Half Term Shenanigans.

Just had maybe one of the wettest half terms ever, OK maybe not that bad but still moist! We had no plans of where to go so decided as the days went by.
First up was swimming: A torturous task of navigating shallow pee-infested waters, keeping hold of a overzelous 4-year old and attempting to subdue the urge to dunk the annoying fat kid who keeps splashing! Always fun until we left the pool and attempt to make ourselves presentable. Gabriel decided he didn't want to be on his own and so joined Nathaniel and me; then got all embarrased when I had to change infront of him and spent the whole time facing the wall like a naughty todler. Nathaniel being Nathaniel, decided to have a mini panick attack because he was so tired. Lots of crying and panting later I managed to get him dressed with the promise of drying his hair with the hairdryer. All this while I could hear Christian (in the neighbouring cubical) talking to Chris about how loud his farts were! Over at the hairdryer is where I realised there was no getting away from the fact that my hair closely resembled a birds nest, after a big storm, which had been abandoned due to structural hidiousey. The fact that we then went to lunch with said haircut is currently being forced out of memory!

A family trip to Bolton Abbey was a fun day. I managed (after a few made up swear words at the sat nav) to navigate my way there, and was even lucky enough to find a parking space! The boys had been looking forward to it all week, I had described the ruins to them, the dips and secret rooms, they couldn't wait. Until we got there and I realised I had taken us to the wrong abbey. I had been thinking of Fountains Abbey in Rippon! So, we trudged around the little abbey, walked allong the long paths that we soon realised were just too long for Christian to manage and went back to the car. Never mind, trip to Fountains Abbey for a sunny Saturday is planned.

I would have to say the worst place of all though, is Blackpool. I realised that Sunday was forcast to be dry, so for a last day trip we searched the web for ideas. Most places just wouldn't do. We usually have a problem finding places to suit Christian and the other two, but in the end we setteled on Blackpool tower. It looked great, we could go up in the tower; Gabriel would love that, then we could go in the circus; Christian and Nathaniel would love that. Now anyone who has ever been in a car with me will know that I am a very confident driver, until I get to an unfamiliar city centre; then I crumble. So upon reaching Blackpool, I parked in the first available parking space on the front. Unfortunately this parking space happened to be a good 15-20 minute walk from the tower. Never mind I thought, It's sunny, we can go for a walk and see what shops we see.....What a mammothed sized mistake that was!  For the first ten minutes all we passed was battered hotels which looked like they were in fashion during the groovy period and not been cleaned since. Then we reached the tourist, or should I say truly seedy area. I felt like I needed a shower just walking through it. Every other door was a strip club, with paintings of thrusting 'dancers' to entice the punters. Walking faster, we pass the passed the remainder of the 'exotic' clubs in a blur. Finally (after having to divert through an arcade due to road works) we reach the tower. "Two adults and three kids please" I said to the bored looking girl in the kiosk. "Towers shut, circus opens at 2:30pm and the play area's open". All I could do was stare at her open mouthed. I had checked the web site, trecked all the way down the dog feaces-infested street, had three boys who were now quite uncomfortable with their surroundings and it was only lunch time, we couldn't stand here another two and a half hours! Sucking the annoyance back in I asked "is there an age limit for the play area" as I said this I nodded to the big two. "Oh yeh, it's just for little'uns". Great! No play area, no tower, no circus and now we had to walk back along the poo street! By this time the boys were not happy at all, so the cure for all misery as always was: food. We found the closest (and sanitary) foodie place wich happened to be a KFC... Blergh.  After filling up on heart attack inducing stodge we went in search of entertainment, which we found at the Sea life centre. We oohed and ahhed at the fishies, Nathaniel freaked when he saw the sign for 'scary fish', I freaked upon seeing a spider crab move (it actually looked like a horror film spider, horrible) and then we unanimously voted to just go home.
So, we discovered that Blackpool is definetely not for us and if we are fed up and want somwhere to go for the day, we would probably have more fun staying home away from the poo and stripper dominated streets.

Overall the half term wasn't that bad: the boys had fun swimming, going to the cinema, Bolton abbey was fun even though tiring and Blackpool can now fade away as a 'been there, done that don't need to go there again' memory. So now we're all back at college and school. The boys getting back into the early-to-bed routine, Chris and I already snowed under with assignments and I'm already stressing about upcoming work.

So living in the Pye house this week is: fun times, hard work and the return of normality. Happy.