Our Bovington Years

Please look after this bear......

2011-01-29T23:07:00.002Z

This weekend Kenzie brought home Barnaby Bear from school.

Barnaby is given to children who have obeyed the class rules all week.

Barnaby comes complete with his own case and 'passport' in which the children can detail where he's been and what he's been up to during his stay with them.

We decided that Barnaby might be missing some of his friends so opted to take him to the Teddy Bear Museum in Dorchester.

Yet again we were grateful for Maycee being of the age where we still don't have to pay for her to get into a lot of these 'tourist attractions' ..... £16 and 10 minutes later the Teddy Bear Museum had been explored by a stunned set of parents, an over active 5 year old and a particularly sensitive and emotional 2 year old (well if she will choose to wake up at 6am, she must suffer the consequences of being tired for the rest of the day!!!)

It has to be said that while the museum is rated as 'okay' by us, it definitely isn't worth the entrance fee it is charging and most certainly isn't enough to keep even the biggest teddy bear fan entertained for more than an hour at the very most.

Still Barnaby seemed to be quite happy to catch up with some of his muckers as you will see....

Kingston Maurward in January

2011-01-22T21:30:00.000Z

Today the sun was slightly peeking through the clouds so we decided a trip out with the girls was in order to, as their Daddy would put it, get some fresh air around their chops!!
We've driven past Kinston Maurward College many times enroute to Dorchester and never knew that within the grounds of the college was an animal park and gardens open to the public.
So 2 hours and £15 later we'd fed the animals, seen the 'big house' from the outside and walked the very muddy path around the gardens and lake.
It was a great opportunity for me to practice using my new (to me) camera...a big DSLR with more buttons, switches, settings and lenses than I know what to do with!!
Here are some of the photos that I managed to get in focus!

Seasons Greetings & Happy New Year

2011-01-02T22:30:00.000Z

Six Months on

2010-12-10T09:42:00.000Z

Well I guess having given this blog address out in our Christmas cards this year, I really ought to crack on and update it.

Far too much to write about in such a short space so I'll make do with uploading some recent photos of the girls and also give you the link to a Flickr account that I opened when I started my recently completed photography course.

So on that note I'll wish you all a very happy festive season hope that 2011 is a blast for you.

Little people & little bricks

2010-07-04T15:08:00.000+01:00

When Kenzie turned 2 we had a party.

In fact this year when Kenzie was 5 we yet again had a party (albeit on a much smaller scale.)

However, to celebrate Maycee turning 2, due to our lack of people to invite to a party, we opted for a trip to Legoland instead.

So at the beginning of June we headed for our 2 night stay in a bargain Travelodge near Heathrow to have an early start to our activities.

The weather was perfect, slightly overcast and warm but not too hot. The park wasn't overly busy and waiting times for rides were bearable.

The only blott on our day really was the attitude of a certain 2 year old who seemed determined not to enjoy herself and became attached (very attached in fact!) to her buggy and rarely left its confines!

Needless to say the rest of us made up for this and had a lovely day. Thankfully we managed to get a few piccies of her out of the buggy and apparently enjoying herself!! (Just a shame we had to force her out of it to take them)

Seriously. If you don't buck up, you will be fed to the dragon!

Windsor Castle. As in the real one that can be seen from Legoland.

Yes, I will sit here. Yes I will look at you. No I will NOT smile.

"I'm telling you, it was this BIG"

Monster sized duck!

Attention to detail on the models was amazing

A kiss for Bob the Builder

Birthdays & Beaches

2010-07-04T13:43:00.029+01:00

May is a birthday month for our house.....our cats turned 8, Maycee turned 2 and me? Well I just turned and started counting backwards so I was 39. Again!!

Here's the very excited 2 year old with her big sis keeping a beady eye on the proceedings and ready to jump in at any point that Maycee might need a 'hand'!!

Luckily Maycee was blessed with a beautiful weather on her special day so we headed to Worbarrow Bay. Not the easiest of beaches to reach but absolutely stunning once there as you can see from the photos.

The beach is accessed via this fenced woodland walk alongside the Tyneham Gwyle which was lined by bluebells and wild garlic. As you can imagine, it looked and smelt lovely.

Due to its proximity to the MOD firing ranges at Lulworth, the wooded area is out of bounds just as the sign says!

Still working on perfecting my close up shots!

The following day for my birthday we headed into Bournemouth to take a trip on the helium balloon in the town centre gardens. The balloon has been there since the days when I worked in Bournemouth town centre but I had never been bothered about taking a trip in it.

I guess being absent from my home town for over 8 years has made me a little more enthusiastic to reminisce. Well that plus the added bonus of a BOGOF offer on the balloon tickets!!

How busy does that beach look!!??!!

Double Trouble

2010-06-16T19:58:00.001+01:00

I know it's all rather twee but I love to see the girls dressed up the same way.

Maybe it's because it's the only way I'll ever see them looking remotely like each other.

Anyway, trying to get them looking in the same direction, at the same time, with a smile on their faces, both eyes open and no knickers showing was NOT the easiest thing to do but we managed it and here are the results.....

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to the beach we go

2010-06-16T12:40:00.001+01:00

One major advantage to this Bovington posting has got to be the access we have to beaches.

So therefore come rain, come shine, we often just pack up the buckets and spades and head off for the coast.

It never ceases to amaze me how a houseful of toys can't occupy a child yet a vast expanse of sand accompanied by a small bucket can!!
This beach at Sandbanks has the added bonus of a playpark nearby!!

Reunited

2010-06-15T21:09:00.000+01:00

When we were in Canada, I became very good friends with Julia.

(I won't put a photo of Julia on here because she'd probably never speak to me again!!)

A bonus of our friendship was that our children were close in age...Grace being just 6 months older than Kenzie.

They, as a result, became very good friends too and although keeping in touch with friends when you're 5 can be a little tricky, they have always bonded like they've never been apart when they see each other again.

Julia recently made another trip back to Dorset from Germany where they are currently living, to visit her family, who very conveniently live approximately a 15 minute drive away.

Obviously it was a great opportunity for us to catch up face to face instead of doing it via our usual phone conversations and as you can see, the girls enjoyed their time together too.

Stop the clock!!

2010-06-15T20:58:00.000+01:00

Obviously I'm still trying to catch up with myself in the blogging department. However as I rarely catch up with myself in anything else I attempt to do these days I'm opting for a quick fix blogging style.

In the words of the late great Elvis Presley, A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action is required so unless there's anything really interesting to say, I alot of my future blogging will consist of little more than photos I'm sad to say.

Join up the dots

2010-06-01T10:19:00.000+01:00

Part way through our Easter trip to Scotland Kenzie developed a few 'spots' which turned out to be a very mild case of Chicken Pox.
Fortunately, during our posting to Canada she had been vaccinated against it so as you can see she has very little evidence to show that she actually had any spots at all.

Maycee on the other hand, was too young to receive the vaccination before we left Canada and as you can see, didn't fair too well in the spot department!!

With spring in our steps

2010-06-01T09:47:00.002+01:00

Our return home to the south of England, co-incided with the arrival of Spring so a family walk and picnic were planned.

Moreton is a small village about 3 miles away and our walk there takes us through Moreton Forest, past some farmland and ends up at a Ford.

Joining us on our walk that day was Murphy, our friends little pup. She is very well behaved and absolutely full of energy which is just as well with the way our girls chase her around.
I'm not sure who enjoyed the walk and 'fishing' more, the kids or the dog but I think it's fair to say that everyone was happy!

Looking for a picnic spot wasn't as easy as we'd hoped but we finally opted to 'pitch' up within the grounds of the church. (I would like to just point out that it wasn't the actual graveyard but a small paved area around the corner!!)

The area we live in has strong links with T E Lawrence, as he was based in Bovington at the time of his death. His funeral was held within St Nicholas' Church at Moreton and he was buried in the churchyard a short distance away from the church.

I'm not sure how common this is but the glass windows within the church are etched as opposed to stained, which gives the church a much lighter feel than you would usually expect within a church.

Mhmmmmmm, time for food!

Poor Murphy just looked on licking her lips while we scoffed our picnic.

Jocks 'n' lochs

2010-05-31T18:02:00.000+01:00

Well further to my last blog entry all those weeks or...ahem.. months ago...I just wanted to show that it did actually improve weatherwise in Scotland and we had a thoroughly enjoyable fortnight over Easter.

One of the main reasons for travelling up to Scotland at Easter was to attend a wedding. Garrys' cousin Fiona married Graeme at Strathblane Country House on the outskirts of Glasgow and we had a fabulous day and evening helping the happy couple celebrate.

Here they are during the falconry display which they had arranged to entertain their guests during the day.

The following day we were still child free and decided to take in the sights of the Trussachs which is a beautiful part of Scotland.

Still feeling slightly jaded from the day (night!) before, we probably didn't appreciate the scenery quite as much as we would have done any other day but even so, it was great to just have some time together and as you can see the weather was fab.

Luckily for us the good weather continued on our return to Ayrshire and here are the girls sporting their new (Primarni) sunglasses in Granny Mo's front garden.

Finally to round off the holiday, a trip to Culzean Castle with Daddy and Granpa whilst Mummy and Granny hit the shops. Sadly I was kept away from the delights of Ayr so had to make do with Girvan instead.

Now of course I wasn't there, so can't say for sure but I'm suspecting that Daddy might have had something to do with the positions these girls are in for having their photos taken!

March Madness

2010-04-05T19:40:00.000+01:00

Well once again my good intentions were not carried through and the blog remained unchanged for the month of March....Seriously, where does time go when you have small children in your lives??!!

So what are the highlights for us during the past 2 months? Well it certainly wasn’t basking in wonderful warm sunshine that’s for sure. I think even in the past week we’ve experienced more rain than we had during our entire 2 years in Canada so that might go some way in explaining what the Dorset weather has been like lately!!

It does seem such a very British thing to do, talking about the weather, but I guess it really does have such a big impact on day to day life. I’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve had plans foiled by it!!!

Admittedly we didn’t endure the snow that the rest of the country (and a lot of Europe) had during March...... although I think we might have preferred it to all this water!!

During the mid February Half Term we decided to take the girls on a trip to Paultons Park which is about an hour away from us.

Fortunately we picked a reasonable day and although it was cold, it remained dry for our visit. It has to be said that Kenzie enjoyed the rides a lot more than Maycee but that aside a good day was had by all as you can see from the following photos.

At the beginning of March we drove to Sandown in Surrey to visit an Emigration Exhibition with the intention of gaining more info on emigrating. Without a doubt, we all miss Canada to varying degrees and our long term (post Army) plans are to settle back there.

Although we had a good (child free) day, sadly the only information we really gained was that we were about 2-3 years ahead of time in our research!!

The emigration process has been speeded up somewhat and therefore, we realistically don’t need to apply our paperwork until a year prior to wanting to return!!

Garrys big news for March was that he ran his first Half Marathon...not bad for someone who is closer to 40 than 30 so we were all proud of him for that. Sadly I couldn’t go and cheer him on or take any piccies but here are some official ones from the Reading Marathon website.

Our other major event in March was our ‘baby’ girl turning 5. It really doesn’t seem possible that she can be 5 when I still remember clear as day, the moment she arrived into our world, screaming her head off!!!

Not much has changed in that department actually, although I’m sure you will agree she has changed in lots of other ways!!

Finally I'm writing this on the first day of our Easter Break in bonnie Scotland. As to be expected, the weather isn't great...we currently have gale force winds and torrential rain but I have been granted some peace and quiet to update this blog so all's well that ends well.

Further holiday updates will be made in due course.....that is of course, providing the weather allows us to actually venture outside and give me anything to write about!!

Mud, Bramble Bush Bay & ducks

2010-02-14T21:42:00.000Z

The 2nd February saw us celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary by taking the kids out for a meal to The Quay in Wareham. It wasn't exactly romantic, trying to cook our own food on the Black Rock Grills whilst trying to contain 2 very intrigued girls on what was probably the smallest table in the pub but the food was good and having a meal out meant neither of us had to clear up, so cue happy faces all round!!

For a combined anniversary/birthday gift for Garry, I had booked for us to go Quad Biking at the local Gorcombe Extreme Sports.

I had a vague idea on what to expect having quad biked in Canada. However that was with a bunch of girls on a Wives Winter Exercise in thick snow.....so clearly February in Dorset with my husband was going to be a little 'different'!

We had a fab time as I think the photos show.....

Having despatched the kids off to my parents for the day and night I'd also booked us into The Haven Hotel at Sandbanks for a night. A lovely meal followed by 2 bottles of champagne were enjoyed and we relished the chance to enjoy a peaceful nights sleep with no early morning wake up calls from the kids.

However I hadn't actually banked on how noisy the chain linked Sandbanks Ferry would be and the fact that I'd upgraded to a 'sea view' probably didn't help as we were practically on top of the damn thing!!

Oh well, I guess we should be grateful for the fact that it was quiet between the hours of 2300 and 0700!!!

Other than the ferry we did have some other lovely views including Brownsea Island, Poole Harbour. The Isle of Purbeck...oh yes and the occasional cross channel ferry!!

The next morning there was just time for a hearty breakfast and dunk in the bath (for me) / soak in the hotels hot tub (for Garry) before the kids were dropped back to us. The plan was to take them back home over the ferry stopping off enroute at Knoll Beach for a runaround.

They were both pretty stunned by the ferry as we managed to get to the front and it looked like we were driving it - I guess sitting on Daddys knee at the front of the car helped with the novelty too!

Unfortunately we didn't stay at the beach too long as silly Mummy forgot to pack gloves and playing in the cold wet sand became unbearable after about 10 minutes!

So we had one last stop off at Wareham Quay to feed the ducks before heading home.

Sadly this swan made an appearance after all the bread was gone so naturally promises were made to return next time we had leftovers!!

Following the Rodwell Trail

2010-02-05T20:48:00.002Z

Last weekend the weather forecast was good so we opted to take a walk on Saturday and save Sunday for doing the mundane household chores!

My parents had recently walked the Rodwell Trail which is an old railway line that has been tarmaced and suggested that it would make easy walking for us with the girls. So off we headed for Weymouth just after lunchtime and as you can see the weather was fantastic.

As well as the lovely views across Weymouth Harbour and towards Portland, there were old train stations and points of interest along the way.

Now a housing estate, the end of the trail was what used to be a torpedo factory with just this plaque left behind as a reminder.

Finally!!!…..After many attempts we managed to get them both looking in the same direction at the same time with no tears and more importantly no-one ending up in the pond behind them!!

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-27T20:04:00.004Z

Well obviously it’s been a while since I blogged last. Not too sure I have any real valid excuse other than the daily grind of ‘life with kids’ taking precedence!!

We haven’t been anywhere or done anything too exciting since my last post – life sure is different here and it’s taken a while to adjust to. I think we all miss our jet setting around Canada!!

Christmas was obviously the biggest thing to happen recently so I’ve added a couple of piccies of the girls in their special dresses.

My intention is to continue to blog on a weekly basis from now onwards, so my posts won’t necessarily be long ones but will hopefully keep everyone up-to-date with what the Bovi Crons are up to. If I don’t fulfil this vow, please feel free to pester me ;-)

Hej (That's Swedish for hello)

2009-08-29T15:55:00.000+01:00

So as promised, here is my scribe on Sweden.

We’ve had quite a lot of people asking “Why Sweden?”
Well the answer is very simple.
We had planned our 2 week break to Scotland to visit Garry’s parents and his Mum offered to look after the girls for us if we wanted to take a few days away. (If, ha-ha…of course we did!!!)
Obviously once that offer was made, we were quick to look and book a destination before she could change her mind!

So we looked at all the destinations that we could fly to from Prestwick which is their local airport and then picked the cheapest option that we both fancied. Neither of us wanted to go lounging on a beach for the duration of our break away so we were looking for somewhere that would offer us a bit of sightseeing as well as relaxation.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, with a quote of £60 return for both of us, flying with the delightful Ryanair, it was destination Stockholm here we come.
(note the heavy sarcasm rolling around the word delightful!!!)

After a fairly uneventful journey to the airport, checking in, clearing customs etc we were on our way, up, up in the sky and even that was reasonably uneventful.

However I will add that I haven’t personally flown on a Ryanair flight for quite some time and after living in Canada for 2 years I am quite clearly used to a certain, a-hem, how shall we put it…. standard!
Thankfully it was only a short flight to Sweden because there is only so much time one can sit with ones knees up around ones ears! And we won’t even ‘go there’ on needing a second mortgage to purchase drinks and snacks.

So after arriving and finding our bag, it was on to find the car we’d hired. Easy peasy.

Next hurdle, finding the hotel we’d booked. Shouldn’t be a problem, we’d paid extra to hire a Sat Nav!!!

So we located the car, plugged in the Sat Nav only to find that it was spouting Italian to us.

Not a problem we’ll just change the language to English we thought.

Have you ever tried changing the language on something that you don’t actually understand the language of?!!! Say no more!!

Cue lots of swearing and claims of “Let’s just cuff it, it can’t be that hard to find”

Now at this point I should perhaps point out that although I usually do all the booking and arranging for all our trips/holidays/excursions or whatever you’d like to call them, this time round I’d left it to Garry to do!!
I therefore had no idea where the hotel was meant to be. Or even what it was called, never mind the address!!

So off we went into the darkness of Skavsta. Which wasn’t without it’s dramas……obviously the Swedes drive on the right side of the road which of course was no bother to us with all our North American driving experience.

HOWEVER…..driving a manual car on the right side of the road was of course a little ‘different’!!

Anway, on we drove.
And drove.
And drove.
Before Garry finally claimed, “This can’t be right, the hotel was only meant to be 5 minutes away from the airport!!!”

So we stopped. Shouted at Giovani a few times and expected him to help us out. Obviously until we’d hit the right buttons in the right sequence there wasn’t a hope in hell of him helping us out!

Finally Giovani morphed into George and away we went. Except each turn he instructed us to make, didn’t actually exist.
With it being late in the evening and us being tired, it didn't quite register what with us what could be wrong until Garry had the brains to turn it off and on again.

This of course led George to ‘acquire new satellites’ and set us on our journey once again!

Things started to look familiar which wasn’t surprising considering we were actually heading back to the airport and finally we arrived outside the Connect Hotel which was very conveniently located directly opposite the Airport we had landed at over an hour beforehand!

What made it even worse was when Garry asked where he should park the hire car, he was given directions to the parking lot that we had previously removed it from!!

Clearly not the greatest of starts to a 4 day break but hey we were there and we hadn’t had to do it with 2 tired and cranky kids so we were still in pretty good spirits ourselves.

We hit the sack straight away so it wasn’t until the next day that we fully got to appreciate our hotel.

The room itself was rather bizarrely just like sleeping in an Ikea display pod and the lobby was like a funky office block built in an old warehouse.

The pictures don’t really do it justice but hopefully you can get the gist of what I’m on about.

Okay, now let's just talk about Swedens wildlife for a bit.

Some of you are aware that I have previously mentioned once or twice that despite spending many hours searching for a moose in various parts of Canada and the US, I have never, repeat NEVER seen a moose.

We have visited national parks in Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff, Waterton, Jasper to name but a few.

All places where moose live but never have I seen one.

So can you imagine my excitement when Garry after reading some sort of travel literature, informed me that Sweden is one of the most moose populated countries in the world!!

I was convinced this was my opportunity. My chance in life to finally see one of these amazing but shy creatures.

What a crock!

I saw plenty of statues, road signs, tea towels, postcards, paperweights, t-shirts, hats, fridge magnets ALL depicting moose but not one real live one!!

I even saw this gold one......

The weather while were there was absolutely fantastic - in fact would it be wrong of me to say that it was too hot???!!!

Don't ask me why but for some daft reason, I didn't bother to check the weather forecast before we left. I simply opted to pack for how I thought the weather was going to behave.

I therefore had....2 pairs of jeans, a selection of long sleeved tops, a cardigan, sweatshirt, bodywarmer and raincoat with me. (Should I mention the fleece pyjamas?!?!?!)

I did however have an additional pair of cut off trousers and 2 t-shirts for 'just in case the sun shines'.

Temperatures varied during our stay but didn't drop below +20 deg celsius - the hottest we had was about plus 29 and most definately wasn't the sort of weather to be wearing jeans!

Thankfully the hire car had air con so after tucking into our European style buffet breakfast (a ham roll with coffee!) we headed north to Stockholm.

We found our hotel no problem and after dumping our bag, headed off into the town to have a wander.

After a bite to eat in this rooftop cafe we walked through the Old Town and then bought tickets for the 'hop on - hop off' water taxi.

First stop was the Vasa Museum which is the building below.

After spending a couple of hours wandering around inside the lovely cool museum, it was time to head back into the heat.

Fortunately we didn't have to go far before we found an open bar. And it really was quite literally open. I'm not quite sure what they do with all the comfy sofas in the winter but sitting there in almost 30 degree heat was very pleasant especially with the waterfront view we had.

Obviously it was quite thirsty work though......
These are just general toursity piccies showing the different achitecture in Stockholm - there were some beautiful old buildings.

Can anyone else see the outline of the mainland of the UK here in this cloud?......

Day two was spent scouring the countryside for Moose - as previously mentioned this was complete waste of time and as a result I have no photographs of anything!

Day three involved lots more walking so I was very grateful for having had the day previous, just sat in the car to give my feet a rest!

We decided to visit the Royal Palace and strolled through the winding streets of shops to get to it. Obviously there was a strong urge for me to visit each store but someone was nipping my ear so I returned empty handed!

The weather this day was incredibly hot and by the time we arrived at the Palace we were more than ready for an ice cream! Fortunately, as with most tourist attractions worldwide, there was a little kiosk selling just what we wanted so after a break in the shade we were off on a stroll around the inside of the Palace. It was very ornate and a definate relief from the hot midday sun although unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside.

I was glad to notice that I'm not the only one with an obsession for having a clock in every room although theirs were definately grander with more bells and chimes than ours!!

After watching the changing of the guards where a group of 8 soldiers litterally shuffled up and swapped over (not as formal or precise as our changing the guard!!) we headed off back towards the shops and cafes.

For some obscure reason this chap was out in the street while Garry was waiting for me while I was inside a shop!!

Once again no real reason for the photo, I just loved the way the sun was glinting off this steel building.

So after the heat of the day it was time to head off to cool down in the Absolut Ice Bar.

We were supplied with suitable attire to cope with the -5 deg cold.

However as an attempt to prove how 'hard' we are I was wearing flip flops and Garry had shorts on underneath!!

Well to be fair we had gone straight there after our days activities and had no alternative but having said that, after spending 2 winters on the Canadian Prairie, minus 5 is nothing!!!

Yum yum, a drink was included in the entry fee and my vodka laced with cinnamon (or should that be cinnamon laced with vodka!) was very nice indeed!

Despite wanting to drink this many, we a) couldn't have afforded it at Swedish prices and b) would never have found our way home again!!

This was the most amazing tunnel that we found on our walk back to the hotel.

It wasn't a tourist attraction, it was just an every day way of getting from one side of a ridge that had houses built on it to another - it quite literally went underneath them!

Obviously Garry thought I was a geek for wanting to take a photo but to be honest it really doesn't do it any justice of showing the length or design!

Our last stop before reaching our hotel (which incidentally, we would highly recommend) was for a drink in the Humlegarden park opposite the hotel. It was a lovely park to walk through and was always full of other people with picnics and games, just enjoying the peace away from the bustle of the relatively close city.

Our last day was spent having a late breakfast and then taking a leisurely drive towards Skavsta Airport stopping off at Stenorren Nature Reserve on the way.

Despite Sweden having such a vast coastline there didn't seem to be many beaches but there were definately plenty of people taking advantage of this little spot.

I personally wouldn't have found swimming in the bays very appealing as they were full of algae but plenty of folk were there doing so as well as sunbathing on the rocks and walking through the woods.

Out in the countryside of Sweden I thought the houses were lovely in style and colour. Unfortunately, due the fact that I was being driven around by a wannabe Lewis Hamilton, I was unable to get any decent piccies of them close up but here is a farm that we whizzed by which will give you an idea of what I mean.

So. That pretty much wraps up our visit to Sweden.

If you have ever wondered if Sweden and in particular Stockholm are worth a visit, I would say a most definate yes to that.

I know that we had good weather for our trip which can make all the difference to a holiday but we definately enjoyed what was on offer and although alcohol was more expensive than the UK, Sweden in general was probably on a parr with everything else. (apart from using public toilets which were a hefty 5Skr a time!!)

Colds, the weather and general ramblings

2009-08-16T21:30:00.076+01:00

So after proudly announcing in mid July how the weather had been good to us since our arrival in the UK, I can now tell you that the weather did start to behave exactly how I had expected it to!
More than once, I did the ‘Okey kokey’ with my washing on the whirly gig in the vain attempt of getting the laundry dry au natural because it would seem that despite me being a regular viewer of the weather forecast, they are incapable of getting it right!!

So what have we been up to since my last blog update?
Well something that won’t be very interesting to most people but was most definitely a ground breaking moment in our house was when I finally managed to get it through to Kenzie what a nice bedroom should look like!
After spending several hours, tidying, sorting, throwing out, cleaning up or however you wish to describe it, her bedroom was what I would class as perfect.
So perfect in fact that it warranted having a photograph taken. Which then had to be put onto her bedroom door – her idea not mine!
This now serves as a very fitting reminder so that when she ‘forgets’ what her bedroom should look like, she can refer to the photograph and get clearing up!!

The next picture just had to be shared for no other reason than that it amuses me. I don’t know if the adverts are still on TV but before we left for Canada there were some daft commercials for the Directory Enquiry service 118, which featured some odd looking fellas running around in vests.
Can you spot the resemblance?

So mid way through July, Garry’s Mum came down for another visit. It was planned that she would arrive in time for Kenzies Sports Day at pre-school but unfortunately it was cancelled because the forecast wasn’t too good.
This was, of course, yet another example of the forecast being wrong.
The event was planned for the morning and it didn’t actually start raining until 4pm. Cue lots of bitterly disappointed kids that had been sharpening up their ‘holding eggs in spoons’ skills!!

Of course Grannys’ visit wouldn’t be complete without her doing a babysitting stint and this time we were due at a party in Salisbury.
Congratulations to Paul and Val who were celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary.
Here’s the happy couple swiftly followed by Garry stealing balloons for our kids!!!

Garry’s work organised a BBQ afternoon function at the end of July which, much to Kenzie’s delight, included a bouncy castle. I think sometimes I still think of Maycee as a little baby when in actual fact she’s a mischievous 15 month old who likes to follow her big sister in all her antics. Here she is joining in with the inflatable fun!

The day after these frolics, we had our annual Mess Ball which was actually more of a party this year. This was of course our first experience of the Mess in Bovington and to be honest I was a little disappointed with it.
After not having very many ‘formal’ functions in Canada, I was looking forward to all the ‘getting dressed up’ that usually goes hand in hand with a Summer Ball.
However this year, a nightclub in the Bournemouth area had been chosen as the venue and the dress code was ‘whatever you like’ so no finery was required on this occasion either!!
Now I should perhaps point out that this particular nightclub was an old haunt of mine in my teenage years so I was intrigued to be returning in these somewhat odd circumstances.
Trading under a different name and having had a complete refurb didn’t really make too much difference to the overall impression of the place and needless to say the memories came flooding back! Some good, some bad and some most definitely best forgotten!!

Anyway, back to the party. Despite a fabulous band and fairly competent DJ, the whole ‘do’ was just a bit flat. That might have something to do with the venue being able to hold almost 2000 people and with a mere couple of hundred of us bopping away, I guess it was bound to look a ‘little empty’!!
Anyway, it was a night out so I won’t complain too much. We ended up returning by coach and we got in at 3am after much ooching and ouching from me as I hobbled down from the camp gates to our house with no shoes on (I haven’t worn high heels for a long time!!)
Thankfully the function was on a Friday night which kind of gave us two days to recover from the lack of sleep and alcohol consumption. I say ‘kind of’ because recovery is somewhat disjointed with the kids around needing to be entertained!!
Here we are all dressed up and ready to party. (As usual, Garry has his eyes closed but assures me he wasn't trying to blot me out!)

So in an attempt to try and entertain the kids, we decided to take a drive up into the Purbeck hills and see if we could find a good spot to watch the Red Arrows when they flew in to do a display for the Swanage carnival.
We drove up over the Lulworth Range Road and stopped enroute at Tyneham Village to have a walk around. It was a lovely day weatherwise and walking around the ghost village was very pleasant. Kenzie had a great time running around the derelict buildings.

I didn’t manage to get very many pictures of the Red Arrows due the fact that they snuck up behind me – quite literally!

I was expecting them to fly in from one direction and they chose to come from completely the opposite way!!

If you sqint really hard, or maybe you'd be better to click on the next photo to enlarge it, you might just be able to see them in the sky behind Kenzie!

The next week were a bit of a write off for us all from a health point of view. I started off with a sore throat which I initially thought was from shouting above the music at the mess party, however I rapidly went downhill, shortly followed by Maycee and Kenzie.

Anyway to cut a long story short we eventually ALL went down with the cold and chesty cough which has subsequently lingered far longer than any of us would have wished.

Three weeks on and we’re still not 100% but most definitely better than we were!

Thankfully none of the symptoms turned into anything more sinister and Swine Flu was totally ruled out.

The beginning of August was the start of Garrys summer leave/stand down so we packed our bags and headed north.
First stop was a night in a hotel in Stoke-on-Trent followed by a day at Alton Towers where a fantastic time was had by all. The weather was good to us, dry and warm but not blazing sunshine and after 10 hours of walking around and going on rides we were all very ready for our beds.

Here they are on the Farmyard annimal carousel.......

And then taking a wee drive on a tractor......

Spot which one is the bigger kid enjoying the gunpowder barrels (aka the teacups)
Three times we rode on this one together. It was very good and as it was towards the end of the day the queue was non-existent hence the multiple goes!

There were plenty of things for Maycee to go on too so no-body got left out.

I may have been smiling but my bones were being shaken within! Kenzie loved this dragon ride but it really wasn't designed for adults and I have the bruises to prove it!

This is Oblivion. A hair raising ride that I experienced a few years ago and the only one that Garry decided to go and queue for this time whilst I looked after the kids.

So we three waited..... and waited..... and waited with me clicking the camera everytime another 16 people made the sheer drop into Oblivion......and then it all came to a stop!

The ride was experiencing some 'technical difficulties' and Garry decided to abandon waiting as he was still no-where near the end of the line.

Note how I put Kenzie in some lovely orange trousers especially for the day - well we have to try and ensure we can find her when she 'wanders' off.

Alton Towers is of course not only a theme park but also an attraction that holds some lovely gardens and manor house to wander around - something that Garry insisted that we do, against my wishes!!

Anyway, as it turns out, we had a nice break from rides and I even managed to take some half decent piccies.

This was Kenzies first attempt at getting her 'driving licence'

She wasn't very good at driving though, she couldn't seem to get to grips with keeping her foot on the 'go' pedal!!

And following the arrows wasn't a strong point either!!

Eventually she managed to cause a complete traffic jam!!

I'm not sure who was more frustrated at her inability to 'drive', us or her! So it was decided that another attempt was needed.

This is all the kids getting their briefing on what to do and then being directed to their cars.......Note that they were told NOT TO RUN!!!!

Ah well, the run was worth it....she got the car she wanted!

And this time she faired a lot better at 'keeping her foot down', although the arrows were still a little difficult!!

But she got there in the end, yeeeehaaaaaa!!

The Galleon Ship was most definately not a hit. It all started off okay but rapidly disintegrated and she spent most of the ride huddled tightly to Daddy!

And of course any trip to a theme park isn't complete without doing a 'water ride' at the end of the day.

If you zoom in, I think you'll see that her facial expressions tell exactly what she's experiencing. She did enjoy it though.....honest!!

The next day we continued our journey up the M6 and stopped for a cup of tea at Holme, in Cumbria so that Maycee could meet her Great Grandma for the first time and Kenzie could see her for the first time in almost 3 years.

You'll notice that Maycee has taken a shine to Grandmas beads.....

She was successful in obtaining them a short while later!

And proceeded to sport them proudly, much to her big sisters envy!

So after a nerve wracking hour at my Grans house we continued our journey up the M6.

(I say nerve wracking because in her 84 years she has managed to do a lot of collecting and her house is FULL of nic-naks that two little girls could do an awful lot of damage to)

We finally arrived at Garrys parents in Dailly, Ayrshire just before tea and the next two weeks were pretty much perfect from an R & R point of view.

Kenzie was more than happy taking Tammi the dog a’walk each day and Maycee loved cuddling up to her (Tammi) when they’d returned all puffed out.

As for Garry and I? Well we managed to escape to Sweden for 4 nights….on our own. On our own - as in, without our children!!

I’d never spent as long away from the kids so I did wonder how I would feel but I did know that I was more than ready for the break.
The last couple of years have been busy for us. I’m not saying we haven’t had our fair share of holidays whilst we were in Canada but ‘time out’ has been rare.
Top that with the transatlantic move and all that goes with it and it pretty much equals 2 knackered people who need to re-establish themselves as a couple rather than just ‘Mum and Dad’.

Anyway, destination Stockholm it was and what a fab time we had.

In a vain attempt to cut this post down a bit, I'll do a separate one on our time in Sweden so Ciao for now.

Just a bit more....

2009-07-16T22:25:00.040+01:00

Thank you to everyone who sent me such positive messages about the blog – it's much appreciated.
Only one person thought I should ‘go back to the housework’ and I shall deal with that person when he returns to Blighty in August!!!

I’m now going to attempt to bring you up-to-date totally with what we’ve been up to and where we’ve been….Once I’ve done that, I’m in with a fighting chance of keeping it updated on a regular basis!!

So in addition to my previous catch up/mass blog, here are some more info and piccies on what we’ve been doing lately.

At the beginning of May, we took our first of many trips to the Tank Museum.
It was the first time we’d been there since Garry and I were ‘dating’ and it had completely changed.... as I'm sure we have too!!!!

It was still full of tanks (obviously!!) but it has had a major refurb and is no longer the dark dusty building I remember.

One bonus to living in Bovington is that we qualify for free admission to the museum so it makes a great cheap day out for us.

As usual, the biggest hit for Kenzie was the playpark!!

A few weeks later and it was time for Kenzie and Garry to go and see the Queen when she came to officially open the new Tank Museum building.
I’m sure Kenzie was expecting someone a little more ‘princessy’ like but even so she seemed to have a good time waving her flag and was very enthusiastic when she detailed to me what the Queen was wearing.

Apparently Garry 'just had' to take a piccie of this dog wearing a collar sporting a Regimental motto!!

In case you're interested, it's the Queens Royal Lancers!

It was a beautiful day but Her Majesty doesn't look too happy does she.....

Now this is all starting to sound a little tank orientated when I tell you that at the end of June we were off to the Tank Museum again!!

This time it was for Tankfest – an extravaganza of, wait for it ….Tanks!!!!
Yes really. As if we hadn’t seen enough!

It was a good day out with some great company and a scrummy picnic – just a shame the weather wasn’t brilliant all day!

At the beginning of July, Garry decided to take a week off work.

We, (or should I say, I,) had great plans for what was going to be achieved that week but unfortunately a bout of D & V put a stop to anything I had planned for Garry!!

So it was on with pootling about the house for me as usual and plenty of rest and fluids for him!!

We did manage one day at the beach though and took Kenzie out of pre-school for it which she absolutely loved.

Weymouth is a far cry from the last beach she was playing on in Hawaii but she didn’t seem to spot the difference. Maycee seemed more than happy with it too.

In fact she found it very much to her taste!!!!!

Definately not the warmest of waters but it didn't seem to bother Kenzie!

Of course a British seaside town isn't complete unless it's got someway of extracting money out of you - in our case it was this 'Snail Trail' ride.....Four minutes and £1.50 later, exit a very smiley 4 year old!!

We opted to walk very quickly past the Punch & Judy puppet show.

As you can see, it wasn't just the beach that was crowded! There was plenty of colour out at sea too......Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour will be the venue for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions in 2012.

After a couple of hours at the beach we took a drive up to Portland Bill.....

And then headed home via Ringstead Bay.

Although it was a 'pebbly' beach, it was lovely and quiet and it's definately a place we'll return to.

Admittedly it was about 4 in the afternoon by the time we arived so the crowds had already left but there is limited parking there, so I don't think it's ever likely to get too busy.

At the end of that week, Garry was clearly back on form and fighting fit when he suggested that we take a stroll to Wool for Sunday lunch.

So mid morning, in good spirits and with reasonably full tums, we started our journey out of the camp and headed towards Wool.

As you can see, it all started off well, with lots of sunshine and smiles......

However, alarm bells started ringing for me, when we turned right at a particular point that I felt sure should have been a definite left towards Wool.

At this stage, I should maybe tell you that a walk to Wool, going the route that I would normally drive it, is approximately 1.8 miles.

Unfortunately I was totally unaware that Garry was planning on taking us the cross country route that took us via East Burton where I managed to stop and catch my breath here under the pretence of taking a photo!!!!

I agree that it is very picturesque but trapsing across fields as a hay fever sufferer to reach this point didn't exactly fill me with joy and and to cut a long story short, a round trip of almost 7 miles and six hours later we arrived back home.

This is us ALMOST HOME - HOOOOORAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!

The last couple of miles the family chatter and banter had subsided quite significantly and I have to say that I was feeling quite tired. (aka totally knackered!)

Unsurprisingly, Maycee was tired as she was in the backpack which meant she hadn’t had her afternoon nap.

Garry was complaining about sore shoulders as he was carrying the backpack....well I had said "Why aren't we taking the buggy?" but didn't actually take much notice of his dismissive reaction. .......Well of course we couldn't have taken 'wheels' the way we went! Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!

Anyway, having heard how shattered we all were, you would think, bearing in mind she is only 4, that Kenzie would have been absolutely shattered……but no.

Even that walk didn’t manage to wear her out!

She simply came home, had a drink and then went for a bounce on her trampoline whilst her parents collapsed on the sofa!!!!

Last Sunday, thanks to a National Trust BOGOF offer, we had a trip to Corfe Castle.

Once again the weather was good to us, albeit a little blustery at the top of the hill.

Despite her initial reservations, Kenzie was quite happy with our trip to the 'broken castle'. (well how else do you describe castle ruins to an impressionable little girl who dreams of being a princess in a diamond castle?!!!!)

The last 3 months

2009-07-09T09:30:00.000+01:00

Well most of you (in fact I would think all of you who know us!!) are aware of our move from Canada to England.

After two years of living in Alberta, this was our last trip down the TransCanada Highway........

And our first journey travelling on a British road..........

So! April 9th/10th .....After a not so relaxing First Class flight across the Atlantic (we had 2 small kids with us-say no more!!!) ........

....................and landing at a very wet and cold Heathrow Airport....

................we spent a few days squeeezed in a Bournemouth hotel room over Easter before we finally got to see our new abode. There were a few hiccoughs along the way - some more stressful than others but generally speaking things went well.

We finally marched in on the 14 April and it's been pretty much non-stop since then.

The house is fairly well laid out, no bigger or smaller than we expected and quite frankly is.....well, rather nice!

We were lucky enough to benefit from a new kitchen (I said new, not modern or practical), as well as new carpets and curtains.

It is of course like every other Army quarter in need of some TLC in certain areas but hey, it's not ours and it's only for 2 years!

Soooo, finally after 2 Canadian consignments, a consignment out of storage and 10 weeks down the road we are just about straight.

Incidentally this photos shows the arrival of the first 1st consignment from Canada and the stuff out of storage...and yes, both parts of the truck were FULL of our belongings!!! (Not a word Mrs T!!!)

As before, I still never seem to have enough hours in a day and that's without having people around for chats (and coffee), going to coffee morning, taking long trips into town and stopping for a Tim Hortons (coffee) on the way!!

Sounds like I used to do nothing but drink a lot of coffee in Canada doesn't it? Actually that's not even remotely close to the truth. I'm a tea drinker through and through! Not that this has any relevance to this blog, I've just simply digressed, as many of you know as I tend to do in 'real life' too!

So what have we been up to?

Well just after we arrived, we had Garrys' parents visit for a long weekend while we took in the sights and sounds (not to mention the vast quantities of alcohol) at the Army v Navy game at Twickers at the beginning of May.

A few weeks later we were heading to London again where Garry had arranged for us to have a trip away for my 40th birthday.

To say I was surprised is an understatement because he's not reknowned for his abilities to arrange things without me knowing!!

However his planning was spot on and we had a great weekend, travelling by train on the Saturday morning and checking into a lovely hotel in Kensington for the night. We did a bit of sightseeing during the day including looking at a Bridge Exhibition on Tower Bridge, had a lovely Persian meal and then in the evening saw Grease the musical.

The weather was good to us and in fact the whole weekend was perfect - we just generally enjoying being a couple and doing things like holding hands and talking without any interruptions whilst my parents took care of the kids for a day and a night at their house. (Isn't it amazing how the simple things in life disappear once there are small people in the equation and strollers need to be pushed etc)

Talking of kids, Maycee of course turned one shortly after our arrival in the UK - not that she was aware of this as we did very little to celebrate, other than take her to Weymouth for a cream tea and buy her this funky bike.

And while we're on the subject of bikes, this is the snazzy one that Kenzie got for her birthday - since this photo was taken it now has an addition on the front in the form of a basket. Apparently bikes are better and go faster with baskets!!!

Oh, to be a 4 year old!!

Anyway back to my birthday and in addition to our trip to London and my fab gifts (I finally got my Tiffany necklace!) I was also treated to a flight in a glider at the very local Dorset Gliding Club.

I say very local because I got to see what Bovington, and more specifically our house, looks like from up above. What a fabulous experience that was.

It was actually meant to be glider lesson but I opted not to take control and just enjoy the amazing views instead.

The weather was very clear and I could see right over to the Isle of Wight in one direction and the Isle of Portland in the other.

The only down side to it was that I was unable to take my camera on board which I was pretty disappointed about but here are some shots from the ground.....

Lucky me - I even got to help 'park' the glider after my flight!

I have to say that since we arrived back in the UK we seem to have had remarkably good weather for a large chunk of the time and our trip to Lulworth Cove wwith Garrys' parents was no exception.

Of course we 'popped' in here.......well it was a very hot day!

Garrys' Mum has been for a visit over another long weekend and on that visit we went to Falmer Palmers where one of the kids seemed more keen on what was going on than the other.....Can you guess which one?!?! Actually that's not strictly true. They both had a great time and it would appear that the only problem for Maycee throughout the whole afternoon was her pig encounters!

It started at the first 'pig race' when she screamed the place down and continued until we'd taken her well away from the snorting and sniffing of snouts!!

Feeding time was quite interesting....this was meant to be a 'Kenzie job'.....as in she wanted to bottle feed the lamb.

Apparently the lamb was a little overbearing for her though and Daddy had to leap in to rescue them both from each other!!

Lambs, it would seem, are not an issue for Maycee!

Yes you are seeing right, he really did just launch her down the slide. From the smiles and giggles that followed, I don't she think minded too much though.

It would appear that cows aren't an issue for Maycee either!

And the guinea pigs were a big hit with Kenzie! We've never seen her sit so still!

We're very lucky to have Monkey World less than 2 miles away so with Monkey Adoption scheme that gives us admission for a year, we've been regular visitors.

Our little adoptee is Kim.....

It's a great place to go for the day and highly recommended for adults and kids alike if you're ever in this neck of the woods.

The biggest feature for our kids though is not exactly of a primate nature.

The first stop is usually the 'Chute park' and the monkeys are sometimes glanced at for a few seconds enroute!

But hey, it keeps them happy and is a cheap excursion so I'm not complaining.
Even when I'm forced to participate!!!

Watch this space

2009-06-28T22:52:00.002+01:00

It's too late in the day to start blogging now so watch this space and more will appear very shortly!