Our NI Holiday

On Monday we jumped (well, staggered since it was 6:30am) on a plane and headed over to Northern Ireland to visit family and introduce Toby. Steve didn't come with us since he had to work but grandma thankfully was on hand. We stayed at grandma and grandpa's house the night before and Beth made herself quite at home by picking and eating all the raspberries out of the garden and trying out the pump (very cool). Toby enjoyed a different view in his jumper and was very happy watching the goings on.

Both kids did great on both flights. Toby seemed very unconcerned about the whole proceedings considering it was his first flight. Beth, as an old hand, seemed to enjoy the experience and stared out of the window for a quite a while. The first afternoon we walked down to the beach and had a good scramble around. Beth made a picture with the shells and actually sat still long enough to have a photo taken with me.

We stayed with Ruth and Harry (great grandma and grandpa) and again Beth made herself quite a home and was not in the least bit shy about exploring the house and pilfering items that took her fancy. Despite my spending every summer in that house from around Beth's age until I was perhaps 20 odd, I think she now knows it better than I do!

After a little bit of confusion between 'Tom's shop' (little grocery shop down the road) and a 'toy shop' we had to make a stop at a toy shop to save total melt down. After three or four circuits around the shop and rather a lot of gentle persuasion, Beth chose a pinwheel and Toby a maraca. We then headed to the playground to burn off some energy. It was quite large and had lots to play on but Beth didn't get to explore it all as it was a little wet after the early morning rain. It shouldn't be too long before Toby will be able to join in the fun. He's getting better at sitting up and has shown signs of trying to crawl, he is just gives up a little bit too quickly - I think it's just too much bother.

The trip did seem to consist mainly of trips to the beach and thankfully the weather was fairly nice (though a little chilly). As well as making mud pies and admiring the view, we managed to introduce Toby to quite a few new faces including (great) aunt and uncle Norma and Laurence, cousin Garth and great aunt Ali and of course Ruth and Harry. It was quite an exhausting trip but good fun - I think it may be a while before we go away again as we certainly need time to recover. :)