Staying Out For the Summer

This year our camping trip took us to Auntie Amy and Uncle Karl's farm in Plwmp, Wales, with some friends. I thoroughly recommend camping with friends who have children the same age as your own, the children don't get bored of being with just their siblings and when there are tree swings by your tent they don't need entertaining!

We arrived on Saturday, and Sunday morning found us shaking out the creases in our Sunday attire in readiness for church, a picnic lunch at Newcastle Emlyn castle with family and a Sunday roast at Nanny and Grandad Miles' for dinner. (I forgot to take pictures on so many occasions this holiday!) On Monday we descended upon Aberporth beach. James took Ben out on the boat with his brother Dave, brother in law Robin and niece Emily to catch some fish, but came back empty handed.

Noah:

Rosie:
Ethan looking after his youngest friend:

Dave, Robin, Ben, Emily and James:

On Tuesday we visited the harbour at Abereron and the day ended with the kind of rain that is unique to Wales: the damp, misty, permeating kind that soaks everything! Wednesday morning we took off to Newquay and ate chips and mushy peas by the sea:

The rain continued for the afternoon so we went to the Museum of Power in Tanygroes. It was as thrilling as it sounds (ahem)... I think you have to have high levels of testosterone to truly enjoy this place! The children (and James) enjoyed watching the old engines in action...

...While I spent my time taking photos of old signs that made me laugh:

Please don't "monkey" with electricity!:

The children were fascinated with the 'old' dial up phones, which in turn made me feel old as we had phones just like them when I was a child. Ben seems to have avoided all pictures this year, so here is Ethan with cousin Emily, Rosie and Noah:

After possibly the worst night of sleep ever thanks to the howling winds, Thursday morning dawned and James was woken up by these four singing the most hilariously out of tune and loud Happy Birthday you have ever heard in your life:

James is not a morning person (and may not appreciate me putting this photo up!):

While James went on his birthday fishing trip the rest of us spent our last full day at my favourite beach in Wales, Mwnt.

Here are the steps down to the beach:

It's a beautiful cove:

Rosie:

Noah, not sure what his plan was here:

The day ended with a barbecue with most of James' family, unfortunately there were no fish from the trip to cook but plenty of wasps to swat away!

The journey home:

I consider myself to be a hardy camper but I must confess I was thrilled to not have to walk across two fields to the toilets and share a shower with daddy long legs. I actually embraced my orthopedic mattress upon our return!

Rosie, Ethan, Ben and Noah:

This Is What Happens When...

... you leave a cardboard box unattended in the Miles household: A split screen campervan with rear spoiler and roof rack to accomodate the surf board.


Let's not overlook the attention to detail on the inside: we have an ipod, air vents, pedals, hand brake and gear stick... all necessities!

A Literary Genius!

Rosie entered an acrostic poem competition for Young Writers through her school and it has been chosen from over 40,000 poems to be published in My First Acrostic. Here's the proof copy:

Rosie hasn't had the easiest time learning to read and write (she is only just on target for her age and has had help through a learning group at school to improve her abilities) but she absolutely loves writing, even if it was a page full of nonsense.... which quite often it was! So I am thrilled for her that she was able to do this and will have her work published in November!

My Song

I like many artists, but when I first heard Brandi Carlile a couple of years ago she immediately became my favourite and has been played so much at home that Rosie and Noah sing along to all her songs and Ben asks me to choose something else...please! (Ethan has no opinion on the matter.) I went to London on Monday with Asenath to see the band play at Scala, and as we were there early to sort out our tickets we got to have a quick chat with the band before the gig. I really enjoyed the support band Kill It Kid (I have been a fan for a while) they were fabulous. The lead singer is quite young looking (seriously, he could pass for a 12 year old!) but has an amazing deep voice.

Brandi and the band were on form:

Is It Wrong To Scare Your 4 Year Old?

Well... it made us laugh before bed!

This Is Why We Do It:

So this is what made me cry at church yesterday:One of our girls gave each of us leaders flowers and chocolate and this heartfelt message. It gave me hope that we were doing something right! (And by the way, we didn't 'put up' with her, she was an angel and gave us the most laughs during camp, usually from falling off her chair!)

England's Green And Pleasant Land

On Wednesday morning I set off early for YW camp... in the rain, which now seems to be a tradition for us! We organised our own ward camp this year (the stake don't run one the years we have EFY) so we were able to camp a quick ten minute drive from my house. The fine drizzle turned into a downpour soon after we started putting up the marquee and as one of the two tents leaked before we finished putting it up, we had to squeeze 12 girls and 3 of us leaders into one tent! Let's just say we were very warm at night and leave it at that! After a day of rain we tucked into a wonderful spaghetti bolognaise cooked by Alan Somerville, our chef and token priesthood leader. What? Of course we had someone else do the cooking, we're not stupid! All of a sudden, the rain was gone, the clouds dispersed and we were left with this stunning view:

I love Devon! Our second day consisted of glorious sunshine and blue skies, so we did the only thing anyone should do after a morning of camp craft and a stroll around the lanes:

Skipping with a huge rope:

Bundles:
Volleyball with a difference:

Wheelbarrow racing:

After this race, the girls decided to lay on the floor and roll down the hill. I haven't laughed so hard that I cried in such an long time! They rolled for so long, that when they tried to stand up at the end they couldn't do anything more than stagger about as if they were drunk! This entertained the rest of the campers on the far side of the field, and had the toddlers on the site joining in!

Day three was hike day! Our guide for the day was Berian who promised us a 5 mile walk around Lustleigh, on Dartmoor. It started off on top of a rock in the orchard of the village which had the names of all the May Queens since the '60's carved into it. There is also a stone chair on the top for the Queen to perch, but it couldn't contain all of our girls! (They are not escaped convicts by the way, we all had matching camp hoodies!):

Along the way we crossed this bridge:

Checked out a cave:

And soon realised that most of this hike was uphill. (Trust me, it's steeper than it looks!):

Admired the natural beauty:

'Aah'd' at a young Dartmoor pony:

Coveted this thatched cottage while trying to figure out why we were always going uphill:

Missed a signpost and added another mile (uphill... are you understanding my pain?) to our journey, but rejoiced when we finally re-entered the village tired and weary... but downhill at last!:

And then we saw this fixed penalty ticket which made our fragile, exhausted selves giggle uncontrollably for quite a while:

After being out all day in perfect hiking weather we returned to camp at 6pm to the start of more rain! As we have perfected camping in this type of weather, we held our skits in the marquee (you are so lucky I have no photographic evidence of us leaders singing along to Abba's Dancing Queen to our own version: Drama Queens... it was AWESOME but not flattering!) We gathered around the camp fire with our raincoats and umbrellas, and sang silly songs, primary songs, youth songs, bore testimony, cradled hot chocolate and talked about life until long past midnight. All the perfect ingredients for a camp fire in my opinion! I love that time when youth and leaders can loose the barriers of age and just be friends and laugh, talk and share deep thoughts and feelings. Today as we broke camp I knew that our relationships had been strengthened with the girls, we had shared deep belly laughs and fun, frustration and triumph, and most importantly who we really are beneath all the show.

Guest Blogger!

Ben returned home today from his weekend away to Skern Lodge in Appledore and wrote about his time there. It sounded so much fun I thought I'd share it with you... in Ben's own words!

Friday:
We left school at half past eleven on the coach. It took 2 hours to get to Skern Lodge. When we got there we put our stuff in our rooms and we did our first activity which was kayaking in the outdoor pool. In our groups we got into pairs and one person swam and pulled the kayak along while the other sat in it. We had fun capsizing each other. When we were done it was time for dinner, I had a jacket potato with spaghetti hoops. After dinner we played football in the field, and then we went to our rooms to unpack and get our beds ready. Then it was time for the evening activity which was building shelters and learning camp craft. After that we watched a dvd and went to bed.

Saturday:
We started the day feeling really tired and I had bacon and sausages for breakfast with a bowl of Weetos. Then we had our morning meeting and played a few games with a blindfold on. Then we went to 'Store 2' to get helmets for going in the tunnels and walked up to the tunnel entrance. Our instructors told us about the dark tunnels and what obstacles to expect. They set us off in threes on a small loop around the tunnels. Next we had to find the room in the tunnels at the top of the field. When we got there we all met up and went back to our accommodation room for a hot chocolate, then went back to the tunnels to play hide and seek. We hid from our instructors. Almost all of the boys hid in a small room that was pitch black, but in the end we were all found.

After lunch we got our harnesses and helmets on and went to the crate stacking area. There was a rope with a hook on it to lift the crates up to the people climbing on top. Our team got up to 10 layers of crates before we ran out of time, I got to push the crates over when we finished with my team mates on top who were tied to ropes. (They were girls so they screamed!) Next we did some archery with my favourite instructor Gav. I shot one that went way over the target on purpose! I also almost got a bull’s-eye, but I hit the red area instead of the yellow. For dinner we had fish and baked beans with potatoes. After free time we had our evening meeting and did a scavenger hunt before swimming. We had lots of fun jumping in and bombing each other.

Sunday:
After breakfast we did the assault course. There were lots of different obstacles; my favourite ones were the rope swings over a big puddle and the wall where two people had to help the others by giving them a leg-up. Next we went on the zip line that stretched across the whole field, it was very high and we had to stop on a platform at the end. After lunch we went on the high ropes. There were big cargo nets we had to climb, it was fun sliding down after we reached the top. We had to climb a really high pole, I almost got to the top but we ran out of time. Next we had to trapeze jump from the top of another pole that was easier to climb, but higher. I jumped but missed the trapeze part! We didn’t have time to go on the balance beams. In the evening we had a disco, but I stayed outside and played football with most of the boys. The girls we being silly and crying because their boyfriends wouldn’t dance with them, they also sang annoying songs.

Monday:
I was late for breakfast because I slept in. We had to strip our beds and pack. We had our morning meeting and then we went to the beach to go surfing. I stood up about four times on the board, after falling off a lot! I had a mouthful of sea water a few times, but it was fun. Then we had lunch and got the coach back to school.

Pride (In The Name Of Love)

The Year 6's always do an end of year production before they leave school, and Ben wasn't looking forward to it as he doesn't enjoy acting or singing at all. To his delight he managed to avoid this humiliation (in his opinion) by having the job of sitting at the back of the hall with a laptop making sure the script was shown correctly on the smart screen for the cast to see. This was his favourite production to date! I didn't take my camera with me as I knew he would be hidden at the back, but I wish I had now. At the end of the show the headteacher was thanking staff and teaching assistants for the efforts made to make the play happen, and all of a sudden he singled out Ben for his work and had him come to the front to receive his own applause and take a bow. Oh my, I really had to blink back the tears (I'm not known for my weeping!) He looked so proud and had an embarrassed smile, but he had enjoyed himself and felt an important part of the play. There have been lots of moments like this lately, Ben coming out of his shell a little more in public and doing things he would never have done a couple of years ago.

This morning Ben walked to school with me today instead of cycling as he usually does. He was lugging behind him a small suitcase for his 4 day residential trip with his class and walking slightly in front of me. He looked older all of a sudden... and very independent. After this trip Ben has one more day at school on Tuesday when they will have the Leavers Assembly. I've been dreading this, the end of Primary School and the start of Secondary, but this morning as I followed him to school I realised he was ready and I had to be too. He even let me discreetly kiss him goodbye in the playground!

Lovely Tonight

I had the unexpected pleasure of winning tickets this week to go see Joshua Radin supporting Jools Holland at Kew Gardens on Saturday. It was the perfect setting for an outdoor concert, beautiful flowers and trees wherever you looked, families with picnics and blankets... and lots of rain! It didn't dampen anybody's spirit though, there was a great atmosphere and Joshua's voice was beautiful. There was plenty of dancing to Jools Holland (how can you not?) I love that Jools' orchestra is a mix of young and older musicians, they blend jazz, blues, ska, soul and reggae so naturally. (It was also great that I blagged front row again!)

Quote of the weekend: 'I don't have tickets, I'm on Joshua's guest list.'

Joshua Radin

Jools Holland and His Rhythmn & Blues Orchestra