April 2004

Friday 30th April 2004

April has been a really busy month and this is why we haven’t kept our diary up to date till now. We all went on holiday to Cyprus where Uncle Christopher lives. Grandma and Granddad B and Aunty Kirsty and Leah and Kim went with us. We had to go on an airplane late at night. All the seats had their own TVs and Scotty stayed up all night enjoying the programmes. He watched “cheaper by the Dozen”. It was a lot of fun having your own TV. Emily was very tired and she cried and cried and cried until she fell asleep in Daddy’s arms. The whole plane thought she wasn’t going to stop, but she fell asleep before we had finished taking off she was so tired. Elizabeth was very good, she wasn’t too sure about taking off, it was a bit scary she said but she also liked the TV and fell asleep on Mummy’s lap even though she had her own seat.

When we all got to Cyprus we had to drive to our villa but it wasn’t ready so we all went to the beach. It was really hot and we had a lovely time but Granddad fell asleep on the beach and got sunburned on his face –silly Granddad!!!! J

Then we got to our Villa, it was huge and called “Bellina”. We really liked it, Elizabeth and Scott shared a room and Emily had her cot in Mummy and Daddy’s walk in wardrobe it was that big. It had its own pool as well, which Scott jumped straight into without any one being ready. He was a bit surprised because it was a little deeper and colder than he thought it would be!!!!

While we were at our villa we could play all sorts of games. It was fun to move all the stones around the garden, Daddy wasn’t too happy when we put some of the stones in the pool, as he had to go in and dive to the bottom and get them all out. Hee Hee Hee.

We all went to Polis on Friday 9^th and visited the village and the beach, Scott and Elizabeth went off exploring through the long grass and trees. It kept them entertained for hours as they were playing at being explorers. Every now and again Elizabeth would pretend to be stuck and need Scott to come and “rescue” her. It was very funny, they would be walking around with big sticks bashing down the undergrowth to fight their way through.

The next day Uncle Christopher took us all to Lara Bay which is a Turtle Sanctuary. We didn’t see any turtles but we did go rock climbing. Chris taught Scott how to climb looking for proper foot and hand holds. He loved it and was very good at it.

On the Sunday we went to Church in Limassol (Lemesos) where we met up with some members from the UK. It’s a small world in the Church. Elder Bortone was serving his mission there at the time and so he showed us round. He came back to our villa with the other missionaries later in the week after a branch activity day for a BBQ.

The next day Mummy & Daddy went scuba diving, as Daddy managed to pass the tests so he can try and keep up with Mummy. They have some pictures of when they went diving, Click here to see them. Grandma & Granddad B looked after us children. We went to the beach with them and played at the villa, all lots of fun. After Mummy & Daddy came back from their diving, we all went to Paphos Karting Centre and had a go at the karting. Daddy was the winner, he beat Uncle Christopher TWICE!! Although Uncle Christopher was beating Daddy until the last corner, when he nearly had a crash with Aunty Kirsty!! Instead he drove into the tyre wall. Oh well. The karts were a little too big and quick for children but there was still plenty to do, if you have a look at the pictures in the gallery you can see Scott in the helicopter and Elizabeth and Emily driving their boat. Also they had ice creams and Aunty Kirsty had to tell a lady off for being rude about Elizabeth, good ole Aunty Kirsty. After karting we were all hungry and so we went to McDonalds, er yum.

The next day was Tuesday and Mummy phoned up a man and we all went on a boat to go Paragliding. That was a lot of fun. Click here and you can see all the pictures. To get to the boat we had to get onto a Jetski. We all went on that even Emily, Elizabeth was the last to get onto it, she was a little scared but she got on with Daddy and it was all fine. When we were all on the boat it took us out into the sea. Mummy was the first to have a go on the paragliding. She had to put on this special harness and then get onto the back of the boat where they strapped her onto this big parachute. Then whoosh!! She said she really wanted to do it as her mummy; Grandma C. had never let her on their family holidays. Click on the picture to see and hear what it is like to Paraglide

She said it wasn’t so much an adrenaline rush as quite a peaceful experience, floating up in the sky, very quiet and that the water was so clear you could see right down to the bottom. Even grandma B and granddad B had a go! We then went across to another beach where mummy, daddy , aunty Kirsty and Leah all had a go being pulled on a banana boat, and then on rubber rings behind a speed boat, mummy said that was a great fun, very fast and exciting.!! She is such a big kid still, and daddy is just as bad.

The next day we went to visit Uncle Christopher at the RAF base in Akortiri. The cool thing was, the red arrows were there practising their drills, so we had a private viewing, with all the pilots waving at us, it was very impressive seeing them so close up.

We then went into Limassol to do some souvenir shopping, just to find all the shops and market shut early on a Wednesday, we did have a lovely lunch though at one of the cafes, us children all had pancakes with ice cream and mummy had a huge Greek salad, which she found she was rather partial to. We did find a really fun play park on the sea front which we all enjoyed. Mummy and daddy said because we were so good going around the closed shops they would buy us an ice cream from the ice cream van. We sat on the bench to eat it, having a perfect Kodak moment, within the space of a few seconds disaster struck with Emily sticking her ice cream into her hair, Elizabeth wetting herself and then Emily dropping her ice cream all down Elizabeth, and not to forget Scott pulling down his trousers and peeing against the tree. Mummy and daddy looked on in horror, but couldn’t help just laughing, it was really quite funny.

We visited Aphrodite’s rock, where apparently the goddess was born, not much to look at even after we realised exactly which big rock in the sea it was.

On the Thursday 15^th April we had a fantastic day at Pathos Bird Park, just our little family went, which was nice and we just trundled around looking at all the exotic birds, giant tortoises, horses, deer’s etc we found out mummy is fluent in ostrich!!

There was also a little children’s petting area, where we enjoyed holding little baby rabbits, Emily liked cuddling them like teddy bears. There was also a really fun play park, not to mention really tasty ice cream. Mummy and daddy timed it just right so we didn’t get too tired. I think it was really fun as it was not busy at all and we could just have fun running around. Grandma and Granddad went sight seeing for the day, which I think they enjoyed.

Mummy and daddy said that because we had been so good they would take us out to a fancy restaurant, let’s just face it, it is because mummy wanted to go! We all got dressed up and had a lovely time. Even though Elizabeth spilt her drink and fell off her chair, we had a great time. The waiters were very friendly and both Elizabeth and Scott had ice creams with sparklers, they were very impressive.

On Friday afternoon we went to a play area, like serendipities called kids kingdom, Elizabeth and Scott loved it, just their thing.

That evening mummy and Grandma B went horse riding, the scenery was beautiful as was the sun set but grandma felt a bit nervous on the horse, it being a few years since she had last ridden at age 15!! So they kept the ride simple.

Early on Saturday morning, Mummy and daddy went on their second dive, to a place to see Roman anchors. They said it was really good as it was just them and Billy the dive leader, they could spend all the time they wanted. The sea was a little rough and mummy felt a little green to say the least, while sitting in the boat. Although she was fine once in the water. She also used a borrowed suit which was a lot more comfortable for her (daddy has since sold the other 7mm suit, yeah for eBay).

After Church on Sunday we went up to the Troodos Mountains for a picnic, daddy nearly got offered a job from some Arab people who we got talking to and who were setting up a mobile phone network.

Mummy and daddy were very excited to go diving at the Akortiri fish reserve so travelled over to Limassol to do that to go with a different dive group. It was very disappointing; the dive leader didn’t know the area so they ended up just swimming over nothing for ½ an hour getting cold. Which got worse as they had a 40min boat ride to the next area, by which time mummy was very cold and a little exhausted, daddy looked after her very well. And they enjoyed the 2^nd dive but had to cut it short as mummy got too cold, as did one of the dive team, who was showing some very worrying signs. Mummy and daddy did get a refund for the first dive, but were disappointed they didn’t get to dive the site they really wanted to. Mummy and daddy met up with everyone back at pathos at the bowling alley, for family home evening. It was really fun Scott and Elizabeth were very good at it; Emily enjoyed it too and impressed everyone by picking up a bowling ball weight lifter style.

For our last full day in Paphos we decided to go and do some sight-seeing which involved us finding the Odeon (an old Amphitheatre, which is still used for summer plays) and visiting the Tomb of the Kings. Scott and Elizabeth loved climbing up and down the rocks and steps in the amphitheatre. We took a lot of pictures; these are in the gallery in our picture archive. Before we knew it, it was time to pack our suitcase and come home. We had to leave the villa by 11am, and so when we were all packed we said goodbye and took a group picture on the stairs. It took a lot of go’s to get the picture right as Emily kept moving and then Daddy wouldn’t get back in time from setting the camera. After finally getting the right pictures we got into the cars and drove to Limassol where we went to a hotel to wait for our airplane to take us home. While we were at the hotel we went swimming in their pool and enjoyed the little spa pool which was like a hot bath it was that warm!! It did make the pool cold though when you jumped back in!!!!!. Soon though it was time to leave the hotel and head for the airport and back on our plane to head back to England. We flew all through the night so that when we arrived in London it was morning. Grandma B drove us home in Daddy’s car, Daddy had to go to work and so he went and got the bus to take him to his work. He needs to earn more money for us to spend J

Busy time Daddy (as Elizabeth would say), Busy time!