Ireland Part III (Days Out)

We did manage to fit a few other things in among beach days and the wedding. One place we managed to spend a couple of days was The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Holywood. We got free trial passes in an offer from one of the Sunday papers and they definitely got good use! The museums are separate but situated on the same site so on our first trip we managed to do both.

Beth loved the Folk Museum as all of the houses were furnished, some had fires lit and quite a lot of them had people all dressed up ready to answer questions and demonstrate stuff. I have to say that the first trip was mainly taken up with them running wildly between houses, shops, banks, schools, sweet shops, etc. generally causing chaos!

It was pretty impressive the amount of detail and care that had gone into every building - kinda wasted on kids. ;) Despite making it back for a second trip, I'd quite like to go back without the kids sometime just to have a proper look at everything and appreciate the attention to detail - can't imagine that happening since both Beth and Toby continue asking to go back.

The Transport Museum was also worth seeing and of course was Toby's favourite. He was rather obsessed with the orange Herbie car and was very reluctant to leave it - said it would be lonely! Again I enjoyed wandering round, the trains were impressive and the Titanic exhibition was pretty interesting. I suspect that Beth enjoyed playing on the trains, planes and motorbikes just as much as 'playing' at the folk museum but she would vehemently deny this if asked! Anyway, a very successful introduction to museums.

Steve took his bike over with us so he could do a few rides. I don't think he quite did the mileage he wanted but he did get out for a long ride on one day. I was going to drive to meet him for lunch at the end of this ride but on the way, to entertain the kids I took them to Castle Espie wetlands. I had been as a child and had good memories of it and hopefully Beth and Toby will have the same.

They seemed to have a great time. Don't think we really saw that many birds - apart from the ducks and geese we fed, the others didn't stick around once they heard us coming! We did rather a whistle stop tour and could have spent quite a bit longer there, another place the kids just keep asking to go back to.

The last little outing we went on was to Exploris, the aquarium in Portaferry. The last time we went to an aquarium it was using our season tickets at the Long Beach aquarium. This one was rather like a poor cousin in comparison but the kids enjoyed it all the same since they had nothing in memory to compare it to. We did two loops of the entire aquarium as it didn't take very long. Toby made friends with a stingray - it kept popping up to say hello. :)

I think it was a great summer holiday - must have been since the kids just want to go back to all the places we've been, hope we can match it next year!

One last little bit. Toby has got quite into his drawing recently so I thought it would be nice to highlight it. Here he is with his picture of a scooter. :)

Ireland Part II (The Wedding)

The wedding seems a long time past now, I'm sure it does to Rebecca and Ian who are back from their honeymoon to Malta and back to work!

Beth was pretty excited about the prospect of being a bridesmaid/flower girl and loved the dress we chose for her. She was a little apprehensive about knowing what to do but was reassured because there would be three other bridesmaids, all grown-up and one my cousin Miriam.

On the morning of the wedding we headed to headquarters to have Beth's hair done and pick up her flowers. She loved watching everyone get their make-up put on, hair preened and dresses fitted. I may have got my face painted slightly - as most of you'll know, I'm not very talented when it comes to make-up application so jumped at the offer! Beth's hair looked lovely - I was a little skeptical as to whether it would last the day but apart from the loosening of curls, it did pretty well.

After a quick lunch we all threw on our glad rags and headed to the church (the same church where my parents were married). :) Everyone looked very glamourous and the bride of course looked fab. The ceremony was lovely and went without a hitch (certainly less tears than at the rehearsal!). There were a few tears from the youngest bridesmaid on the way back up the aisle - I think the excitement of the day started to catch-up with her a bit. Thankfully that didn't last long.

After a run round outside the church, a few photos and some magic tricks from Auntie Jane's friend Rob, we headed to Clandeboye Lodge for the reception. Beth's favourite part of the day was outside at the reception kicking a ball around with grandma and grandpa, hanging off trees and generally hurtling around screaming with all the other young guests!

The meal was easily the best had at a wedding (apart from our own of course) even if the long wait for it meant us stealing the kids food . . . After a short interlude it was time for the first dance (You Got It - Roy Orbison) then lots of dancing. Beth and I danced and danced, and Toby, after a little dancing, passed out on Daddy! A fun day and hopefully the first in a long and happy marriage of Rebecca and Ian. :)

Ireland Part I (Beaches)

We've been back from Ireland a week already and I am only just finding a few minutes to pull together a few photos and write about our holiday. We were over there for almost two weeks with my cousin Rebecca's wedding right in the middle. As you can imagine we have quite a few photos, especially from the wedding so I think I'll have to split the blog post up or else I'll get totally bogged down and never actually get it done!

Before we went, Beth's main focus of the holiday was to spend lots of time on the beach. Thankfully the weather was pretty good and we managed quite a few trips and grandma & grandpa also took them a fair bit. My favourite beach trip was to Crawfordsburn Beach, a very pretty little cove with Great Grandma Ruth's hospital overlooking it (she was a nurse there, though it has now been converted into apartments).

We spent quite a long time building sandcastles, collecting shells, paddling and in Steve and my case, drinking a flask of coffee. Very pleasant! After that we packed the buckets and spades back in the car, got out the bikes and rode along the beach path all the way to Grandma Ruth's. The weather was fab and it was a perfect morning.

The other beach trips weren't quite so warm and enjoyable (for us at least since the kids wouldn't have noticed if it was raining and blowing a gale). Steve made sure that there was no sitting round building the average sandcastle - he had the kids digging channels and moats, all very technical. :)

We did try to get an extra few hours at the beach in Seaton Carew (last photo on the right) once we came home. It was a little chilly and windy but the kids still managed to have a ball.