Moss Bank Park

Tues we went to Moss Bank Park with my friend Emma and her brood. Fun park with some fun equipment, they have a small animal area which the girls liked with bunnies and ducks and ice-creams to round off the day.

Sara and Olivia, Kate, Annabelle & Emma

There was lots of fun equipment, most of it on the 'big kid' area and there were usually long lines of kids waiting to get on stuff, Sara immediately queued for this and waited and waited and waited to get on it, then Kate and Annabelle took a turn.

Sara and Olivia on a fun swing.

The girls having fun.

Emma and I with our kiddos.

Later we met Uncle James, Angie and cousins for some bowling, my camera battery died after these 2 pics of Sara and Gabby playing in the arcade so thats all I have of the evening.

My favourite place

Yesterday was low key, we got back from London late and so the girls slept in, did some errands and then I took the girls for a walk up Holcombe Hill, its one of my favourite places, peaceful, quiet and the scenery is beautiful. Atop Holcombe hill is Peel Monument, its was built as a memorial to Sir Robert Peel a 19th century British Prime Minister best remembered as the creator of the modern British Police Force who was born in Bury, it can be seen for miles away as you come down the motorway into Bury. Anyway, we had a fun walk up to the top and played around the tower before coming home.

If you look closely you may just see the girls as they took a little break on the steps of the tower.

Here is the view from the back (looking south) as the tower looks over Bury and the street picture below is Holcombe Village, which I guess if I could live anywhere is where I would be, quaint and peaceful surrounded by beauty.

These are my brothers entertaining the girls, Uncle James and Uncle Peter.

Hotel Gray

The girls and I headed down to the infamous Hotel Gray for the weekend and had a smashing time, the rates are very favourable, the food fabulous and the guided tours of London are top notch, I would highly recommend this if you are anywhere close. Here's a quick re-cap of our time there.

The drive down to London from Manchester. I probably could have avoided this but thats another story, really there wasn't much difference from trying to get around in LA except the steering wheel is on the otherside of the car and the cars around me look a little different but really this felt just like being on the 405!

Here are the proprietor's of Hotel Gray, couldn't find a nicer couple, see how excited they are to see us? I'm pretty sure they had no idea what was in store, first kid visitors I'm told.

It was of course raining when we got there and the girls loved exploring Emily's back garden and getting thoroughly soaked.

On my way down we pulled off into a Tesco's, they had these cute 2 piece top sets that I couldn't resist buying, aren't they cute? waiting for the train to go into London.

On the train, Kate looks a little bug eyed, there were several stops on the way to the underground and at each stop the girls had to switch seats.

Emily is a very seasoned tour guide now, she picked the perfect things for us to do with kids that captured a few things of the city without being too boring for the kids, we got off the tube at Waterloo and walked past the Tower of London onto a boat on the River Thames, we took the boat down to Big Ben, forgive my crappy camera, the girls and I with Tower Bridge in the background and Big Ben.

Outside Buckingham Palace, Sara was fascinated by the guards with the big hats.

Then onto the natural History Museum, at the end of the dinosaur exhibit there is a mechanical T-Rex, Sara was a little afraid, it was really cool though. Here is one of my seasoned travellers waiting at the tube station. London was fun but tough with 2 kids and a stroller, there are a LOT of people and most of them are rushing about and 2 little curious girls don't make it easy for them, plus the city is not very wheelchair friendly, ie no ramps and elevators are hard to find so lots of stairs. They are making a lot of improvements to make it more accessible for the 2012 games, so all in all the city was fun but for me a little tough and stressful with kids.

STONEHENGE!! I must be a country girl, the city was fun but this to me was bliss, Stonehenge is really in the middle of nowhere and the scenery is breathtaking.

Kate being super sweet to Sara and helping her with her audio guide of Stonehenge and here is a perfect example of my girls, Kate enjoying her savory sausage roll and Sara with her sweet ice-cream.

There are some fields behind Stonehenge with these mounds on that we let the girls run around on.

Sunday we went to church and then planned to take a picnic to the park, here's the funny thing about the weather here, go to church no rain, come home no rain, almost ready to head out for the picnic and it downpours, have picnic in Brent and Emily's living room, weather clears up and head to Richmond Park, beautiful, does it look like it was pouring down with rain just 30 minutes earlier? In Richmond Park there are wild deer that are roaming free, first few shots are from the car.

Then we parked and got out and wandered around by them, it was really cool and there really were hundreds of them.

So thank-you Gray's, we loved seeing you guys and had a blast. Emily, thank-you for taking us around even though you have done everything about 20 times already.