When The Flinn's Get Together

Another fun General Conference weekend surrounded by family. It was great to have all my sublings and all the kids in the same house.  We had a lovely walk down the canal after dinner, then had a photo session in the garden with all the kids. Amy ran upstairs and dressed herself to look smart for the photos, I don't think she realises wellies are not smart, but hey ho if you have a sparkly cardy on I guess anything goes.

 This is about the best we can get.

 Then everything starts to fall apart...

 Robin and Niki's kids are definitely the most normal out of all our bunch.

Poor old Asher!

Abbey Park

More fun in the October sun this time at Abbey Park. Bobbie is so happy when she's exploring, she just loves doing her own thing in the park.

London Calling

Dan and I were lucky enough to have a couple of days in London to ourselves. We spent abit of time in the West End with lunch in China Town. After we headed to the Southbank to take in a couple of the galleries and go for a wander along the river. Art by Offenders at the Southbank Centre was really enjoyable, lots of interesting and funny art. We also popped along to Tate Modern and I enjoyed seeing the new tanks areas that they've opened up. It's a really interesting new exhibition space.

Into the evening we headed back into the West End and decided to catch a show so got tickets to Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap (the World's longest running play). We saw the 24943 show! It was a fun little play and in true Agatha Christie style we didn'y know 'who dunnit' right until the closing scene.

It's the first time I've had time away from the girls since before Bobbie was born, so it was lovely to be able to enjoy some quality time with Dan. The trip also marked the end of me feeding Bobbie. She wasn't concerned at all, since about nine months old when she had fully established eating solids she wasn't really bothered about her milk. 

Matlock Bath

While Mum and Dad were still about we decided to take a little day trip out into the Derbyshire Dales on the train.

 Waiting on platform 3 for the 9.18 to Matlock.

 Up on the limestone way overlooking Matlock.

We were lucky enough to be passing Louisa Harris's chapel of St John the Baptist just as a man was coming out of the gate. I remember the first time I saw the place taking Amy on her first hike when she was only a week old. Since then we have passed many times and seen work gradually being done and wondering what was going on inside and for what perpose they working on the building. The man kindly invited us in and excitedly told us about the wonderful work that had gone on inside to restore the chapel to its former glory. All the funding was provided by Friends of Friendless Churches. The restoration work was immaculate.

 Inside the chapel the ceilings were really unusual with very intricate plasterwork. Very victorian in design.

 After a spot of lunch we popped into the heights of Abraham to use the toilets and I nipped up the prospect tower to get these views over the Derwent Valley.

A lovely day for a nice stroll in the hills.

Nottingham Castle

 We had a nice little trip up to the castle it's been so long since we've been up there. The castle has a really lovely collection of fine art in the long gallery, it was nice to go back and really enjoy all my old favourites.

 Dressing up in the family room.

Enjoying a ginger bread man made during family home evening with Micah and Nicky from Notts 2.



Swat

Bobbie thinks she's a fly!

Heaven's Basement and Donna

Heaven's Basement were playing at the Rescue Rooms with Halestorm. So Donna came up for the gig. We had a lovely day and Anna and Isaac came up and joined us for the day. We had fun feeding the ducks and gobbling lots of doughnuts.

The gigs was really good!!! I really really enjoyed Halestorms performance, particularly Arejay's drum solo. It was fun to chat to the band after too, it was funny Josh was from a sleepy little backwater in Pennsylvania not far from the Jewish summer camp I worked at many summers ago.