Eastbourne excursion

Today was a warm day, nearly able to be described as hot.
We hung out at home and lounged about in the shade in the late morning while Rhodri was out on his bike.

After our weekly call with Grandma Debi at 4pm, we broke all traditions for a Sunday evening and drove 45 minutes south to Eastbourne to join some friends (2 other families) at the beach. Low tide was at 8pm, so when we arrived just before 6pm, the tide was well on its way out and all the kids went rock-pooling/ tide pooling. I went for a run up the hill at the end of town which is also the start/end of the South Downs way which goes past Beachy Head. It was such a gorgeous day and felt really great to just run a bit.

View from part ways up the hill to Beachy Head looking back at Eastbourne to the east

The kids had a heck of a good time looking for crabs and whatever other live sea creatures they could find.

We had fish and chips from a local vendor and sat in the setting sun on the grass above the beach

It was really great to do something a bit different on a Sunday eve, and we all loved the feeling of being salty and chilly, then warm and well fed once we got in the car to drive home.

The Wedding through the hedge

Our dear friends Emma and Rob got married yesterday (on the Blue Moon of July 31st) after a few busy days of helping them to prepare everything. They are the parents of Sophie and Oscar, who are best buds with Rhiannon and Tryfan respectively (as well as altogether, of course), but although they have been together for 12 years and had 2 gorgeous kids together, they weren't actually married. So it was indeed a joyous occasion! Rob's brother lives 2 doors down from us but our back gardens border each other in the way back because the lady in the middle (Sally) has a small back garden that is sort of wedged between ours. Anyway, that is how we were able to get back and forth through the hedge helping to set things up for the wedding.

Here is us before we got too scruffy

 We realized that all of us were wearing pretty much the same outfits we wore to Annie & Jeff's wedding last year (or was it the year before?).

The Happy Couple arrives

 The reception started at 4pm and finished around 12:30am. Kids left around 9:30pm and we had Lauren babysitting ours plus the 2 girls who were staying with us as part of the family we were hosting (Bex and Phil-the-DJ from Devon).

The scene of the main reception area, marquee on the right

There was a "Chill out zone" in the bell tent that is in the background here.

Inside the marquee

It was a lovely day - perfect weather, happy people, good food - and all went swimmingly. We helped tidy up the next morning for a few hours and then were happy to go back to our own lives for the rest of the weekend. We are so very happy for them, though.

Last day in Wales

Today we mainly hung around the house, but we did take an outing to the park in Craig-y-Don to get some wiggles out with the younger cousins, Rhyddid and Brython. The rest of us kicked the football around and played with Bentley.

Later this evening, Rhods and I met up with Fran, Huw, Gareth and Rachel for a nice meal at the pub called Pen-y-Bryn which overlooks Colwyn Bay. Always nice to see old friends! No photos from this event, though. And actually, on Monday night Rhods and I went to "the best Indian restaurant in Wales" which was up the Conwy valley in Llanrwst. On the way back, we drove on the other side of the valley so that we could go past the new surf park called Surf Snowdonia, which is in the site of an old aluminum processing plant. In previous days there has been a lot of talk about this place which is about to open in just a few days!

RSPB with Fran and Gwil

Today Rhodri and Huw went for a big bike ride, and we had to take the car in for a service in the morning but then when we finally got it back, we picked up Fran and baby Gwil and went to the RSPB.

 Rhiannon loooooved looking after Gwil, and he seemed quite pleased about it too! Rhodri and Huw soon joined us and so we got to have a lovely few hours walking around and looking for birds.

Family Raffle

The kids went to a concert at the chapel the other night with Nain and Taid, and they ended up selling raffle tickets. This got them excited about the idea of having our own family raffle. Rhiannon initiated this idea and got Tryfan to help carefully allocate raffle tickets to each place setting at the dinner table and fold up the other halves to go into a bowl, then neatly wrote a list of all the valuable prizes to be won. I can't remember all of them, but here are a couple:
- You get to choose the menu and cook dinner on Tuesday
- You get to do what you want for the whole day

There was an awful lot of laughter during the prize draw and the whole thing was a great success. 

Climbing, shopping and other rainy day things

It was forecast for rain today, so we planned more inside stuff to do.

We did do some clothes shopping and got Rhiannon a few crop tops to wear when she starts back at school. All the Year 5 girls are supposed to wear these under their school uniform from now on, so it is a rather important milestone.

Unfortunately, Tryfan got a hold of one of them and paraded through the house wearing it and striking poses!

We also went to the Beacons Climbing Centre near Bangor today for a few hours. The kids did most of the climbing and although it wasn't a brilliant time there, it was good to use our muscles and try new things again. 

Lounging and the Little Orme

We've had a bit of a lazy day today, which has been nice.
One of our favorite memories and pastimes of coming to see Nain and Taid is sitting in the back garden in the lovely sun trap and drinking tea, chatting, and reading the paper while the kids play football or swingball or whatever. We did a lot of this today. We've also been following the Tour de France and today was another exciting day. There is a telly in the kitchen, so it is easy to pop in from outside and see the latest footage of the race.
We also took a family trip over to the Little Orme and climbed around, weaving our way up to the grassy top to overlook the whole area. It was a stunning day and we all really enjoyed this little outing (despite the initial resistance from the troops!!).

Little Orme from Llandudo promenade (wikipedia)

Penrhyn Bay and further east behind us from the top of Little Orme

Llandudno, the Great Orme, and the coastline going west from the top.

Elidir Fawr

Today Rhods, Bentley and I climbed up the so-called mountain of Elidir Fawr. This is just behind Llanberis on the slate mine side of the lake. Since Snowden is on the other side of the valley, this is normally where people go walking. I wasn't particularly impressed with this walk, since we were down slogging through boggy hummocky terrain for most of the day, but once we got up high it was better.

Map of our route

Finally starting to climb up the head of the valley, looking back at the boggy grassland

Finally on the high path, summit of Elidin Fawrn in the background.

Beautiful clouds and mist across the valley on the Snowdon side

Me and Bents with the boring boggy valley behind me - this was on the way back down

It was an ok walk. Neither of us felt all that great but it was wonderful to be out in the fresh air and mountainous terrain. Plus it is always nice to be able to get immersed in one's own "trail thoughts" and just be free to think and daydream while walking.

Cousins

This morning the 3 local younger cousins came over. They got dropped off at 7:30am and all 5 kids were out in the back garden "playing" (i.e. combination of laughing, screaming, and crying) just after 8:30am. Rhiannon was a little star at keeping the peace and caring for whichever little one needed a bit of extra attention.

I think they got to play for nearly the whole day while Rhodri, Bentley and I went for a hike near Llanberis.

Anglesey adventure

Today we piled into 2 cars and did a day trip over to Anglesey, which is about 45 min drive away from Nain and Taid's house.

We stopped first at Penmon where there is a lighthouse. There is this awesome painting that is permanently installed out on the bluff. The painting itself was partially created by the landscape, because the paint was still wet when some hail, wind and then rain slashed through the area, adding to the artwork itself. How awesome is this?!

We walked around the coast for a bit and then reunited with Nain and Taid at the cafe there in Penmon. It was a bit chilly but wonderful to be out exploring on this beautiful day.

At the cafe with Nain and Taid, mainland Wales across the water in the background.

From Penmon, we backtracked to Beaumaris and then headed north a bit to Red Wharf Bay, where there is a relatively new restaurant called The Tavern on a private beach. We had a lovely lunch and then spent a few hours just hanging out on the sandy beach.

One of the great things was that Bentley was allowed to be here, too. We were going to go swimming, but discovered that quite a few jellyfish were around and people near us got stung just as we arrived, so in the end none of us went in the water.

It was a glorious day, and to top it all off Rhodri and I got to go out to dinner in Colwyn Bay with Bleddyn and Geri later that night, so that was an extra treat.

End of school and start of summer holidays!

Finally the school year has come to an end and we are off up to Wales for a week starting tomorrow morning! It is such a good feeling to finish up the year although quite a few people have snuck off already since this week has only 2 school days in it. There are 3 teachers leaving now, including one of our favorite TAs, Ms Wain. The good news is that next year Rhiannon will have the same teacher she had this year (Mr Wilkins) and we all love him. Tryfan will get Mr D, and that will be quite good for him as well. All good! But now we are ready for summer.

Teacher Gifts

This year we made Elderflower Champagne to give away as end-of-year teacher presents. We made these 30 liters some weeks ago, so they are really super fizzy now! We made fancy labels that show a photo journey of our distillation process. It took us quite a few hours to assemble the bags to give away tomorrow, but it is worth it because the teachers and staff at the school work so hard for us all.

Growing up

Our little Minx is really starting to look grown up. She has been doing a good job of brushing her hair more often and it is really long now (though you can't really tell from this photo).  We think she is such a beautiful girl.

New apparatus

Rhodri installed this nifty contraption at the end of the hallway so that we can all work on our upper body and core strength. The kids have been making up little routines flipping back and forth on the ropes. It is easily removable from the thresholds (just lifts off) and everyone who sees it want to come and play on it!

Quiet weekend of recovery

Rhods and I both didn't feel too well this weekend, so we just laid real low and hung around the house all day yesterday and most of the day today. In the late morning, we did venture out for a walk in the Ashdown Forest to have a bit of a picnic. We chose a place that none of us had been to before and we stumbled upon this lovely little spot in the middle of some lush trees. Here are two views of our lush little spot.

Nights out

My friend Chris had a friend from Germany visiting, and he wanted to go out one night in Brighton, so Cat and I went along on Thursday night. It was a really fun night out on the town, and it was lovely warm evening with good company. The only bad part was leaving to go back home - it is always hard to leave a party atmosphere and be sensible! But I did have to work the next day so needed to go to sleep at some point.

And actually, Friday night I had committed to going out with some work colleagues (which I very rarely do), so by the time this weekend rolled around, I was really tired and didn't feel very well at all!  But now we have just a couple days of school left, and then we are off to Wales for a bit.

Volleyball

One of the games the kids made up recently was volleyball in the living room. They use Bentley's leash as the net between the door and the breakfast bar, and then hit a balloon back and forth.

Sometimes singles turns into doubles... 

Eventually the balloon lost all its air and then the troops were begging for us to go buy a pack of balloons so they could continue to play. Hasn't happened yet but I'm sure we will keep the games going.

Barn Dance

So yes, tonight was the Barn Dance with the Greenwood Family Band and they were so good. Nobody knew what they were doing but everyone was smiling. Rhodri and I rode bikes down to Gordon and Anne Marie's house for some aperitifs, then we all rode bikes down to the village hall.

Greenwood Family Band

Someone took this photo of me and Rhods

150 year celebration

This has been a big weekend for us and our whole school community because the school turned 150 years old, and this happens to coincide with the year that Alice in Wonderland was published (1865). So the school decided to take on the theme of Alice in Wonderland and host a big celebration of the 150 years of history. There were various scheduled events during the afternoon, and Rhiannon had to go to a birthday party as well in the middle of it but everything turned out fine. Today also happened to be the hottest day of the year!

Rhiannon waiting for her turn to read, and Tryfan in the audience listening

Rhodri and I worked the BBQ with our friends Susie and Jason and it was really fun.

Rhiannon with her classmates Grace and Amelia, and teacher Mr Wilkins

It was an exhausting day, but we needed to conserve some energy for tonight's barn dance!

Swimming gala

Rhiannon was one of the handful of students from her school invited to compete in the Mid Sussex swimming gala. There were 9 schools competing, and ours came in 3rd but only very narrowly missing 2nd place despite being a much smaller school than the others.

Rhiannon won her race swimming backstroke and Rhodri was there to cheer her and the other swimmers on. We are so proud of her and the rest of her team!