Oh how we love visitors! and February was the month for them! every week brought new people which was ever so exciting! You can see from the picture above what Ella thinks about visitors too!! hehe! Our first visitor was Granny Kathy, who had been staying in the UK since Christmas for Ella's Birthday before she headed off to her new house in South Africa.
She came a few days before Ella's birthday so she got to spend some time with the birthday girl one on one. Ella thought she was pretty great to have around!
Books and cuddles before bed!
and she also joined us on our birthday trip to the Zoo too!
On a very late Thursday night after a very long megabus ride from London which she almost missed, Auntie Mara arrived! We wasted no time the following day, and since it was a blue sky day we headed for the mountains!
which were covered in snow!!! Unfortunately it had rained the night before and frozen the melted snow back into ice, so the path we usually climb to get to Cwm Idwal was super slippy. So slippy that By kept falling over with Ella in the backpack, and Granny Kathy didn't have suitable footwear so her and Ella chilled out in the visitors room whilst we had a quick walk up to the lake.
I think this was my very favourite trip to Cwm Idwal because everything just looked so beautiful in the snow.
Mara and By did the daredevil stuff like stepping out on to the lake! which I was a little bit horrified at! and then Byron started throwing himself down on his belly and sliding along the ice...and I was getting even more panicked! but it was pretty solid ice, we threw rocks at it and it didn't even crack!
Mara got to live out her childhood dreams of being an ice skater sort of!
Ella was all smiles after, once she was warm and cosy and not slipping over on ice!!
The next morning, the complete Braithwaite/Jones/Ide gang arrived for Ella's party! so we were a full house! Whilst the babies napped, we told everyone of the fun that had been had at the frozen lake the day before so By and Mar went off for round 2 with Cam and Ja and Mel!
Even more snowy and beautiful than the day before!
Mara and Cam showing off their moves!
and catching an awesome sunset just before they left! with all limbs intact, thank goodness!
On a lovely Sunday afternoon the following week, our friends Laura and Javan came over for lunch. They were in our church congregation the last time we lived here in Penmaenmawr...but they've since moved about an hour away so it was fun to have them come visit...and see Esme all grown up and baby Jude in action!
Ella was in 7th heaven having Esme chase her over and over! she kept requesting more and Esme kept obliging, a great little set of buddies!
What a bunch of little cuties! Ella sure does love having other children around!
The following week some of my uni friends came to visit and check out some of the Welsh scenery! I was madly checking my weather app the whole week leading up to their trip as knew they were keen to do some hiking but every day I looked the weather for Saturday got worse and worse!
Eventually Saturday came and it was pretty sunny and pleasant where we live on the coast, but the mountains were still forecasting heavy rain. We went to Cwm Idwal anyway and fortunately it didn't rain, but we did have crazy gale force winds!
It proved a bit much for poor little Ella so she chilled in the car with her Daddy whilst we had a quick hike around!
All smiles, despite the crazy weather! The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying lots of yummy food, and homemade desserts! and games were on the cards but we just got too busy chatting! Love these friends of ours and wish we didn't all live so far apart! Really appreciated all the driving they did to reach us! Some of the Londoners only arrived at 3am!! Now that is dedication!
The last of our visitors was Laur, one of my besties from back home. I was especially excited about her and Sam and Lilia coming to visit because they were bringing a very important addition...baby Rosie!
She's the camera shy one passed out on Laura's lap! hehe! We started our day at Hickory's for some steak and shake fun! Laur is a big milkshake lover like me so we always like to indulge when we get together!
A giant steak and a snickerlicious milkshake for only £10? I'll take that Steak n Shake Tuesday's!!
Lilia and Ella loved their balloons!
and back home we got the babies to do some posing! The last time I saw Lilia was last summer so it was lovely to see the adorable little girl she is turning into, and she is quite the chatterbox these days - loved her cheeky little personality coming out!
I love this one, it's like Lilia and Ella are really fussing over baby Rosie!
It's easy to see why, she's completely adorable! look at those gorgeous blue eyes!
So fun to get to catch up and have fun with all the babies!
Had to snap a little pic of the recently turned 4 person Brooker family! Aren't these guys lovely!
Ella wasted no time in showing Lilia how her toys worked!
and baby Rosie did what newborns do best...and slept the day away - what a peaceful sleeper! Their visit certainly made us excited for the day when our family expands!
We've been on quite the lonesome comedown these past 2 weeks since our last visitors left! but oh what fun it was having so many people come to see us! We don't really have any more visitors lined up for now...because we will be departing these shores in around 8 weeks, not that I'm counting or anything ;)
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