blast, just about the funniest show we have ever seen!
We'll add some Ireland photos tomorrow! We have really been on the move and the time change sure is a challenge! We were travelling for MANY hours the past two days, but we are finally staying put for about 36 hours - whew! what a relief! Having a blast and wish eveyone was here!!!!