Christmas 2023

 Season’s Greetings! 

As the festive season and sparse snowflakes gather around us, I find myself reflecting on the many adventures and experiences that have made up 2023. As of now the beginning of December, we are down to having only half of our kids at home. This has made a real dent in our labor force for the mundane daily and weekly household chores. Not to mention losing another one of our teen drivers who can take siblings to and from various activities. The time, money, and emotional (terrifying) output of teaching kids to drive has a short window of return before they are off into the world. But don’t worry. Annie and Maddie are signed up to take Driver’s Ed. We will be tossed into the deep end of the hair-raising conditions of teaching new drivers on dark evenings and with the possibility of snowy conditions. I just can’t wait. Only 50 hours of driving practice, times two, before their 16th birthday next November. Pray for us. Or if not, maybe check in to see if we are ready for a weekend getaway in a padded cell. 

This spring we wanted to take a trip to Ireland as a kind of “last hoorah” family vacation with Elizabeth before she graduated high school. We booked a trip to Ireland for the week of Spring Break. We were so excited, with various items purchased, and ready for our adventure. Less than 24 hours before we were scheduled for take-off from SeaTac I got a notification that our flight was straight-up cancelled because of the layover in London and their worker’s strike. After a few hours on the phone with Expedia and our refusal of our “only choice” replacement flight lasting 37 hours and routing through Istanbul, we had to cancel the whole trip. Did you know that combining bookings means that if one piece falls apart and you cancel that part, the hotel stays and car rental also goes kaput? (The more you know!) After a long discussion as a family, with sadder eyes and longer faces than you can imagine and the absolute certainty that nothing could ever come close to making up for this lost adventure, we bit the bullet and rebooked the whole trip for 3 days later. Last minute prices be hanged! That said, it was an amazing trip. We stayed in a Georgian house with running COLD water in Dublin next to where it was rumored Sir Anthony Hopkins was filming a movie about Sigmund Freud. Our rental car was blocked in by period cars that did not actually run. We admired enough castles, cathedrals, ruins, stained glass windows, cliffs, libraries, narrow roads, green vistas, colorful homes, and accents to make our Irish hearts happy. Ryan was the lucky soul who discovered Ireland has its own version of Montezuma’s Revenge and had a couple of rough days.

Emma (20) is still living in Florida. She is enjoying the very warm temperatures that Florida has to offer. She tried a few different options to support herself, including sewing camping gear and selling life insurance. In September she found a job in a call center doing tech support and says she likes it, as long as people are polite. The ones that yell she doesn’t like as much.

Elizabeth (18) finished her senior year of high school with as many art classes as she could fit into her schedule. After graduation, she got the not-coveted agricultural job of cherry checker for the summer. As a very new adult of diminutive stature and quiet nature, it was just a natural outgrowth to find a job to monitor real adults and make sure they were picking cherries correctly. In September, with many tears and some trepidation, Ryan and I left Elizabeth in Rexburg so she could begin her degree in Art Education at BYU-Idaho. She promptly broke her dominant wrist one week into her first semester. As an art major. Where she needed to spend hours every week creating art that she would be graded on. 

Annie and Maddie (15) are freshmen in high school. Between Elizabeth and these two, we have three freshmen in our family. Annie and Maddie participated in Track last spring, throwing discus, javelins, and shot put with enthusiasm if not skill. Over the summer, Annie worked for the Ecology Youth Corp picking up strange and questionable items under the blazing summer sun along the freeway. Maddie helped a family friend with some odd jobs to fill the time. At school, they have several classes together, including band class where Maddie still plays the trombone and Annie is on to her 3rd instrument: the contra-alto clarinet. This requires two textbooks set on her chair so her lips can reach the mouthpiece. They finished their cross-country season with PRs and are glad that’s over. But hey, “Real athletes run miles not yards.” As new freshmen, they started attending the 6:15 am seminary class, for which Ryan kindly plays chauffeur.

Ryan is now the proud owner of a full-sized scythe that was custom-made for him. He uses it to cut the pasture grass and our abundant weeds. He finds scything to be a great stress reliever. He still enjoys mowing the lawn with the ride-on lawnmower so he hasn’t gone full-pioneer. He put up a new fence along our driveway (with help from us) so we can plant laurel shrubs next spring without the neighbor goats eating them down to twigs. He also tried a new-to-him style of fencing called wattle fence, which are sticks woven between stakes like you might see in a basket. This is strictly decorative and is a good use of prunings. Also, judging from the number of trips to the chiropractor, Ryan’s most dangerous activity is sleeping. It’s a real shame because he rather enjoys it. The sleeping that is, not the stiff and painful neck, shoulders, and back. He’s still a principal at an elementary school, and as a high councilor at church- he gives monthly talks around the stake. And helps in the Spanish Branch. And has been known to translate English to Spanish, and Spanish to English. And is the Spanish Branch clerk. So basically he twiddles his thumbs all day every day.

 I find my body gently reminding me that I’m not as young as I once was. From the few chin hairs that can only be described as whiskers, to the knee pain from blithely hopping down from a U-Haul truck while helping friends move, to a partly dislocated shoulder from simply stretching out tight arm and shoulder muscles from driving to and from Rexburg in a single weekend, and arriving in my bedroom only to not remember what I was there to grab. On the bright side, I still enjoy volunteering and working at the temple. I like my primary class of 4-6 year-olds. I’ve added running 2 or 3 miles a few times a week to my workout regime in an effort to sleep better. I’ve drunk the Kool-Aid: it actually works. So if you see me out running, I’m not running for my life. I’m listening to a podcast or an audiobook and pretending I like running.

This summer included adventures like Trek, where we pretended we were pioneers pulling handcarts for several days. Ryan and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa for a family of 8 teens we hadn’t met before arriving in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Idaho. This adventure included zero showers over 4 days, sleeping under the stars, porta-potties at our campsites, plenty of dust, and 24 miles of pushing and pulling handcarts full of our stuff. Plus the 6-hour drive back to Sunnyside with 6 of us sweaty, unshowered folks sharing our minivan. The good news is we had to do zero cooking for ourselves as there was a whole committee devoted to feeding all 300+ of us, three times a day. Ryan and I embarrassed ourselves not knowing how to eat edamame from the pods, and tried popping the whole stringy, chewy thing in our mouths. That’s not how you do it. After all of that, Ryan is totally game to do it all again. Annie, Maddie, and I all filed this experience away as “character building.” It was a good escapade in a beautiful place but it could have been better with more sleep and some introvert downtime in my opinion.

A note from Ryan: We miss Grandma but remember her often in the laughter and memories that we share as a  family. It won’t ever be the same but it does not have to always be bad either. Enjoy your loved ones even if they get on your nerves or behave like a meanie-pants from time to time. You never know how much time you have.  Never miss an opportunity to build them up or tell them you love them. Take a moment to listen. 

We are so grateful for this time of year, to remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are grateful for all of you in our lives, and for the love and service you have given our family over the years. Merry Christmas!

Love,

the Kannely family

The Last Day

 We started Monday morning out slowly. We had to get our luggage in order to get through airport security and make sure our snacks were stowed away where we would be able to reach them easily during our flight. We also needed to make sure the Kindles were readily available and charged. Ryan and I went on a 45 minute walk along the road where we were staying. The speed limit was typical of country roads in Ireland- 80 km/h. That is 50 miles per hour. Can you imagine? Just a twisty little country road and the possibility of becoming roadkill. No big deal. People walk along these roads all the time.

The kids opted to stay and play outside. We were going to be stuck on an airplane for 9+ hours, and time outside is always good.

Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 3:10 pm, so we took a little detour to see another crumbling tower house. One more ruin, just because.

More crazy, narrow road driving. Where exactly is an oncoming car supposed to go??

Then it was time to start the journey home. Just before entering Dublin, the clouds started dumping buckets of rain. That rain we planned for with our extra pairs of shoes and raincoats had finally made its appearance just in time for us to say goodbye. With Google Maps cheering us on one last time, Ryan wound his way to the rental car drop-off. We got a clean bill of health, grabbed our bags, and wedged ourselves into the shuttle van to the airport.

We had a nice long wait to check in our passports at Aer Lingus. Finally, we were checked in with our boarding passes, and then it was time for security. I like that we don't have to take off our shoes in Ireland. That done, we follow the signs to US customs and security. Oh, joy. Thankfully we were not required to do security again, but we did have to declare our family status as Americans. We were a kid sandwich, with Ryan first and me at the end. The customs lady asked where we had stayed while in Ireland as she handed me back my passport. It felt almost like an afterthought question. Like husbands can't remember stuff like that? So I rattled off our itinerary, and I was given a nod and we could go.

We had spent over an hour in lines. We wanted lunch before boarding! There was one little super overpriced sandwich and crisps shop near our gate. Our sandwiches cost more than our pub food lunch the day before. At least we were able to fill our bellies and use the "toilet" (not restroom) before boarding. Ryan thought the backrest was an interesting feature. The women's room had no such thing. Rude!

Our seats were really close to the toilets on the airplane. I could lean over and touch the door if I wanted to. (I didn't.) It was super easy to go over and grab a tissue mid-flight. Once boarded, we sat for a good 40 minutes past take-off time. It turns out we were waiting for our food to arrive. But we had movies to entertain us, so that helped. It was about 4 pm in Dublin when we finally took off.

All of us Kannely girls were sitting in a row. Ryan just didn't get Maddie in the picture. Ryan sat just in front of Maddie. On the flight over, Ryan couldn't get any sound from his screen, so we shared my screen and headphones. On the way back, I settled in for the entire second season of Sanditon. No snarky comments from the peanut gallery, ahem my husband. But our flight was only half over, and it was still light outside. I switched to reading at that point. We were fed a lot on that flight. We had pretzel service. Dinner with dessert service. Ice cream service. A fancy version of a hot pocket- I think mine was tikka masala or some such. Plus drinks a few more times. We watched the airplane icon on my screen slowly, ever so slowly, crawl its way to Seattle. Maddie proudly says she watched 13 or 14 episodes of Psych on the way home. Elizabeth watched 5 movies. As we got closer, we heard the landing gear come out. A moment later there was a very loud noise, a bit of a shudder from the plane, and then an announcement over the PA about how to find your nearest exit.

What the?!?!

We were fine. Physically anyway. There were no more weird noises and we landed just fine.

We flew so long that it was Tuesday in Dublin when we landed, and when I was finally able to switch my phone off of airplane mode- we went back a day. And it was still light. And still had to drive 3 hours to get home. It was the day that almost never ended.

Ryan got us safely home. There was no relearning curve to driving on the right side of the road. We essentially left our bags at the front door, grabbed toothbrushes and chargers and went straight to bed. It was 9 pm Pacific time and we were dead, dead, dead. Hungry again, but too tired to do anything about it.

The next day was a school day. We were all awake early, but Elizabeth chose not to attend seminary. Ryan was at work super early and put in a full, long day, followed by high council meeting in Yakima. He didn't get home until about 10 pm. I was asleep before he got home. I think by Wednesday evening, Ryan had caught up on all of the work hours he missed Monday. I'm not sure what the point of officially taking the day off was. He more than made up for it last week. The girls went to school and looked like the zombies I felt myself to be Tuesday. Pushing through the jet-lag, sometimes you wonder why you did that to yourself. Looking through my pictures and reliving those experiences has reminded me- it was fun. We did enjoy it. It was totally worth it.

Easter in Ireland

 Confession: After listening to several talks in General Conference just the weekend before about the importance of keeping Easter Christ-centered..... well, we almost completely ignored all of that and absolutely did not keep the Sabbath day holy. Yes, I feel bad about it. We couldn't really brainstorm a way to to see everything we wanted to see and keep to our schedule without blowing off Sunday... Yes, total rationalization going on over here.  

Moving on.

We drove down to Limerick to attend Sacrament meeting.  Our choice was between going a half hour south, or 1.5 hours north to Galway for 10 am church. We opted to go south even though we wanted to see Galway later in the day. We'd been sight-seeing so fervently that we were wearing out. Besides, Limerick has a real church building, and Galway rents a space in a mini mall, next door to a gym. 

The branch was friendly. They didn't have an Easter program like I was expecting. It was a simple testimony meeting with singing the two usual Easter hymns. It is times like that when I miss our ward at home. We do sing with gusto and volume, and that can be lacking in small branches. There was a gentleman who was curious about our family history (I guess only people with roots in Ireland generally visit??) and after sacrament meeting took us back to the family history room. It appears to be combined with the young women room with two computers set up for Family Search. Ryan couldn't get logged in to his church account, so I logged into mine to get into Family Search. I have enough of Ryan's genealogy attached to me that I could find the one ancestor everyone is stuck on, a Mr. Matthew Kannely that arrived in California just prior to the gold rush. The census says he was both born in Ireland and illiterate. (Not a great starting point to find ancestors prior to him.) After getting us all excited to maybe have our big break-- as our friendly Family History consultant saw the estimated date of birth, he looked at us and said, "Nope, there's nothing we can do." Record keeping was pretty spotty around 1830 and before. Boo. 

I wanted to poke fun of our footwear, but in all seriousness these were not the only casual shoes in the building. Probably a quarter of the congregation was in the same shoe situation. I had insisted on bringing a second pair of shoes in case our regular ones got too wet in the Irish spring time weather. Then who wants to lug around a third pair when you are only bringing carry-on bags? I could have saved my worry because the weather was more than decent and we never soaked our shoes. The only day it poured rain was the day we were leaving Dublin to come home. We totally could have brough church shoes. Oh well.

Aren't we classy?

We were all feeling worn out by this point. But we only had another 24 hours in Ireland and wanted to make the most of them!

After church, we made the drive to Galway. We listened to the Follow Him podcast on the way. That was our last effort towards religiosity until the evening.

We parked our car in a parking garage, changed our clothes in the car, and started wandering. We were hungry and found a pub for lunch. It looked tiny, but just kept going. We walked past the bar part (which looks really cool) and over to the restaurant area.

This staircase was just behind us, where there was more seating upstairs. I'll say this for our food service experience in Ireland: they hustle! We always got our food fast, and we watched servers jog, if not run, up and down these stairs.

And we are back to wandering the streets.

We wandered around for an hour or more. About the time we were ready to head back to the car, we found a street performer. I wish I had written this guy's name down somewhere. He had a great voice, even if he wore crocs with his suit.

Funny story: In between songs, he was working the crowd and asked what to me sounded like if they "loved their local Pope?" I thought that was an interesting question especially when he started in on a song about drinking at the bar. I started thinking back on his question and realized he had asked if they had a favorite, local PUB that they liked. There were a few instances where I incorrectly interpreted accents, but this one was my favorite. I wasn't alone though, because Ryan asked me at the end of the song what that had to do with a Pope? I was able help by then.

Our last Airbnb was about an hour west of Dublin, so it was back in the car for another drive. This host was super sweet and had a whole Easter centerpiece on our table, knowing that we were traveling with our kids. The girls gratefully scarfed down the chocolate in honor of the special day.

Ireland Day 5

 This was our longest sightseeing day. We started the day at Bunratty Castle. Rick Steves' Guidebook didn't have high praise for this attraction, but Ryan and I enjoyed it the first time around. So we brought the girls this time.

Down to the dungeon!

The Great Hall in the middle of the castle.

Each of the corners of the castle holds a spiraling staircase of uneven stairs.

We got to climb out on the roof and look over the landscape.

And get buffeted by the wind.

Outside of the castle, there was a whole village of sample dwellings. They range from the super poor with dirt floors to a nice manor house. There is a tiny church, a village street of old time-y businesses, a schoolhouse, a formal garden, etc., etc. I didn't really take pictures of those.

Just this wooded path and the Mill House.

It was in the Bunratty village that we found another Irish storyteller willing to wax eloquent on many topics. When he found out that Ryan and I are not beer drinkers, he gave us a plan for how to work up to 5 pints of Guinness a day while we were in Ireland because it is "both food and drink." You start out with a half pint a day, and before you know it, you can hit your 5 pints. Or not, in our case.

After we were done and in the car, I couldn't help but notice a mom with a toddler having a meltdown. I can't say I have let my child roll around screaming in a parking lot, but hey, we've all been there. 

Lunch time. Once I spotted a table at the restaurant that was big enough for the 5 of us, I draped coats over the chairs and waited for my family to place their orders and come sit with me. That meant that Ryan chose the side salads for my panini. The carrot salad was... pickled? Just vinegar-y? Definitely on the savory side. The carrot salads I have had in the past have been sweet, so it was definitely a surprise. And the sprout salad didn't have dressing. :( Good thing the sandwich was tasty.

Then we drove out to the coast. Instead of going straight to the Cliffs of Moher visitor's center, we drove out to Hag's Head for a different perspective.

It was much less busy here and had some great views.

It was very windy. You had to be careful because a big gust could really knock you off balance. This would be a concern with 700-foot cliffs nearby.

Then we drove to the "real" Cliffs of Moher. We didn't go into the visitor's center though.

I had to climb over the fence to get this photo:

The rock wall below is new from our last visit. But I got a similar shot to the above photo last time, and I was going to do it again. Ryan had really built this story up for the kids. Apparently, I was risking life and limb and practically hanging over the edge of the cliff, blah, blah, blah, and Ryan thought I was going to fall to my death and he'd have to bring home a new wife. I had to prove that it wasn't as bad as all that, but of course, there was this rock fence in the way... Proving Ryan's point that I was being foolish and dangerous. Oh well. Watch Mom living on the edge!

This path is way nicer than the tiny, uneven trail that we walked last time.

Since we were near the Burren, we had to see the Poulnabrone Dolmen before calling it a day.

We stopped at a little pub for dinner finally around 8 pm. This was a dog-friendly place and there were many dogs sitting or wandering around. This dog made himself comfortable under our table. We must have looked like we would drop food. The pub was getting ready for live music while we were eating. They carried out the tables, chairs, and a couch to get ready for the large crowds coming for.... wait for it... a rock concert. That's not what I was expecting. We had a friendly, inebriated man strike up a conversation with us while we were waiting for our food. He had fond feelings for Americans and was excited that Joe Biden was coming to Ireland the following week. He remembered when the Clintons made a trip to Ireland and got teary-eyed thinking about it. We figured it would be best to continue on before the crowds grew and things got even more interesting.

We didn't get back to our Airbnb until pretty late. This was the evening I spent washing dirty underwear in the sink. For some strange reason, no one else wanted that privileged job. 

Ireland Day 4- Killarney

 We were up and on our way early once again. It was a short drive to Killarney National Park and Ross Castle, and we were there before Ross Castle was open. So we wandered a little before being let in. Ryan is always a fan of cannons.

Our tour group was made of entirely Americans. No one is allowed to take pictures of Ross Castle while touring, but I snuck this one below. This medieval toilet was large enough for a couple of people to use at a time. It was a glorified hole that human waste would fall? slide? into a cesspit. That cesspit didn't go outside of the castle like a person might expect. It sat there, fuming ammonium gas into the castle. Blech. There is now a metal grate blocking the hole-- to discourage tourists from using it? Ryan was still tempted to have a go.

Also, we learned that a door threshold literally was made to keep a couple of inches of straw inside of a room. The straw could be used to insulate, give a little cushion, and could be discarded as it got dirty.

That just sounds really itchy to me.

Onward to more exploring! Some of us might be giants.

Here's a good photo of Ross Castle in the back.

Oh, look. Mom's here too.

On our way back to the car to drive to our next destination, we passed a very chatty guide who promised to take us all around the northern part of the park in his jarvey and we "wouldn't have to pay if we didn't enjoy" ourselves. As if. He was very entertaining and was one of those fellows who wouldn't let a little truth get in the way of a good story. We were treated to all manner of stories of misfortunes, hauntings, mysteries, and an accent thick enough to make me strain my ears to make sure I was catching everything over the sound of clomping horseshoes.

And if that wasn't enough, he was our personal photographer for the 45 minute trip.

You can see Ross Castle in the distance.

After our little jaunt around the park, we drove down to the Muckross area and parked before walking down to Muckross Abbey. We passed a lovely arched stone bridge on our way.

The Muckross Abbey was one of our very favorite parts of our trip to Ireland. It is a ruin, but it is well preserved in its state. We were allowed to roam all over, up to a second floor, with twisty stairwells and long corridors. It was so much fun!

The old yew tree growing in the courtyard was a nice touch.

Up on the second floor was an old fireplace and chimney. It was really a shame it isn't connected to the Floo Network. It would be perfect.

Other tourists liked my idea of taking my family's picture in the fireplace. One offered to take our picture so I could be part of it. Their idea wasn't quite the same as mine...

You could look up and see the sky through the chimney. 

There were several staircases to traverse.

A view of the yew tree from the ground level.

Next, it was back to the car for the drive to Torc Falls. It was an itty, bitty hike to see the waterfall.

The walk to the waterfall only whetted our appetite, so we walked up the hill to the first overlook.

So.

Many.

Stairs.

Our quads were on fire.

Ta-da! 

This was a pretty spot too.

Here's me taking the above picture. Thanks, Ryan.

My complaints led to a better photo being taken of me.

Before we left Killarney for Limerick, we stopped by a grocery store and picked these chips up (among other things). They were only ok. But as non-drinkers, it was our best option to try Guinness in Ireland.

Interesting fact: When Ireland became independent from Great Britain, they wanted the harp as their national symbol. Sadly Guinness trademarked this harp about 200 years beforehand, so Ireland uses the mirror image of it.

Which couch above would you guess to be the extra bed? I had thought the one on the left was, but I was wrong. It was the L-shaped one on the right. One of the sections hid a compartment for the extra bedding for Elizabeth. We had to message the host to figure that out.

We stayed in this Airbnb for two nights. It was meant to be our laundry spot. It would have given us two nights to let our clothes dry because the Irish do not believe in electric dryers, as far as we can tell. But the washer was not responsive. We tried all of the switches in the laundry room and the ones outside of it. Pulled out the washer. Did anything we could think of to fix the problem. The host never got around to fixing that problem, so the second evening (when we were all out of clean clothes) I washed a couple pairs of underwear for each person in a sink. I had even planned ahead and brought a couple of pods of laundry detergent, so I popped one and used some of the soap as I swished our dirty underwear around in cold water. Seriously, why can't you have hot water anywhere besides the shower? I had to wash dishes in cold water too. Anyway... Between me and Ryan, we did the best that we could wringing out the water but our underwear was not dry the following morning. And it is quite a lovely sight- everyone's underwear draped over the backs of chairs and over the cold radiator. So, we put all of those wet clothes in a bag for Sunday and finished drying them during our last night's stay. Don't even ask about our other clothes. Yes, we wore dirty clothes for the rest of the trip. Good thing we were only tourists that no one was going to see again. At least those couple pairs of underwear smelled clean.