Finally! Jaime's best buddy from Bilbao got to take a weekend off and come and stay with us! The boys are crazy about "osaba" Unai... so they were delighted to finally have him here :)
After seeing the suburbs of Dublin, and visiting some photographers in the area, Unai said he wanted to see some of the "greener" parts of our countryside... so we took him to the "
garden of Ireland": Wicklow...
To the waterfall you may remember from previous posts...
The Powerscourt estate was quieter than it was last time we visited... and this time we decided to have ourselves a barbecue so that Unai could taste some lovely Irish beef.
Vegetarians: look away!
We got ourselves a picnic table and had a great cook-out. Apart from that annoying white van, the view of the waterfall in the background was lovely ;)
Lorcan looked like he was the man in charge...
And Malachy was being, well, very... Malachy :P
How can you go from this....
...to this in a matter of seconds?
I don't actually remember what the huff was about... but I know it was over in a matter of moments... as always!
Liam clinging to his buddy, Unai.
... demanding his full attention!
!!!
Unai is a photographer by profession and he had the tools of his trade with him here. Jaime and I were eager to try out his camera...
After our barbecue and juicy watermelon dessert, we went exploring around the waterfall and the river...
Unai took tons of great photos with his cool camera. They're all on the hard disc of our iMac (which I never use for blogging), so when I get them onto my laptop, I promise to post a few... the difference in quality is, ahem, notable!
Later we went to the playground for some fun and ice-creams. I couldn't resist snapping this candid shot!
Twirling, lifting, spinnning.... in the carpark before heading home.
* * * * *
As all true Basques do, Unai loves the fruits of the seas... so we just had to take him to Howth for some nibbles and shopping...
We had langostines and white wine and Ivan's...
And then went shopping at Wrights for our fishy fishy supply :)
Um, it looks like Liam's fringe needs a trim!!!
Fish and chips for dinner, of course...
And a quick pit-stop at the book stall at the Sunday market, where Liam bought himself his first book of poetry... and proceeded to read it there and then, all by himself!
Then we had a quick spin around Howth playground...
...and headed home to get the kids to bed.
On his last night we used some of the goodies we bought in Howth to make a fish barbecue at home with Unai, Morgan and ourselves. Here's Unai getting the "refrito de ajo" ready to top off the fish...
sizzle, sizzle...
yum, yum...
So it's farewell... but not for long. We'll be seeing Unai again very soon... in Bilbao!!!!
xxxxx
The gorgeous cake came courtesy of Granny and Granddad. Thanks, it was delishhh!
Before I opened all my cool pressies, we got ready to attack the birthday cake! 
Here we go... 
I got some help blowing out my candles. We didn't even bother trying to fit the full 37 onto the cake (although it probably would have been big enough!!!)
