Presidential Diamond Trip Ireland

I feel so lucky to have such a fun group of people to travel with!  These people are the best people you could possibly round up.  I love the leaders of doTERRA and their spouses.  They are all really conservative, professional individuals.  It was so nice of them to spoil us on this awesome vacation!  I don't think I could have dreamed up something that was this cool.  

The first day was in Dublin where we had dinner at a prestigious gentlemen's club.  I don't know what we were thinking but we didn't bring dress clothes.  So we had to run to H&M in Dublin for 15 minutes before they closed.  I didn't even try anything on.  We got back to our hotel and learned that the sizing in Europe is WAAAAAAYYYY different than American Vanity sizing.  So I am really like a size 12.  Doh!  Nothing fit.  Jareds XXL was also tiny on him.  Apparently men in Europe are tiny. 

We left early the next morning for the Cliffs of Moher.  Stopping along the way for some fabulous (like REALLY fabulous) food at Morann's.  The Cliffs of Moher was pretty spectacular!  And it was so sunny and warm.  Totally not what we expected in Ireland.  

Lunch with the Stirlings!  Such great people right here!  We felt so honored.  We had to have a picture. 

We ended the evening at Dromoland Castle.  A CASTLE!  It was so, so beautiful!  We only got to spend one night there, but it was gorgeous.  We had another amazing dinner (served with those fancy silver plate covers, so fun!) Our room was overlooking the beautiful lake and golf course.  I had an early morning run around the secret gardens and lake and Jared went golfing with Dr. Hill.  What an honor!  My favorite part of the night was sitting in front of the coal fire in the sitting room of the castle and talking until the wee hours of the morning with Natalie and Roxane.  It was dark and cozy and just smelled old and was super cool.   I felt like I was in Hogwarts or something.

Morning run through this beautiful garden!

We drove through Adare Ireland! 

The next morning we headed to another adventure.  We checked into the Europe hotel, then took boats across the Gap of Dunloe.  Then we had a picnic in this oak forest surrounded by mossy old ruins and with these Irish musicians playing traditional instruments in the background.  Everything was dreamy.  I loved the picnic baskets and cute blankets.  The food was so healthy and delicious.  We hiked out then biked six miles.  Which was such a comedy.  We were told it was all downhill.  So I wore jeans, thinking this would be no big deal, I probably wouldn't even pedal.  But my bike seat was so incredibly low I couldn't straighten out my legs.  I guess that is one way to get a great butt workout.  But I need my strong quads to help out!  Finally I caught up to one of the tour guys with the bike tool to raise my seat and I was good to go.  But Jared's bike was having issues, and he hasn't been biking in years.  It was a steep uphill.  He was dying.  But instead of slowing down, he was just determined to get it over with.  But when he was close to the top of the hill, one of the other carts asked if he wanted to trade and he could ride in the pony and trap and they would take his bike.  He was all relieved thinking he would get a break.  Then they drove off laughing!  Haha!  Funny joke, although he was seriously unhappy at that point.  But the hard part was almost over.  The downhill was seriously beautiful.  Lots of pretty bridges and rocky green hills, with white goats grazing.  It was really cool.  That night Jared stayed in the hotel and relaxed and I did a little touristy shopping at Killarney.  It was very quaint, but really just a town built for souvenir shopping.

The views overlooking the lake were really neat!  I wish I'd just spent all my time there.  

The next morning we headed to the airport to take our chartered jet to Scotland.  It was fun to see the entire airplane full of doTERRA!

I loved how Ireland was soooo green.  Rock walls surrounded everyones yards.  The landscape was beautiful.  County Clare was my favorite part to drive through.  I can see why Irish dairy is so yummy.  The cows looked very happy!  Irish beef is also famous.  

I loved Ireland more than I would have ever imagined!  I loved seeing the plane full of redheads when we flew there.  It is a cool place. 

Someday I would love to stay at this hotel again!  It is hard to explain how cool it was!

Paris!

I don't think I have ever been more excited for a trip than this summer!  I finally got to go to Europe.  Paris, Ireland, Scotland and London.  It was amazing!  So much fun to be there with Jared, and it was perfect to have some time alone with just us, and spend five days with our doTERRA friends.

Last year after we had planned our Hawaii trip, we found out doTERRA was taking us to Ireland and Scotland.  I was so, so, so excited!  What a fun place to go.  I have wanted to go to Europe for my whole life, and I was excited to finally have the opportunity.

I knew we wanted to stay a few extra days, but couldn't decide between Paris and London.  I really want to see Italy too, but I am going to need a lot more time for that one.

I called my world traveler mother for her opinion and she told me I needed to do both.  I had two concerns, 1-Would that be too long for her?  She is amazing and insisted we go! 2-Would that be too long for Soren?  She convinced me when she said she didn't even think Soren really noticed that much when we were gone.  Lol.  That was just the right thing to say.  And honestly with her there Jared and I both felt 100% comfortable and knew our kids were happy.  I got daily pictures of Soren cooking eggs, collecting pinecones, etc.  So, so wonderful that we have someone that loves to be with our kids.

It was fun to plan the details of where to stay.  But we didn't really research much else!  We relied on advice from friends and our wonderful assistant, Allison.

I had so much fun traveling with Jared!  We got lost on the Metro and it took us a couple tries to figure it all out, but it was an adventure and really different than anything else we have done together.  It is always fun to be with just us, and find out all over again that he was my best friend and my favorite person to spend time with before we started this whole real life thing of jobs, kids, etc.  I loved how much he liked trying all the new foods.  We had a fabulous dinner at this restaurant near our hotel that had rave reviews.  The Chef prepares a set menu.  Then the waiter quizzed us and asked what we thought was in the food.  It was really fun.  Best food we've ever had!

Next time we travel, I hope we are in better shape.  Both of us were so tired every afternoon from all the walking around!  We are not used to being on our feet all day.

We stayed in a cute little boutique Hotel near the Bastille.  It was called Hotel Fabric.  It was nice and modern and the people gave the best service!  I loved it.

The Parisians were so kind to us.  I was expecting them to be more put off I guess by us.  We were seriously the most blundering Americans, but everyone was so patient and helpful.

My favorite place in Paris was near the Montmarte area.  I loved the cobbled roads and geraniums in the windows.

We decided to do the D'Orsay museum instead of the Louvre.  We just didn't have much time there.  But I definitely want to come back and see the Louvre.  I loved the D'Orsay so much.  I didn't get to see the Klimt.  And that made me kinda sad, but I got to some amazing art.

The Eiffel Tower was magical.

Notre Dame

Champs Ellysee via Rickshaw  (don't know what else to call these little bike things!)

Arc Di Triomphe

Laduree Macaroons

D'Orsay Museum

Seeing art in person was pretty incredible!  I didn't realize how much I would love it.

Love Locks Bridge

Sacre Coeur Cathedral

View from the top!

Best meal of my life!

Le Bistro Mericourt was our favorite!

Jared Winger has Skillz!  And Selfie arms.

Monet's home and Garden in Giverny was amazing.  Art and Gardens, what could be better?

Quaint Giverny

Jared did NOT want to walk all the way down the cute road in Giverny, but Frozen Yogurt at the end was a nice reward.  This cute owner was the NICEST guy ever.

Montmarte neighborhood!  My favorite street in Paris!

9th Grade Dance

Elise's school has a tradition of doing a 9th grade dance.  They get dressed up and everyone just has a good time.  I don't know if they even dance much together at all.  But they sure had a great time!  Her friends asked if I would take pictures before the dance.  Of course their favorite ones were the silly posed ones just goofing off.  But seriously, these girls sure are pretty, even just goofing around.  If you know Elise, she can't take a serious picture to save her life, so I had to tell her to "pretend you are someone else."  It worked!  Ha ha.

I especially love that every one of these girls are super athletic and smart.

She Believed She Could, So She Did

Sometimes my kids teach me about life.  This year I had the best time watching Monet start Track,  and I learned so much from her about persistence.

Watching Monet over the years has taught us a lot about perseverance and tenacity.  One time she decided to start doing pull-ups.  So she would do one each day.  Then increase it and pretty soon she could do 17 pull ups at a time.  What impressed me was the way she stuck with her goal.

She has patience in goal setting.  That to me is such a golden trait.  She put a quote on her wall that says: "Hard work beats talent, when talent isn't working hard."  Monet is petite and in sports her size has been a bit of a challenge.  She has to have better ball skills, dribbling and shooting than the other girls.  In lacrosse she has perfected some neat little spin moves and ground ball techniques to outplay her bigger, stronger opponents.

So early in the track season she ran a mile in about 6:30.  That is so great!  Better than I ever did.  But we knew that she was faster than that.  She would finish her first races and didn't even look winded at all.

So every meet she would shave some time off that mile.  She was also running the 400 and 800 and doing really well.  She would always take first place out of the girls in her grade.  But we wanted her to run to her potential, and she never really did look very tired.

She really wanted to go to the district meet and was planning to qualify.  So we looked up online what the best times were from the previous year at district.  The first place seventh grader came in at 6:04.  But the best in 7th, 8th, and 9th was an 8th grader whose time was 5:56.  Monet looked at that and set her goal as 5:55.

She practiced by running on the treadmill mostly.  She'd set the treadmill fast enough to run a mile at her race pace and she would do her best.  One time she finished 3/4 of a mile at race pace.  Other times it was more, sometimes less.  We had to buy a new treadmill because ours was too slow.

One morning she came up and said she was super out of shape from Spring Break.  She said a 6 minute mile wasn't happening.  I went downstairs to find the incline set super high!  I had been walking earlier and she didn't realize she was running uphill at an 8% grade.  Hahaha.

Anyway, race day came.  Monet ran her guts out.  She did everything right.  She ran the first two laps somewhat slowly.  She was quite a bit behind a couple girls but I could tell she was just biding her time and not wanting to start out too fast and burn out.  Then that third lap she kicked it into gear and passed several girls, including the one in the front.  I think she was surprised!  She ran in so hard and the other girl just barely edged her out in the end.

Monet looked bummed that she didn't get first.

I was so excited because I saw how fast she had just run those last two laps.   I was calling to her from across the track.  "Monet!"  Just trying to get her attention.  "Monet!  Five Fifty Five!!!!"  She did it!  She got her goal.  I was so happy for her.

She immediately broke into this huge smile and was excited to have just shaved 15 seconds off her next best time.  It was awesome.  I was so proud of my girl!  It is hard to get beat by a sliver of a second.  But what I love about track is how individual it is.  Where I finish my marathons never matters to me.  I want to beat MY best time and know that I gave it everything I had.  That is what feels good!

Monet and Simone joined a track club in our area that spring and she eventually got her time to the point where she was averaging a 5:40 mile pace.  They run a slightly shorter race in that USATF age group, it is a 1500 instead of a 1600.  But when you figure out the pace, it was the equivalent of a 5:40 mile.  I am sooooooo proud of her!

Simone loved her races too.  But times weren't important to her.  She just wanted to come in first place. :)  We have their elementary school race this Friday and her goal is to win the whole thing.  I hope she does!  Her first track practice little 8 year old Simone ran a mile in 6:30.  She was crying, but she did it! Kinda funny.  When the coaches told her not to stop, she didn't understand that she could still slow down.  She soon learned that she didn't have to run the whole thing super, super fast and she could still win.