Well, we are back from our summer holiday and I have managed to get out running a few times.  The week before we left I got up and out at 6am 3 times.  Tom , Lily & I managed a trip to the beach but for once it was the children who decided it was too cold and wanted to come home after an hour much to my delight as I too was frozen and I was wearing clothes and not in the water unlike T & L.  We had a visit from more Americans but this time it was family and just for the day.

Tom, Andrew, Grace & Lily

 On Saturday we drove through to mum & dad's for the night before setting off down south on Sunday morning.  We had a night in a guest house before arriving at our cottage in Herefordshire on Monday.  We spent Sunday and Monday morning in and around Worcester looking in estate agents and  schools then on Tuesday we looked around Ledbury and Hereford - both of which are very beautiful towns. 


lily riding Misty

The cottage we stayed in was Darren Mill Cottage and was lovely, the daughter of the owners had a pony called Misty and let Lily ride him which she loved. 

View of our cottage

On Friday we left the cottage and drove to Wiltshire for a quick visit with Helen who has just got back from the Falkland Islands - we hadn't seen each other since before we left for America so it was lovely to catch up with each other and the children could remember each other too so after a bite of lunch they went off to the play park for an hour or so before we got back in the car to head off towards Bournemouth to see John and the boys. 

Tom & Nathan constructing a pond

We had a lovely meal out with John on Friday and then on Saturday we went to Lisa's for the morning and to collect Nathan (unfortunately Conor had a party to attend so couldn't come with us).  We arrived at John's to discover the start of a pond being built so needless to say as soon as Nathan and Tom saw the hole they wanted to build the pond.  We ended up just staying at the house and the boys had a great time playing in the mud pool.  Lily even joined in eventually.  After a chinese takeaway for dinner we took Nathan home and had another game of cricket in the back garden with Conor.  This time using the cricket ball instead of the tennis ball ...  this led to Nick giving Conor a shiner and Nathan a fat lip.  Not good, back to tennis balls in future I think.  All too soon it was Sunday and we were on the move again, this time up to Somerset to visit with Nick's mum & dad.  They are in the middle of an ambitious extension so Tom got to help lay a couple of bricks, sleep in a hammock in the garden with his cousin Benaiah and generally lark around for a couple of days.  Lily had great fun in  the garden with Tallulah & Elsie and everyone adored little Gladys.  The girls all picked cherries from the garden and Nana should have made some jam by now. 

Tom & Grampy building the house

 We drove back up North as far as my mum & dad's again on Tuesday and as it was a gorgeous day were able to enjoy a delicious bbq with them at the picnic table (no umbrellas in sight this time).  Then we were up early on Wednesday and home by about 10am.  I went out for a quick run and then as Nick is still on holiday until Monday we decided to go out for lunch and then go on to see Harry Potter at the cinema.  What a brilliant film, definitely the best of the lot.