Irish boxing has long been the standard by which to measure The Republic's Olympic medal hopes.  This year is no exception in the form of female fighting sensation Katie Taylor.  Pictured below, Katie has secured the silver medal and fights for the gold sometime tomorrow (Thursday, 9th August).  She has been the world's No 1 light weight woman fighter for a while now, but there is no place like the olympics to 'prove it'!  G O O O O O O     KATIE!

ALSO, one week from now we will be back on Irish soil.  We have been in America for our planned 7 month visit since 15 January and it has been great to see many friends, kids and grandkids.  Much has happened. . . our 8th grandchild was born on 1 June, Tim's mom when to be with Jesus in heaven on 19 June, we had a great time at the wedding of a close Irish friend in early July (in Canada). Now it's time to head back and set up house in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland.  We CAN'T WAIT! Our flight is scheduled to touchdown in Dublin on Wednesday, 15 August.

In 17 days we will boarding our flight back to Dublin.  Louisville to Chicago to Dublin is the route this time as we have the usual overnight flight, leaving on the 14th and arriving the next morning.  We are spending as much time as we can with our kids, grandkids and extended family and friends here in the Northern Kentucky area.

Right now our sons Andrew & Matt & there families are either staying with us, or we with them . . . sort of!  Matt is actually out-of-town for work until tonight, but his wonderful wife Christie and their 3 kids are here.  Yesterday we had 9 cousins all together for a few hours.  Andrew's 3 (Abby, Joseph & Caitlin), Matt's 3 (Isaiah, Lillie & Riece) and my brother's son Chris and his 3 (Becky, Lizzie & Matea).  Have you ever tried to get 9 kids, under 8 or younger to pose for a photo at the same time?  Wow that was hard!  Below is the best I could do . . . A pic of 5 year old Isaiah is below that, he was in the emergency room this past week . . . TWICE!  Stiches the first time from running into a counter top, and a splinter in his foot the size of manhattan the second time!

                                                                    9 Cousins

It has been a couple of weeks of being on the road with very little internet availability, so here's a bit of catch-up!  On 5 July we flew from California to Minneapolis, MN; rented a car and drove to Fargo, ND.  The next day we drove just across the Canadian border into Mannitoba.  The next day we were at the wedding of Kieran Reynolds, to Amanda Franz!  Kieran is a close friend from Dublin, and just like his father, Jacob - he married a wonderful Canadian woman!  Here's a picture of the ceremony:

After the wedding, we and the entire Reynolds family drove into Minnesota and enjoyed a few days of down time on one of the 10,000 lakes in the state!  What a great time we had toghether . . . here's a pic of a pontune boat we had for a day or so . . .

From here, we flew back to KY, then 36 hours later drove to Baltimore, Maryland for a 3 day conference, then drove the 10 hours back to KY!  Whew . . . we are now in our last 3 weeks here in the states, with our return flight to Ireland set for 14 August, arriving on Wednesday the 15th.

Though we are back in Salinas, CA our hearts are still with my Dad who is experiencing living alone for the first time in decades.  Thank you for remembering and praying for him as he transitions to a new phase of life.  He is trying to sell the house, as they both decided would be best a week or two before Mom's promotion to heaven.

Also, Sarah is now teaching English to 16 kids from around the world, in a summer language camp near San Francisco.  She and 6 or 7 other ESL teachers are working with around 90 kids, aged 10 to 17 through the St Giles School of Language.  She had yesterday (3rd July) off, so we went to see her one last time for at least a year or so.  Our very good friend from Dublin, Florence Burns, has been with us here in CA for 10 days or so and is staying in San Francisco until Friday.  Here's a picture of Sarah, Kathy and Florence taken at Union Square yesterday afternoon.  It was a beautiful day in the city by the bay!

Tomorrow (5th July) we fly out of San Jose, CA to Minneapolis, rent a car and drive to Canada to attend the wedding of another very good Irish friend, Kieran Reynolds, on Saturday.  We then get to spend a few days off with the rest of the Reynolds family in North Dakota before heading back to Louisville, KY on the 13th . . . Whew! . . . We love it!