Visit to Auntie Jude and Craig

Hiding hole

Not as good

On Tuesday we packed the car and headed over to North Wales on yet another lovely sunny day (we had breakfast outside).  First stop was Hawarden Estate Farm Shop (which we have visited before with the Watsons) for lunch.  We had a deli platter between the three of us outside in the sunshine which we couldn't finish and then headed over to Mold.

Beautiful in the sunshine

Jude and Craig were home (Craig works from home).  We admired their new kitchen and new garden (realised it had been over a year since we last visited) and then headed out to Holywell to Basingwerk Abbey for a walk.  It was a very pleasant walk amongst ruins of an industrial bygone age - there used to be mills and factories here, in dappled sunlight.  Our destination was a tea room with a big tea menu, however, when we got there, we discovered it was closed for the day.  Oh hum, we returned back and found another cafe which had comically bad service but surprisingly good cakes - except for Jude's scone which was like a house brick!  We then had a good game of hide and seek amongst the abbey ruins.  It was a lovely afternoon.

Big chef little chef

We return back to the house to find Craig having almost finished work, so beers were cracked open, crisps put in bowls, Beatles put on the stereo and we enjoyed the afternoon outside in the garden in the sunshine.  It was a lovely evening.  Craig was the chef for the evening (Toad in the Hole with real onion gravy, roast potatoes, buttered leeks and rainbow chard).  Tom was sous chef and got put to work.  It was a great atmosphere, everyone had fun and a magnificent dinner was made.  Tom ate a monster portion of food - 2.5 sausages, huge amounts of pudding, his own jug of onion gravy and plenty of leeks and chard, all finished off with chocolate cherry cake.  He really should have burst!  He went to bed without complaint and was in anaconda mode and sleeping like a baby almost immediately.  We spent the rest of the evening chatting and relaxing.

Flaked out

Wednesday, Craig had to go to the office, so we didn't see him to say goodbye and thank you (sorry!).  We got up slightly later, had breakfast and then went to Loggerheads for another walk - this time alongside a river to a gorge.  Someone had left a trail of pink glitter alongside the walk, which was fab - Tom was on spotting duties.  We went past some good looking caves which I really wanted to explore, but no, there were warning signs and I didn't have a hard hat or torch - next time maybe.  We did some balancing on logs, which I took too far and ended up falling on my bum - oops, but it's good to be able to be silly again.

A stick for throwing. Apparently.

We finished off at a tea room (of course), cakes and drinks all round and a kick around of football for the boys.  We then packed up the car and said our goodbyes to Jude and headed to Ikea in Warrington (of all places).  I've been wanting a craft light for ages to help me with my cakes as on gloomy days I can find it quite hard to see what I am doing.  This was a good opportunity and Matt's idea.  We got there just in time for lunch: meatballs and chips for the boys and salad for me and then found the lighting dept and the perfect lamp.  We then (of course) got a whole load more things including the compulsory tea lights.

Then, back home.  Tom slept pretty much the whole way home from Ikea.  He woke up bright and breezy and after a portion of chocolate cherry cake he requested a go on the pump track, so I took him down.  He did so much better today, he was standing on the pedals for most of the session and was beginning to clear air with his front wheel.  He is really getting into it and will, I think, be wanting to do jumps before too long.  He was the smallest on the track today and he really didn't care.  The older boys were all helping him - with advice and just checking he was OK.  One even helped fix a noise on his bike when I was clueless!  Matt came down to watch him and was impressed.  He hardly stopped the whole time we were down there.  So great to have it a 5 minute walk away.

A lap of the pump track