In between trips and Wales

While KC and Chris were in Paris and London this is what we did....

Parker and Broden built a mud pie in our yard

The picture doesn't do Parker justice, he was covered!

Broden was also a mess!

Broden had a loose tooth and Blake was sleeping, so he wanted me to pull it out. So.... I did.

Broden, bloody from pulling on his tooth

Wiggling his tooth

There it is!

In a bag all ready for the tooth fairy

 After KC and Christ returned from their adventures Blake made a trip to the local British stor and got some treats for a game night. We had fun trying all the different treats and playing games.

 We thought after so much sight seeing Grandma and Grandpa would be ready for a break, but after a day of rest they were ready to go again! We were going to go down to Bath and show them that area and stay in the cheap housing there. We got all ready Thursday night and Friday when I called them, they said they didn't have any availability. Great! So I called another cheap military place in Wales and they were full too. I looked on vacation rentals and found a little apartment in Wales, near Snowdon National Park, so we headed there. The beginning of the drive was a little rocky because of a huge rain storm. There were accidents everywhere. You would think that for a country where it rains so much people would be good at driving in the rain, nope. Traffic was slow for like 2 hours from a 20 minute downpour. So, we were excited to finally get there. Wales was beautiful. I was driving so I got to see a lot. It was hard driving there though because the roads are so small and windy and hilly and have rock walls on the sides. I was ok going really slow, but the cars behind me weren't ok with me going slow. I would pull over when I could to let them pass, but I took my time and enjoyed the scenery.

Bridge we drove over to get to Harlech

cool building next to the inlet of the Ocean

 We stayed in Harlech, a cute little town on the coast. The weather when we got there was HORRIBLE! I had packed for Bath, thinking it would be kind of warm. It was cold and windy and raining! So we kind of camped out in our little apartment the first night. We did venture out to find some food. Blake drove down this little road to go turn around. It was so skinny I got out to make sure he was going to fit, and to take pictures. The got to the bottom and turned around, then got stuck. Eventually then made it back up. It was pretty entertaining. The "downtown" of Harlech was up on a steep hill, so the roads were really steep and houses were just built right into the mountain.

Will they fit?

They fit!

Driving back up

 Eventually about 4 towns down the road we found a food place that was open. It was pizza and it was really good. We got some different flavored jacket potatoes too and they were pretty yummy too.

The next day the weather was still icky, but we figured we drove a long way to see Wales, so we better go see it. First we stopped at some of the little shops in town to find wellies(rain boots) for Parker. We couldn't keep him out of the puddles. Broden needed some too. We found the cutest little shoe store and got each of the boys some rain boots. Broden even got some to match Blake's and I got another pair for company to use when they come too. Blake also stopped at a 2nd hand store and got a jacket because he forgot his. He was pretty excited about his 2 dollar reversible jacket.

Then we went to Harlech Castle. It was a big old castle up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. We were all decked out in rain coats, rain boots, ponchos and anything else we could find to keep up warm or dry. Umbrellas were out of the question because of the wind.

Blake and Alissa

Alissa, Blake and Parker

Inside of the castle

 I think it is interesting to see the parts still standing and try to guess what things were, like chimney, bedrooms, kitchen, different levels, things like this.

Remi posing overlooking the courtyard

Grandma and Grandpa being silly walking down the steps.

The courtyard

Alissa scared of the wind

The castle from one of the corner towers

Remi and Grandma with the ocean in the background

Remi getting blown by the wind

We though we needed to get a picture with Blake and this sign. We had to keep him under control:)

Alissa and Grandma walking across a bridge in the castle

Jenny, Alissa, Grandma and Remi showing off our rainboots

Grandpa and Broden trying to walk in the wind.

 It really was this windy. We had to be really careful on the tower walks and coming around corners because it was dangerously windy.

Grandma, Alissa, Blake and Parker holding on tightl

Broden, Grandpa and Grandma leaving the castle

Sunday morning we woke up to clear skys!!! YAY! We looked up a church and headed to the address we had. We couldn't find it anywhere. Eventually after asking about 10 different people a man in the Welch baptist church told us where the mormons met. We finally found them about 20 minutes into sacrament meeting. It was in a YMCA building. Sacrament meeting was in the gym, which is fine. All the chairs were full though and they didn't have any more set up, so we walked up the steps to sit in the bleachers. It was super noisy! I felt bad for being such a distraction. We would have been early, or at least on time if we could have found the church. It was nice being there though. People were really nice. It was Father's Day so the primary children sang to the Fathers and Grandfathers after Sacrament Meeting. Then they gave them a little gift. They even had our kids go down and get a gift for their dad and grandpa. It was cute.

After Sacrament meeting we changed our clothes and headed out to enjoy nature in the nice weather. We drove to the base of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales and started hiking.

Remi, Broden, Blake, Alissa, Jenny and Parker with Mt. Snowdon in the background.

Alissa and Broden climbing

The lake half way up the hike

 We didn't attempt hiking to the top. We weren't really prepared and just wanted a nice relaxing hike. So the lake half way up was perfect. We hung out there ate, threw rocks and relaxed.

Alissa and Remi

Blake preparing to splash Alissa

Throwing the rock

And the splash.... Alissa thought it was funny

Alissa in front of one of the many waterfalls. They were everywhere.

Alissa with the Lake in the background

Jenny in front of the ruins by the lake

Alissa and Blake

Another waterfall

Broden and a goat

Remi, Grandma and Alissa hiking down

Broden our mountain climber

Alissa Jumping in her tutu skirt

When we were hiking up there were lots of people going up who were doing the 3 peaks challenge. It is a challenge where you try to hike the highest peak in Wales, England and Scotland in the shortest time possible. So there were these 2 guys who hiked past us wearing tutu's. They said it was a dare to the the 3 peak challenge in these tutu's. It reminded me of something my brothers would do. I wish I would have gotten a picture with them and Alissa. It would have been cute:)

After our hike we headed to a town on the coast to try some crabbing. We found a place where the ladies said they had good crabbing. We caught a few crabs, then headed down to the beach. The tide was just starting to come in and it was a big rocky beach. We had fun playing out on the rocks. It was perfect for parker. One area was just one big huge rock that was almost like a natural pool with a little bit of water splashing into it. He had fun playing there while Remi and Broden jumped around on all the other rocks and splashed in the water in their rain boots. Blake and KC had the crabbing nets and were trying to catch crabs. At one point Blake put his net in the water and lodged his handle between 2 rocks and left. When he came back it was gone. He could see it floating out in the water. They used the other crab net and string and caught and pulled it in. Good thing. It was a whole 2 pounds. After a while Alissa woke up and her and Grandma joined us. We played a little longer, then the tide was too high to enjoy being there with the kids. It was fun to see the tide come in like that though. I can see how if you aren't paying attention and you are out on a rock you could get trapped.

Pretty sunset

 The next day we cleaned up the apartment and headed to the beach. Chris and I dropped of Blake, KC and the kids and headed into town to walk the shops. There were a couple interesting shops, not too many though. We grabbed some food and headed back to the beach.

Parker flying the kite

Alissa, chips and the kite. What a life!

After flying kites, throwing frisbees and relaxing we headed home. We loved Wales. The mountains, hills, rivers, waterfalls, sheep, rock walls, everything. It was so fun!(when the sun came out and the wind stopped blowing us away)