Abbie chose a horseriding lesson – she loved this as she got to canter and do a small jump as well, things she hadn’t attempted before. Having had horse riding lessons for birthday and Christmas, she is hooked (and I am very worried about this!).

Joe chose laser combat – so Steve HAD to go with him This actually looked like loads of fun and I wished we’d all gone!

Anna chose to come to the spa with me – I don’t usually go in for that sort of thing but it was quite relaxing I suppose … and very lovely to spend the time with Anna She will kill me for posting a pic but she did love the waterbed

We didn’t go out to the New Year’s Eve party (bah humbug) but cooked enchiladas at home, did our jigsaw, and then sat in bed listening to the fireworks. Instead we celebrated New Year’s Day in style – the kids all had a session aqua-jetting before a champagne buffet brunch with live jazz band. In fact we had live music twice as there was a classical guitarist playing in the restaurant where we had dinner in the evening, which was great too. During the afternoon Steve had booked pool tables so we enjoyed chilling out there.

Lots of swimming, sauna, and relaxation in-between all the activity.

Very much enjoyed the weekend Having said that, even though we all enjoyed it, I’m not sure we’ll go back in a hurry – it’s fantastic, but as we are limited to peak times these days, it is very expensive! I missed exploring the countryside and seeing something new of the world, something we usually do wherever we are on holiday, even just in the UK … we are trying to decide what sort of holiday to have in the summer but perhaps, having read the offer in the comments on the post below, we won’t need to book a holiday for the summer at all

I was away on a school residential last week, so Steve and the children were here alone. To be honest, I’m not surprised they didn’t miss me as this year Steve has done pretty much everything even when I am here, as I’ve been buried under work. I usually cook tea but apparently the children did that between them. They had a busy week, including two piano exams, four performances at the DPAF, a hockey match, various lessons as usual, and an additional trip to see Fantastic Mr Fox – the Opera with Grandma & Grandpa. By the time I got home the house was relatively tidy and hoovered, plus clean sheets on my bed, and Abbie had cooked dinner during her Home Economics lesson – result! Josiah does seem to be walking around in a pair of identical shoes to his own, two sizes too big – but that’s a minor detail! Some poor child at school will be wondering why their feet hurt …

My residential was at the Calvert Trust, an outdoor ed place specifically for people with disabilities. It was an amazing week yet totally exhausting, as residentials always are I know, but probably more so given that we were doing round the clock care for our kids as well. Accommodation was fab – I think my little group were quite lucky though, we had the biggest apartment including a tv in the lounge, so we had a few of the kids in most mornings to watch tv while waiting for breakfast!

The kids all got to abseil, climb, and canoe, as well as take part in other activities like crate stacking, horse riding and archery. There was a swimming/hydrotherapy pool onsite too – with jacuzzi, and as well as all that there were evening activities to choose from as well; arts and crafts, a visit from the local zoo with animals to interact with, then a disco on the final night. Staff joined in with all the activities too, and it was as challenging for some of them as it was for the children! For some kids it was a huge deal just to be away from home; one of my students was totally thrown and hardly ate all week, and was very quiet and reticent – but managed it and enjoyed the activities that weren’t height related. He did look VERY pleased to be back in the familiar surroundings of school on the last day though! Other students enjoyed the independence and freedom offered them in that setting, and had a ball taking part in activities that they don’t normally have the opportunity to do, and it was such a treat to see them enjoying themselves so much.

The staff at the centre were fantastic – I was lucky to be designated as official photographer (I took 756 shots in 5 days!) so I got to see all three of the activity groups at work, and see how the staff worked so well with our students – obviously that’s what they’re trained to do but I was still totally impressed! Sensory introductions to activities, photos/symbols to explain what we were going to do, games to help students who found things challenging, etc. etc. Endless patience. Just amazing. I can’t post many photos, of course, but here are a few that don’t show any more than the activities in the beautiful surroundings. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, which made it all the more enjoyable

(together)
Stay for a while
Everywhere I go

(amy)
Love will find a way
Sing your praise to the lord
Saved by love
Baby baby
Every heartbeat
Better than a hallelujah
Arms of love
Something’s wrong in heaven tonight
El shaddai
Jesus loves me/everybody needs a helping hand

(together)
Lead me on
Emmanuel
Put a little love

(mws)
Go west medley
Place in this world
Track from ‘Freedom’

(together)
Thy word
Angels
Faithless heart
Give it away
Tell me how to say goodbye
Somewhere, somehow

(mws)
Open the eyes of my heart
Forever you are faithful
Secret ambition
Not far away
Rocketown
Hold you closer
Welcome home
Crucify – above all
Majesty
Heavens rain? Healing rain
Alleluia

(together)
Love of another kind
(encore – no prizes for guessing this one)
Friends

Friday night
A manic ‘after school’ packing and organisation session saw us ready to leave after tea, so we arrived at my sister’s around 10pm I think. The children went straight to bed and so did we, really!

Saturday
We left the children in the early hours to be at Heathrow ready for a 9am flight. We had a long stopover in Detroit and then finally arrived in Nashville at around 7pm. Car rental was smooth, we had a Dodge Avenger for the week, which was fairly boring but did the job. The hotel was a stone’s throw from the airport so it didn’t take us long to check in and unpack. The room was great – lounge area as well with huge TV that had on-demand films etc., so we made use of that a couple of times. That first night we just ate a snack meal in the hotel and went to bed.

Sunday
We were up early as our body clocks were doing strange things! Breakfast was included at the hotel every day which was something of a shame as I didn’t get to have a huge waffle type breakfast at all, but blueberry bagels were a fairly close second
We went into Nashville city centre to explore, and ended up following a Nashville City Walk around the Capitol Hill area, with a few geocaches along the way. We had to give up on anything but very easy caches as I forgot to take the proper GPS, and offline iPhone caching wasn’t much cop really. Still managed a few though!

Monday
We drove down to Lynchburg on the Monday, to visit the Jack Daniels’ distillery. This was a great day out, actually, very interesting, and we both enjoyed it. No photos though for some reason – can’t believe we didn’t take *any* but we didn’t. Grabbed a couple more caches nearby too We were going to try and get to the Bluebird Cafe tonight but failed badly – booked a table for Wednesday instead as soon as we got back to the hotel! We ended up going out for dinner at Ruby Tuesday which was pleasant, if a little big … there is a theme developing here!

Tuesday
Tuesday was the day of the major event for me First of all we ended up in Centennial Park, which was interesting to find out about in itself. We wandered around the art gallery inside the Parthenon there, did a couple of caches, failed at another, and generally had a nice time.

Wednesday
On Wednesday we ended up driving down to Franklin, a little town south of Nashville which happens to be the home of MWS. Coincidence really, we fancied something different. Franklin was very sweet, a lovely high street full of shops, and we visited a very quaint museum full of Franklin’s history … reminded me a bit of the museum at Bicton Park! We were shown around it by a lovely old lady who wondered if we’d be going to Will & Kate’s wedding in April? Apparently we’re in good company, the president of the US didn’t get an invitation either.

Went back to the hotel for the afternoon before our evening out at the Bluebird Cafe, which was probably as much of a highlight as the concert the night before. We really enjoyed the music and the food there, a great experience, and a definite ‘must do’ if you are ever visiting Nashville, more than any of the rest of it. Dessert just over the street at Sweet Cece’s was delicious too – peanut butter flavour frozen yoghurt is surprisingly nice

Thursday
Our last day – we had to checkout of the hotel in the morning so did that, then packed in the two museums that we hadn’t had time for yet. Firstly Lane’s Motor Museum, and then the Museum of Country Music, including the RCA Studio B tour. We both moaned about the other one’s choice but secretly both enjoyed them both …

Friday
Very pleased to see the children again – had missed them – they’d had a fantastic week in the places they’d stayed, they thought it was as much of a holiday to be where they were! The journey back to Exeter was a bit of a killer – slow and Steve stopped for coffee a number of times! Good to be home eventually – I was chuffed that Anna was so pleased with the pyjamas we’d bought her (Steve had moaned but I knew she’d like them), Abbie looks great in her t-shirts too, and Josiah was very pleased with the bumper bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter miniatures

Last week went by in a bit of a blur; my Monday and Tuesday were spent doing extra work to get things ready for the class during the rest of the week, while I went up to Kettering for a three day course on Autism. This was good for a number of reasons – I’m interested in autism a fair bit anyway, the course was really good, but also it was nice to have a little break from the norm, and I got to stay with some good friends who just happen to live in Kettering – bonus!

As a result, I’m not entirely sure of much of what went on at home; Steve held the fort admirably, and I got home on Friday night and have been thrown back into the usual manic weekend activity! We did have a nice meal out first though – bumped into a number of people we knew at the Chinese down the road, which was amusing!

Now I am desperately trying to get through housework and the washing but people keep tidying their room (aka chucking all the clothes that were on the floor into the wash regardless of whether they need washing or not ).

This morning we had choir/orchestra/work which kept us busy until lunchtime. The children looked rather shocked this afternoon when I announced that I was going into town to meet *my* friends (apparently this is something only they should be allowed to do!). I spent a happy hour and a bit catching up over a cuppa in Costa before going home to work for a bit. Steve, meanwhile, did the food shopping and then made sandwiches to take to Josiah’s Candlelight Concert this evening – another treat at the Cathedral for us – particularly enjoyed Seek Him That Maketh the Seven Stars again.

A month or so before Christmas I spotted the 2 Friends tour online and thought it would be amazing to be able to go – Amy Grant and Michael W Smith have both been my favourites since I was about Abbie’s age! Shelved the idea as being too wild and expensive, though. Somehow, it came up again after Christmas, and somehow we ended up discussing it as a serious possibility, then somehowended up booking it! Steve did the bulk of the work which makes a pleasant change as usually it’s me who does all that research type stuff.

I spent the first day of thinking about it being ridiculously excited, I can’t actually remember being so excited since being pregnant! Other than our honeymoon holiday (which was a week staying with my grandmother in France so doesn’t really count!), Steve and I haven’t ever been away together for more than a couple of nights – ok, this is only just more than a couple of nights but it is in America too, so constitutes a holiday instead of a weekend break! Steve has never been to the states, and I went once when I was 12 so can’t really remember that much about it. It is a bit of an extravagance – we’ll be camping for any holidays during the rest of the year! Still, it’s about the best Christmas/anniversary/birthday present I could ever have hoped for

Anyway, Steve and I have a draft itinerary planned, which we did while listening to Michael W Smith and Amy Grant’s latest albums online, just to get us in the mood It consists of:
Saturday – arrive/check-in have dinner somewhere.
Sunday – Music row/wander around/eat out a lot
Mon – Segway tour? and Bluebird Cafe
Tues - Cenetennial park and Parthenon then Amy and MWS
Wed - Lane Motor Museum/lunch then drive out to Franklin for dinner or come back to Nashville
Thur – Check-out/late lunch/airport … travelling back will take until Friday morning.
As I’ve typed that I’ve realised we’ve forgotten the Country Music Museum and Hall of Fame which is a must see … will have to cram that in somewhere!
And I confess I have checked the geocaching map for Nashville, it would be rude not to find at least one or two while in the US!

The children are trying to plan themselves a break too – Grandma is happy to have them but they are trying to complicate matters … we will see! Now all we have to do is wait until February – not long

Anyway. A quick clear up after breakfast and we were away – home by 12.30pm. This afternoon Abbie has carved a pumpkin, Josiah has tried and failed to import his game save on SD card so had to start over at the beginning, and Anna lost track of time at a friend’s house.

After a long discussion about which clothes and shoes were suitable, and many changes of clothes accompanied by much foot-stamping, we attended Grandad’s funeral at the crematorium. It went as well as these things go; we were invited back for tea at Steve’s parents’ afterwards which was pleasant. We have his thanksgiving service up in North Devon tomorrow too, which is more of an event to remember him by, but you still have to get through the official necessary bits as well.

Got home just in time to run the girls round for panto rehearsals, and the rest of us are catching up at home tonight. Here probably ends the daily blogging, we’ll be back to weekend posts from now on. I do enjoy having the time to write posts though, it takes me back to the good old days

So, first of all I worked on completing the first game – all done, three stars on each level. I confess I haven’t got all the awards for score but there is a limit, even for me

Then, given that my Pocket Frogs are taking hours and hours to hatch now that I’m on the higher levels, I got going onto the Halloween game. Some of the original game’s updates had been rather tame and easy to complete, and I was worried that the Halloween game would be the same, but no, it was back to the original very challenging levels that were in the first few levels of the first game

I HAD to get it done before the end of the week, otherwise it would have been bugging me for ages! All done

I have read a couple of books, too … but they weren’t quite as exciting

This afternoon Steve took the children into town, and I spent a couple of hours working. I haven’t really got all the things I need to work effectively so abandoned it after that and have decided to go into school to get it done on Sunday instead.

When they got back the kids settled down for a film, while Steve & I had a walk down through the village to find a cache which was by the Longstone of Minchinhampton.

I didn’t bother climbing over the gate to see if I could feel any vibes though, and I didn’t really think I needed to stick my arm or leg through a hole for healing either

Lovely walk, we like looking at houses etc., and just nice to grab some child-free time too. We went to the sweet shop on the way back so the kids were pleased to see us when we got back

Tonight Abbie is cooking her favourite meal – baked potatoes with tuna & sweetcorn, baked beans, and grated cheese on top. Ice-cream for pudding. And tonight will be our last relaxing evening so we’re planning to make the most of it. This has been a really lovely week. Anyone fancy a house swap in May half term?