A weekend in the Dales

Sorry we haven't been in touch for a while. I forgot to mention in my last blog that we were off to Yorkshire for a long weekend. We rented a cottage in the middle of the Dales where there was no signal on Matt's i-phone meaning we were unable to blog.

Anyway, we had a lovely time. We were based in Horton-in-Ribblesdale with friends of Matt (from his time in Japan): Michael, Nicole and their 4 year old Marcus. We had a lovely time and it hardly rained at all which is always a bonus.

Cottage was great, a tardis - looked tiny from the outside, but was in fact very spacious - our bedroom was huge, even though we had Tom in a travel cot in with us, and we had a wonderful view of Pen-y-ghent.

Nicole, Marcus, Tom and I arrived on Friday afternoon, but had to wait until 7.30 for Michael and Matt to arrive (both had been working - Matt at an ITI workshop in York). Once the boys were in bed, we spent the evening catching up over pizza.

Saturday was spent walking. We took the train to Ribblehead and did a 2.5 mile walk around Ribblehead Viaduct (remember we had a 4 year old with us who until this weekend hadn't done any 'proper walking'. After a pub lunch we returned to Horton so Tom could have his afternoon nap, and then did another 2 mile walk around Horton before dinner. This was a good walk - crossing rivers, plenty of footbridges etc. We let Tom down to have a little toddle on a flat bit, he did incredibly well - in fact if you look at the photo of me holding his hands - he had walked from the bottom corner of this field - I was very proud of him.

Got home, the boys had dinner and baths together before retiring to bed. Matt and I then left for our night out - dinner in the local pub. We were in Horton for the 3 peaks challenge, so it was very busy, but we found a table and got talking to some blokes from Norfolk with very strong accents (I was in smile and nodding head mode)

Managed to stay out until 9.30 (very unusual for us), Michael and Nicole had a fire going so we joined them on the sofa for an hour or so before heading to bed. We didn't have a great night (Tom woke us up 4 times) and woke up to miserable weather. However, we all cheered up over breakfast. Matt spent the morning acting as a taxi service, taking M, N & M to Ingleton so they could do the waterfall trail and then coming back to collect me and Tom. Unfortunately he got done for speeding long the way (more haste, less speed, naughty boy). Oh hum, anyway we caught up with the Andersons on the trail and enjoyed some good waterfalls and just about managed a picnic lunch before the heavens opened.

We then split - Matt and Michael walking across the fields to White Scar Caves, Nicole, Marcus, Tom and I retracing our steps to the car and driving there, both sets arriving at exactly the same time. We couldn't go into the caves, as they weren't at all baby friendly, so we had a coffee and cake in the cafe and Matt drove us back to the cottage and then left to pick up the others. Tom was supposed to have an afternoon nap, but refused, he was so wide awake!

Once everyone was back we all had play time together. Michael and Matt managed to convince Tom to take his first unaided steps. I took some video of the momentous event which will hopefully be on the blog tomorrow. Michael and Nicole went out for dinner whilst we baby sat.

We had another bad night with Tom (he woke us countless times), but it was sunny and after breakfast we all perked up again. This morning we went into Ingleton for a nose (this is one of our 'preferred villages'). Found a great playground which Tom enjoyed and bought some sandwiches from the rather excellent local butcher. We then headed home. Tom slept for the whole trip home (2 hours) which is quite unusual for him. He woke up really grizzly. I thought that maybe some more teeth were on the way. At dinner time he refused everything except puree and then fell asleep on me before bath time (not usual behaviour at all).

We took him up for an early bath and he promptly threw up on the bathroom floor - not good. He did perk up in the bath and then I gave him his bottle which he seemed to enjoy. However, as he finished his bottle, he threw the whole lot up on me (lovely). Both of us needed changing. We then gave him some water and put him down. We also noticed a rash on him at bath time. He definitely isn't well. We will see what tonight brings.

Anyway we all had a good weekend away, and realised that we really do want to move there - it really is beautiful and everyone is so friendly. I even found a sugarcraft course running in Ingleton that I can do (although I also found evidence of many people making celebration cakes in the village. In fact nearly every other shop in Ingleton has a tea room, all of which state that celebration cakes are available on order - guess I'm going to have to be good to compete!)