This last series of pictures of all of us is from the same restuarant that i am now blogging from. Jack is in heaven with his new lego CP3O. Alex and Charley are booking a hostel in Bath for their next adventure. Alex has a big smile on his face because some girl on the street just asked him if he was a model at Abercombre (for those who don't know Abercombre has near naked good looking male models in their stores). Or, maybe the girl just asked if he knew where the store was but we know what she really meant! Charley is sick but is making the best of it. Brittany and Mary are doing what they do best.

Tomorrow we head home. It has been an awesome trip. Wish your were here with us, Mom and Dad. Thank you for encouraging us to still go. We have had a great time and Charley and Alex have another week of fun and adventure. Meanwhile, the rest of us are excited to come home.

Jack at the Tower of London with one of the guards. The Tower was very cool. While the Crown Jewels were hot and crowded, they had an awesome Armory display of the different types of armor and weapons that were used through the years. You get to fire a pretend cross bow and mock sword fight. Very cool.

Tower of London. The next day, we actually got to see it opening for a 18th century-style ship.

The pretty american girls outside of St. Peters where we had an awesome lunch. So good that the next night we ordered take out from the same place and had movie night in the hotel.

Anne and Eric's flat is a bit of a distance from us so we are flying solo but still having fun.

Great picture of the kids with Parliment in the background.

Jack playing with his new tanks in the middle of the sidewalk. What kind of parents are we?

Jack's new hairdo while on the bus! He will not be happy with this post.

Big Ben. Jack, Alex, Charley and Brittany were inside when the bells started banging.

In London now on a city bus tour with our French Canadian tour guide. The bus took us all around the city and gave us a wonderful background on its history. It was great too because you could hop on and off whereever you want. We hopped off to see Churchhill's underground War Room. It was really cool. It had the actual maps and charts that Churchhill used to control the war during the German bomb raids of 1940 and 1945.

This is a picture of the homes on the opposite side of the wall from the last picture. We are now in the Catholic stronghold. As you can see, the houses have cages around their back yard so that no bombs or rocks from the Protestant side will come flying into the houses and hits the families living there. Unbelievable!

Here we are in front of the wall separating the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. The wall is 45 ft tall and 3.3 miles. There are gates at all 3 access points to the between the neighborhoods. The gates still clost at 9 every night. The wall was built in 1970 when the problems began. The police kept having to the build the wall higher and higher to make it hard for each side to throw bombs over the fence at the other neighborhood. Even with the peace, there were signs of damage from a bottle bomp just to the right of us from only 2 years ago!

This photo, taken in the same area, shows how far things have come. The original anti-catholic mural has been replaced by this one, a tribute to childrens rights. During the troubles, kids couldn't play outside out of fear of attack or triggering a hidden bomb. About 3 or 4 years ago, kids could finally come outside to play. We saw several running around during our visit.

This was another mural in the same square. The man witth the gun at the top is known as the Protestant Lone Sniper. Whereever you walk in the square his rifle is aimed at you. A very creepy optical illusion.

On our last day in Dublin, we split up. Eric took the kids to a great science museum. Brittany and Mary did some shopping. Meanwhile, Anne, Alex, Charley and I went on the most interesting private taxi tour of the trouble spots in Belfast. It was interesting, informative and amazing. May have been the best thing we did all trip.

This is a picture of one of several murals in Shankerhill (sp), the Protestant core during the troubles. Although peace was reached in 2000, our cabby told us that it was not safe to visit until 3 or 4 years ago.

This paritcular mural quoted from Oliver Cromwell, the once ruler of England. It said that the world will never truly be safe until Catholisism had been destroyed. Amazing!

Here's one of my favorite photos. The kids running up Oakley street into the wind. They kept racing up and down the street. The same streets dad probably ran down.

Here we all are (sans Eric) on the same street. It was a really rainy and windy day when we arrived but quickly cleared up. We had a great time with all Billy's stories about dad. Apparently, all those stories about dad as the ladies man were actually true. Either that or Billy was paid off....

We are now in Leginel (sp) with Billy, Edith and Valerie, visiting where dad grew up. According to Billy, this street is similar to the one Dad grew up on. It was Oakley street and across the main road from dad's old street.

Picking up where i left off. We just arrived in Belfast. This is a picture of our beautiful hotel, the Merchant Hotel. It was originally built in 1860 as a branch and headquarters of the Ulter Bank. In 2000, a developer bought it and spent the next 6 years renovating it, spending over 4M ounds on the antique furniture alone. It was truly amazing!

Sorry for not updating the blog lately but internet access has been spotty and pricey. Right now, i am sitting in a nice cafe in the shopping district of London while enjoying a frosty one and updating the blog. Not a bad view.

Hi Nana and Papa. From Jack:

On thursday, we went to Cliffs of Moher. They were super tall and steep. I spent the money that my grandparents gave me to buy a key chain for my dad and a flute.

The next day, we went to Giants Causeway. I climbed a mountain made of lava rock. After, we walked on rocks that looked like stairs.

Yesterday, in Belfast, we visited the place where Papa was born and lived. Today, we went to a science museum. My favorite thing was the harp with no strings.

How they caught it on Sheep's Island, I don't know: but, I think they have a case of the Mad Cow's disease.

If the North will let them in, we are off to Belfast. More pictures to follow. Hope you are enjoying the trip so far. We sure are!

Don't jump Alex! Working with your office manager, David, can't be that bad.

A beautifully taken photo by Brittany using the timer on the camera while hanging out on Sheep's Island. This year's Christmas photo?

Crossing the rope bridge. (It used to actually just be two ropes where you held on to the top one and walked on the bottom one. That would have been lots more fun.

I have no idea what is going on here. But, I think Alex may have just let one go on Charley.

The girls on the their way to the Rope Bridge up the

road from Giants Causeway.

We had a beautiful drive from the causeway up the coast to the the Rope Bridge and beyond. Along the way, we saw this cool old part of a castle built on a small inlet of rock. Immediately on either side of it is a huge drop off. No idea how they were able to even build it.

Not sure why the photo came out this way, but pretty cool. The boys at the end of the Giants Causeway.

No, those are not man-made pavers. Those are natural stones, thousands of them, created by lava millions of years ago. Unbelievable.

Jack's teetering on the edge just like the guy in the picture. Luckily, as we fell the cord of his DS caught on a branch and he was able to climb back up. Thank god for that DS on this trip! Speaking of, Jack just asked if he could play some more DS. William, where are you to join him!

Mary Grace overlooking the Giants Causeway. We did some great hiking before exploring the strange rocks of the Causeway. The Finlay/Kausen clan scaled a mountaing just before the Causeway. Even Jackie made it all the way to the top. Incredible views!

Three giants overlooking the causeway. Supposedly, some Irish giant built the causeway trying to get to Scotland to fight the Scottish giant. Rumor has it that the Scottish giant fled at the sight of the Irish giant or was it these three that caused him to flee ....

Gerting ready to tackle the Giants Causeway with a pint at the pub.

Alex and Charley climbing the Cliffs of Moher.

Jack auditioning for Irish Gig at one of the pubs on his new flute. It was later banned in the car.

Wrestling - Harrison style

Daddy and Jackie at the Cliffs.

We're Kausens and we're good looking!

The boys at the Cliffs.

Hanging at the Cliffs of Moher. We had great weather and the cliffs were amazing.

American Blonds in Ireland

Not your typical looking Irish lasses!

Jack and Ryan in front of the Adare Manor. Originally built in 1735 and then rebuilt in the 1800s. It was amazing. Charley and i snuck up a service flight of stairs into one of the towers, which was really cool. Birds flying around everything and nesting.

our hotel in Adare - The Dunraven Arms, 1792. Awesome hotel and great location.

The three hires (and no i am not drunk. My eyes just look like it.)

Mary and Brittany off on a wilderness hike through the forests of Balleyhoo (or some name like that).

Alex, Charley and Jack (and Robbie) golfing in Ireland.

From Jack: on the plane we played cards. in doblen we saw many buildings. last, we rented 2 vans.

on the way to the new hotel we saw a castle! we might go in to it today. we wish you were here.

Dancing in the streets.

Having fun in the pubs.