Well it's beginning to feel like a long time ago since we stayed in Northern Ireland. For those that don't know, Jeff is from Bangor in Northern Ireland and his family and friends still live there. We are planning to move there in about a years time, subject to Jeff getting a transfer through work. Keep up the petition Sheila! Anyway here are some photos from our great week in Northern Ireland.

These photo's were taken on Bangor Pier, looking back towards the old buildings and boatyard, then across the marina and out of the harbour towards Belfast Lough. It was a real sun trap along the pier that day as we were sheltered by the high pier wall.

Tuesday 24th July was Callum's 2nd birthday, yep that makes it 24/7! One of the presents we gave him was a Thomas the Tank Engine train track, which we carried over in our suitcase. Both our boys love Thomas and although Matthew already has one I thought it would be nice for Callum to have one too, hopefully he'll treasure it in years to come. We took the boys to a local indoor play centre and met up with Janine and her boys Patrick and Conor. Of course it wouldn't be a birthday without a birthday cake and both boys were desperate to blow out the candles! Oh and I got an hair cut, dyed and highlighted too, so much cheaper in Bangor than over here. In fact everytime we go to NI I go to the CK Hair for my holiday haircut, quite a regular there now!

The following day I took the boys to Janine's house whilst Jeff played golf with Janine's husband Michael. After a heavy downpour of rain we took a walk down to the beach at Ballyholme. Matthew and Patrick ran along the sand and then they all played in the sand. Plus on the way down we stopped off at the local newsagents and I picked up a copy of Scrapbooks etc, a really good magazine from America.

On the Thursday Janine and I had the afternoon to ourselves to go shopping (at least looking) and have coffee. So good to look round shops with someone of a like mind and so so good to be able to sit down and chat about scrapbooking, friends, Cath Kidston, in fact anything without being interrupted by one of the kids. We went to Newtownards first to check out our favourite shops 'Agatha and Bibi', 'Presence' and the fairly new scrapbook shop 'Scraphouse'. Of course I couldn't leave without buying something, but only spent £8! We then drove to Holywood and had coffee in the gorgeous 'Coffee Yard', so very cool, it even has an art gallery. Then in the evening four of us; Me, Sheila, Janine and her sister Leslie met up round Janine's house for a scrap and chat night the 'Crop Circle'. As I mentioned previously I was unhappy with my particularly poor efforts on the scrap front. I will make sure that I plan ahead and gather supplies a week before leaving next time. Had a great time anyway chatting and catching up. Alas no photo's at all of this day!

Friday however was completely different as we had a family photoshoot with Janine who is a photographer, no wait a great photographer! Can't show any on here yet, so I'll just show you some photos Jeff and I took that evening when we went for a walk from Bangor Marina out along the coastal path.

Oh to live in a house like this or this and enjoy those views!

Saturday was another busy day; we had Callum's birthday picnic at lunchtime and in the evening we went to Jeff's cousins house for dinner with all the family. The picnic party at Crawfordsburn Country Park was a great success, lots of our friends were able to come and the kids had a whale of a time running around. Janine and I attempted to get a photo of the kids together, not an easy task! (see my layout in a previous post). Jeff also tried to take a photo of me with Janine and Sheila, but Callum just couldn't leave me alone. Check out his head in between my knees in the photo of the three of us!

On Sunday we flew home and because Callum was now two he had his very own seat (at full fare I might add). Matthew was very keen to know what might happen if we crashed - so many questions, look at him studying the emergency procedures! And finally I'll leave you with a photo of the famous cranes in the dockyard at Belfast 'Samson and Goliath', taken out of the window of the plane.

Can't wait to come back!