So, the weather was set to be gorgeous (not a common occurance!), daddy had to go to Wales for meetings and we had no other plans, so Wednesday we hitched a ride and enjoyed a lovely family break. Here's the girls in the world's best double buggy at Ty Mawr Country Park, enjoying one of a LOT of ice creams we had over four days. They had a small animal enclosure with peacocks and goats.
The next day as dad was in more meetings, we headed to an animal park (Greenacres in Deeside/Mancot) to see some animals. Isla loved the fact she could feed the goats by putting food down these shoots (and she got to see the goats hit heads a lot). Both girls loved the chihuahua puppies and guinea pigs too. (they also had goats, peacocks, capabaras and a Highland Cow who picked his nose with his tongue which to a 3 year old is the funniest thing on earth) Ailsa had been horrible in the hotel (she doesn't do well sleeping in a room with others we discovered), so she'd been up most of the night, as had mom and dad. We took Thursday sort of slow...
The queen of the buggy and her sun hat (we remembered hers)
Feeding the ducks, very exuberantly!
The giant tyres on the playground.
The next day, with dad's meetings over, we headed to the beach. We'd been "warned" about Blackpool, but everyone recommended Lytham St Anne's instead. We set the sat nav and were off, however we parked MUCH too early and ended up walking for over an hour along the seafront path. We finally decided to send dad back for the car, while the girls and I kept going. Eventually we all met up and found a lovely spot just below the peer to enjoy the sunshine. On the way we passed this bike with its shrimping ad, and the tractors on the beach. The tide was WAY out and you could see a long ways.
Dad taught Isla how to make sandcastles--and the importance of digging deep for the cold, wet, sand (Ailsa is putting sand in my shoes and everywhere else). We had to buy Isla a new sun hat as we'd forgotten hers and she picked it out herself! Just like Grannie....
Ailsa is a fan of eating sand....despite our best efforts to stop her..
Our little Pollyanna with her sunhat...
Looking back towards the pier. It took us an hour in total to walk from the pier out to the water and back. Isla ran the whole way (we wondered where she got all her energy from...it was only at the end of the day we discovered the ENTIRE bag of "candy floss" (cotton candy to Americans) was gone! YUP....none of us had any.....all her....
Chariots of Fire moment....
After we did the beach, we hit Morrison's (a UK grocery store) that was doing a special where you get 6p off every litre of fuel and with diesel being £1.40 we decided to buy our lunch, some food for the road and save money on filling up. After that we drove the "strip" in Blackpool (a fairly nasty place) and went to the Blackpool Zoo, which was fun. We made the sea lion show (which Isla loved), and saw lots of other animals. It seems EVERY animal park in England has capabaras, peacocks and goats. By 5:30 it was well time for us to get back to the hotel and get to bed. Luckily, we had a room with a big bathroom, so we could put Ailsa in her pack n play in there to sleep in total darkness and quiet for the night; that saved the trip!
Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed to Wild Boar Park, where there were capabaras, goats and peacocks....and these cool little toys. Talk about a great use for recycled material! The seats were old school plastic chairs, the cars were old drums and they were all pulled by a tractor. Unfortunately Isla was too small to ride them, but they looked neat.
Our little face-maker, who in three days of English sun is now much blonder!
No family trip is ever complete without feeding some deer.
And learning how to feed the llama. A BIG hit!
Ailsa loves swings!
We drove home through the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was pretty.
We learned SOMEONE is quiet and stops screaming if fed 1/2 Cadbury mini eggs...(whole ones make her drool and make a mess however). (See the evidence in her little razor jaws). It was a great trip and so nice to spend some time with dad! The weather was amazing for April (and the UK) and we all had a good time, but are happy to be back in our own beds.
In ordering lunch, we went for chips, chicken and peas...Isla loved the box idea and Ailsa stole the peas. Not being shy, someone kept going around asking other people at the park if they had an extra picnic blanket she could borrow...
