A North Wales Staycation!

In mid September, the day after we moved to Wales, we had our first little family staycation.  I'm hesitant to call it a holiday, because it was to Wales and I'd like to hope our first family holiday will be somewhere a little more exotic!

but in all fairness to North Wales...being the middle of September, the weather was really quite amazing and we had a great time!

Just check out that gorgeous smile...Ella was born to be outdoors! She takes right after her daddy that's for sure!

 This was our lovely campsite - a place called Llyn Gwynant which is in the heart of Snowdonia, surrounded by mountains!

and our pitch faced right onto this lake.

So Ella got to have her first little experience with sand...

and daddy taught her how to play in it!

She was a fan!

and didn't wipe that little smile off her face the whole day!

After we tucked Ella up for the night in the tent...

we got down to some campfire fun...

and s'mores! because that's the only reason I love camping so much! Haha, just kidding (sort of!)

It's safe to say Ella probably had the best nights sleep out of all of us! There I was worrying about how she'd managed in a tent but I don't think she even noticed she wasn't in her cot! Us on the other hand didn't sleep so well! All my most recent camping experiences have been in freezing cold locations - like in the mountains of Yosemite, and in the wimbledon queue! so I decided I wasn't going to get caught out this time around and layered up something crazy and then was WAY too hot in the night and spent all night waking up and peeling off layers! 

So we gave our plan of hiking Snowdon a miss and opted for a more chilled out day instead!

The view from our tent!

Ella looking all snug in her special camping pj's!

and her little baby suitcase! This baby travels in style ;)

By cooked us up a delicious french toast breakfast!

and we even managed to buy this super cute book at the campsite before we checked out! It was specifically about the campsite we were at and had all the local place names in it and stuff, it will be such a fun little keepsake for Ella!

Finally, after stopping to check out the view on the way out we headed off for the next adventure!

which took us to Betws-y-Coed.

We discovered a cafe that actually sold good cake the last time we came here before we moved, however sadly when we returned this time around all their cake offerings were along the lines of fruit cake and bara brith and date and walnut and all those old fashioned kinds this area seems to love!

We also struggled to find anywhere to eat for lunch and settled on a pub where we had an awful meal.

The place was overrun with tourists, and I don't know why they don't make more of it - it's such a shame!

Stopped to take a pic of this lovely view in Llanrwst.  

and detoured to the Conwy Water Gardens for a spot of hot choc...

and to introduce By to the pancake house!

A coconut, pineapple and banana pancake was the perfect afternoon treat!

We walked around the nature reserve, to show Ella the animals.

This giant rooster gave her the fright of her life when he let out a cock-a-doodle do! I was more terrified by the giant rodent beside it in that enclosure! yes, for real, that is a giant rat like creature.  

Ella was in love with this cat we kept seeing around...

so mesmerised! unfortunately after getting a little too over excited and kicking her little legs that were positioned next to the cats head, the cat was not so keen!

We arrived back home just as the sun was starting to set so we decided to introduce Ella to our local park in Penmaenmawr! Check out those 'picturesque' beach huts in the background!!

A swing with a view!

Love this pic of the two of my favourites together! 

The next day it was still sunny! so we headed to our favourite little coastal village of Beaumaris, which is on Anglesey.  

I pretended it was because we could take Ella to the nicer beach area there...but Byron busted me and knew it was just because I wanted some Red Boat ice cream! It's the best we've had round these parts. 

Ella got busy in the sand again!

The hat and top co-ordination were purely a co-incidence but one I was loving!

Hazelnut gelato accompanied with sunshine and sand and your favourite two people - what more could you want!

It turns out stacking cups make great improvised buckets and spades!

Beaumaris - you can bet we'll be back, several times over! 

Nadira's North Wales Adventures!

On Thursday my friend from uni, Nadira, came to stay! Her timing couldn't have been more perfect...on Wednesday I did my last exam and was ready for some serious celebrating but unfortunately my partner in crime Byron had left the day before to go back to Milton Keynes to start the job hunt and so if Nadira hadn't been around this weekend it would have been a very lonely celebratory one indeed! 

I met Nadira when I was in my 2nd year at Reading Uni as she was on the same corridor as me in our halls of residence.  In my first year I had been rather unfortunate with the people I ended up sharing a corridor with and so I was definitely hoping my 2nd year experience was going to be better! and thanks to Nadira, Nicola and Leanne it definitely was! 

Last time I saw Nadira was over some rather delicious milkshakes and burgers at Tinseltown last September.  I was just about to head to North Wales and we put a date in the diary for when she was going to come and visit me - May 18th.  There have been many offers of people saying they were going to come and visit us whilst we have been here but most of them come to nothing...there is nothing I love more in a friend than a person who keeps their word! and keep her word she did - she even arrived a day earlier May 17th so we had 3 wonderful days to have as much fun as possible! 

Let's face it - any weekend that starts off with a whole box of delicious cheesecakes is going to be a great one! 

So let's let the pictures do the talking (and please excuse my Morticia style hair - I had an accident with a bottle of hair dye!)

Our first stop was Bodnant Garden, an 80 acre National Trust property full of amazing beautifully landscaped gardens.  I was a bit worried it wasn't going to be amazing, many of the attractions we have checked out around here have been slightly disappointing but I needn't have worried because Bodnant was pretty spectacular! 

It's always good to have helpful gardeners willing to move their wheelbarrows out the way just to take a nice picture for you! 

Here I am in front of the rather impressive Bodnant Hall which was built in 1792.

I also tried to get a little arty with some of the amazing flowers on display, but my manual lens work does need a little work clearly! 

The beautiful Nadira colour co-ordinating perfectly with those red flowers in the background! 

Bodnant has some amazing flowers! apparently they come from as far flung places as North America, China and even Japan

and everything is just laid out so beautifully too! 

This place was called The Pin Mill, I liked the reflection of the building in the large stretch of water in front of it.

and I absolutely loved the roof of the Old Mill - the yellow was so vibrant! 

Nad smelling some of the pretty flowers! 

These were our favourite, we had never seen any like it before.

The website describes spending a day at Bodnant as a 'feast for the senses' and that is exactly what it was! 

Everywhere you looked there were vibrant coloured flowers popping out at you! The fuschia pink flowers which dominate throughout the gardens are called Amoenum.

We sat on this bench for a while admiring the waterfall below, and the railings proved handy for snapping a self timer pic of the both of us! 

It wasn't just the flowers that amazed us at Bodnant, the trees were also spectacular! Here's Nad trying (and failing) to hug the whole circumference of this one! 

and check out the size of that one!!! to the right you can see a person walking along just to put it into perspective! 

Towards the end of our visit the sun came out! which was amazing! when we arrived it was drizzling and we had umbrellas up so we were more than ready for some sunshine! (and some much needed warmth!)

We asked a very nice French man to snap this picture for us just to prove that for a short while at least the sun did make an appearance! 

and here's a shot to prove it, probably the first one where we both actually have our coats off!! (and gloves Nadira!)

and what's even better than finding a great attraction in Wales that actually turned out great? a great restaurant too! I had read all about the Dutch Pancake House but as I'm such a fan of My Old Dutch in London I was a bit hesitant to try it out but since there aren't many other options we gave it a try! 

and I've got to say if you've got a spare 3 hours then by all means give it a try, haha...no jokes, the service was terrible and there was only one other table occupied! who knows what they do when they are busy!

but we sort of let them off because we were having so much fun chatting away, and because the pancakes were actually surprisingly tasty! We shared a savoury cheese and mushroom one...

and the coconut and pineapple one for dessert was pretty spectacular too! 

I'm a sucker for details so I loved these little clogs that they used to serve you the bill! 

As we drove back home along the scenic route, Nad wanted to stop for a shot with these sheep who were just roaming free...

she decided that as much as you hear people joke about it that there really are SOOO many sheep in Wales! the rumours are definitely true! 

and we ended the day with a jumping shot taken at Synchants Pass, and of course a big slice of cheesecake when we got home!!

Stay tuned for the next part of our adventures when I actually discover another tasty place to eat - 2 in a row! I know, I even surprised myself!