London Day 2

 We slept in slightly the next morning before taking the bus to walk through Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. We saw the Goodyear Blimp nearby, there for Wimbledon, and the end of a local race. We thought about visiting the museum, but had to make our reservation for Westminster Abbey. 

On the walk there, there were roads blocked off for a small parade. We got to see the beginning, but then headed out. 

Our visit to Westminster Abbey was another audio-guided tour, which the kids weren't the biggest fans of already at this point, but we did learn some cool facts, and again marveled at the beauty, detail and history there. We saw the grave of the unknown soldier, and also the resting places of Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Rudyard Kipling, George Frederic Handel, and Oliver Cromwell, among many others. Many kings and queens have been coronated there, and they had the coronation chair on display at the end of the tour.

Then we walked around some more and took a train to the Borough Market, where we ate a little bit of everything! I had a meat pie (bringing back Sweeney Todd memories from Kyran's recent role of Tobias), Jason and Kyran had hamburgers, Gemma had more Mac and Cheese and chicken, Karyssa ate fish and chips, and Kyran and Karyssa had doughnuts (Creme Brule for Karyssa, I don't remember Kyran's) and Gemma had chocolate covered strawberries! It was so crowded and hot, but definitely worth the visit!

After the delicious food, we took the train to Abbey Road Studios and crossed the iconic crosswalk! We visited the gift shop, took photos on the stairs and saw the studio before heading back into town to visit St. Paul's Cathedral.

This was an emotional one for me because I remember begging my mom to wake me up 45 years ago to watch Prince Charles and Princess Diana get married there. Lots of emotion and awe at the thought of the events that have taken place there and the beauty of the cathedral. We climbed an exhausting spiral staircase to the Whispering Gallery and then up even more steps to the Stone Gallery, which is at the bottom of the dome and had beautiful views!

We headed back to the apartment to freshen up and eat before heading to the West End to see Matilda. We learned pretty early in the trip how expensive restaurants are, so we started find markets (Tesco Express in Dublin and London) to grab food that was easy to eat at our apartments, but usually ate one meal a day at least at a local restaurant.

We missed our bus, and had to take an Uber, which got us there just in time. The show was wonderful, and it was fun seeing it with actual British performers! I will admit I cried through most of the first act, remembering Kyran in his role in that when he was 10, and then again during "When I Grow Up" thinking of the same.

We waited at the stage door after, but it seemed like only parents were there and the actors left so quickly we didn't get to see anyone. 

Then we took the bus back to the apartment and went to bed, knowing we'd be getting up super early for the next day's big adventure!

Dublin to London

The next morning we woke up early to pack up and get ready for our flight to London.

We flew Ryanair, which we had heard very mixed reviews about, but we felt ready. Our bags were weighed and measured before we even left the US, and we know all of the benefits and drawbacks. 

Overall, it wasn't so bad. We got there and a couple of our suitcases were a little over 10kg, so we moved some things into lighter suitcases, and got everything checked pretty quickly with the express bag check. It was very convenient to be able to weigh the bags before we had to check them. It would have cost 13 euro for each kg we were over weight.

We arrived at the airport pretty early and had paid the extra for the fast-track security line, so we had some time to find lunch at the airport. As I've mentioned before, finding a place that suits all of us is not fun, but I got some food from the deli and everyone else ate pizza. 

Ryanair's rules say that bags must be checked at least an hour early and you must arrive at the gate at least 30 minutes early, but when we got to the gate, we waited for quite a while before they began boarding, and then the line was incredibly long. 

We had been told they would measure every bag to be sure they fit in the sizing box, and if not, we'd have to check them for 57 euro, but as far as we could tell, no one's bags were measured at all.

Then we boarded and for the first time in all my years of flying, we went outside and the front half boarded from the front of the plane and the back half boarded from the back. It actually made things a good bit easier.

The flight was fortunately very uneventful. (We later found out that same day was the day that the window on another Ryanair flight broke and a man was sucked out of the plane, only to be saved because his wife grabbed his feet and other passengers helped pull him back in. Terrifying.)

We arrived at the London airport and gathered our bags at baggage claim, or so we thought...

We had accidentally left our biggest bag and didn't realize it until after we were out of security, so Jason had to be escorted back in to get it.

We then took the express train to our stop in London and headed to our apartment, or so we thought...

The address in the main email was for the office of the rental company, and we didn't realize there was another address until we had already walked half a mile out of our way in the scorching heat with all of our luggage.

We finally found the place and checked in, and were ready to do some laundry. We changed our booking at the last minute, because the first place had a dryer listed originally, but when I went back to look, the amenity had been deleted, so I found another place that did have one, or so we thought...

Upon checking in, we realized there was only a washing machine and drying rack. At first the rental company said it had broken a few days earlier and been replaced with a washer by mistake, but when asked about refunding money, they lied and said there was never a dryer advertised. (They didn't even change the listing before lying. After the whole trip of back-and-forth with them, we were successful in getting Airbnb to refund the money we requested.)

Once we were checked in and settled, we took off for our London Eye reservation. We took the underground across the river (everyone's first view of Big Ben was fun to see), and walked toward the London Eye to get in line and boarded quickly using our Fast Track pass, or so we thought...

As we were almost next in line, there was a malfunction and the whole thing stopped for quite a while. Eventually they got it going again and we were able to board (with a man who had been eerily watching us with amusement, maybe, while we waited in line). We had heard how big the cars were, but they were definitely huge, and air-conditioned, which was nice. 

I had been to London once before, 30 years ago, and the London Eye wasn't there yet, so I was excited to see the views, and they did not disappoint! It was so gorgeous, and almost sunset, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We also saw a family in the next car and took their picture, and then they took ours and we exchanged in the gift shop after the ride! The family was from Brazil, and didn't speak much English (and of course we don't speak any Portugese), but we were able to use WhatsApp to share the photos!

Afterwards, we walked over the bridge to get a much closer look at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and then started trying to find somewhere to eat. After much looking, and a bus ride (again, top, front of the double-decker), which we hopped off after seeing a few good restaurants, we found a place called Frankie's and Johnny's that was delicious! Gemma finally got the Mac and Cheese she'd been wanting all trip!

Then we went back to our apartment and again collapsed. This place also had no AC, but did have fans, which helped a lot!

Dublin Day 2

We woke up early on our second day, trying to ignore the fact that it was 2 in the morning back home, and headed to the EPIC Irish Immigration Museum. This is not a happy place, but they made it very interactive and interesting, and we enjoyed our time there.

Then we walked to Trinity College for a guided tour and a visit to the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is being renovated, so most of the books had been removed, but we still got the feel for how it would have been when they were all there. They will be closing it soon for a 10-year renovation project, so I'm very glad we were able to visit when we did.

After Trinity, we walked around for a while and headed to St. Stephen's Green, where we met some friendly birds and enjoyed a relaxing walk around the park. 

We then ate a delicious lunch at Old Fashioned Sam's and our server told us her favorite ice cream place, Murphy's Ice Cream, so of course we had to go visit for dessert (another recurring theme on the trip)! Imagine our surprise when we arrived and looked at the menu and Kieran's Cookies was one of the flavors! We don't see our kids' names on much, so even though it was spelled the traditional way, it was still pretty cool. (We had also seen personalized Jason and Kieran souvenirs next to each other at the EPIC Museum gift store that morning.)

As soon as we left Murphy's, Gemma took one lick of her ice cream and it fell off her cone and landed right on the pavement. She was so sad, but went back in and explained what happened and they gave her more! I believe this was also where Jason's "one splurge per day" policy came to be.

After ice cream, we walked to the Temple Bar and then headed to our reservation at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We did the audio-guided tour and learned some very cool facts while seeing some of the most amazing and detailed work we had ever seen (another recurring theme)! It's amazing what people spent time doing before TV and smart phones! One of our favorite things there was the Door of Reconciliation. It's a pretty cool story that you can read here!

We walked around some more before returning to the apartment to freshen up, then took the bus to the beach. It was cooler at night there, so there weren't many people there and even less in the water. 

We had a delicious dinner at a very crowded restaurant called The Bath Pub. Most people were there to watch the World Cup game (another recurring theme). 

Then we walked home and collapsed in bed again. They don't do top sheets much in Europe, and it was too hot for a comforter, so we slept with no cover, but were too tired to care!

Note: As usual, in all but one of our rentals, Kyran slept on the couch, so we are very thankful to him for always being flexible. 

Dublin Day 1

 Ok, it has been a minute, but we just returned from an amazing family adventure and I want to write it all down before I forget!

We started by flying to Dublin on July 7. It was a redeye, so we arrived there exhausted Wednesday morning, but ready to explore!

When we left the airport, Dublin mass transit had other plans.

We first found someone who looked helpful and asked them where to go. They pointed us down in one direction, but we couldn't find the bus, so we asked someone else. They told us to go to one of the platforms to catch a city bus, but that wasn't right either, so we headed to the bus they recommended, that was also on Apple Maps. The driver said he couldn't take us there and directed us to the place where we started, but they told us they also couldn't get us close to our apartment, so we ended up taking a cab. 

We arrived a little early to check-in, so we walked around (with all of our luggage), until we found a place that looked good to everyone (a recurring theme on this trip) called Food Game. There we had probably the most delicious French toast we had ever eaten, and Jason realized it might be a while before he could get a plain black coffee in something larger than a teacup. 

We checked into our place (with no AC, which usually isn't a problem, but we were at the tail-end of the heat wave, so it was definitely a little warm) and then set out to explore.

We figured out the bus routes, and of course headed straight to top front of the double-decker bus! It was the first time I'd ridden a double-decker bus since before Harry Potter was a thing, but I know now why the Night Bus is described like it is. From the top, it really does look like you're squeezing through small areas and about to run over everything around you!

We visited St. Michan's Church first, founded in 1030! Our tour guide Tom was lots of fun as he showed us around the main part of the church and talked about the history (including showing us the tower with places to shoot arrows because it was also a fortress in the war) before taking us underground into the crypts. These are why this church is so famous. 

Because of the temperature and make-up of the walls in the crypts under the church, the bodies buried there have preserved incredibly well, including one that we got to see, along with a few other random skeletal parts. Kind of creepy, but also cool. When the crypts were created, they were purchased forever, so if anyone still knew their family had one, they could still be buried there, but it doesn't happen often anymore.

After St. Michan's, we walked to the Guinness Storehouse, where we did a self-guided tour, including a lesson on the smells and how to best drink a Guinness, and then some time in the Gravity Bar at the top of the building with beautiful views and more beer. Jason's and my tickets came with a free beer each (so Jason got two) and the kids' came with free sodas.

We walked around some more and found a "portal" where we could see people in Poland, and they could see us!

Then we headed to dinner at Murray's Bar and Grill, hoping to see some Irish dancing, but we were too early. We did get to listen to some live Irish music from a fun band. Dinner was good (except for when Jason accidentally knocked our very close neighboring table's food out of the runner's hand and onto the floor. That guy was NOT happy). 

We got back to the apartment late and exhausted, and, after figuring out the adapters to charge all the things, basically passed out until the next morning.

Xia

 I guess the biggest change we've had in the past three years since losing Bella is the addition of Xiamara Ariel Burkett, our now three-year-old dog. 

I guess you can call her a dog, although we suspect she thinks she's human. 

The day after Bella died, I went out and got a Betta fish. I'd never been a day in my life without a pet, and Jason was kind enough to agree to a fish, knowing he would be the one doing most of its care. Our first fish Okko lived almost a year and a half. Our next fish, Rojo, lived only about 7 months, and we've had Poco now for almost a year. Each time, Jason says it's the last one, but when they die, he always wants another. 

Okko

Rojo

Poco

As pretty as the fish are, they don't do a good job of cuddling or keeping me company while I'm home during the day. Our original plan was to wait until after the holidays to get another dog so that we could travel without having to worry about bringing a puppy along or leaving her at home.

The house was just too quiet, and I only made it two days before I got online to start looking for puppies. We applied to several rescue sites, and I found a puppy I was sure would be ours. She was one of a litter of ten (that they think might have had four different fathers!) at a small rescue about an hour away, but as soon as they were ready to be pre-adopted, we made the drive to meet her. She was sweet and adorable, as were three of her sisters who we also met. We each picked a favorite, but couldn't really agree, so we said we'd wait.

That's when the rescue owner said, "Bring in Ripley." I vaguely remembered seeing this dog on the site, but because of the name, assumed it was a male and we really wanted another female. She told us she was a girl, so we agreed to see her. Thank God we did. As soon as they brought her in, all five of us fell completely in love. She was playful, but also curled up to sleep in our laps. She was so incredibly soft and sweet, and we knew she had to be ours. 

Look at that smile!

And that one!

And that one!

We paid the adoption fee that day, and were told we could pick her up two weeks later. That was too long for us, so we drove the two-hour round trip the next weekend to see her again. We agreed on the name Xiamara, partly because it started with an X and Bellatrix ended with an X, partly because it means "famous in battle" and Bellatrix meant "female warrior," but also because it's the only name we could all agree on (other than Vienna after the Billy Joel song, to which the rescue owner sneered and said, "You're going to name her after a sausage?") 

We brought her home November 6, 2021 and she immediately earned her middle name Ariel, because like the mermaid, she wants to be where the people are. We joke that she thinks she's a person, because sometimes she really does act like one.

She responds to so many human words, is very verbal and loves to "talk" to us, sits like a human on the couch, and exhibits many other human characteristics. She is also protective like a good dog should be, but so gentle with people, kids especially. 

When Bella was young, I taught her to sit, stay, lay down, roll over, wait, go around, and a few other fun commands. We struggled mostly with her table surfing and running away, so we knew this time we wanted to work with a professional dog trainer.

We had one session before Xia even came home, so that we would have some things we could work on with her from the start, and three sessions with her and the trainer, mostly using treats and clicker training. The last session, we even took her out to our local street vendor event that happens on Saturday mornings, and she did great around people and other dogs. 

She can do all of the tricks that Bella did, but also does not table surf or even touch our food that's left in front of her if we leave the room, she knows how to stay in her spot (mostly) until we release her, and we have a word that we use to get her to come back if she does get away. I also taught her "enough" so that she knows it's ok to stop barking at someone or something. She still pulls when we're walking her and barks a lot at strange people or cars in our cul-de-sac, but overall, it's much easier to do anything in public with her.

She weighs 50 pounds, but her favorite place to be is laying in my lap on the couch. Sometimes she'll even whine at me until I sit down and she can jump on me. She's a big lapdog, but it really makes me feel special. 

She has learned each of us and knows how we like to be greeted when we come in the house. (The first time our second foster son smiled at our house was because of her, but we'll get to that in another post.)

She sees animals on TV and either growls at them or whines because she wants to play with them. We've actually been scared for our TV on occasion when she seems like she wants to attack the animal that might pose a threat to us. 

Xia is also married. We have an amazing family who keeps her for us when we go out of town. They have two dogs of their own and when she's there, she and their youngest dog, Wilson, are inseparable. She even knows when we're on the way to his house and gets so excited. 

We thought as she got older that her hair would turn more wiry, but she is still the softest dog! And she's gorgeous! People often ask what breed she is and we love saying she's a one-of-a-kind mix. Her tail is seriously the most beautiful tail I've ever seen on any animal aside from a peacock. 

Curled up on my lap!

Xia and Wilson

We love our sweet, sassy Xiamara!

Three Years

 It's hard to believe how fast three years have gone by. We now have two teenagers and a tween, a three-year-old dog, our third Betta fish, have completed a second addition to our home, and said hello and goodbye to our second foster son, who was with us for a year and a half. 

Covid is still around, but cases are mostly mild now. For the most part, we're back to worrying about "normal" things like school dances, our current musicals, and making time for each other despite our crazy schedules.

The house feels very empty without the kids around during the day (I actually loved the time with them during the pandemic), but once I pick them up, we go, go, go until bedtime usually. All three kids haven't done a show together in over a year, so we're typically in many different directions but try to find time to eat dinner as a family as often as we can. 

In the past five months the kids have taken their first flight (California) and first cruise (Cozumel). Both trips were amazing. My plan is to start posting again more regularly and to fill in details on these soon. 

Kyran and Karyssa have had their permits since their birthday, but we were "fired" from teaching them, so my dad has taken that on. 

Gemma is in her last year of elementary school, which is so hard to believe. After 11 years, we will walk out of the doors of her school with a student for the last time. 

In the same amount of time since my last post, we will have two high school graduates. This is even harder to believe. We get mailers from colleges almost every day and they are thinking a lot about where they want to go and what they want to study. How are my 2 lb, 11 oz and 3 lb, 4 oz preemies so close to this point already?

Jason has changed positions again, but had his 11-year anniversary at First Citizens in June. I am still working from home, but less than I did before Covid. 

I think I touched on all of the major updates and will hopefully be posting more frequently to fill in what I've missed and include some pictures!

Bellatrix Houdini Burkett

Disclosure: I started this post more than a year ago, in preparation of Bella's passing, because I knew it would be hard to write after. She made it to fourteen years, seven months. Even though she had no use of her back legs for at least the last 9 months of her life, she was happy, healthy, and so loved. We told the kids last October that she probably wouldn't make it to Halloween, and here I am, posting this one year later. I'm sure I'll write more and post pictures later, but I wanted to officially make this post, and thank God that it's coming more than a year after we thought it would. As the end of this post shows, my wish to spend one more Christmas with her was granted. And one more birthday...for all of us. 

Bellatrix Houdini Burkett

March 4, 2007-October7, 2021

                                                                                ***

Thirteen and a half years ago, Jason and I went to a shelter, just to see some dogs and figure out what we wanted. What we found was our Bellatrix Houdini Burkett, and we brought her home that day. 

We knew we wanted a little puppy, because our cat, Foz, had major anxiety and we knew that bringing a big dog in could send him over the edge. So, the shelter worker brought us to a small pen of puppies. We had been given advice to not pick the hyper puppies jumping on the fence, and saw the cutest little ball of fur lying quietly in the back of the pen while the others were all jumping and barking at us. 

We picked her up and she fell asleep in Jason's hand (literally...she only weighed 3 lbs), and we knew. About 20 minutes, we had listened to all of the rules and instructions for adoption and Bella was still sleeping in Jason's hand. She fooled us, though. As soon as I finished the last stroke of my signature on the adoption papers, she woke up, ran up Jason's arm, bit his ear, then jumped down, ran in the cat room and started trying to eat "treats" from the litter box. 

We bought a crate and other puppy goodies and brought her home. The first couple of nights were pretty rough. She whined all night and chewed on the wire of the crate. There would be a huge puddle of drool when we got her out in the morning. She settled in and potty trained quickly, and soon I started teaching her tricks. She could eventually sit, stay, roll over, go around, and would leave a treat on the ground until I told her to get it. 

It took us a couple of days to name her, and we finally settled on Bellatrix. This was before we read the Harry Potter book that introduced Bellatrix LeStrange, so it wasn't intentional that she shares the same name, but it might have been forshadowing that we'd have a daughter who loved villains and looked just like Helena Bonham Carter. However, she was actually named after the star that's in the constellation Orion, because when Jason and I would stargaze while we were dating, that's the only constellation he could ever find. We decided we could call her Bella or Trixie, but Bella was the one that stuck. 

She was a pretty good puppy. Didn't bark much. Didn't chew things (except food, which she would eat everything she could get her mouth on). She had lots of energy, and was very strong, but usually very easily controlled. 

When Jason's mom went on hospice, we went up and spent two weeks there. His parents had a Daschound named Maggie who loved to sit on the back of the couch and bark at all of the passing cars and people. And Bella picked up the habit. 

She has a very loud bark when she gets protective, which is often. Passing cars and people, turtles, and even sometimes falling leaves would set her off and she would go for quite a while. When people came over, she would take a while to settle down, and there were days during our addition that she barked all day when some of the workers were in the house. 

She is always more protective when Jason is not home, and became even more so when Kyran and Karyssa were born. She loves the kids. So much. And she is so sweet and gentle with them. But I've always told people if anyone tried to hurt them, she would probably rip their limbs off. 

She was so fast. My dad took her on a run once and she outran a rabbit. She could also run back and forth in the living room and dining room, dodging kids and toys, never hitting a thing. And boy could she jump. She probably would have made a great agility dog. 

The only time her strength was a negative was when I would take her out and she would spot a squirrel. She would take off and almost take me with her. Once, at Tammy's house, I took her out during the morning hours when dew was still on the ground. I had on flip flops with no traction, and when a man walked by with his dog, I knew what was coming. I braced for her to start pulling, and she "took me skiing" across the yard. 

She was never aggressive toward other dogs. She played roughly, but nicely, but it made her nervous to be on a leash when she was with other dogs. 

I've struggled writing this because she is still with us, but not the same. I've gone back and forth between present and past tense, because she's just not the dog she used to be. She still loves treats, but doesn't want to eat her regular food as much anymore. She has very minimal use of her back legs. She is losing control of her bowels. She barely barks anymore (but when she does, it's as loud as ever). We know it could be any day that she wakes up and just can't walk at all anymore. 

And I don't know what we're going to do without her. 

Kyran and Karyssa love her very much, but while they had each other, Gemma had Bella. I have almost as many pictures of the two of them as I do Kyran and Karyssa together. 

And she has been my shadow, especially for the past few months. She wants to be upstairs when I'm upstairs, under my reclining chair when I'm on the couch and we had to move her bed over to my side, because she would sleep on the floor next to me instead of on her bed. It's safe to say we're bonded. I am her mommy and she is my baby girl. 

I started this post in September and she is still with us and doing about the same in December. We tried several treatment options, including acupuncture, oral steroids, and other oral medicines, but after a recommendation from a friend tried a horse steroid. For four weeks, I took her to the vet twice a week for a shot. This was not always the most pleasant situation (I quickly learned I needed to keep plastic bags and wipes in the van), but it did work wonders on her. Her spunk came back a little and even over a month later she seems to be gaining some strength back. 

As much as the current Covid conditions have been rough on us, they have been so good for Bella. There is almost always someone home with her and she loves the time with her people. 

We love our sweet girl so much and are so hopeful to celebrate another Christmas with her!