(Alas, the images and video that went with this item are on my stolen camera)
Iz was bopping away with the best of them past 12 midnight on New Year’s Eve, all of which saw her practically sleep through until 11am – with a minor blip at 5am that saw her jump into our bed…where she remained, even after we had got up and got showered and dressed.
To help blow those cobwebs from 2012 away we all donned hats, gloves and the usual Winter ware as we piled in Sarah’s car for a walk round Rufford Park.
Although the car parks were heaving the actual paths and country park itself didn’t seem that over populated.
Rufford, as well as being home to an Abbey that dates back hundreds of years and is rumoured to have once been home to Friar Tuck, is also home to lots of ducks (no, to my knowledge they aren’t descendents of the Friar’s ducks).
I’m sure the Rufford ducks must have been the best fed ducks in the country as pretty much everyone seemed to be carrying Hovis or Warburtons, we were brandishing the latter by the way.
The ground may have been muddy and sodden, hence the cavalcade of wellies, but the first day of 2013 for us was a lovely sunny and clear one.
As she always does, Iz looked rather swish in her get up, complete with rather fetching Hello Kitty hat, which she picked herself.
Rufford must have some giant moles if the mole hills are anything to go by. Iz and Sarah had great delight in jumping from one mole hill to another as we made our way down toward the lake.
When we finally hit the lake the sun was bouncing off the water as if it were a mirror and the view was one of tranquility and of beauty. Breaking that calm was Isabelle who was of course more concerned with how quickly she could get the bread from the bag to the birds.
We the spent some time chasing each other through the woods and taking turns hiding behind trees. I was that concerned with getting a photo to rival last year’s jaunt that I ended up nearly poking my eyes out on a branch, tripping up several times and donking my head on a tree grazing my forehead. Talk about suffering for your art!
Once we had finished playing at ‘Predator’ we had time to pose for a rare group photo of the three of us, her legs tired by this time Iz had taken to her mum’s shoulders.
The power was soon set to miraculously return to her legs however when Iz realised A – there were puddles and B – she had our blessing to jump up and down in them (as long as no one else was likely to get splashed of course). A, er, lifelong Peppa Pig fan, the allure of muddy puddles was too much and Iz could soon be found splish, splash sploshing in them.
Legs soon returned to jelly of course, which saw me on temp carrying duties, a bit of a surprise as I could only just navigate myself round trees without impaling myself!
Iz soon hit the floor running again as she chased to catch up with Nana and Granddad. She then wanted to explore part of the Abbey, which we did. It was upon leaving the Abbey that I finally managed to get a nice action pic of Iz in full flight in front of a huge wedge of blue sky. It was all worth the minor head injury.
Before heading back to the car we just had enough time to have a go on a merry-go-round. I say we, it was Iz with me chaperoning. The first time round Iz was in a racing green Stirling Moss style racing car and then in charge of a London Double Decker, which she wanted to get off as soon as it started rotating. This saw me in the guise of part stuntman part fairground ride attendant. Not exactly Speed with Keanu Reeves but it was going round quite quickly – honest!
After we got home it wasn’t long before Iz could be found snoozing on the sofa after her first action-packed afternoon of 2013.
Dawn of the Dad 