Tag Archives: Ireland

Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Ireland Miracle #3

December 5, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Sorry I realize that I never finished my Ireland miracles. I’ll just schedule these stories in once in a while. Better late than never right?

For the first month in Ireland, we solely relied on public transportation which was mainly double decker busses and the Dart which is a fast train. Dallin studied at the University College Dublin and we lived in Dun Laoghaire. It was about 45 minutes by bus but only a 15 minute drive. The bus system was fantastic and there really wasn’t much to complain about except for the fact that Dallin took 1.5 to 2 hours or more commuting everyday depending on traffic.

We felt like the Spirit was telling us we should buy a car. We researched it out and miraculously found an old Nissan Almera (aka Nissan Centra in the USA) for 1000 euros. We registered it and bought insurance from Liberty Mutual Insurance which was the cheapest insurance we found. Buying a car was easier than we thought it would be and it eventually ended up saving us money even though the gas tax in Ireland is like 50%.

Driving in Dublin, Ireland is super fun… well kinda. So you drive on the left hand side of the road and the roads are very narrow. Parking is pretty much just parallel parking. You have to get really good at parallel parking. You can use your native driver license for one year before you need to get an Irish license.

We took this old cheap car to every shore of Ireland and Northern Ireland. We drove this car from Dublin to Giants Cosway in Northern Ireland. Then to Cork, Cliffs of Moher, Dingle and the Ring of Kerry. Fortunately the only problem we had with the car was the windshield wipers and a mechanic in Cork fixed it for 10 euro.

On one of our last adventures in Ireland, we were driving to the Blarney Castle in Cork. A local guy rear ended our car and made a dent in the back bumper. The insurance company said that the car was totaled. They let us keep the dented car and gave us 1000 Euro. So in essence we got this car for free. This is what the bumper looked like and if you look around on the streets of Ireland…everyone has the same dent in their car because the roads are so narrow!

We thought purchasing this car was a tender mercy of the Lord. We drove this car everywhere. We drove it to church and drove the Dublin area missionaries to their visits. Dallin used this car to go home teaching and we used this car to drive to the hospital when we had the baby. We ended up giving the car away to a friend and then he was able to use the car for a few weeks while his car was broken. After that he ended up selling it for 200 euro. We thought we got our money’s worth out of that car. What a blessing!

Writing about Ireland again brings tears to my eyes because I miss Ireland so much!

Child #1: Micah, Children, Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, Travel

Glendalough 2

June 12, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 4 Comments

Went with our Brazilian and Romanian friends to Glendalough in Wicklow last week. We’ve already been once but we loved it so much that we had to go again (first Glendalough trip post)! We love hiking the Glendalough trails and having a picnic. It was such a nice day to be out at the lake too! I love the sun… I think it was the first time I felt like I should’ve put on some sunscreen.

37 weeks in this picture … moving right along. We hiked to upper lake… pretty good for being full term right? Ok so it was an easy hike but still. 🙂

Child #1: Micah, Family, Family Life, Ireland, Photography, Travel

Murphy’s Farmhouse

May 8, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

We thought it’d be fun to stay on a farm one weekend. Little Micah loved it! Micah would wake up at 6 am and we would hear:

Cow: Moo

Micah: Moo

Duck: Quack Quack

Micah: Quack Quack Quack Quack!!

We loved seeing the cows to go get milked everyday. It was a very peaceful stay away from the big city!

Child #1: Micah, Family, Family Life, Ireland, Photography, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Dingle Peninsula

May 6, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 1 Comment

We drove around the Dingle Peninsula. It was super pretty. I thought Dingle was prettier than the Ring of Kerry although they were both a very nice drive. When we went to Dingle, we went to a tiny branch for church called Tralee. It was the smalled branch I have ever been to! There were hardly enough people there to run the branch. Nevertheless, the rented building was remodeled and I felt like I was at the temple. It was a neat experience for us to go to a small branch and see how the church is growing.

Child #1: Micah, Family, Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

I like to look for rainbows

April 16, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

It’s 50 degrees f (10 c) outside and the sun finally came out! I can definitely understand why Ireland is famous for their rainbows. It’s because it rains so much here! It rains pretty much everyday.

This is the most magnificent and brilliant rainbow we have ever seen! It reminds me of the primary song When I am Baptized.

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

My husband came home from work busting through the door. He told us to go outside quick! Micah was going to the potty. We ran outside and Micah had no pants on but at least I remember to grab my camera. 🙂

Family, Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, Travel

Glendalough

March 23, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 1 Comment

Lough (pronounced lock) in Irish means “lake”. This is such a pretty tourist site. We picked the perfect day to go see this area. It was partly cloudy and around 45 degrees f (~8 degrees c) that day. We toured the cemetery and the old watch tower. I was surprised to see real mountains in Ireland! It reminded me a lot like Utah. The hike is easy half mile to the first lake and then one mile to the second lake. Glen in Irish means the number two so Glendalough means “of the two lakes”.

I’m not much of a landscape photographer but Dallin really likes scenic photography so I decided to give it a try.

Here are pictures of the cemetery:

Ireland, Travel

Things I wish were in Ireland

March 7, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Hidden Valley Ranch – One of my good friends spend over $20 sending me some ranch packets. I’ve been savoring them. I don’t think they’ll last me much longer.

Cafe Rio – Enough said… They don’t even sell fresh tomatillos in Ireland!

Mexican Food – The Mexican food isle at the store is small and I haven’t seen a Mexican restaurant in town.

Scott Jarvie – I wish I had my favorite photographer to take professional pictures of us in Ireland. 🙂

Gym with Childcare – No such thing as Gold’s Gym or 24 Hour Fitness here.

Distribution Center or Deseret Book – It was so convient to pick up gospel material when I needed it. We still need a picture of Jesus and the Temple at our apartment. I just need to order it online. Those blue copies of the Book of Mormon are precious in Ireland.

Costco or Sam’s Club – Since when is buying in bulk MORE expensive? It’s cheaper to by the 1 kg rice verse the 2 kg rice here. 😦

My Kitchen Aid – Cooking just hasn’t been the same without it.

Sun – Oh Mister sun, sun Mister golden sun please shine down on me!

Egg Nog (Dallin’s Request) – We celebrated our new years without Egg Nog this year.

Temple – Haven’t been to the temple since we left Utah! I miss just seeing the temple.

Family, Family Life, Ireland, Landscape, Photography, Travel

Bray Ireland Pictures

March 1, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard Leave a comment

Here’s some random pictures on our weekend adventures to the city Bray outside the border of Dublin. It was a really really cold day! In fact, it snowed right after we took these pictures. That’s why we all look like eskimos because we wore four layers of clothes that day. We actually starting walking from Dun Laoghaire to Dalkey. Then took the train called the Dart to Bray.

There are a bunch of Catholic churches here so we stopped by when they were having their mass on Saturday.

I thought these washing basins are similar to the ones in King Soloman’s Tabernacle. Way cool!

The architecture of the churches are so neat! I can’t believe how old they are.

Ireland, Travel

New Grange and Four Knocks Tombs

February 28, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 1 Comment

This post is more about New Grange. New Grange is a very old tomb. It was predicted to be build back in 3200 BC! I won’t go into much detail about New Grange because you can just read the wiki on New Grange.

Now for the adventure to Four Knocks… you have to go ask Mrs. White who lives in a white house next to the tiny village of Four Knocks. Her number is +353 (0) 1 8354722. This is Mrs. White’s House:

You give her some money for the key. The money is only a deposit. You’ll get it back if you return the key to her before 6 pm.

She’ll give you the instructions on how to get to Four Knocks Tomb.

Here’s the Four Knocks Tomb on the left:

Here’s the door of the tomb:

Here’s some facts about the Four Knocks Tomb:

Here’s inside the tomb:

If you want to see more you’re just going to have to go for yourself cause we didn’t get very many pictures. We were a little creeped out and we didn’t bring a flash light!

Here’s some fun pictures we took outside the tomb:

Happy tomb finding! 🙂

Ireland, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Dallin’s First Post

February 3, 2013 Hubbard's Cupboard 5 Comments

Dear World…. This is my first blog post! Hooray. I wanted to write to my family and friends and tell them about my experience in Ireland. It is amazing and fun, as well as trying. The castles, greenery, ancient cathedrals, and accents are neat. It’s much more expensive, and learning how to do things in another country can be a challenge. I can’t count how many times we’ve been lost already. But we’ve been able to get where we were planning to go thanks to broadband cellular internet and May Bo’s faithful navigating with a laptop and google maps It has been a blessing in a lot of ways to come here. May Bo and I have a lot more time with each other. She doesn’t have school, callings or social outing to go too anymore. It’s been nice to be able to spend evenings together again. I feel like this part of Ireland has been a “best” (See Elder Oak’s talk on “Good Better, Best“)

This week May Bo and I went to see Newgrange. It is a 5000 year old mound of rock built about 3200-2800 B.C. (older than the pyramids) that has a long narrow passage leading to the center of the mound. In the center there is a cross shaped area with 3 stone washrooms and a bunch of ancient carvings. Every Dec 18-23 during the winter solstice the rising sun shines directly through the entranceway down the long narrow passage and into the center chamber and illuminates the entire room! It is supposedly a spectacular event. You have to win a lottery to see it (100 slots/30,000 applicants). It is an amazing mound, estimated to have used 200,000 tonnes of rock just for the center chamber alone! There must have been some amazing engineering going on to make this monument. There is no consensus among experts about why this monument was built, but I can’t help but notice the similarities between such a monument and the LDS temples of today. The Salt Lake Temple must weigh a lot too. I’m sure it took a lot of work to build, similar to this ancient monument. It would not surprise me that such edifices were raised for the same purpose the Saints raise temples today: to unify families and to worship the “God of the whole earth,” even Jesus Christ.