Our Summer

This summer holidays we have had a nice time together as, Lee and myself were both working in schools, so we all broke up from school at the same time. We weren't going on an annual holiday but there were lots of fun things going on with family and friends to keep us occupied!! Plus I desperately needed to organise our house and get lots of annoying little jobs done, that get forgotten about when I am working!! Luckily we managed to get alot of these done in the first couple of weeks, which left plenty of time for fun!

Our good friend, Joyce Cappleman, returned from her 18 month mission for the church in Canada, so we enjoyed spending time with her and gettting her moved into her new flat. We also went to Scarborough and met up with our friends, Natalie and Simon, on an unnaturally warm day!! Isabelle even managed to get on the beach with her swimsuit! We had a wonderful day out at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, again in some glorious sunshine. Lee enjoyed listening to the audio tour, as he is really into history! At least every week we made it to Valley Gardens for a play in the new playground, a walk in the gardens, and maybe even an ice cream!!

Here is a gorgeous pic Isabelle at our friend's wedding, can you tell she enjoys get dressed up?!?

We met up with some friends that came over from Holland and went to the National Railway Museum in York. (Unfortunately I was having so much fun, I forgot to take any pictures!! Whoops!) Then we went to Clifton Moor and went ten pin bowling. The kids absolutely loved it and beat quite a few of the adults! We decided to go out to eat afterwards for a pub style dinner. It was great food and we all just enjoyed sitting around and chatting.

This is a picture that Isabelle took of my mum and Joyce while they were at Harlow Carr
Gardens for the day. Mummy was working at a friend's gift shop in town for the morning and Lee was cutting his mum's large hedge, so Isabelle got to spend the day with Grandma and everyone. She also took copious amounts of photos of gorgeous flowers. She is our budding photographer!!

This is Isabelle at her friend Lauren's birthday party that was held at Crazy Tykes in Wetherby. She loves to play with Lauren, even though she is 2 years younger, and they always play so nicely together. Needless to say, she had a ball and was extremely hot and sweaty at the end!!!

Now, I suppose we should all get ready to go back to work and school! Oh well, we have had lots of fun and it has been lovely to spend so much quality time together. Isabelle is so excited to be starting year one, (mummy is mortified this year has gone by so quick)!! I will also be starting my maternity leave in September, so not much longer and I can chill, though I seem to work harder when I am at home (who said being a housewife was easy?!?!).

Our very own celebrity wedding!!

A high school friend of mine got engaged earlier in the year and we were invited to their engagement party. It was lovely to have a little reunion of high school friends and we also found out that their wedding was happening a little sooner than expected! They had been approached by a television company, to take part in a reality program where the bride and groom are separated for 3 weeks. In that 3 weeks the groom has to plan the whole wedding!! I have seen some of the program and it is a real gamble as to whether the bride will actually like any of it! She doesn't even get to see the wedding dress until the day before the wedding and the venue is a complete secret until she drives up to it!!

Anyway we were invited to the wedding and needless to say, I was frantic trying to find a dress that fitted, and was acceptable to appear on television!! Lee and Isabelle were sorted, just the pregnant woman to worry about! Luckily found one I felt comfortable in. The day of the wedding arrived and we made our way to the secret location, The Red Lion Inn, Burnsall, North Yorkshire. It was gorgeous and set right by the River Wharfe. Then we just had to wait for the bride!! The wedding ceremony and reception were beautiful and luckily, the groom had done a wonderful job! The bride was thrilled!! It was a bit strange having all the cameras around us all day, but like true stars, we got used to it!! Haha!! Congratulations Mr and Mrs Hicks!!


Vicki and Stuart Hicks

Me (26 weeks pregnant) and my wonderful husband!!

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary!!

On Saturday 8th August 2009, it was mine and Lee's first wedding anniversary. I can't believe how quickly this year has gone!! But yet so much has happened! We travelled up to Eskdale in the Lake District on the Friday afternoon. We had booked a gorgeous little bed and breakfast for the night, so we had a pub dinner in the gardens while enjoying the unusually warm weather!!

When we woke up in the morning, it was still gorgeous weather, we were surprised!!! We had a fantastic breakfast which almost filled us for the entire day!! Then we checked out and went on a miniature steam train to Ravenglass. The journey was lovely and we had a walk around the little seaside town, then travelled back.

We then went the 'scenic route' to Ambleside (through the mountains)!! It was quite scary (thank heavens Lee was driving!) and made the pregnant woman feel quite travel sick!! By the time we got to Ambleside, I felt much better and we had a walk around and stopped in a little cafe for a drink and scone. Then it was home time, but we were both tired after a lovely night away!! Isabelle had spent the night at Grandma's and gone to a friend's house on Saturday, so needless to say, didn't miss us much!!