We spent a few days down in Wiltshire/Somerset last week with our friend Katharine.  Staying at a lovely By the Byre lodge, we were delighted to find a lovely labrador called Jasper living there.  Alex entertainment sorted 🙂 Here are my boys with the lovely Jasper in the background:

The lodges shared a big toy and game room, so Alex had a fabulous time selecting a variety of toys (all with wheels) and ride ons (with bigger wheels)  to play with during our stay.  And Matt and Katharine found a suitably tacky jigsaw and random DVDs to occupy the evenings!

Thankfully we went on excursions during the day – including finally making it to Longleat (those of you reading the blog back in March will remember my disappointment at it being closed when we were on our disastrous holiday to Dorset!).  It was worth the wait – we had a truly fabulous day.  It isn’t cheap to get in – but I found it worth every penny.  The safari drive was incredible – Alex was engrossed in the close encounters with wild animals and loved the monkeys climbing on the car (we all loved them until they started pulling apart our windscreen wipers!).  Here’s Alex checking out the Giraffes:

We spent the afternoon exploring the rest of the park – seeking out some smaller animals including meerkats and anteaters.  Matt and Katharine braved the massive maze and we all enjoyed the huge kid’s play area.  Alex loved exploring the grounds:

A really excellent day out – and highly recommended!  Our second day was considerably wetter, so slightly less fun!  We visited a softplay (no holiday is now complete without one), had a delicious pub lunch at The Mill at Rode and then resorted to wandering the damp streets of Bath.  We toured the beautiful Abbey and checked out the Pump Rooms – but I must admit, we were glad to make it back to the snug lodge for the evening

Back in London for the weekend, we popped along to the Horniman Museum Aquarium yesterday for the afternoon.  We’d taken Alex before, but he hadn’t been that interested.  This trip was quite the opposite – he was beside himself with excitement at the tropical fish tank – here’s a video of him making friends with the fish:

We’ve had a quiet August Bank Holiday today – we spent a couple of hours walking around the city which is always fun when the offices are closed and the streets empty, and then met some friends for a chat in Dulwich Park.  I’m now busy packing as I’m off to Manchester for a couple of days to a work conference – my first nights away from Alex.  Eeek – very nervous!

If you want to see more from Longleat – here are all our snaps from our quick trip West: