December 15 - a short walk

Here we go on a walk to one of the grocery stores...



This is our house. It is in the "Estate"
(development) called Bluebell Woods in Oranmore, a village just outside of Galway. The kids are in their strollers, ready for a walk.









With mom here, we can push all the kids. When she leaves, I'll carry Moriah in the baby pack and push the boys. Groceries fit in the back of the trailer. I'll be hiking it for errands because Daniel takes our only car to work. :)























This is our block - there are about fifteen houses with the outlet street in the middle, so no through traffic. Great for the boys! Each driveway is separated by a little stone wall - as is most of Ireland.









The horses again.














Mom's request was to take pictures of all the flora on our walk. The temperatures are in the 30-40's F, so the grass is dormant, yet still lush and green, and many flowers are in bloom.










Mom likes that it looks more like Florida in the winter than she could have hoped - she was wishing Boston Scientific had a branch in a more tropical destination!
























Other than our block, the houses in the estate look like this. The streets are wider in here than the they are through the towns.





















































This tiny grocery store is right at the entrance to the estate. While I wouldn't do all our shopping here because convenience has a higher price, it's got anything we'd need in a pinch.










Now on the road to town.

Mom wanted to be sure we got a picture of the ivy that cascades on everything. Here, it has almost taken over the stone wall and is working its way up many tree trunks.

On the right, an interesting evergreen; on the left, a giant dracenea.

Stone walls line almost every street and road. The originals out in the country were made by farmers clearing their land of the big stones - they just stacked them up into walls and houses, without mortar, and they stand today.

"Lidl" - a German chain grocery store. It's in a little mall, new as of last year, in Oranmore.

Entering the mall - pretty much like you'd find in the US.

Aaron enjoyed the ride...better have for 2 Euro ($3)! Not going to make this a habit!

The first M&M's we've found here, though we've seen American candy at many stores. It was $3 as well - the bag is smaller than it appears in this picture - also not going to make this a habit

Done shopping and on our way back home. The sun sets around 4:30.

Silas had his afternoon nap - he had fallen asleep on the way, and slept soundly until we pulled him out of there. He curled his eyebrows and said, "My butt hurts." I think he had been sitting on a buckle. oops