Visiting Wales, Nephew's First Birthday and Summer Fayre!

Straight from a long night shift, I got on a 4 hour train to Wales to see my dad. After a lovely meal out with the family, I went straight to bed before waking up Saturday morning and driving towards London to celebrate my nephew's first birthday. The following day we went to a Summer Fayre and then I took the train to London! 
Click here to watch the vlog or see below. If you know me personally, click here for the private video.
Following straight on from last week's vlog and blog post, I headed from my third night shift in a row to Wales. My dad has recently moved there and I had yet to see his new house. To be honest, I hadn't really seen him since Christmas so I thought it would be a nice time to go down. It was a beautiful day and 4 hours later, I was sleepy after 4 trains but obsessed with the gorgeous and relatively modern barn refurbishment. His house really is stunning and spacious and it feels really homely. It was made even better by the glorious sunshine.
As he showed me around the garden, I spotted the perfect place for a hot tub. I'm still trying to convince him but I think I'm slowly getting through. Let's face it, in this current heatwave it would be absolute bliss! 
My little sister, Jess, arrived a couple hours later. Unfortunately, her train had a mechanical issue so she wasn't able to get to the main station before having to change trains again. The original plan was to go straight to sleep when I got there but I'd been convinced to stay up for lunch. By the time she arrived, not only was I exhausted but also starving so we quickly headed out to a lovely old fancy-pub. It was such yummy food and luckily, we all love desserts so it was sundae's all around! 
It was quite stressful when I got back. My present for my nephew's first birthday ended up being stuck in customs so I had resorted to present 2. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a hold of it despite being told it had been signed for. Well, we're hoping it's been delivered next door but 5 hours later and about 20 phone calls later with the head of the area, it was all a bit of a disaster and I was deeply in need of sleep!

In the end, I ordered a third gift to go straight to my sister's to be wrapped up on the day. I had all my fingers crossed and luckily it was perfect! We drove up early on Saturday morning and celebrated my handsome nephew's first birthday with all their friends and families. As always, I didn't get enough snuggles but at least we were there.

His cake was so cute and even yummier than it looked!
 The balloons made a perfect backdrop for pictures and while C was out, we took some sister shots.
By the end of the night, everyone was tired and hungry, including poor Tess the dog so we headed to our hotel. Usually we would stay at V's but her house was full so instead we left to stay at the hotel and grabbed a McDonald's Happy Meal before bed. We also went over to the petrol station for a few snacks for the journey back.
As the hotel is bed only, it's linked to a motorway service. The other's decided they wanted to go all our for breakfast with Patisserie Valerie. I was more than happy with a Gregg's bacon sandwich but it was very yummy.
Then we headed over to V's. It turns out there was no taxi's last night so they'd ended up having some unexpected guests stay over as well. After sitting in the garden for a little bit, we went to my niece's school for their summer fayre. It was so hot and I may have got just a little sun burnt. Luckily, it wasn't that bad, contrary to everyone's opinion, and it has now turned into a lovely suntan. I really don't know how people did Zumba though because it was over 30 degrees. 
All in all, it was a lovely couple of days. It was nice to be able to meet my sister's boyfriend and spend time with two of my favourite people. I loved seeing my dad and of course, my sisters. Here's to next time!
My dad left a little earlier than us in the end as C had offered to drop both Jess and I off at the train station which was very kind of her and her boyfriend. I ended up getting eaten alive while waiting for my train but got to my old flat safe and sound before waiting for the girls to come back from their study session.

Stay tuned for next week's post all about Wimbledon!

Comments