Chandler catch up

I'm posting this blog a day late. With Mum & Dad here I guess we've been focusing more on enjoying time together rather than blogging.

Yesterday we spent the day with my cousin and his family near Luton. James loves spending time with his cousins Kayley and Ryan. Last time they visited the first thing he said when we woke up the next morning was "when can I visit them again?"

Andrew is my cousin on my mother's side. As it happens Jenny (Mum's sister - stay with me here!) and Howard are visiting Andrew after their holiday in Scotland. So it was a perfect opportunity to have a big family catch up.

We needed north about 10:15am and arrived in under an hour. Not bad. Its an easy trip up the M25 and on to the M1. We're lucky having them so close. It was good to have everyone together and we spent the morning enjoying good conversation whilst the kids played together. James was particularly impressed with all the toys - especially a fire engine. It seems Andrew and Suzanne have been checking out a number of car boot sales. We've heard of these as a source of bargains - and especially toys. I think we'll be on the lookout for one near us.

About lunch time we jumped in three cars and made our way out of town to the Crooked Chimney pub. Its an historic pub about 15 minutes drive. There we enjoyed some ales and a big lunch. We had intended to make the most of the sunny 24 degree day but the beer garden had the unique feature of the kitchen exhaust fans kicking up a racket and belching smoke. Not exactly ideal. So we ended up inside for the meal.

While waiting for lunch to arrive we took turns playing outside with the kids. Andrew picked dried grass stems for the kids to toss as spears. That was followed up by helicopter rides and races. Poor Kayley must have played in the long grass as she returned inside with some welts from stinging nettles. She handled it very well and used ice from her drink to sooth the itches.

After a good feed we made our way back for more relaxing conversation. James and Kayley played in the back garden transferring water from the bird bath to a well pretending to fill a swimming pool. Kayley always made sure James was looked after!

In the afternoon we took the kids to an adjacent school playground. Kayley is learning to ride a bike. James was content borrowing Ryan's trike. In fact, he was intent to ride the trike on each side of the big playground. He even learnt how to push himself forward with his feet to start himself off before he continued forward peddling. Kayley gained more confidence on her bike with Andrew and Howard on each side supporting her.

As afternoon wore on we decided to stay for dinner. So it was off to the local Indian restaurant for a huge take-out meal.

We returned home about 9:30pm. Of course, James didn't sleep in the car but it didn't take him long to fall asleep once he was in his bed.

Photos here.