Derbyshire (28th October 2015)

On Wednesday 28th October in the half term holiday, we headed to Derbyshire. We'd decided to just spend a couple of days at the kids' favourite Travelodge in Glossop, and chill out together doing whatever we fancied.

I'd seen a couple of places on Pinterest I wouldn't mind visiting, including Bolsover Castle which we've never been to before, but we'd not really decided on anything till we set off. We went to Tesco first and got stuff for lunch and breakfast the next day.

We headed to Bolsover Castle and went in for a wander around. It was built in the 1600's, on the site of a medieval castle from the 1100's.

We explored the old ruined part of the castle first.

We spent ages looking over the walls at the streets below...

 ...and being daft!

The castle was quite quiet, and it was fun to go round with pretty much the place to ourselves.

In the dressing up room!

On the landing.

I loved the ceiling in this room!

Harry taking a breather!

Jack in the kitchen...

Walking round the battlements.

Lucy and I went into the building across from the castle which has room for horse riding, and an amazing roof!

Then time at the quite posh park!

We headed in the direction of Glossop next, passing by Chesterfield, with the wonky church spire which the kids like.

On the way to Glossop we drove through some beautiful countryside, and at one point parked the car so we could run up a hill to some rocks we'd seen from the road.

The kids miles ahead, up on the rocks already.

The view from the top of the rocks was gorgeous, and the evening sun came out.

Karate Kid Lucy

Lucy took some pictures of me and Scott.

It was just absolutely beautiful up there! Everyone was just happy.

And Lucy fell in love with a dinosaur rock...

Driving on Snake Pass across the Pennines to Glossop.

Then hanging out in our Travelodge rooms! We got pizza from Dominoes across the street, and then kids went to Marks and Spencers for pudding.

We love the Travelodge - it's quite modern and new, but built inside an old stone building, which has really thick walls and great window sills!

Lucy's 18th Birthday (24th October 2015)

Lucy's 18th birthday fell on a Saturday, but she'd made no particular plans for it because she was celebrating on the following Monday by going to London with her friend Georgia.

John and Hannah had said they were coming down for the weekend, staying in Leah (Hannah's sister) and Ben's house, who live in our ward. I thought it'd be nice have a birthday tea for Lucy, and invited a couple of Lucy's friends over and Ben and Anna's family too.

John bought a new board game to play!

Scott with Hattie (I think!)

Everyone just hung out and had a lovely time! We pulled all the kids' old toys out!

A proper birthday tea, plus I'd made soup and quiche.

Harry's unique way of eating Wotsits!

Jack, Ben Hirst, Lucy and Hattie (?!)

The Conway girls and Asher

Georgia also came over and had bought some lovely presents for Lucy, including a journal, which Georgia had done some research on, to find out if that would be suitable for taking on a mission (which Lucy wants to go on.) Georgia had filled with post-it notes of quotes from General Authorities. I thought that was such a lovely gift, especially as Georgia doesn't even go to our church!

Aunty Helen with Hattie and Viv.

I was a lovely chilled out day anyway, and I think Lucy enjoyed it!