Easter in Wales

Easter Weekend, which is a four day weekend here, we decided to spend in the southern and middle part of Wales which we had not been to before. Here are some pictures for our last minute trip, which had only been booked the weekend before.

On Friday we left at 5:30 in the morning in hopes of missing the terrible traffic which was predicted. Which we did for the most part, we were however stopped for an hour or so behind an accident which closed the whole road, as most of them seem to do here. We were able to see the police cleaning the road and the ambulance remove someone from one of the cars. We did get a little worried because traffic was backed up in front of the accident as well but that accident was cleared before ours was. We then stopped at Stratford -upon-Avon for some breakfast with hot chocolate due to the arctic wind that had decided to visit all of the UK for the Easter weekend.
While there we did face the cold long enough to see Shakespeare's house, though we didn't go in.

We also stopped at a Water Garden because it looked interesting as we saw it from a sign on the side of the road. It mostly just seemed like someone's back yard, that had a river running through it, that they decided to charge people to go see. There were some very nice parts of it but mostly it was nice to stretch our legs and it was fun to watch Lizzie want to walk only over the bridges. She would wiggle to get down before going over the bridge and then she would beg to be held again as soon as we got over the bridge.

Around 3:00 we pulled up to our B&B just outside of Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales. It was a very remote little place about a mile out of the town which happens to be the smallest town in Great Britain. Below is a picture of the place which we took off of their website.

We really enjoyed our stay here and we were able to get to know the owners quite well as we would go down to the sitting room at night after the children were asleep and talk to them. Saturday morning started with a visit from the Easter Bunny!!!
Here is Lizzie finding some eggs!!!

She is getting quite good at her balance and was even able to bend over to pick some up!!!

Then we stopped to see a Devil's Bridge Waterfall on our way to the coast. Above this waterfall are three bridges with the top one being the one the road currently goes over, which we don't quite understand how they used the other bridges in their time, but something must have changed since then. There is also a legend about how the devil built the first bridge.

The Falls were beautiful but to get there we had to climb down what they called Jacob's Ladder. They were some very deep steps, I just had to take a picture of it.

Yes, they really were that steep it is not an optical illusion!!!

This picture is of the first falls that we came to. Simple yet so beautiful!!!

And here are all of us right up next to the falls!!

A little further up the trail and we came to yet another waterfall. I was playing with my camera and got this picture in black and white, but I think it looks quite nice this way.
We were also playing around with Brian's camera and with the shutter speed, but sadly all I had to put on were my pictures and we have yet to see how Brian's really turned out!!

The walking warmed us up again, but as we got closer to the top it again turned cold and there was even some snow flying around.

After visiting the falls we drove along the coast as best as the road would let us. During the drive back we stopped at Cilgerran Castle.

Easter we woke up to snow again, but thankfully by the time we were ready to go the snow had melted and the weather had turned so that it didn't seem too scary to drive around the small hilly, winding roads of Wales. So we headed through the Brecon Beacons to Merthyr Tydfil. We got there just in time to attend Sacrament Meeting. Then heading back into the Beacons to visit DanYr Ogof Caves. There were three caves all close to each other with many dinosaur statues and an ancient village model.

Here is a picture from the first cave which had this amazing wall of minerals left behind!!!!

The second cave was called Cathedral Cave. It is a huge cave, hence the name. At the end of the cave which goes back maybe three hundred yards there is a big open part with a waterfall running into it as can be seen behind me. You can walk under the water fall and above the lake to another part of land where you could get married if you so fancied. It was also nice in this cave as they had nice wedding type music playing!!!

I'm not sure that Brian should have his back to those creatures behind him. Notice the one behind him climbing down the hill.

The last of the caves called Bone cave, in order to go in you had to wear a hard hat and walk up this walk way that you can see behind me. Then walked into a open room that talked about how people and animals use caves. Lizzie refused to wear the hard hat so Brian and her didn't do it. With her being carried on his back they had a hard time ducking low enough to get in the entrance to the cave. Jamie sure looks cute in his hat though!!!!!

On our way home we drove over the Beacons and at the very top of it this view met our eyes. So we pulled over to take pictures and I got out in the freezing wind to take pictures. I would take a few then hop back in the car to warm up. Brian just took his pictures from the car which was probably smarter. We found it very interesting that these Beacons were covered in brown growth, where just down in the valley it was green and beautiful.

Our visit came at lambing season so as we drove around we were able to see these lambs in many of the fields of sheep which were everywhere. I just had to include a picture of them which I took on Monday morning as we started our trip back.

We decided to stop at this castle, Tretower Court and Castle as Lizzie was having a hard time being in the car so much. It was quite interesting as we also were able to see the court area where they would hold dinners or whatever. They even had the type to food and spices that they would have used set out for us to see.

Here are Brian and Lizzie up in the tower battling the wind just so I can take a picture of them. Sadly you can't see their hair well enough to see how windy it really was up there!!!!

Our last stop on the way home Tintern Abbey. We were amazed at how much of it still exists even though it has been in ruins for many years. Sadly we didn't choose to go in as Lizzie was asleep as we pulled up to it and Brian was quite worried about the traffic we might face getting back to London. They did let me get a few pictures from the road though.

What you can't see for the picture is that there is quite a bit of stuff behind this building and it goes back quite far. I guess this is something we may have to take more time to see next time we find ourselves in Wales. It was a wonderful trip even with the hours of driving and it does make us want to return soon!!!!!!!

Exploding Sweet Potato!

Yesterday I decided to cook up a sweet potato for lunch and imagine my surprise when I opened the oven to see this sitting on the rack. I'm happy that I had that last little bit of tin foil to put it on.


I must say I have never has a sweet potato explode on me before.

Even Lizzie wasn't quite sure what to make of it!!!!

She did still eat it all up.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I took some pictures of us all dressed in our green, but, as with so may other things, I haven't had a chance to post them until now. So happy belated St. Patrick's Day!!!

We finally got Brian home for a picture but by then Lizzie had enough and was ready to go to bed. Hence the very sad expression on her face!!

More Photos From Last Post

Well we have finally been able to fix our computer so that it will let us up load some pictures. It is amazing how very badly a computer works when there is to much on the hard drive. It isn't just as slow as can be but it also won't let you do everything that you want it to. Thankfully we have cleared up a lot of space and will hopefully clear up a whole lot more this weekend by reformatting the computer now that we have most of our pictures backed up.

Well on to the pictures that I had hoped to get on last time but couldn't upload. I decided rather then try to edit the last post and get the pictures where I wanted them I would just do a whole new one.

Here is our boy standing all on his own, he is leaning on me for balance but as you can see no hands are holding him up. I am so amazed with how much muscle this guy has in his legs.

Here is the bedroom with both of the cribs and babies in there. It is amazing that they both fit and it still doesn't feel really crowded in there. I am also often amazed at how well they sleep through each others crying and can both wake up happy together. This morning I went in there and they were both wide awake a little earlier then normal, but happy!!!!

Our Boy is Four Months Old!!!

Yesterday our boy turned four months old, so I thought I would post a few pictures of him and show everyone how he is progressing!!!

This picture is just to show how cute he is and how grown up he looks when I do actually change him out of his pajamas!!

This was taken a few weeks ago as I sat him in his Bumbo sit so that he could feel like he is part of the family when we eat. He is getting to sit up very well, when he will.

Mostly though he likes to stand!! We sometimes have a hard time getting him to sit. He is even strong enough to stand when just being balanced. I tried it today and he was standing leaning on my legs with out me even holding on to him. I have a picture of it but our computer is acting funny so I am posting this and then I will see if I can edit it later.

He has also decided that he doesn't like to be on his stomach anymore and so he gets off of it. I always thought that kids learned how to roll off of their backs first but both of mine have rolled from their stomachs first. I would love comments on if my kids are normal or not!!!

To celebrate him being four months we moved him into his sister's room. So far it has worked out okay of which we are very glad about. I have another picture of them both in their room which hopefully with also get posted soon.