Wales - Part 1

Northern Wales is only 2.5 hours away from us.  Despite that, we hadn't been there until our 3rd weekend trip in February.  We arrived in the dark and got settled into our two-bedroom cottage.  It was nice, but FREEZING, the temperature was only 11 degrees Celsius (about 52 degrees Fahrenheit).  We struggled to heat the place and get the kids, especially a cranky Phinn, to bed.  But in the morning, we woke up to these views.  We were right next to Conwy castle, and the day was bright, clear and blue.  Yes, this is going to be a fantastic trip.

18 months goes by too fast

I love this little guy.  He is serious and brooding.  He is giggly and exuberant.  He is thoughtful and cuddly.  He is stubborn and determined.  He is wary of new people.  He loves his mommy. And now he is 19 months old.  I took him in for his 18 month check-up (admittedly a little late), and here were his stats:  head circumference 19", height 34", 29 pounds.  He is in the 85th percentile in height and weight, perfectly proportional.  His head is around the 50th.  He is off the scale for cuteness.

 

Developmentally Phinn is starting to make a move on his verbal skills.  He is not nearly as verbal as Enoch was at this age, but honestly, I don't know if that is possible for any kid.  Here are some of his words: more, Mommy, DADDY (almost always yelled), Baby, Bye Bye, bish (fish), milky, nana (banana), booky, Diddy (Hilde - very hard to differentiate from daddy sometimes), uh-oh, peese (please and cheese).  

Physically Phinn is one strong, tough kid.  He is a little climber, and his mind is racing to find a path to whatever he wants, no matter where it is.  He runs into things, falls down, and bounces right back up.  He hasn't learned to punch his own weight and takes Hilde and Enoch on whenever he can.  He runs at them with his foam sword and tackles them when they are playing together.  He is a great kid, he isn't our baby anymore!

Skipton Castle with the Girls

I have been to Skipton Castle several times, but I still love it.  And this was where Hilde went on her very first field trip ever almost three years ago now, WOW, time has flown by.  We had the castle almost entirely to ourselves.  We must have timed it just right, because as we were leaving, two different school groups showed up.  One thing I really like about this castle was that it was under siege for three years and never succumbed to the enemy.  It was so strong that hundreds of years later when they asked permission of the king to repair and enlarge the castle, he only approved it under the condition that they not make it as strong as it was in the past.  The walls had to be thinner and they couldn't have flat roofs to defend themselves on.  They also have a really tiny dungeon, my kids think that is pretty awesome.  Unfortunately, my camera battery died after a few minutes, so there isn't much to see.  After this we drove on to the Bronte Parsonage and had a really nice time walking through it and the church next door.  Thanks to my Mom and sister for visiting, we love excuses to visit such cool places in our neighborhood.

So many Abbeys, so little time...

 While M&M were here, we went to an Abbey we hadn't visited before, Jervaulx.  This one was small, almost hidden in the countryside by Middleham Castle.  It was privately run, and everything was on the honor system. I loved the Honesty Box in the parking lot.  And it wasn't until after we paid our 1 pound fee that my sister noticed that someone had painted over the key part that said you didn't have to pay the fee if you were going to the Abbey.  I want to know, what honest person did that???     The day was bright, sunny and gorgeous.

Middleham Castle with the Fam

 I love Middleham Castle.  It is tucked away in the English countryside about an hour from our house.  Its most famous resident was Richard III.  I like to walk through it and look over the surrounding hills and imagine what it would have been like to live here.  And the kids love running around the grounds too.  This time we had my mom and sister.  The sun was shining, and although cold, it was amazingly beautiful. 

 Enoch and Hilde decided to make themselves into statues, one of our favorite things to do at castles. 

Our new House

We dream big.  While we were in Wales, we drove past this house and saw a For Sale sign.  We had a back view and could only see the tops of the towers through the trees.  Dave took a picture of the sign, and looked up the details.  I think we can afford it, it was recently reduced 400,000 pounds.  Wouldn't you want to visit us if we lived here?

A day in Bristol

 Bath took us less time to completely explore than we thought, so we added Bristol to our agenda on a whim.  And we found the BEST possible thing to do with our kids, @Bristol.  It kept all three kids and their parents enthralled for hours.  There was a section on water and power, a section on flight, one on archaeology, another on air flight, some fun genetics games, and a bunch of other things on just the first level.  It was all open space, so there was no progression that everyone followed.  And that worked fantastically since we could go to wherever there was the least amount of people, and stay where the kids were the most interested, without affecting anyone else's experience.  It was brilliant.

 I had almost completely forgotten the upstairs, until Dave said that he was going to take Hilde up there.  I assumed it was going to be just a couple of things, but I was completely mistaken.  They had a "tornado", a green screen that Enoch begged to play with several times, a shadow camera, huge bubble makers, and on top of that about half the space was devoted to animation.  The animation was all sponsored by Aardman Animations - the makers of Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.  Our kids are huge fans and it was fun for them to be able to draw things using templates on light tables, and they could have even animated something if we had the time and patience for that.  This place is high up on our list of perfect kid day's out.