Masquerade Ball and Halloween!!

This year Halloween was so much fun. My friends had a couple of different parties going on. I've always wanted to go to a Masquerade Ball and this year I got my wish. My friend Alie hosted a Ball. We all were able to dress up in our best, wear masks and dance like crazy. I was working a flight down to New Orleans the day before the party and was able to Purchase a mask down there which was so much fun! I loved seeing everyone get into it. The best part about it is we are going to do it every year! I'm so excited! For Halloween we Changed it up and Me and Alan Decided to be Johnny Cash and June Carter since Johnny Cash is his idol. It took awhile for me to find an outfit that would work, but we pulled it together. Of course we had to tell everyone who we were but they all loved it! We even got to sing a few times to our audiances :) I can't believe I dared do it, but I loved getting into character. It was an exciting night!!

Oregon Visit and Corn Maze

Me and Alan had the chance a couple weeks ago to go up to Lisa’s house and help out around and play up on the farm in Oregon.

I wanted to introduce him to Lisa as well as show Alan the farm. He loves farms and animals and the country, but hasn’t been around it much so this weekend he was in heaven! It was like seeing a kid in a Candy store. I was able to take him over to feed the baby calves, combine corn and even help Lisa break down a wall in their basement.

That was one of the hardest things I’ve done. It was like trying to break down a wall of concrete with a hammer. The wall was stucco with reinforced with Chicken wire. Kind of frustrating but it made you feel really accomplished when you actually got one down.

I also loved the chance I had to play with my nephews. They are growing up so fast. I loved talking to Chase. He seems so much more grown up now that he is in school.

Trey was so cute. He walked around everywhere with his Cowboy hat and boots.

Keegan well He is just cute little smiley man, with lots of cranky stints between the smiles, but I loved it.

The next week my friend Chelsea came to Utah from Chicago. She had to be here for Flight Attendant Training. We had tons of fun after training was over. It was my roommate Nettie’s birthdays so we all went out to a corn maze at Thanksgiving point.

This corn maze was amazing!! There was so much extra stuff besides the corn maze there.

They had slides, a big jumping bubble thing, food, a mechanical bull and lots of little booths.

It kind of ruined me for any other corn maze. I will only bring people to this one from now on. Anyway we had tons of fun.

After we all went back home for cake and ice cream. The funny thing was we forgot candles for the cake so we were really ghetto and used matches for the candles. Yup it was a little redneck but fun.

Ireland

My mom and I had a wonderful trip to Ireland a couple of months ago. I took lots of pictures and had tons of fun. I'll share a couple of pictures and tell a little about some of the places.

The first place we went to was Dublin. The city reminded me of Germany a lot. We landed on a rainy morning and it was beautiful. Some of my favorite places in the city was the Dublin Castle.

We were able to take a tour of it and take pictures inside. It reminded me of a 1700palace. Really pretty.

The Library at Trinity College was amazing!! The buildings around the college are beautiful, but the Library is so pretty.

It costs maybe 9 euro, so if you like old books and history it is a wonderful place to visit!!

I also loved the Ha Penny Bridge. That is the nick name for the Liffey Bridge which is a pedestrian only bridge because it used to cost that much to cross it.

The Cathedrals were also very beautiful. I loved being able to see the outside of these buildings, but sadly I wasn’t able to go in either of them.

I was able to see two. St Patrick’s Cathedral and Christ’s Church Cathedral.

We also got to go to the Gaeity theater and watch Riverdance. It was amazing! I’m so glad I got to watch it over there. The only thing I would have done different is Not to watch it on the first night I got there. I was so tired from jetlag.
We also were able to go to a place called Glendalough.

There was an old monastery built in this area with a big Round tower, Cathedrals and churches.

The Cathedral was in ruins and surrounding it was an old cemetery.
Glendalough was set up in some mountains in a valley with two lakes.

The lakes were a nice little walk away from the main buildings. It didn’t take very long and was worth it. There were some more ruins, but there wasn’t much left of them. The upper lake was really pretty in itself. I’m glad we went.
I think my favorite place to visit was The Cliffs of Moher. We took a tour bus through Barrett tours. We took a train to Limerick where we caught the tour bus. They took us first to Leamenagh Castle.

It was one of many little stone castles that cover the Irish Country side. Most of the buildings there are made of the Limestone that covers the landscape.

Caherconnell Stone Fort the next stop on our tour is one of these buildings. It is a Dry Stone fort dating from 400 A.D. and made from the limestone from the Burren.
That is what the countryside is called that is covered in the stuff.

We were able to take a drive through the stuff and enjoy the many stone walls and houses.

The next thing that we went to was Poulnabrone Tomb, which is an ancient burial site thought to date back to 3800BC. There are many tombs like this around Ireland. They are large rocks standing up on end with a very large cap rock on top. I was just amazed that they have stayed together so long. I would think weather would have made them fall years ago. It was fun to see.

We then went to eat at a little town called Doolin. I had a stew and soda bread. We had soda bread lots of places we went. It was like a staple there, but the best thing that I had to eat there was the Fudge. It was the best fudge ever, with a layer of fudge, Carmel type stuff and a crust that was amazing. I wish we would have gotten more.

After that we were able to go to the Cliffs of Moher and see those beautiful dark cliffs. It was so peaceful there. We didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to go run and explore.

It was really windy by the cliffs. My mom was not happy when we went out in this area that told us not to. She was mad when I got close to the cliffs. It was so beautiful and worth the trip to Ireland.

If this was the only thing I saw I would have been glad to see it. We saw many other things but these were my favorites. I would love to go back to Ireland and see so much more. Maybe next time I’ll have more than three days.