Drip….. Drip….. Drip….
Although it’s more like hammer…. hammer…. hammer….. on our windows today. So I’m guessing Storm Aileen is marking the end of summer 🙁
Although I love Autumn – I think it’s such a beautiful season with all the warm colours, crunchy leaves, warm soups and hot ribena (I’m not a tea or coffee person) and snuggling up on the sofa with a hot water bottle and cuddly jumpers – it’s a hard time for me to say goodbye to my beloved Reef flip flops for another year once Summer is well and truly over.
It has to be done though, mainly because it’s impossible to walk in the rain with flip flops, and also because coldness is my main trigger for my Fibromyalgia. Happy days ? back to wooly socks and boots!
This summer has been amazing – we’ve been on so many adventures that I have to pinch myself some days.
Although my anxiety is still around, it’s been such a huge improvement on last summer that even I question if we’re the same kooky family lol. I’m even more sad that this summer has come to an end more than normal.
We’ve had adventures at our local play centre with Boe’s key worker through a scheme called Play Partners, which is run by our local play team. They’ve been such a great help towards myself and Boe. Not just for my anxiety and getting me the advice and help I need, but also with regards to Boe and building his relatioships and bringing him out of his shell. They had a family day at the end of September, which was so much fun – Boe absolutely loved it, even though the weather was rubbish.
I’ve never really been the kind of person who was up for groups and play centres, and even when Boe was born, the thought of going to any terrified me, but we go there quite often these days. They have an amazing sensory room which Boe LOVES, and the play room where they have their kiddy groups is just a whole lot of fun. What I like most about the play centre, is not only the staff, but the fact that their groups are only small. I think the largest group we’ve been to had 4 maybe 5 other children in it, which has been perfect for Boe and I. We enjoy the place so much that we even endure a 30 minute walk to get there.
We start another group run by the same people at the local library next week and I won’t lie – I’m flipping terrified lol.
One of my most favourite summer highlights was making the most of our Chester Zoo membership this year. Boe was so ill last year that we couldn’t take advantage of being members, but this year we more than made up for it, with visits at least once a month so far. We love a good zoo, and Chester Zoo is definately one of our favourites.
The elephant enclosure is just stunning, with a waterfall, a little pond and huge spaces for the elephants to bound about in. Our favourite spot has to be the bat cave though. You get to walk around with the bats, and we stay in there for ages each time – Boe just loves watching them fly around and thinks it’s hilarious to see them hanging off the trees by the moon. I won’t lie – I do get a little scared when I feel their wings flapping by my ear as they flew past, but it’s such a magical place, and it was worth the heart racing just to see the delight in Boe’s face ?
I think Boe’s most favourite memory of the summer is the rides at Pier Head Village. He was mesmorised by them all – especially the one that went “round and round” and the one that went “up, up, up, down!” We spent many weekend hours here, watching the world go by, with Boe’s little arm going round and round and round and round and… well, you get the idea ? As soon as we’d drive towards the car park by the docks, he’d start to get excited about seeing them, and even though we’ve not been for a few weeks now, he still talks about it, and we’re STILL having to play the video on our phone before bedtime lol. I dread to think how heart broken he’ll be when he realises they’ve left Pier Head now. I tried to explain to him on Monday that they’d gone, and he kept telling me I was wrong…. Hopefully the Christmas lights will be up soon and that will take his mind off what’s no longer there ?
So that’s it – our three favourites of Summer. What with endless adventures and massive leaps in my anxiety recovery (High-5 to me lol), it certainly has been one of the best seasons so far in our Plinky and Boe journey.
If you could pick three adventures to remember this summer by, what would you choose? Pop by our Facebook page and share
Plinky and Boe xx