thegravelings: August visits. 2013

It's been a busy busy week! Started off by meeting Dave and Sheila, Jon's mum and dad, for lunch on Monday. They were in London to go to the Royal Mews and Buckingham Palace. We met them in Paddington, never been there before. Very nice !

We had arranged to visit Joyce and Colin for a few days before visiting Jo for the Bank Holiday. We had a few bits and pieces for Jo and had hoped to stay over on the way up to Yorkshire to drop things off.However, Andy's dad was staying so as we didn't want to intrude we agreed to go straight to Colin's on Tuesday. Just as we were leaving the pub, Jo phoned to say Andy's dad had decided to leave early so we could stay. Quick turnaround and we were on our way to Jo's a day earlier than expected. Bonus !

It was lovely to see Joyce and Colin. They always make us welcome and we inevitably eat and drink far too much. However a long walk helped limit some of the damage

Joyce had mentioned a bridge on this walk that she thought I wouldn't like. She also threatened

Malcolm and Colin with a fairly drastic surgical procedure if they mucked about and shook it while we were crossing it.

She was right. I didn't like it.

It was very wibbly wobbly and moved far more than I was expecting. Joyce didnt like it anymore than I did.

Hanging on for dear life!

Bridge crossed, we headed off for lunch. This was the view from our table. Not bad eh?

The walk followed the river for a long way. It is very shallow in places and there were lots of people messing about with boats and lilo's.

Nearly at the tea time stop.

The old school house tea rooms.

This used to be a school but is now a very busy tea room. We all had a cream tea, watched over by a

( He wasn't actually that close!)

After a lovely few days we headed down to Desborough.

Jo and Andy had invited a golf buddy of Malcolm and Andy to stay. Madelyn was very taken with Malcolm B. He got to play finger puppets for ages.

We went to Foxton Locks on Friday afternoon. No yum yum for the ducks but they came over anyway.

While the blokes played golf we went shopping

Madelyn enjoyed herself in Rymans. This little chair was just right.

Just standing here looking beautiful.

Avril bought Madelyn these super cute Peppa Pig Pjs.

She looked lovely in them

In the garden

She played for ages in her little house. The stones are from Jo's water feature. Just goes to prove that expensive toys are not really necessary.

So that Jo could get some work done we took gorgeous chops out for a couple of days. We went to a country park in Corby. It was soooo hot. This is what Madelyn was wearing when we went out.

This is what she was wearing when we came back

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One of her favourite pass times is feeding the ducks with some yum yum.

She breaks the bread off a few crumbs at a time and it takes ages .

But she loves it!

Fish fed it was time to share a drink and an ice cream

The next day we went to Wickstead Park. It has lots of big rides for older kids but there is a superb selection of things for little ones. She went up and down the slides about a hundred times. This was one of 3 all getting progressively higher.

This was a train that wobbled if you shook it hard enough. Grandad is just out of sight wobbling for all he was worth. Madelyn wobbled too but she was just not heavy enough to make it move at all.