Health Update, etc

Through the help of family and friends, we've found out that Howard is conscious and his memory is returning. Still not sure what is going on with him, but it sounds like he's improving, which is a big relief. We'll find out more soon, hopefully.

On to the trip B, E and I took...

We headed down to Dorset, near Dorchester, about half a mile from Thomas Hardy's cottage. The place we stayed was an excellent self-catering community filled with families and kids. The cottages ranged from large to small, so multi-family groups were welcome. The grounds were also quite communal, so if people decided to barbecue together etc, they could... or if they wanted to eat privately, that was fine too.

There was a fresh pint of milk waiting for us...


...as well as lots of tea. We spent the first afternoon just wandering around and getting acquainted. The folks next to us had three little kids, one born just a few weeks after E. They kindly shared their bouncy ball with us in the communal (walled in!) garden that backs on to some of the cottages.

E and I went exploring...

In the above picture we're headed to the little play area behind the vegetable patch/greenhouse. There are ponies in the pasture at the top of the hill.


E on the hopscotch pad counting his way toward the boonga-boonga (what he calls trampolines).

Playing with big legos in the little "fort" next to the playhouse. Did I mention this place was a toddler paradise?


Visiting the chickens, who provided us with fresh eggs in the morning.


E absolutely loved this fountain. Conveniently, it was about two steps from our front door. Not so conveniently, E quickly learned how to open the door if it wasn't locked. There's a waterfall at the far end of the pond, and huge fish swimming around inside.


The place also had a great clubhouse with a toddler section (pictured above), which came in handy round about ooh.... 6:15am as I gave B a much-needed sleep-in. E could be as loud as he liked there since nobody was around. The clubhouse has a flat-screen TV, couches, pool table, ping-pong set etc... great for getting together with other people/family and friends along. I was impressed. And yeah, E is in the same shirt he was in the day before - nobody is very particular about clothes at 5:30 am.

I wasn't able to get any photos of the swimming pool, but that was pretty good too. Indoors, set up underneath a huge Roman mosaic. E loved it.

And that's all for now... off to bed. I have plenty more trip update to come - gave Dad a brief overview on the phone but pictures are hard to put into words, so...

To be continued.