A beautiful weekend

So we have returned home. Had the most brilliant weekend ever - fantastic company, beautiful location and the sort of weather you dream about (especially as we were in the UK and it's April!)

Tom and I said bye bye to Granma and Pop Pop then drove up to Tregate (near Monmouth) on Friday afternoon (with a confusing stop in Weston-Super-Mare to stretch legs and buy huge amounts of food to be squeezed into the already full car). Arrived dead on 5pm to find the Milburns had already arrived. It was a beautiful day - deep blue sky. The Francis' had done a fantastic job in finding a lovely converted barn for us all, with gorgeous views and a big garden. Everyone immediately settled in and before too long the beer was flowing and the bbq fired. It was Debbie's birthday today so we celebrated. I had taken advantage of the occasion and had made a cake.

We had the same problem with Tom as last night. We went through the usual bed time routine, but he started to cry as soon as we put him in his cot. No amount of settling would work. I gave up in the end and brought him down, hoping that a poo would be imminent and sort him out. It took until 8.30 but the poo finally came, so I scooped him up, changed him, put him in his cot and we didn't hear from him again. Once again it must have been tummy ache.

On Saturday we decided to explore Rhaglan Castle and a mighty fine castle it was too - especially as it had dawned another beautiful day. We did lots of clambering and exploring - there were dungeons (good) a moat (couldn't find the crocodiles) a tower to climb etc etc. Had a lovely picnic lunch in the grounds (Lou and Tim even went off for a walk together leaving me with Laura and Jacob - that has never happened before!)

After lunch we returned to the barn and had a lazy afternoon enjoying the sun. Matt and I even found time to play badminton (we were very very bad). We then had a big pot of chilli before retiring inside and spending the evening on the wii (I'm a very good chicken). Tom went down first time which was ace (especially as he hadn't done a poo).

Sunday, once again was a fantastic day. The Milburns headed off early - they all start school again tomorrow. We and the Francis' went for a short walk along the river, then lunch before returning home. Tom decided that today he was going to climb upstairs. The barn had two flights of stairs and he did this 14 times! He was unstoppable and kept Matt busy whilst the rest of us cleared and cleaned the barn. Needless to say, Tom was asleep within 5 minutes of setting off and didn't wake until we entered Telford. On arrival at home he was straight up our stairs (he has never done that before) so I guess we need another stair gate!

Anyway, we had a wonderful weekend, couldn't have asked for better. Can't wait to do it all again next year.

PS - Adam, how did you manage to escape my camera - naughty!