After saving a burger from the floor, a bathroom trip, and picking up everyone’s shoes, Elizabeth “Beth” Solinsky settled into her chair at the McDonald’s Play Place.

A proud mother of six, Solinsky, 46, watched her 4 and 2-year-olds have a blast climbing up the slides backwards while we discussed how tragic it is that they do not have the opportunity to play in a plastic ball pen, like we did when we were young.

Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Solinsky moved to Texas in 1982 after graduating from college as a Montessori teacher. The economy in Ireland was not the best when she graduated. In fact, 50% of her class had to find jobs abroad.

A job offer coupled with the desire to see something new sealed Solinsky’s decision to move to the U.S. Immediately upon arriving in Texas, she was struck by the vast open spaces, the cowboy hats and the big trucks.

Solinsky, who speaks some Gaelic, came to the U.S. speaking English, but lacked the proper lingo. She got confused by the names of car parts: hood verses bonnet or trunk verses boot. Luck was on Solinsky’s side and she met another Irish woman who coached her on the "ins and outs" of U.S. culture.

The original plan was to stay for only a few years, but Solinsky met and fell in love with her husband. She followed him to Tucson, where they started a family. Solinsky has home-schooled all of her children, ages 19, 18, 15, 11, 4 and 2. The three eldest children spent eighth grade in Ireland and Solinsky’s 11-year-old is expressing interest in doing the same.

To stay connected to her Irish roots, Solinsky tries to go to Ireland every two years- although recently that has not worked out as well as she would have liked- and educates her children in the morals and values taught to her by her Irish parents. Irish dance and music lessons have also been a part of her children’s lives.

Surprise is what Solinsky felt about discovering the size of the tight-knit Irish community in Tucson.

“I was surprised to find as much as I did here in Tucson,” Solinsky said, “I came to this place in the middle of the desert thinking there is going to be nothing here, I have been quite suddenly surprised.”