Beaumaris

Our last morning started out with some coloring and gathering our stuff before heading out for one last explore.

We drove to Beaumaris, loaded up on a morning snack Big Daddy style, and headed to our last castle of the weekend.

A tough knight with his ladies-in-waiting inside the castle walls.

Guarding the castle!

This little beauty had fun crawling all over the grass.  She is such an easy baby.

And then we drove home.  It was such a great weekend, made better by the weather and the company of my parents.  

Llanberis, Caernarfon, & Criccieth

Saturday was full of beautiful weather, good food, a cool museum, more castles, trying to help the kids to stop whining in the car, and a better night of sleep.

We started in Llanberis at the National Slate Museum, which was pretty cool to start with, but the steam trains were on display, making the morning an even better memory.

The largest working waterwheel in the UK

After lunch at Pete's Eats (Wales' version of a local diner dive and full of so much character - or characters!), we drove to Caernarfon to explore the castle.  Bridgette and Big Daddy slept in the car while we ran around and pretended to be knights.   

I told the kids to look tough.  Rooke didn't get the memo.  Gretchen is showing off her "I'm-going-to-blast-this-cannon-if-you-don't-get-out-of-my-castle" face. 

Someone was getting tired by about 3:00.  I was glad I had the ergo with us.

We headed further South to Criccieth for some ice cream and a view of another castle.  The sun was setting and the temperature dropping, so we ate our ice cream quickly, snapped some photos, and hopped back in the car for the drive back to Conwy.

I love traveling with this man.

Conwy, Wales

We took advantage of a long weekend (Ryan had Monday off) and headed to Wales with my parents for a castle crawl!  It took about 3.5 hours to drive there.  We stayed in Conwy and took off to explore after dropping our bags at a B&B just outside the city walls (literally).

We started with a delicious lunch at this quaint French bistro

The sign says it all

He's growing up far too fast

We spent the afternoon exploring the castle in Conwy.

After exploring the castle, we walked on top of the city walls for a while.  

This is our B&B, which I won't recommend, but the view of the city and castle was great!

Lately

A little of what we've been up to lately . . .

Playdates with sweet friends.

 Getting schooled at Uno.

Devouring our new favorite cookie.

Reading.

And re-telling the story.

Hiding from the Paparazzi.

She actually loves the camera!

Snacking out of muffin tins after school.

Ooohing and ahhhing over photos of our precious nephew/cousin.

  

Melting Mommy with beautiful eyes.

Giving open-mouth kisses (this is what she looks like when she "gives kisses"!)

Growing up way too fast.