Belfast Castle, Cavehill Park

We spent most of Monday and Tuesday entertaining Granny G.  Mum was working so we/I try to spend those days with Granny G.  I brought her up to our house on Monday and made her lunch.  We ended up having to take her back to Kilmore early since we were going to Lyle's . The kids had great fun playing at Lindy and Peter's and I got to spend some time with Cathryn.  On Tuesday, we took Granny G to Newcastle since the weather was so nice.  The kids ended up in the sea ~ Cole to the point that his shoulders were wet and he had to strip naked and sit with a towel wrapped around him on the way home. 

We went to visit Granny G's sister, Aunt Edie on Wednesday.  She lives on the other side of Belfast and my friend Nancy (in AZ) has a friend from NI who lives near Aunt Edie.  Nancy's friend went over to ND to stay with Nancy's family when she was a child.  I'd looked up Lisa's address and we just called round to her house on the off chance that she'd be home.  She was, and it was her birthday, and her dog had 4 week old puppies so we picked the perfect day to visit.  However, like a dork, I forgot to take any photos! 

After we left Lisa's, we drove to Cavehill park for a picnic.  We ended up going up to Belfast Castle.  The kids were excited to visit since this is where Joe and I got married. 

I swear Cole was excited.  Why does he always do this in photos???

There was actually a wedding on, so the castle was pretty busy, but we went down to the cellars and poked around a bit. 

We also climbed up to the visitors' centre and learned about the history of the castle, the history of Cavehill and local wildlife. 

I feel like I should photoshop Joe into this picture (if only I really knew how to do that). 

Next time we go here, we are going to make them climb to the top of the hill.  It's only supposed to take about an hour so very doable for the wee ones.

Cole thought this looked like the lamp post in Narnia. 

Carys turned cartwheels in the castle grounds.

We moved on to Aunt Sandra's. If you live in NI and have never been to Aunt Sandra's, you don't know what you are missing. You should go for the craic, because it's 90.  You should also go for the sweeties because they are delicious.  Pick me up a packet of chocolate honeycomb, please. 

It's at the bottom of the Castlereagh Rd, you can't miss it. 

Everyone got a little something, and funnily enough, there wasn't much fighting going home in the car!  In fact, it was pretty quiet the whole way up the road.