End of school

Marisca is no longer a baby of the school.  She'll be starting in year 1 next year and of course is looking forward to it.  Both of us - well, the three of us really - are really proud of her.  She reads amazingly well, loves writing, enjoys doing 'homework' books, is so much more confident around others and is getting really physically confident too.  She's grown up a lot in a year, our little girl.

Crazy golf!

When we went to Seahouses for fish and chips Marisca fell in love with crazy golf.  When quizzed later she admitted she didn't know what golf was but was sure it would be absolutely crazy!  So we had to go back later on to play.  She did have an amazingly good time, although could do with working on her swing.

Aw....

Water play

As it's actually summer we went to play in the fountain in City Park in the centre of Bradford.  The kids had a lovely time and we had time for a cup of tea while we watched.  Not quite the same ambience as the last city water park play we had but a fun trip nonetheless!

A weekend in Settle

All week Marisca has been telling people that she's going camping.  And she's going to have a better time than last time, when she was poorly and had a sore ear and a sore throat.  And it's true, she did have a better time and consequently we all did!

We stayed at Langcliffe Park just outside Settle, the site of Tom's first camping.  I'm struck by how cold it was last time we were up there, as well as by how much more time I seemed to have to take photos. There are fewer this year but still enough to get the flavour of the weekend.

We stayed in a different part of the campsite which was really nice - secluded, tree lined, and with plenty of space.  The weather was good enough for shorts and an open tent to 'play' Uno.  Tom'#s first attempt and he can match colours and numbers, if not really remember that this is how you play the game.  The cards proved fun for the weekend though.

On Saturday we went for a walk at Ribblehead.  I think the book said 2.6 miles and it took us 3.5 hours.  This may be the slowest walk we've ever done but it was lots of fun.  We have a 'Little Adventurers Book of the Yorkshire Dales' (or similar title) which is great: lots of things to find/do/tick off on the journey which keeps Marisca occupied.  As do signs en route (like mother like daughter...).

Risky enjoyed the really big viaduct, and counted all of the arches.  Most impressive (and I've just remembered this), when I asked her whether she noticed anything about the walls in between the 6th and 7th arch (every 6 arches in fact) she said they were bigger because they had to be strong because trains were really heavy.  Not bad engineering knowledge.

Tom also got in on the sign reading act...

One of the things to look out for was this number as we went under the viaduct.  Marisca took this photo and I look forward to showing her it on the blog.  

A picture of Tom with his tickle stick...

And then for some reason I didn't take any photos of the rather nice picnic spot we had, the hopping over little stones in the stream, or the (lots of) clambering over limestone outcrops (Tom: I'm clambering!  I'm clambering!).  Or Tom walking/running most of the last mile back to the car, making good use of pretend red and green lights to take a breather, and then haring off again.  

Being a sunny summer saturday on the three peaks route there were a *lot* of walkers variously striding and trudging out, meaning that there was a long queue for ice cream once we found the van (ticking off the last thing on our list), but that just gave chance for a few more photos.

And, well, it wouldn't be camping without a picture of a child bathing in the washing bowl. Seems I like taking photos like this. And this.

James & Daniel's Wedding

We had a Saturday out in York at James & Daniel's wedding - barely even far enough to be a day trip making it easy to take Marisca & Tom, for them to have very late nights and us to be home and in bed by midnight.

It was really nice to be at the wedding with the guys over from Colorado and old university friends from the south west - not quite so far but still a long way from us.

A few photos below.  Starting with a pair of poses reminiscent of a couple of flag based photos of my youth.  

First camping of the year in the Lakes

We're back from a long weekend camping outside Keswick.  Both children get very excited about camping so we were looking forward to it a great deal.  The weather was mostly lovely, the scenery was lovely, the campsite was lovely (if crowded).  However, Marisca wasn't.  She was poorly - ended up being an ear infection, which made her very drowsy and very grumpy.  It was probably a better weekend for all of us to be out camping rather than at home - Marisca did get fresh air and Tom had lots of running around and playing while Marisca slept.  Although we only managed one aborted walk, I did get a run in, up the little hill of Latrigg, and Tom and I got out and about to Castlerigg stone circle for some climbing, running, photographing fun.  A good weekend, but we're looking forward to kickstarting camping and walking again at the end of June!

10 years

We don't normally write anything these days that's not about our children.  But earlier this month we had a whole weekend away without them, to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary.  We spent the weekend in The Pigsty up at Robin Hoods Bay, enjoying lie ins, moorland walks, and pottering around shops, all just the two of us.  Of course by the time we got home we were very ready to see Marisca and Tom again, but it was nice to have time together.