Grice Journal: First Annual Ireland Reunion

Céad Míle Fáilte!

A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!

Welcome to a photo tour of our First Annual Ireland Reunion! We planned this in honor of our trip to Ireland last year, Sep. 3-19.

(For more information on our trip, check out my Ireland blog)

I designed the invitations on Mixbook.

Note: The picture behind the "Gaelic Blessing" is known as the Claddagh ring. It originated in Ireland. If you look closely, you'll see two hands holding a heart with a crown on it. The hands represent friendship, the heart love, and the crown loyalty. I think it's a neat symbol!

Mom and Abi got up early Saturday morning to begin cooking and baking. We wanted to try to replicate a real Irish breakfast as best we could.

These are Irish "bangers", or sausages. They came in links, which was reminiscent of "way back then." Abi didn't tell anyone till after we were done eating that the sausage was in a natural sheep casing. :)

We also got American sausage for the faint of heart.

Irish brown bread

For a special effect, Mom used her wedding china for the dishes. Most of the B&Bs that we stayed at in Ireland used china.

Unpacking the china

Every B&B had a buffet with yogurt, cereal (granola), scones and fruit. Everything else was made to order

I'm making real Irish scones. Of course, I had to use American ingredients, but it was a recipe straight from Ireland!

We had wanted to get rashers, the Irish equivalent to our Canadian bacon, but they were just a little too expensive. We settled for the cheaper US bacon. :)

Cranking out the scones!

I set up a memory table with different souvenirs that I'd saved.

Real Irish scones, packed to the hilt with raisins (Leon, you would've loved them!).

A part of the full Irish breakfast, fried tomatoes.

Abi learned how to make scrambled eggs the way the Irish do. I think that we had scrambled eggs almost every morning we were in Ireland, they were so good!

Toast is ready to be toasted.

The trick to the tenderest eggs you'll ever have... well, I think I'll keep it a secret. :)

Those are Americanized scones in the back. They sure are good, though!

Gram came early and got the Irish music going.

She also brought her scrapbook of our trip.

Yoo-hoo, T.J., Blarney Woolen Mills...

Grice style ventilation. It was hot in that kitchen!

Frying the tomatoes... they smelled and looked awful...

Bangers are actually really good for you. They have hardly any grease.

The tenderest, yummiest, scumptiousest scrambled eggs you'll ever have.

Beans are another part of a full Irish breakfast. These are beans from Dublin!

The feast, minus the black and white pudding and the fried mushrooms. Thank goodness!

Mm... bangers

Mom, telling everybody about the food.

Gram's plate

Da youngest member. :)

Ryan's food always looks so good! It's the artist coming out in him.

A happy bunch

The boys had to sit in the living room since there wasn't room at the table.

Ben's plate

After cleaning up, we headed out for the long awaited trip to Nebraska City! It had been dreary and drizzling all morning, but we weren't going to let that get in our way!

Mom wanted to do sorta like we did in Ireland, have breakfast, then go out sight seeing.

Instead of going together in one big van, we took two minivans. That's the boys' van behind us.

The girls' (or shall we say ladies'?) van.

The first stop was John Brown's Cave, a stop on the underground railroad. You know, "Old John Brown's body lies moldering in the grave..."

The museum had shackles, whips and other things on display. Mom was trying on some shackles. I tried them on too, but they were so big that my feet slipped right out. :)

This statue gave us a rousing abolitionist speech. He managed to scare a couple of the little people. :)

This is the Mayhew cabin, a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Mayhews dug a tunnel near their house where they hid slaves. This is an interesting read on the history of the site.

You can see into the cellar through this hole.

The loft

The well

Going down into the cellar.

Floor beams

This is one of the rooms they had in the cave. We were disappointed that they didn't have wax figures down there anymore. When we took a family trip there several years ago, they had them.

That's me (Abi's shooting this time), so you can see how small the tunnel is.

Back up into the ravine.

T.J. hid on top of the tunnel's doorway and tried to scare us. He didn't succeed.

The path back up.

Uh, awful picture of your's truly. Just ignore me and look at everybody else...

Mossy pavilion roof

There were displays of a railroad station, a church, and a school.

I think we were talking about how uncomfortable the waiting room chairs would be.

The school house

Books, slates and slate pencils

Could you imagine sitting on those benches all day for school?

The church

While we were in the church, we sang one of our favorite negro spirituals, "Were you There?" It sounded really nice, if I do say so myself. :)

During the week this was a school house for the Negroes, then on Sunday it became their church. All they had to do was flip the benches over and it could be either a church or school.

Abi took a picture of this picture in the church. I'm not sure what it was.

Memorial for John Brown

Arbor Day Farms' orchard got kinda destroyed. Not sure what happened.

We stopped for lunch at Steinhart Park.

The tank on display is always the main attraction when we go there!

Wow! It's huge!

Cutie

Sweet smile

Hm... he's not exactly cute... or sweet...

Very flattering, Brie. :)

Morton Mansion is another favorite stop. As we pulled up to the entrance, a man walked over to talk to us. He said that because the State of Nebraska cut funds to State Parks many parks were closed including the mansion.

How disappointing! Morton Mansion was always the biggest highlight of our trips to NE City. Maybe next time...

Our last stop planned was Kimmel Orchard. They make the best apple cider, pumpkin butter and spicy apple donuts.

My mouth is watering...

It was so crowded there!

Big boy

Aw, brothers...

...and sisters.

We had to pose for a cousin picture.

As we were driving out of the city, we spotted the Lewis and Clarke museum. After a quick discussion, the moms decided to stop there since Morton Mansion was a bust. These flowers were along the sidewalk.

Heave ho!

The receptionist told us that we couldn't go in the basement because someone was having a wedding there. Interesting...

Ah, this is a fun display! You stick your arm into a hole and the mosquito tickles it. :)

The view out of the windows.

"Help, help! The wolf's got me!" :)

Talk about sticking your hand in the lion's den, how about a grizzly's mouth?

These mums were so vibrant!

Walking down to the Indian mound.

When we got down there, the place was very overgrown and neglected looking. The door to the Indian lodge was locked, too. That was disappointing! When we got back up to the museum the receptionist asked us if the lodge door was locked because she wasn't sure if it had been unlocked that morning. She even gave us the key to unlock it! Hooray!

These logs were positioned in front of the door so that the wind would blow in, swirl around the wall and take the smoke from the fire pit up through the opening in the roof.