When The Sun Comes Out...

We go and play! because it doesn't happen often enough! So a few weekends back we headed to Aberffraw on Anglesey one sunny Saturday afternoon.  

We picked up a bucket and spade - Ella's first ever! and set her loose in the sand! 

 She loved it!

Those kicking legs say it all!

Look how blue the sky was! 

 We had the whole beach to ourselves because despite being sunny, it was crazy windy - what's new Wales! 

Our fly away hair in this pic gives it away!

We took a stroll down to the water...

Ella could splash in the water all day long!

I can't handle the cuteness of this pic!

We got to the water and thought she'd like to dip her toes in, we thought she'd freak out because it was icy cold but surprisingly she wanted to go in further!!

I wasn't lying about the wind! 

The sand wasn't really sandcastle building sand but we had a go anyway! 

What a happy beach day! 

The flowers started blooming in our garden, so we had a picnic lunch out there one day...Ella loves to smell flowers! 

I think she was offering me a smell in this pic!

Love those curls at the back!

She also loves daisies...mostly destroying them and pulling them apart into a million pieces, which is slightly counterproductive considering I love making her daisy chains! They never last!

and oh man does she love our budgie! She gets too excited though and always bats the cage! not so fun for poor Roxy!

Daddy had a birthday! So we had to snap this birthday pic before church! Since it was on a Sunday, we celebrated the following day by going to Dylan's in Menai Bridge.

It's a trendy restaurant with amazing views over the Strait!

It was sunny when we arrived but the clouds soon came in! 

Ella was especially excited about her bucket of crayons and colouring she was given! 

She's not that good at actually using crayons yet, but she likes to try!

She loved that little bucket!

I think she was confused about it's purpose though?!

Tucking into her gourmet mac and cheese, and stealing cucumber from Daddy's plate...because she's obsessed!

I had a yummy calzone, and of course it was steak for the birthday boy - what else!

We are so lucky that the beach is 5 minutes walk from our house - how we will miss it when we leave!

This was taken on a blue sky day last week! love her little outstretched fingers!

She loves rocks and pebbles! so we gather handfuls of pebbles and go and find pools of water and Ella loves throwing them in!  She is not afraid of the water...or its temperature that's for sure!

We headed to the beach one day this week to let Ella have a proper play and to see some more of that walking in action!

Love those sandy knees!

Little purple chevron shorts - how cute can you get! thanks to my aunt in South Africa for these!

Her little stances are so cute! 

She was loving the water as usual! can't wait til it's actually warm enough to get her in her cossie! 

We finished, as always with a play at the park - who has a park with a view like that?! 

She is a master of the slide now! 

I'm really hoping the sun puts in more of an appearance for our final week here! 

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!