I woke up first just before 6 and had maybe a half hour of quiet; listening to the birds, drinking my coffee and crocheting before you, Forrest came down and wanted me to play Mario. I absolutely love playing with you, you are such a team player and so encouraging. At the moment you love watching me play and you are so good at helping me when I'm stuck. You do also like to play and we've been taking turns and I love that I found a way to connect with you doing something that you absolutely love! 

Daddy and Nixie were sound asleep, they stayed up late having a star wars night so while they slept I got all of our bags ready for another outing to charmouth. Eventually around 8:00 I went to gently wake them up and the first thing you, Nixie, did when you came downstairs was start reading your star wars book. It was a birthday gift from one of your friends and you've been really loving it. You even had to have big star wars discussions with daddy while he did his morning poo! Then we all had quick breakfasts and made our way to the car but not before you, Forrest and daddy had to do a wee together, I love how over a year later this is still a thing. On our way to the car you both had to stop to say hi to our frogs in our pond and then Forrest, you were back to your storytelling and this time told us that you could hear Foxy’s footsteps and that he must be in our garden. 

While I was out running errands yesterday I found some really big buckets of cotton candy and couldn't resist getting each of you one and I surprised you when we were on the road and oh my gosh your faces said it all! You both gave me the best reactions! As soon as we arrived at Charmouth and I saw the sea, I was transported to a place of calm, it looked absolutely blissful. After a quick bathroom break and a little stop at the shop for some drinks we headed to our spot at the beach on the other side of the landslip. It was a gorgeous sunny day but the wind was cold so it was an afternoon of being really hot and then needing to cover up with a sweater every 15 minutes. Nixie, you and daddy immediately got sucked in and started searching for treasures whereas you, Forrest, weren’t really in the mood and just wanted to hang out with me on our blanket, eat snacks and snuggle yourself into my sweater with me. I love when you are super snuggly. Not long after we sat down, you, Nixie came running over to show us your first ammonite! It was very small but absolutely perfect. Then you, Forrest,  decided you wanted to write mamma and I love you in the sand so we practised writing for a little bit and it was the first time you had written I love you so I was super impressed. 

The tide was out and the sand was super squishy in places and we loved letting our feet sink into it which gave us the best feeling. Daddy and Nixie had found a special little spot to search for treasures and daddy called it their lucky dip. While daddy continued his search the three of us went for a little walk down the beach and the two of you had so much fun playing in the rock pools, discovering sea anemones, finding sea snails, little golden beetles,  making some friends and just running around being wild and free. I even found another little ammonite just laying on the beach! 

At the moment Mario World is all you, Forrest, have on your mind and you are deep into creating games where you are in a video game. Every rock, every stream of water is an obstacle and you are on a mission to find coins, power ups and moons. When we decided to head over to the other side of charmouth beach daddy became bowser and while he was putting on his shoes you were running around trying to “defeat” him. Most of our day consisted of daddy drawing coins, lives, powerups and moons in the sand for you to collect and you absolutely loved it. Before heading to the other side we had a little ice cream break and you made us all laugh with the way you “taste” somebody else's ice cream: you basically suck up the whole thing in one go! 

As we started to make our way to the other side, you decided you needed to do a poo so you and daddy went back to the cafe and you, Nixie, and I went to find the perfect spot. We hadn’t been to this side in a really long time and this side always feels like home and brings back so many memories. But it looked so different, there were hardly any pebbles on the beach or as much sea glass as there usually is. We happened to put our blanket down right next to a little group who was having a fossil walk and we loved listening in. We started looking for treasures and we found some small bits of ammonites, some blue sea glass and some great little pieces of pottery. When you, Forrest and daddy came back you absolutely loved filling your hands with as much sea glass you could find. We spent a really beautiful couple of hours here before deciding it was time to go get some food before heading home.

We drove to Lyme Regis and parked as usual behind Tesco and for some reason you, Forrest got so incredibly upset that Nixie & daddy had gone without us to pay for parking so we had to reenact the whole scenario to make you feel better. This time we walked down to the seafront and walked all the way to the other end and had chips and took them to the sea wall to eat them while at times feeling some gale force winds! By the time we made it back to the car it was around 17:30 and  you, Forrest, were so tired and fell asleep not long after we started driving and you, Nixie, read your star wars book the whole way home. 

Once home, big tears ensued because you, Forrest, had really hurt your neck in your sleep and it can be really hard to wake you from naps in the car. I so badly wanted to keep you asleep but it felt that bit too early and we had promised we would all play a little bit of Mario together before bed. Emotions ended up being quite high for the both of you and we played for about an hour before we realised we all needed to go to bed. Tonight you, Nixie didn’t want to join us for a story and went into your own room but daddy did end up joining you and read you a story snuggled up with you and Forrest, you had some num num and fell asleep in super speed.