Preparing for Snowboarding - stage 2

This Sunday we had my brother Jon, his wife Jo, friends Rob and Marianne with their 2 kids George and Frank over for lunch. The dinner invite was two-fold, partly to celebrate Jon's birthday and also to make some final plans for our snowboarding trip this week as we are all staying in a chalet together. Mike and I cooked a fabulous beef casserole followed by scrummy Eton Mess. Charlie was in his element with his new found friends aged 2 and 5 and followed them around everywhere wanting everything they had. As it was such a beautiful day, after lunch we went for a walk on the beach and Rob produced several skateboards he had secured in the boot of his car. One was custom made by himself, long enough to lay a small child on and that's exactly what he did. So 2 year old Frank laid face down on the board as Rob pushed him up our road towards the path across the golf course. George was off on his own board and Jon was reliving his childhood on the third one. As expected it all ended in tears as Franks board went one way and his face did a spectacular grind along the road. Despite the injury he picked himself up and after a cuddle with his mum was soon back on. By this point we had reached the golf course path which has a slope and there we stopped to launch Frank and George down the hill this time without injuries. Rob was on a roll and spied another slope which headed on to the actual course itself and was soon speeding down it himself only to hit grass and in another spectacular fashion fell coating himself with mud. Not one to missing out Charlie had his own turn of perfecting his stance on the board and we could already see the potential in him. We eventually made it to the beach and let Charlie had a trot about on the pebbles, tasting a few here and there and as if not to be left out again, did a spectacular nose dive onto the shingle with bread stick in mouth. A small amount of blood shed and a few tears later and he was soon back on his feet. By this time the sun had set and it was getting cold so we hot footed it back to the house for a lovely cup of tea. Bring on the snow.

Like mother like son

Despite Charlie being a bit of a daredevil, crawling about over any obstacle in his way, bouncing on the bed like a loony and generally loving being turned upside down by his legs, he is in actual fact a bit of a bookworm. Like me he loves books and will sit for ages on your lap reading, turning the pages and lifting up the flaps. He also loves to read on his own and we will often find him sitting quietly looking a one of his many favourites. Like me he also has a key nose for a drop of good vino and now he can can pull himself up on almost anything he has found the wine rack and today saw him sifting through our meagre collection of wine reminding us to go and stock up asap.

She rides again

Having not set foot on a snowboard in almost 3 years, Saturday night found Mike and I in the living room putting together my fabulous Christmas present. A lucky girl indeed, with a brand new snowboard, bindings and tool set. So, I donned my boots and climbed on. A perfect fit and a cool board means hopefully I will be carving down the slopes like a pro. Hmmmm, my legs were aching from just standing on the board and waving around on the living room rug and as I said proudly to Mike how strong my arms were from carrying Charlie around he was quick to remind me that my arms were actually the least used bit of my body and my legs were the key to staying upright. Luckily Charlie had bought me a full body massage for Christmas which will be a well needed remedy on our return. Morzine here I come...................

Happy Birthday Ruby

Today would have been Ruby's 2nd birthday and we cannot believe that 2 years have passed since she came and went into our lives with such an impact. This year has gone so quickly with the arrival of Charlie and he really has been a ray of sunshine in our lives since Ruby left us and we feel he carries a little bit of Ruby with him too. Today we released balloons like last year but this time let off 3, one for each of us and then had lunch out. We had a beautiful bouquet of red roses made for Ruby which we took to her grave this afternoon. It was a lovely family day but as always tinged with so much sadness at the loss of our wonderful daughter. We want to thank all our friends and family for all the wonderful cards, flowers and special memorials that they have sent and we know Ruby still lives on in everyones hearts.

New Year up North

After a couple of lovely christmasy days at home, we packed up our car and headed off to Cumbria to stay with our friends Kellie and Gareth. After a long journey we arrived in the pouring rain, put Charlie to bed and sat down and opened a bottle of bubbly and sat up talking until the small hours catching up on news and gossip. Unfortunately the rain persisted during our stay so we couldn't leave the house but it was great to spend some time together and Charlie had a thoroughly fab time with their girls Poppy and Daisy knocking down the Lego castle that they built, again and again. The girls were really sweet and spent lots of time playing with Charlie. As we stayed indoors, we also all got to watch the Simpson's movie which was hilarious.

Two days later we packed up the car again and headed further up the country to Scotland to visit our friends Moira and Fraser. Again the weather was not being kind to us although instead of torrential rain, it was beautiful and misty over the hills and mountains as we drove towards their village. We had a brilliant time, and celebrated new years eve with a dinner party with some of their local friends. Moira cooked a fabulous meal and the biggest beef wellington you have ever seen all washed down with a magnum of vintage champagne brought by one of their friends. Games followed dinner and it was such a hilarious evening. It kicked off with the newspaper game, where we all had to tear a piece of paper into the shape of an elephant in the dark. The results were ridiculous, particularly mine which bore no resemblance to the big beast whatsoever. Mike's was outstanding and was promptly awarded the winner. Next was 'Who's in Hat' describing as many famous people to our teams. The finale was our own version of Mr and Mrs with questions set by Moira and myself for the girls and by Mike and Fraser for the boys. It was so funny and some of the answers given by everyone were outrageous. A very very funny evening.

The following day, nursing very bad hangovers we braved the weather and went for a new years day walk to a national park which was just the tonic. It was very misty and eerie but very beautiful and a much needed cure to the headaches. After an easy evening in front of the TV and an early night we set off the next morning for our long drive home. A fabulous trip away.