It's hard to blog in the summer holidays when your days are filled with children and fun (mostly), so you get to see another epic set of photos to describe this past week! Last Saturday was James' birthday which he celebrated by sleeping under the stars on Dartmoor with Ben and Ethan on Friday night, and a gathering of friends on Saturday night to enjoy some Indian food. James asked me to make a raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake, and that is what he had:
On Sunday afternoon we went for a stroll on Dartmoor. We walked over bridges...
...walked through ruins of an old hut...
...found the way to Heaven's Gate...
...found a wooden bridge...
...and got a little geographically challenged!
We walked a little farther than planned, about five miles in all, but it was fun!
James managed to get another week off work so we hit the beach on Monday. The beach again? Yes! It never gets boring to go look for fish:
Or get on that boogie board again:
(By the way, that water isn't brown, it's the red sand being churned up!)
Hurricane Irene sent us some heavy rain showers across the Atlantic, so by mid-week we were found barbecuing in the rain. We are nothing, if not dedicated to outdoor fun:
Friday we left for a long weekend break to visit with my sister Amy and her husband Ian. We drove through some pretty bad rain to south Wales but by Saturday we had some sunshine again. James' brother Steve and his wife Ellice joined us with their two children to hike up Cwmcarn Forest (pronounced Cum-carn) to climb Twmbarlwm (pronounced Tum-BAR-lum). The walk up to Twmbarlwm was steep, but nothing like the final ascent to the peak! This looks like a pretty short but steep hill:
It wasn't short, that horizon just kept on going and it was a lot farther to the peak than I first thought:
Once you reach the summit of Twmbarlwm (which is wonderfully flat) there is a mound at the far end which is known as the 'Tump'. There are remains of an Iron Age hill fort:
The Miles' and the newlyweds on the Tump:
Can you tell how much Rosie loves her Uncle Ian? LOTS! Steve and Ellice were feeding their little ones so they weren't in the photo, but they made it up there too! The views were beautiful:
Walking back down Twmbarlwm was a lot easier on the lungs!:
And my nephew Timothy entertained us all the way down:
We can't leave out niece Isabella posing for me:
The children did so well walking up and down! Rosie slept like a baby that night:
Church on Sunday was rather interesting. We arrived at my sisters ward to be greeted by an older guy who shook our hands and left us all with sweets (score!). I sat through a lesson which included discussions on different, painful ways to die (umm...?). James was directed to the under 30's class. Yes, someone thought he was in his twenties! It made his day. Later, as I made my way to sacrament meeting, a man approached me and said 'You must be Amy's mother!'. I died a little inside and replied 'No, her SISTER!'. I know there is almost eight years between us in age, but still, her mother? In his defense he was wearing glasses. And was old. Oh dear, it still doesn't help, he thought I was the parent of a 26 year old!
Yesterday we said our goodbyes to Amy and Ian and returned to England, stopping to visit with our friends in Stroud, where James grew up. We went to Rodborough Common to fly kites whilst dodging cow pats! Rosie and her friend named the kite Rainbow:
James had a go on the bigger kite (and had to be held down by his friend a few times!):
Ethan:
Ben:
Noah:
How cute is this baby?:
It was such a fun weekend! I can't believe summer holidays are almost over for us, it has gone so fast.
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