Weekend in London

A couple of weekends ago we went to visit Rebecca in her new flat on the edge of Wimbledon Common - very nice!  We went to a prom, visited some museums, wandered around the common and caught up with Rebecca.  My highlight was eating Ben & Jerry's on the (busy) train to waterloo, we had bought it to eat with our lunch in the city, but it was melting too quickly so we had to crack it out and munch before it became a real mess.  We didn't share it with anyone - ha ha!

Amy stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend, and not only enjoyed herself but didn't even seem to notice that Mum and Dad were missing.  It was enjoyable to be babyless for a weekend - and we didn't particularly miss her (especially in the morning!) - though it was lovely to see she had had a lovely weekend too.  She kept picking up and pointing at photos of Grandma and Grandpa afterwards.

Rebecca in a house on stilts in the V&A

Rebecca in a book house in the V&A

Dan taking photos as usual

Rebecca is learning the guitar and getting quite good

Weekend in Otley

Last month we spent a long weekend at John and Hannah's.  We had a great time!  We had a BBQ and went cliff jumping, spent the afternoon on a longboat with Hannah's family and played a lot of Catan.

Dan poised to leap

There he goes - Amy was not pleased about this

A polaroid of John jumping - I couldn't get any closer because the river was in the way

Clearing up the BBQ

Who is having more fun?  (See the video in the previous post)

The boys cooking something in John and Hannah's swanky kitchen.  I think it was poached egg on toast - nothing in comparison to Hannah's gorgeous Sunday lunch!

The Smiths had rented the narrowboat for the week and we came along for the afternoon (adding five more bodies to the 11(?) already onboard).  We, and just about everyone else on the canal, were most entertained by the Smith girls doing dance routines to a tinny mp3 player, on the roof of the boat while it cruised gently through the English countryside.  We have video evidence, but I'm not sure this blog is the best place for it...

Dan and John being towed along behind

Amy had her fair share of attention!

Things Amy Likes...

climbing windowsills

talking on the phone

singing 'clap your hands'

stroking dogs

chilling in the hammock

being gorgeous (well, Amy isn't bothered about this really)

stroking dogs

playing with Carrie-Anne

chattering

gardening

eating stuff found in the garden

playing with mud

getting messy

monkeys

sleeping

feeding other people

having a bath

scrounging ice lollies

playing with her food

stamping in puddles

playing with water (she loves the tap for brushing teeth too)

playing the piano

drumming

Double Rainbow

Can you see the double?  The stronger one was upside down!  How bizarre.

Camping with Helena

So, Helena wanted to go camping, and we, never wanting to turn down a camping trip, agreed.  In fact, Parag and Himan came too, so it was a good jolly on a July weekend near Matlock.  However as the bus came out of Derby the sunny skies gave way to rain!

I may be smiling - but those present in the photo will know that I was getting quite irritated that it was raining

Classic Himanshu!

Putting up the tents

Amy making sure everyone gets a label for their tent
- note the garden feature courtesy of Helena

BBQ (looks a bit out of control!?)

Amy appears to have had a good night...

This photo makes me laugh, because Amy decided she did not want to go to sleep in the tent with Helena and Katy.  They heroically persisted with her, but by the early hours I was woken to be told by a bleary Katy that 'Amy hadn't gone to sleep yet!'.  So there was a tent reshuffle and Amy and I went in Parag's little tent and Amy proceeded to drop right off.  If anyone has a right to look miserable in this photo it's Helena and not Amy!

Himanshu is left for dead

Helena the camper!

The rain cleared up immediately after we arrived at the campsite and it was a glorious weekend.  A fun time was had by all.  Mainly chilling out, eating ice cream and watching Amy run round the field chasing other children.