Finn the Swimmer

I am so excited that our little nephew, Finn, has started his swimming lessons! I can't wait to splash around with him in the pool this summer. Here are some photos from his first lesson. He is a natural!




If you want to see more photos of Mick, Sarah and Finn (and pics from our stay in Oregon this summer), go to www.mickandsarah.com.

Updates

Hi Everyone! Sorry that its been a little while, but Sean and I have been crazy busy with med school and lab stuff. Sean has been studying non-stop since the beginning of the New Year. He has two exams next week and will start his full day rotations. As for myself, I am trying to wrap up two different studies, submit an abstact for a Physiological Society meeting, resumbit a manuscript..and the list goes on. Do you ever have the feeling where your 'to-do' list just keeps getting longer and longer and it seems like there is nothing you can do about it? Hopefully things will calm down towards the end of the month!

Our trip to Scotland

While Simon and Lacy were here, we decided to take a short trip to our northern neighbor, Scotland. None of us had been there before so it was a new experience for all of us.

On our first full day, we took the train to Edinburgh. Given that the days are so short this time of year, we did not have much time to tour the city, but we tried to see what we could. We ended up staying on the Royal Mile, which we know is the touristy part, but there were some really cool sites and things to see so we decided to stay. We ended up walking to Edinburgh Castle (but did not go in as the queue was a mile long and the admission free was really expensive). The castle itself is quite a sight, along with the views from the top of the hill. We then headed to the tartan mills to see how Scottish kilts are made. Our last stop was the scotch whisky museum. Sean and I thought this would be interesting since we've been to two Irish distillery tours. The tour itself was educational (although a bit cheesy), but as a bonus, the museum was holding a distillers' fair that day! We were each given a 5 tasting tickets, so between the four of us we tasted 20 different whiskies. We had a great time, and if you look at the pictures in gallery we tend to appear happier and happier as the day goes along. =)

On the second full day, we walked around the city of Glasgow. Glasgow and Edinburgh are very different...Edinburgh felt more historial with the castles and cobblestone streets. Glasgow felt more modern, but still had a lot to offer. We started at the Glasgow cathedral, headed west towards the Science Musuem, and ended the day with a great dinner at Stravagin. Overall we had a great time and would love to go back!

A Happy Christmas with Simon and Lacy!

On December 26th (St. Stephen's Day in Ireland), our friends Simon and Lacy travelled from Pennsylvania for a two week visit in Ireland. We are so excited to have them over! Sean and I were on our own for Christmas day, so we decided to have our Christmas celebration on the day they arrived. Sean and I made Christmas dinner (prime rib, yum!) and we even exchanged Christmas pressies for our guests! Simon and Lacy each got a Guinness pint glass and a wool scarf. They brought us some chocolate and Sean got a jar of Jiff peanut butter.