The last blog!! We have only 3 days left of our travels which is both sad and exciting. It is difficult to leave family and friends in England, a bit daunting to return to life by pager, exciting to soon catch up with family and friends in Canada, exciting to get catching more babies, difficult to leave the excitement and freedom of life on the road and we will miss spending so much time with the boys.
Over the last few weeks in England we have packed it full of family time, we have seen some friends here and there, spent a lot of time playing soccer (football) and enjoyed a few pints in the cozy English pubs. Silas celebrated his 9th birthday this week so we rented a car and drove across the bridge to Wales and took him to the best castle I have ever seen. Raglan castle, now mostly in ruins, had a moat and stairs everywhere leading to dungeons and lookouts. We had a great game of hide and seek there. Then nanny and grandad took us out to dinner and we surprised Silas with a sundae and singing for dessert. He was so full before it even came out so his reaction was a mix of excited and horrified!
The Queen's jubilee was a big event here of course. Banners of the English flag here and there, lots of community events and things to do. I can't even count how many times we heard the national anthem. Interestingly, the kids here didn't know the words and some of them didn't even recognize the tune. They don't play it at the schools the way we do in Canada. We spent the day at a large park where we listened to various musical acts and participated in lots of free activities for the kids.
Another day was a graffiti festival where we could wander the streets and appreciate all the work done by various artists. We missed the day where the boys could give it a try but maybe that is for the best...they could transform our house in a flash if they became too confident!
At the moment there is a green festival in the city. As part of this tomorrow night Martin and I have a date to see a folky band called Seize the Day and earlier in the day we will take the kids to a farm celebrating the festival with music and food. There has been no lack of things to do here in Bristol but I must tell about Butlins, thus the name of our blog!
Butlins was a crazy 3 night holiday place full of families with kids. Put together the water park at the Great Wolf Lodge, the rides at a large fair, tons of casino games, 4 or 5 bars with stages, continuous entertainment (really good quality I must add), bowling, pool tables, bingo, ropes course, and self catering trailers and apartments to hold up to 10,000 people. It really was insane. We went here with Martin's aunt and uncle, just about all of Martin's first cousins and Silas and Orrin's 2nd cousins. We had a blast and will always remember this time together. Everyone was very sweet to take notice of Silas's birthday and we shared a lunch and one of Mandy's famous cakes in the trailer. We had no idea when we called the blog Bali to Butlins how fitting it really was, but these two worlds are about as far apart as possible and we loved each one of them.
The day we left Butlins I met up with Gwawr, a good friend from my years in England. It was a perfect afternoon at a children's play area, a good come down for the boys after Butlins. We said bye to each other racing through the train station carrying her 4 year old and bags just in time for her to jump onto the train as the whistle blew. True adrenaline style travel that I have experienced many times too often!
So that about sums it up...we really appreciate the time people have had for visiting with us and Martin's welcoming family to have us stay for so long. xx
Thanks for reading!
Another day was a graffiti festival where we could wander the streets and appreciate all the work done by various artists. We missed the day where the boys could give it a try but maybe that is for the best...they could transform our house in a flash if they became too confident!At the moment there is a green festival in the city. As part of this tomorrow night Martin and I have a date to see a folky band called Seize the Day and earlier in the day we will take the kids to a farm celebrating the festival with music and food. There has been no lack of things to do here in Bristol but I must tell about Butlins, thus the name of our blog!
Butlins was a crazy 3 night holiday place full of families with kids. Put together the water park at the Great Wolf Lodge, the rides at a large fair, tons of casino games, 4 or 5 bars with stages, continuous entertainment (really good quality I must add), bowling, pool tables, bingo, ropes course, and self catering trailers and apartments to hold up to 10,000 people. It really was insane. We went here with Martin's aunt and uncle, just about all of Martin's first cousins and Silas and Orrin's 2nd cousins. We had a blast and will always remember this time together. Everyone was very sweet to take notice of Silas's birthday and we shared a lunch and one of Mandy's famous cakes in the trailer. We had no idea when we called the blog Bali to Butlins how fitting it really was, but these two worlds are about as far apart as possible and we loved each one of them.
The day we left Butlins I met up with Gwawr, a good friend from my years in England. It was a perfect afternoon at a children's play area, a good come down for the boys after Butlins. We said bye to each other racing through the train station carrying her 4 year old and bags just in time for her to jump onto the train as the whistle blew. True adrenaline style travel that I have experienced many times too often!
Thanks for reading!
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