Stuart visits & fireworks at Windsor

This afternoon Merrilyn's cousin Stuart came to visit. He lives in Dallas and is on business in the London returning on Monday. So we're lucky he's taken to opportunity to spend the weekend with us.

This afternoon we visited the Great Park via Bishop's Gate. Of course, no visit would be complete with seeing the Copper Horse. On the way, James made good use of his "wellies" by jumping through muddy puddles.

Whilst James scrambled over the rocks we saw a heard of deer approaching. In their midst was a buck. They were a bit skittish and ran up and down the bridle path.

We returned home about 5:30pm and decided to visit the Windsor Racecourse. Its Halloween weekend, and with Guy Fawkes next week, bonfires and fireworks are in plentify supply around Windsor. Tonight, there was a carnival at the Racecourse complete with the bonfire at 6:30pm and fireworks at 7:30pm. So we all quickly gathered our kit and made our way to the venue.

On the way I called Gary. He and the family were on the way home from an adventure but agreed to meet us with Liam.

We arrived about 6:15pm and grabbed some dinner. There were rides, music, a pumpkin competition, and plently of people. Come 6:30 and the bonfire was lit. It was huge and only took a few minutes to quickly build. (A little different to the fires I try to light!)

Walking though the carnival James was constantly saying "Can I have a ride?" Most rides were suited to the older kids (one was ridiculous - it lifted and spun occupants until they were a blur of legs). We did find a sort of merry-go-round with buses. Liam and James shared a bus. James was thrilled and laughed every time we saw us.

At 7:30pm the fireworks started. Mind you, earlier we saw the fireworks over Legoland, and there were another two session kicking off over the Thames. Amazing. Our show went for about 15 minutes and featured a mix of ground level and high level fireworks. James was entraced.

I bought him a green glow stick which he loved. Its sitting behind his curtain in the bedroom as I type.

Now - we're listening to jazz and kicking back with some drinks. Very relaxing. Tomorrow we plan breakfast at Carluccio's and then more adventures!

Photos from today are here. Check out the fireworks on YouTube here and here.