Northern Ireland, Grandson Birthday and Halloween fun

We travelled to Belfast from Liverpool on Friday, the start of half term, to spend time with our son, Child 4, his wife and our now 2 year old grandson. We stayed with them for 4 nights, taking the overnight ferry back on Wednesday.

It was our first trip without Bob The Dog since he died in September and unfortunately we'd already booked him a kennel for the crossing, having to tell staff at check in, we no longer needed it.

It was really strange getting on the ferry and not having to go to the kennels and we felt a little lost without him, so we headed to the bar for a drink before we went to our cabin.

We still had the dog bed, food and leads etc with us to give to our sons dog, Molly who loves her new bed, but not as much as our grandson does.

Grandson turned 2 on Sunday so we had an early birthday treat for him with gifts and a cake.

We had lots of fun with the little man, who was more than happy to see us, despite it being 3 months since my last visit. We do have video calls with him but it's not the same. 

We babysat on our 2nd day while mum and dad went to the rugby and he was happy to come with me to the park, wearing his new gloves.

However, he decided he actually wanted my gloves to wear on the swings.

Our friend gave us this swing for our other grandchild a couple of years ago, Peter did it up and we bought a new seat so grandson can enjoy it in his garden.

We spent a lot of time colouring in and wondering where the food had gone (he'd eaten it all)

Halloween was fun, the dog wasn't too keen and stood rooted to the spot until the costume was taken off.

It was just the two of us for 'trick or treat' and I had just as much fun, even though it was raining.

We had fun with puzzles and reading

And there were lots of cuddles and soon it was time for goodbyes.

I'm joining in with 30 miles for Birmingham Children's Hospital in November. I'm actually doing 3 miles a day, as I cover a mile easily around the home and in work.