Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ;-)

Yesterday, Zoe was wearing a pair of Ben's old trousers. I don't know why this pleases me so much, but it does. Probably because it means I didn't keep all that stuff in the loft for over three years for nothing! So, just for fun, above we have Zoe modelling said trousers, and below is Ben wearing them, about three and a half years ago.

Tuesday 26th August - The Deep

On Tuesday, we drove over to Hull to visit The Deep. http://www.thedeep.co.uk/ It was very impressive, but as with most of these things, I hope to go back in the future to be able to take my time looking round the place ;-) I was very impressed with the 'aquarium' setting on the camera, as you are not allowed to use flash photography at all, because it upsets the fish or something.

Ben was very excited by the ray fish, and I was extremely impressed that he'd remembered what they were called! Because it's still the summer holidays (just) it was very busy, so we didn't make the most of the 'hands on' things, as Ben just doesn't have the patience to wait, and the crowds were about three or four deep around the tank. He enjoyed running round the soft play area though - always good for burning off some surplus energy!

At the end, you have the option of going up the stairs and having a look at their giant tank with sharks, rays, swordfish, dogfish amongst others, or you can go up in the underwater bubble lift. Ben and Ian went up the stairs, but I had the pram so I went up in the lift, which was very impressive but only took 11 seconds so you don't really get to appreciate everything in there. Ben was saying 'hello' to the sharks on the way up, apparently. Before we went home, we had a browse through the gift shop, and Ben is very pleased indeed with his sqirty shark and motorised police patrol boat. The first thing he does when he gets in from Liz's now is ask when it will be bathtime :-D

Sunday 24/08/08 Thomas at Bolton Abbey Railway

We decided to go up to Bolton Abbey Railway for their 'Day Out with Thomas' this weekend, as we thought Ben might enjoy it. It was very busy, as you can imagine, but there was loads to do and unlike some of the places we've been to this summer, I thought it was good value for money. http://www.embsayboltonabbeyrailway.org.uk/

If you wanted to, you could have ridden backwards and forwards on the train between Embsay and Bolton Abbey all day, and there were loads of other things to do as well - a rather scary (to us adults!) looking magic show, Thomas the Tank Engine (of course), a lady making balloon animals, vintage buses and traction engines, rides and a bouncy castle which Ben said was his 'best thing'. They even had a man dressed up as the Fat Controller - I don't know how much padding he had to use though!

There was also 'Daisy' complete with blue eyeshadow and eyelashes that you could also have a short ride on, so Ben and Ian went off and did that whilst I gave Zoe her lunch.

On our return journey, Ian managed to bag us a first class carriage, so we travelled back to the car park in style :-D