June 16th

Wow. Such a lot has happened since my last post on here. For one thing we have had the most amazing weather - such a nice break after all the wind and rain of winter and spring.

On Monday 9th June we drove to Somerset, Burnham on Sea, in scorching weather. Of course the air con on the car has stopped working so it was rather a hot and sweaty trip, you cannot have the windows open too far on the Motorway or its like being slapped in the face.

We got to the Haven site and had to queue for a while to book in, our fault for being there just on booking in time, at least it was still warm and dry.

Our Caravan had three bedrooms and a bathroom and cloakroom and a television and a DVD player, now thats real luxury. The bed had a mind of its own. It looked as though it should fit into the frame on the floor, but actually it hovered on Janis' side so every time he sat on the bed or moved it made a loud banging noise. As Janis said hardly the most exotic or romantic of beds, but the mattress was super bouncy so that should make up for it.

Tim and Jo and Lily arrived just after us and they were in the caravan next door to ours, poor things. It felt like ages since I had seen them all. Tim brought Lily round on a visit and she looked as though she might just remember us, but was hedging her bets in case she had the wrong people. That wore off the next day and for the rest of the week i had a lot of Lily hugs and cuddles and even some kisses. I think being a grandmother is the best thing in the world because i only got to see her when she was clean and changed and ready to play, all the nasty up at night, dirty nappy, dirty face things happened to someone else.

 Tim and Jo had lots of fun making sandcastles on the beach at Weston Super Mare (I think they were hoping Lily would join in but she took exception to the feel of sand on her hands); but then the clouds built up and the wind blew so we decided it might be a better idea to find somewhere indoors - perhaps the aquarium. Janis and Tim spent some time trying to pack the windbreak away but every time they thought they had it the wind whipped it away again and in the end it just got stuffed into a corner as there was no way it was going back in the bag. Just as we got everything packed into the buggy we discovered Lily digging for gold in the sand having apparently got over her aversion to dirty hands.


We didn't avoid the rain. It came down in buckets and we dashed into the shopping centre looking like drowned rats, all but Lily who was safely stacked away in her waterproof buggy..

On Wednesday we celebrated Jo's birthday with a trip to the Noahs Ark Zoo and Farm outside Bristol. As you can see, Janis and this chap were getting on really well together.

Lily did a lot of racing around despite the weather, hot, and there were lots of places for her to run.
Most of the time she had either Tim or Jo attached and trying to ensure she stayed upright.

This chappie was having a great day rolling around in a mud bath. Someone told me he came from Brazil, and was part of the largest breed of guinea pig - interesting - and that he had once eaten some but it gave him food poisoning - perhaps I didn't really need to know that?

while Tim and Jo took Lily for a swirl on a tractor tyre I wandered over to the giraffes in time to catch this intimate moment on film. It was soooo sweet.

It was a great day and we all loved the layout - lots of play areas for children of all ages - and the cleanliness of the animals and their pens.

On Thursday we celebrated Janis' birthday with a visit to the crazy golf on the camp site. Can I just say that Tim did the scoring and Tim won and leave it at that? Even though I got a hole in one. Yes, without cheating. It might be something to do with the fact I got maximum points on most of the other holes I suppose.

It was a terrible course and there had to be a lot of discussion around each hole.

So Lily came up with her own version of the game - buggy golf. Think she would probably have beaten us all had we let her loose on the actual holes.

Friday being our last day - boo hoo - we walked through the caravan site into Burnham on Sea - although there wasn't actually any sea, just lots of wet sand. In the end we decided not to build wet sandcastles and had a cold drink and ice cream instead.

Lily really liked my sticks. perhaps she thought she would be able to steer her buggy with them and make a great escape?

We had a lovely week thank you Tim and Jo and Lily and good bye to our caravan.