A Grand Day Out

Well it's the end of the Easter holidays in this neck of the woods and just about the start of the cricket season when chaos will reign (slightly more chaos than usual I should say).

I've spent the holidays trying to juggle all of the things that needed doing as well as pop into work a few times. Number 2 son has had 3 weeks off but mostly spent the first week catching up on sleep and generally dossing around. Number 1 and Little Miss started their two week break after number 2 had already been off for a week but Little Miss had 4 mornings of gymnastics in that first week, 3 hours a day, as well as her 2 evening sessions; she did a total of 15 hours and was understandably shattered! We gave her the option of giving up the two evening sessions but no way, she has a steely determination that girl!

The second week saw number 2 son on a course at the University, training to be a cricket coach of all things! That was 10am til 4pm each day and I found myself doing 60+ miles each day just dropping off and picking up. Still he passed the course and as long as he gets the first aid and safeguarding children courses done he's qualified. I'm sure it does no harm to add another string to his bow. (or maybe that's the first string, I'm not sure)

A very willing apprentice!
 

amazing what you can do with left over roof battens!

We'd managed to get a few other jobs done too, I always get a bit twitchy at this time of year as I'm conscious of the fact nothing will get done over the next few months it will be cricket, cricket, cricket! At last the guinea pigs were given an outside home, they've lived indoors since Little Miss got them; only 18 months ago! And a toilet seat was fitted in the new shower room which had been finished (loose use of the word finished!) before Christmas.

So on Friday a family day out was called for, I used the vouchers we'd bought for the boys for Christmas and off we went to Lee Valley in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire. Lee Valley White Water Centre was built for the UK Olympics last year and is now being converted into an education, training and activity centre. The weather didn't look good as we drove along the motorway, such a shame after a few days of sunshine. Little Miss wasn't too happy as she was too young to take part, because of this we only booked the boys onto the course and not ourselves.

All the children think Dad was a daredevil and not me in our younger days so were quite surprised to hear I'd actually ridden the rapids myself, for around 5 hours down a raging river, on our honeymoon. (Such a romantic day out!) It was probably one of the best experiences of my life (the rafting not the honeymoon) and I'd do it again tomorrow. We got slightly conned on our trip as the guide knew we were on honeymoon and got us to raft a couple of waterfalls on our own - the end result was the two of us upside down at the back of the boat ever so slightly dazed and confused! I'd love to post a photo here just to prove the point but I can't find them - I did do it honest!

 

Anyway the session was for 2 hours and the weather was not helping, drizzly and bitterly cold - especially in the water. But what fun they had, I was very envious and we will go back at some point and book all of us on to a session. The guides were terrific and made it very exciting, the boys were a bit blue when they eventually met us (in the coffee bar - well what else would you do?) We'd all highly recommend it for outdoorsy fun if that's your thing.

black rain cloud hovering above

 

Our two were at the front of the boat for most of the time.

 

To round the day off (and to stop a little bit of whinging coming from the smallest member of our party) we headed back to Norwich for a game of 10 pin bowling and a meal out. It was an expensive day but we don't have family days out in the summer like most people, every minute is spent driving to, driving from, watching, catering for, washing kit, for cricket.

So all in all I think we all had a good day out.
The boys (all 3 of them) had to dash home to catch up on their cricket fantasy league on the
Indian Premier League - it's getting very competitive, apparently.

I hope you all enjoyed the Easter break and saw a little bit of sunshine in the end.