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! 

An 8 Month Old Update!

Ella turned 8 months old yesterday! and for once she really wasn't so keen on getting involved for the photo shoot!

Giving old monkey the cold shoulder and everything! but if you can't tell her fingers in her mouth were a tell tale sign that she's right in the midst of teething problems at the moment!

So we almost managed a smile before it erupted into this...

Is this not the saddest little face?

but being the little trooper she is, she even managed to smile through the tears!

until she signalled to us very clearly that it was over, by ripping off the sticker from her vest!

which she proceeded to eat!

There have been some pretty big firsts around here this month! Let's start with the obvious! Teeth!!

What begun as one little bottom tooth poking through has now turned into two coming through at the same time, which doesn't make for the happiest household...

 and since Ella is such a happy baby usually it makes it all the worse when tears stream down her cheeks and no amount of singing or toy playing or food or even bonjela can fix it!

She can assume the crawl position, when we help her into it! but as you can tell it isn't her favourite thing to do!!

She can also stand now whilst holding onto things and she looks at you gleefully like she knows she is doing something clever!



It's still a bit much to take sometimes! So she has to take frequent breaks by resting her head :)

and my favourite first of the month is the wave! This just happened completely randomly last week when we were in a shop and the shop assistant waved to her on the way out and she waved back!! We were like where did that come from?! It's now progressed to being able to tell her 'say bye' when Byron leaves for Uni each day and she happily waves away! It's so cute to watch!

Ella tried ice cream for the first time! just a teeny tiny lick of Daddy's oreo ice cream cone after a long and hot walk at The Follies, so she deserved it!

I'm pretty sure she would have devoured the whole thing if she could have!

and she soaked up as much time as she could with Granny...

and Grandad before we made the move to Wales!

 She also got to meet her Irish great Granny for the first time down in Oxford! She was pretty happy about the whole thing!

and got to meet two of her great aunts and cousins too!

Our move got off to an amazing start because the Welsh weather decided to be uncharacteristically sunny and amazing! 

So the day after we moved, we headed off on Ella's first camping trip!

She did amazingly! and was very happy about exploring sand for the first time!

She slept so well in her mini sleeping bag!

and was all smiles in the morning!

Look how cute she was in her cosy little pj's!

We checked out our local beach in Penmaenmawr but the tide was in so the sand was in hiding!

So we headed to Beaumaris to show Ella the good stuff!

I think her smile says it all!

 and here's a little video of her in action! yes she's eating sand! you try and stop her!

We also played in the sand by Conwy Marina one day, here's Ella mid kick really getting involved!

One things for sure - she's definitely a beach baby!

She also loved exploring rock pools one day on Anglesey...

her little legs were kicking so fast that she required a whole outfit change after! but man, did she have fun! 

She just loves being up high on her Daddy's shoulders! and she's just started doing this open mouth pose that she does for like a full 5 minutes after she first gets up! Like she can't quite believe how fun it is up there! it's super cute!

She also got to see her first waterfall at Aber Falls

Hopefully the first of many!

In between teething moments, she has still been full of those gorgeous smiles!

and bathtime continues to be one of her favourite times of the day!

She had her first playdate with her new Welsh baby friends!

and not everyone was so sure about it! haha! but they were all smiles before the camera came out!

She's also developed a new game! When you pass her a ball, she positions it at her feet and kicks it away, and then wants you to repeat it 4 million times! I think we have a budding footballer on our hands :)

and here she is in her door bouncer!

She goes in for 20 minutes before bath time every night and she really does love it in there! Here she is in action...

 
So it's been an action packed month, full of firsts, full of fun adventures and I think Ella has adjusted well to the move and she seems like she's a fan of Wales already! 

Everywhere we go she makes new friends with her smiles and her jigging from side to side! 

It is so exciting to see her new skills developing and to see more and more of her personality coming out! Today I tried to get her to wave bye to the mini waterfall in the village and she looked at me and then back at the waterfall and back at me again as if to say 'Mom, I only wave at people'!! It was pretty funny! 

Let's see what next month brings!