Skip to main content

Yorkshire #2 (or the Lakes & the wedding of the year!)

So from complete solitude to the hive of activity that was the pre-wedding venue for the last 2 days. We arrived from the Dales feeling a bit wind swept and rural into the most pristine of locations - all spruced up for Chris and Jessica's wedding. We were staying in some beautiful lodges - ultra cool with lots of wood and glass - the complete opposite from what we had just come from - with Liz & Dave in one, Mum, Dad, Amanda, Alex and the boys in another and finally us with Simon and Audrey in another. The kids were already excited and even more so when they discovered that each lodge had its own hot tub!!

The festivities kicked off immediately - Mum, Dad Amanda et al opted for going out but we decided to stay and we had a wonderful evening of catching up over a pizza and a glass or two (well, make that a few bottles) of wine. Glenn very sensibly said he wasn't going to drink due to wanting to ride the next day, only then to make his way happily through half a bottle of gin on his own while discussing the finer points of Brexit with Audrey. Simon and I left them about midnight, still talking politics - fab evening all round.

The day of the wedding dawned warm (for the Lake District) and overcast but not wet or windy. The sun even made a show once or twice which was great given so very unexpected. After a discussion with the kids that 2 hours in the hot tub does not constitute a pre-wedding wash, we had showers and bacon sandwiches and got ready. I hope somewhere, someone got a photo of our whole family dressed to impress - its unlikely to happen again! We set out on a coach down some particularly windy roads (Laurie getting paler and paler as we went) into the beautiful Cartmel Priory for the ceremony. Jess looked stunning, as did her (many) bridesmaids and Izzy had dress and flower envy from the start! We managed to get seats near the front so had a great view throughout which made all the difference. The next entertainment was trying to get coaches back out of the village without crushing the surrounding cars or upsetting the neighbours - we managed it - just!

From here up to the reception at Jess's family home - Bigland Hall - which looked absolutely beautiful. The house, the marquee, the lake, the decorations, the food was all wonderful with some really lovely touches including photo place names and the basket of flip flops for sore feet later on in the evening... or straight away if your name is Abi!

Highlights for the kids included the fact that no-one was monitoring their consumption of fizzy drinks, there was unfettered access to the photo booth (which they made enormous use of while we listened to the speeches), lots of people wanting to dance with them when the band started, and no-one telling them it was time to go home until they were ready. Izzy wilted about 10pm and suddenly announced she needed to go home. Abi opted to stay on with Simon and Audrey (immediately appointing Audrey her Mummy for the evening!) and they rolled home after midnight. It was a very tired little girl that finally appeared this morning! What a lovely weekend, we were truly spoilt by Jess, Chris and their families.

So after a good run home we are now happily back in the house - dogs are on their beds (we've missed Freya's snoring), kids are washed and ready for bed and we are looking forward to waking up in our house with normal service resumed. It's been a lovely week away, but there is no place like  home.






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...

Half term

Whatever happened to half term?? It seems to have disappeared in a flash, do doubt partly as I was working having had 3 days off the previous week for Kerrie and Ryan's wedding. The plan was to not have a plan - both girls have exam week coming up and so our major intent was for them to spend at least half an hour a day or so doing a bit of revision. This has sort of worked - we only had one day where I got an irate message from Glenn that Izzy knows 'absolutely nothing' about her maths... we'll see. With half term comes effort grades and if they genuinely know nothing, it's not for a lack of effort. Abi did really well, keeping up her average and getting a 6 (top grade) in French again. Izzy, who we always worry is apt to cruise if allowed, got the first 5.0 average grade we've seen from either of them and 3 6's in French, English and DT - well done Izzy! I tend to assume all the kids work hard but it seems not - according to Abi "all the boys always...