Happy 90th Birthday Grandad

We've been down to Appledore today. My Grandad is 90. He's had a quite a few visitors. Mum's been down there most of the day. We had a cup of tea and a nice bit of cake. Stayed for a chat, then left him to recover! I know he'll be reading this later, so again... 'Happy Birthday Grandad, you're looking much better than Prince Phillip!'

Picnic

The weather was beautiful on Friday, and I was stuck in the orthodontists half the afternoon, so when the forecast said it was going to be good on Saturday too I decided to go for a picnic. I spent the morning sunbathing in the garden, then packed a lunch and off we went to Landacre on Exmoor. Five minutes down the road the clouds rolled in. So by the time we got there it was blooming freezing.

Still the girls had a good time. They sort of went paddling in the river. The dog ran around like a mad thing saying hello to everyone else who was picnicking there too. She was made to get wet when Caitlin threw her into the water (although only up to her tummy).

They had fun playing frisbee too. Shortly after this was taken the frisbee went into the river - it was inevitable really. Willow was shown what to do when someone else's dog went in after the frisbee and brought it back to us. After that the girls move further up the hill to play - until it started raining, then we came home. When is summer coming?

A fun day out in Ilfracombe

We had a fab day out today. We used Ellie's birthday present 'Murder Mystery Treasure Trail - Ilfracombe' and followed the clues to work out who killed Rod Haddock, local fisherman. It took us on a 1.5mile round trip of Ilfracombe including a walk up to the top of Capstone Hill, with a lovely view over the town. This is where Ellie fell down, grazed her hip and dropped her ice-cream, hance the sad face above. I think she was more worried about the ice-cream than anything else.

We stopped for lunch in a pub by the harbour and sat in the sunshine overlooking the beach. My half a cider went down very well. Then the treasure trail took us into the High Street so close to the chocolate shop we just had to go in! Jo bought the girls a gobstopper each. They'd never seen one before. It didn't work, they still kept talking.

Visitors

We've had an excellent weekend. I love it when people come to stay, especially people we haven't seen for a long time. This weekend we were visited by Nessa and Dib, all the way from Herfordshire. It never ceases to amaze me how you can not see someone for several years and then you meet up again and it's like you were only with them yesterday - it's just that you have a lot more to talk about!

The weather wasn't very kind to us, almost-constant grey skies, but we did manage to get out. We walked across Croyde beach and into the village for ice-cream. Shame everyone had their eyes shut for the photo though.

See, there is a patch of blue sky in this photo. This is Kitty and Caitlin clambering over the rocks. They got on very well, despite a 7 year gap between them.

And Ellie and Tabitha were thick as theives as well. There is only 9 months between them. On the second night they all decided to play musical beds and Caitlin shared with Kitty while Tabitha and Ellie crashed on the floor of Caitlin's room. Good job I made her tidy it up before they arrived. You couldn't see the carpet in there last week.

Prague

On Saturday afternoon I flew to Prague to visit my friend Sarka. She'd promised to show me round after I met her in London in March. The weather was beautiful and sunny on Saturday, but Sunday dawned cold and cloudy. We didn't let it deter us though and set off early to see the sights. Sarka showed me the famous squares and streets of the Czech capital city. The one above is famous for its clock. But I have no idea how to pronounce the name so I won't even try to write it down.

This is me on the Charles Bridge (I suspect I may even have spelt that wrong - I do appologise!)

And this is us drinking Czech dark beer. It was very nice, like a cross between Guiness and Bitter. It wasn't our only drink of the trip. We also had a warming mulled wine just before lunch on the Sunday.This is the view over Prague from the castle. The castle is perched on top of a very high hill on the other side of the river from the main shops. The walk was worth it, my camera does not do the view justice, but my legs are still aching now. I can't believe I can do two weeks in Disney and one big hill in Prague finished me off!

Once we'd seen all the sights we did some shopping. I had a lovely time and it was nice to catch up with Sarka and all that has been happening in her life. Hopefully we will meet again in December if we get the funding for our school project.

Disney - the final instalment

Its been five days since we arrived home and I think I've just about recovered. So I thought I would finish off the story with some photos of our last days in Florida. We got out and about early each day as the crowds got bigger towards Easter. This is all of us (possible the only photo of all ten of us taken during the fortnight) outside Cinderella's castle in the Magic Kingdom.

We spent Thursday morning there. We did the three Mountains again. For some reason Caitlin and Ellie decided they also wanted to do Its A Small World. Everyone else refused, so Carl decided to go on with them. Once was enough for me - I still haven't recovered from the trauma, and that was 8 years ago!

I dragged them out one evening to watch the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom too. They didn't want to, but it was worth it.

Our last evening was spent back in Universal Islands of Adventure. This time Harry Potter world was very crowded, it was Good Friday after all, and the wait for Forbidden Journey was 45 minutes long. The girls went on as single riders. We spent some time shopping. We had a drink (one last Butterbeer) and a pudding in The Three Broomsticks, then walked round the park to do some other rides. This is what they looked like after Rip Saw Falls at 11 o'clock at night.

Then on the day we flew home we spent our time back at Blizzard Beach. It was lovely and no one wanted to leave. It was a great two weeks and the best weather we've had in our three visits.

The kids now assume we come back every four years, so we'd better start saving now. I've told Adrienne, as she will be nearly 22 by then, she'll be paying for herself!

Disney - the next installment

I've been trying to post this blog for three days now and my computer keeps playing up. Finally I think I've made it! We've been spending a lot of our second week going back and doing all our favourite things. Top of everyone's list was returning to Islands of Adventure to revisit Harry Potter world. We went in the evening. By 7.00 there was virtually no wait for anything. We even made it into Olivanders, where I bought myself a wand. We had dinner in the Three Broomsticks (American Cornish Pasties are nothing like Cornish ones). We stayed until 10.30. Hogsmeade looks fabulous in the dark.

Ellie lost her Harry Potter hat on Flight of The Hippogriff and the staff there were brilliant with her. The guy we spoke to about it was all prepared to go off and get her another one from the shop when he saw how upset she was about it. The shop had sold out and he offered her another hat or anything at all out of the shop but she didn't want anything. Fortunately they do pick everything up and return it to lost and found so we got the hat back a couple of days later.

We revisited Animal Kingdom cos that's one our favourite parks. We got there early in the morning, so they did Everest with no wait and then Kilimanjaro Safaris with no wait. We also Fastpassed both of them so we could do them again. Adrienne filled up her memory card with photos of animals. The walk through trail in Africa was good too. We saw the gorrillas including a really cute baby.

We've also been to Univeral Studios, the only park we didn't do in the first week. Carl and the girls rode Rip Ride Rockitt twice, the ride behind them in the photo. It starts by going up vertically then swoops you straight down again. Afterwards there is a video of you on the ride!

Again we got there early. We'd done all the major rides in the first hour and a half of arriving. This was good because the crowds built up and it was heaving by around 11.00 and by lunch time the waits for the big rides were 60 minutes. We did wait 40 minutes for Shrek 4D though.

This is Adrienne near the Simpsons ride. They didn't like that one enough to ride it twice, but Ellie went back on with Francis when they arrived.

Even the oldies have been doing things again. This is Mum and Dad on Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios. Toy Story is one of my favourite rides.