Whinfell Weekend

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Rusty

Mummy and Daddy head out to Whinfell Forest on Friday night (just after 6pm) to celebrate with Dafit and Jilly for their 15th wedding anniversary. We arrived at just before 8pm and walked up to the apartment with our gear. Like most times, daddy got it all wrong and so we should have simply driven up to the apartment and then brought the car BACK to the car park but nevermind.

The boys were staying at home in Ossett and Granny Cuckoo and Nard came over to look after them.

The weather was simply terrific with sun all day on Saturday even that far North 🙂 so sunburn a plenty 🙂

We had a few cheeky beers as the day progressed, but only two before setting foot on the Segway experience – my word how much fun can be had on two rugged wheels 🙂 Dafit managed to have Simon crash and burn in the first 10 minutes as he was not paying attention as Dafit slowed to a stop in front of him…. 😐

45 minutes later we stepped off the Segway X2’s with that moment crossing each of ourminds – “Wonder how much they cost….” soon forgotten as we head back to the nearest bar for the start of the rest of the afternoon.

We made it to dinner somehow having spent an hour or so sat out on the grass with 90’s music blaring and beverages and peanuts a plenty being consumed. Dinner was lovely with four steaks and you guessed it – more beverages.

The Sports bar was our next target although Dafit decided it would be a good idea to show his “willies” – he meant wheelies on his bike but of course we weren’t letting him get away with that one – somewhere there is a recording of his efforts although to be honest it isn’t worth wasting your time to watch it 😉

The sports bar gave Jilly the chance to shine with her karaoke (we took our own music on a phone and just sang along) and dancing – the running man being particularly impressive 🙂 There were several families who will not be forgetting the performance in a hurry. In fact Vicky has just this evening received a text from Jilly who has been accosted by an unknown female at the resort who was congratulating the dancing from the previous night – great result 🙂

Finally we head over to the Lakeside Inn for a final scoop – as Simon was selecting his chosen tippled, Dafit decided to try to read the name of it from the bottle. It was a Jennings Sneck Lifter from Cumbria – accordingly to Dafit’s eyes, this was actually a Snatch Lifter – had the barman in tears as he removed the lid from the cheeky bottle of Snatch Lifter 🙂

It was a BIG day so when we all hit the ay at just after 12:30, I don’t think any of us remember much until almost 10am this morning.

We had booked ourselves into the Field Archery at 1pm so plenty of time for a mega breakfast at the Sports bar – thankfully no-one from the previous night was there so we avoided any issues over dancing or karaoke.

The field Archery was INCREDIBLE – the guide (Alex) was spot on with lots of laughter and puns along the way. We would definitely do the archery again should we find ourselves in a position to be able to do so.

Then it was the 2 hour drive home in Charlie to get back to the kids and Grandma / Nard.

Fish finger sandwiches and ice-creams sorted dinner out, bath and then bed for the boys.

Sadly poor Olly seems to have a temperature so we have a feeling he may not be available for school in the morning – let’s just wait and see.

Finally, we have found out that Granddad rugby tackled one of Oliver’s classmates dads at a birthday party that both boys attended on Saturday – we are wondering if we are going to need to apologise or perhaps we just won’t bump into him next week…. 😐

Apparently he was cheating at the game they were playing so a rugby tackle was required to stop him and allow Elliot to take the flag for victory….

Justin’s Stag + curry for the kids in Grangemoor

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Rusty

Simon set off at 10am to the railway station in Wakefield yesterday to meet Justin and pals for his Stag drinking event in Leeds. A Costa and two bacon rolls were acquired to line the stomach and then he joined the growing crowd on platform 2 at the city’s Westgate station. The train was 10 minutes late and so by the time the train finally arrived there was quite a large number of people (most were suited and booted – presumably heading to the races in York) so the train was standing room only.

We arrived in Leeds at 11:15 and Simon met the gang at the White Rose pub in the station and we head out. It was a fun afternoon with no drama although poor Dan did have a small mishap as his fourth pint (a peroni) was placed on the table (as yet untouched) and as he opened a bag of crisps, the glass simply exploded, draining the beer all over the little table and floor. It seemed that this happened a lot as the staff simply issued another and mopped up the evidence…

A couple of Gregg’s finest pasties were grabbed as we passed the store as it became obvious that lunch wasn’t happening until much later in the afternoon and we stopped for a couple of scoops as we waited for another group of friends to arrive from Halifax.

It took us about 10 minutes to find a pub hidden away opposite the Victoria Quarter called the Angel and we all stood outside enjoying their finest and chatting away.

It was at this point that Simon and Tim departed the group to head back to Wakefield to review Tim and Heather’s wedding photos and go out for tea with the boys.

We decided to head to the new Bandladeshi and Indian restaurant in Grangemoor as Simon still had the voucher for the place that Grandma and Granddad bought him for his birthday. The boys shared a butter chicken and a garlic naan, but ended up eating daddy’s naan as well and much of everyone else’s meal – wow they were hungry and loved everything that had been prepared for us. There was no stopping Elliot’s hunger and he seeming loved everything that was available to him – we will definitely be going back there as the kids loved it, the service was super attentive and the priced pretty good (even without the voucher).

Plus,cue need to try something with more spices as we did feel that the meals were not as spiced as we thought they would be so clearly need to upgrade our order next time 🙂

The wedding pictures are really, really good – the photographer has really captured some incredible moments for Tim and Heather. We won’t share them on here but by all means come and see them at ForkHall 🙂

Fun trip to Alton Towers with Silcoates Juniors

Posted on May 11, 2015 by Rusty

On Saturday, it was the Silcoates Juniors (years 3 to 6) annual trip to Alton Towers and this year, daddy managed to get an invite to go along to accompany the children 🙂 Elliot was also going but claimed that he really didn’t want to – guessing it was to take him away from precious Terraria time on the iPad :-(. We managed to get a lift on the Drewett Express that was passing through at 7am so we were waiting at school for the coaches from about 7:20am.

We all departed (after receiving thorough instructions for the day) just after 8am and together with a stop at the services at Tibshelf we arrived at Alton Towers at around 10:30 or so.

Daddy (and Lee and Amanda – who were also going to accompany the children) was set to take around some of the older kids who wanted to go on the thrill seeker rides so we head straight for the newest ride – the Smiler. There was an 80 minute wait for this ride and even though this was longer then the pre-agreed maximum waiting time of 60 minutes, we all went in. Sadly two of the 12 children in our care immediately hit the panic button and stated very clearly that they were not going to ride on the Smiler. It became super clear that these two had selected the big group through peer pressure but were not about to go on any of the large rides that were the main point of interest for this group, so Amanda quickly figured a plan to get them into a group where they would be participating in the fun rather than sitting on the side lines getting bored watching the rest. The Smiler queue ended up being more like 2 hours sadly so another of the group (thankfully a boy) determined that at around 1hour 30 minutes in, he could not hold his need for the lavatory any longer 🙁 Daddy suggested weeing into a bottle and that Lee and daddy would cover the situation using our backs as suitable shields. We waited for the queue to reach a suitable corner and emptied a water bottle in preparation – sadly the poor mite got stage fright and simply could not perform as required so he had to admit defeat and wait it out 🙁

The Smiler was a truly awesome thrill and certainly worth the 2 hour wait – there was a little rain while we waited but nothing to soak us in any way.

It was then over to Oblivion and then on to Nemesis (while eating our lunch on the trot – Mrs M was not for stopping and it ended up being the right strategy) before sampling Air. We head back over to Rita via the ski lifts (to save our legs as the kids thought it was quite a long walk through the gardens when heading over to Nemesis etc from the far right of the park earlier on) and waited for about 40 minutes for Rita. Rita is an experience that you can simply not prepare yourself for – the sheer acceleration is mind blowing.

The penultimate ride was a trip into Hex which was a surreal experience where both the seats you are sitting on AND the room itself are spinning (in opposite directions) to give the illusion that the seats have run completely upside down (kind of like a pirate ship ride) but in slo-mo.

Finally we ended with a 20 minute wait for a ride on the Sonic pinball – a fun rollercoast that spins the unit itself while running around the track – laughter from start to finish on that one.

Finally, back to the coaches and home – back in the school carpark for about 7:20pm.

Sadly Elliot did not seem to enjoy the day as much as he really should have so we are not sure if he will want to go again next year – daddy hopes he does as daddy would definitely be up for it again (assuming he gets an invite from the school of course 🙂 )

Olly’s Birthday Garden Party

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Rusty

Yesterday we had a lovely garden party for Olly’s (and Daddy’s) birthday with some of his school friends.

We awoke yesterday morning to torrential rain fall and began to panic about the upcoming garden party. Daddy went to swimming lesson with Oliver and Elliot while mummy began to prepare the house for the party in the afternoon. After swimming the boys went up to Gracie’s house in Overton to walk down to the Mining Museum to enjoy the LEGO exhibition that was running for the bank holiday weekend. Again, it was still raining so raincoats and umbrellas were required to stay dry during the short 15 minute walk.

The LEGO exhibition was really, really good and the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves right up to the point where we realised that there was a shop at the end of the exhibits…. 🙁

We had a few sulks when the boys realised that daddy was not joking when he said that we were not buying anything today…

As we got home the rain began to let up a little and we found that the bouncy castle had been delivered – we were just hoping for sunshine.

Thankfully we got a break in the rain for over 5 hours so the children were able to play outside and fully enjoy the bouncy castle and the garden. It also meant that daddy was able to grill the food on the BBQ 🙂

We all had a fab time and then David and Julie arrived with Abbie just as the children had left Olly’s birthday party – we then sat and had a great time for the next 7 or so hours right up until around midnight – cracking evening 🙂

Today is all about clearing up, cleaning the outdoor seats and fixing a few things around the house such as the guttering that needed the gunge removing and painting the wall in the lounge from the red wine incident from a few weeks ago 🙂

Typically, the sun is shining brightly today – let’s hope it is here to stay a while 🙂

Photo’s from Bridlington weekend

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Rusty

Here’s the selection of photographs that we managed to snap while away – hoping to combine these with the photos that the others took to get a more comprehensive record of the weekend 🙂