#MeAndMine - A Family Portrait (September 2014)

September has been a busy month. 

Really busy.

It's been a month of birthdays, nights out, days out, meals out and general madness. I feel like I haven't even got time to break wind right now. I'm also on countdown as I'm turning 40 in less than 2 weeks! Eep! I'm going to be revamping the look of my blog to coincide with my birthday too and I have some very special photographs to share. I am really determined to find the time to blog properly again.

Anyway, back to this past past month...

Matt and I have weirdly become closer than I ever imagined over this past month. We've always been incredibly close - we share everything - but this, this closeness is amazing and something I wish I could bottle and sell to every single couple I know right now. We are so thankful for a lot of things too. We have two happy, healthy and beautiful children. We have amazing family and friends and our house move last June was the best move we have ever made. We love our new house and have made some fantastic new friends from our neighbours. We are off for a third trip to Walt Disney World with the children next year and my parents are joining us for part of it too. I could go on.

We've lived in this area together for over 10 years now (I've lived here all my life). We are a stones throw from beautiful countryside, amazing cities and lovely beaches. We have the perfect mix of what we need at this time of our lives. We are also very close to Chester Zoo.

Because of this we have a membership which means we can go along anytime we like. Sometimes we will just go for an hour so the children can visit some of their favourite animals and play on the play ark for a while. We love Chester Zoo and I've written about it before we had a membership. 

What makes it so special now is that we have been watching the new BBC drama 'Our Zoo' which is based on the true story of the Mottershead family who founded the zoo in the 1930's. The series documents their fight to make Chester Zoo work, despite huge opposition from the locals of the village of Upton.

It's fascinating watching the history of a place I love and have known all my life. I was born just down the road from Chester Zoo too so it makes it even more special.

The only bad thing (for us) is that, since the series has aired, Chester Zoo seems to be a lot busier than it used to be. This is a great thing for the animals and conservation work they do though and I'm so pleased the series is such a huge hit. Thankfully, even when it's busy it's still a superb day out. If you haven't been then you should make sure you manage to visit. I may see you there!

I've been to Chester Zoo a couple of times this month with TC and friends but we went there as a family on Matt's birthday weekend. It was perfect weather - not too hot or cold - and there were plenty of animals to see and fun to be had. MC wanted to go on the monorail as she'd never been on it before. I decided that this was to be the setting of our family photo for this month.

Matt decided to yawn on the first take.

Then TC shut his eyes on the second.

But I didn't bother taking a third photo as both of these were enough. They show us as happy and together and that, for me, is the perfect photo.

This post is not a sponsored post

I wasn't asked to promote Chester Zoo or Our Zoo -

I just love them both

"I Don't Like Dinosaurs" And More Memories Of Chester Zoo

Last Monday (12th September) it was my wonderful husband's birthday. Did we go out for drinks? A meal? A romantic break away?

No.

We did something much more fun than that. We went to Chester Zoo!

Now I feel very lucky to live in the area I do. We live in North Wales. We aren't far from the coast and rolling hills but are only about 7 miles from the beautiful city of Chester, England - I feel we have the best of both worlds (and free prescriptions!). I'm guilty of not appreciating Chester because it's on my doorstep but, if you've never been, have a look at the Chester Guide and tell me what's not to love?

We had planned to take Mini Cheddar to Chester Zoo for her birthday but she ended up in hospital.  Since then, through one thing or another we haven't got around to taking her - bad parents alert! So when the people at Superbreak offered to let us have a day out at Chester Zoo I have to admit, I jumped at the chance. It's only a 10 minute drive from our house...it's kind of rude not to go. Also, it was my husband's birthday, yes. He was 35. However, we obviously used the trip as a belated birthday treat for MC *cough*

Chester Zoo is actually the number 1 zoo in the U.K. and we love it there. Every time we go we have such a great day out. You may remember last Monday was a bit of a windy day, the remnants of Hurricane Katia were battering us but thankfully when we went it wasn't that bad although the lions weren't on display because of the wind.

I won't bore you with in-depth descriptions of what we did and what we saw, I'll let a selection of the photos speak for themselves. Highlights of the day included:

• Seeing one of the tigers (my favourite), really close up. 
• Seeing all the giraffes close up together. 
• A chimpanzee taking a shine to Mini Cheddar and splashing water at her. 
• A penguin taking a shine to Mini Cheddar - he kept coming back to the same spot to see her. 
• The Bat Forest (always a favourite for me).

What wasn't a highlight for MC was the 'Dinosaurs At Large' exhibit (open until 8th October). Lots of rather large (and some spitting) dinosaurs which terrified MC a bit. Since then all we hear from her is "I don't like dinosaurs"!

"Wait for me Mum!"

"Can't catch me Daddy!"

"Mmmmmmeat"

"RAAAAARRRR"

"I don't like dinosaurs"

"A cameral shortbread and cappucino please"

"My mummy seems to have turned into a pile of leaves"

"You looking at me?"

So, that was our day pretty much.  Doesn't it make you want to go?

I can actually recommend Superbreak as I've bought gift vouchers from them before for my parents and they had a wonderful short break away using them. If you fancy going wild at Chester Zoo then why not make it a short break at Chester Zoo.

This is not a sponsored post.  

We did receive entry to Chester Zoo but all views,

opinions and photographs are entirely my own.