"Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!"

We had been looking forward to the August bank holiday for quite sometime, we didn't have anything huge planned but the fact that Mrs M was off for a three day weekend was reason enough to be excited. Sadly Friday came and due to unforeseen circumstances Mrs M ended up quite ill and basically sofa bound. Obviously she was well looked after with no shortage of foot rubs, i made sure her nails were painted and eyebrows were plucked as i know this is the best way to get her relaxed. (I know how to treat my girl like the princess she is).

We had arranged to see our friend Chris (gingerjamphoto.com) on bank holiday Monday and Seth had picked somewhere fun for us all to go, but Mrs M still wasn't feeling great and the thought of a long car journey really wasn't appealing, so we decided to venture somewhere a little more local. Unfortunately after driving most of the way there we had to turn round and find a different route due to a serious road accident.

Some bad navigating from the back seat and a couple of bad turns and our journey ended up a two hour stretch, not what Mrs M had hoped for being wedged between two car seats. Chris kept us occupied though with a barrage of terrible jokes that I can only describe as awful 'dad humour' (god help any children he may have in the future).

After our epic journey we finally arrived at our destination, desperate to get out and stretch our legs. The temperature had risen substantially since the morning so I was a sweaty mess. Seth was desperate to show Chris the dry sledging and Chris proved to us once more that he's as big a kid as all of us. The new gym mat/sledge has certainly been getting some use since being given to us by our friend Gareth (he's yet to come and join In the fun though). We all had a great time apart from a few near misses with the gravel at the bottom of the hill.

After a good few rides of the valley we headed back to the car to get the boys wellies on and go splashing. I don't know what it is about splashing in streams but Seth loves it.

Spending time with Chris is always a lot of fun and the boys love him to bits. Being a photographer he comes with the added bonus of taking great photos of the four of us together. Although we're always out together visiting nice places, one of us is always behind the camera so we actually don't have that many of us all together.

It was soon moving towards tea time and I think tummies were beginning to rumble so we decided to head home. It was a great afternoon, topped off with some yummy food, cups of tea and a few games of countdown on the boys blackboard courtesy of Seth Vorderman. All in all a great bank holiday Monday was had by all. Thanks Chris, for the photographs, TERRIBLE jokes and of course the great company.

I am just like any other girl, a sucker for bromance.

We had a great afternoon yesterday with our good friend Chris. Chris writes a photo blog called Gingerjamphoto.com and can always been seen about with his camera attached to him, its like an extra limb. We love spending time with him because he is a genuinely nice guy and is very thoughtful. He always makes a lot of effort playing with the boys and they love it when he visits too. One of the other reasons i love catching up (as selfish as it sounds) is that because he always has his camera with him he always gets some great shots while were out and about. They are natural shots too, most of the time he is snapping away and you don't even realise, he's like some sort of photographic ninja. Its not that I'm a poser just that not having access to photo's of myself when i was younger anymore i crave great family pictures of us all and Chris knows how to capture that.

We headed down to Ironbridge, the plan was to have a walk about and take Opeie to the park and we thought that Chris could get some pictures of the Iron bridge itself. The weather was amazing and it was such a nice way to spend a bank holiday. Ironbridge is one of our favourite places and its perfect for those sunny days.

After pottering around the bridge we headed down to the park as Opeie was itching to get the ball out and Chris being the lovely bloke that he is had brought the boys some bubble camera's and old school planes for throwing. Laura used this as an excuse to get hold of Chris' camera which gave us chance to fully embrace what Mrs M calls our 'Bromance'. I love the guy what can i say.

Opeie was having a great time running round the park, throwing aeroplane's and blowing bubbles.

After an hour or so of park fun we headed back to ours for a spot of lunch made by that lovely lady of mine while us three boys ran around the garden, read books and played with the rabbits. Mrs M was booked in with her personal trainer after lunch so after dropping her off us three boys headed off for a walk up the Wrekin. Opeie resumed his favourite place on my shoulders and away we went.

While we were walking Chris spotted some Bluebells and asked if me and Opeie could go and sit in them while he took some photos. Me and Opeie being the posers that we are were happy to oblige. Who's going to turn down lovely father and son pictures? not me that's for sure. Opeie loves flowers so he was in his element, Although the cute sniffing and picking soon turned in to 'Hulk Smash", he's definitely my boy that's for sure, Oops.

We had such a great day with Chris. Not having a family outside of Mrs M and the boys means that i really appreciate the friends that go the extra mile to make the effort. The boys love him too which is great. We've been friends for quite some time but its only been the last year that we've all become close and i feel so lucky to have a great friend that's always there for a chat and loves spending time with us.  Our Bromance is sure to blossom!!

To see more of Chris' great pictures be sure to visit his blog gingerjamphoto.com, it's always nice for us to read about our days out from an outside perspective.

Here's Chris' take on the afternoon... http://gingerjamphoto.com/bankholidayfun/