Last weekend despite its ups and down we enjoyed a fabulous outdoors adventure.

We woke up to the sun was shining and decided to go out on a family adventure. We headed towards Westbury Court Gardens, a National Trust location we visited years ago but sadly didn’t check the opening times and arrived to discover it’s closed until March. Undeterred we carried on into the Forest of Dean but it was getting a bit late now:

We had thought about going into the National Heritage Centre, again somewhere we’ve been several times before but seeing as there was only an hour or two before the sun was due to drop, we decided to head to the lakes just outside it. Somewhere we’ve had a few picnics before:

With three lakes to walk around, we made it around two. Had it been earlier we would definitely have made it all around. There was lots to see and do. The girls especially enjoyed all the fallen trees and branches to climb on. At first we had thought Christmas trees had been dumped until we opened our eyes properly and realised the forest was full of them and they had fallen down in the high winds:

It was one of those days when we just let the girls run, explore and even paddle in the lake:

They were in their element. I love days out like this, unplanned and enjoyable. No winging, just lots of smiles, perfect:

They really enjoyed throwing stones into the lake, seeing who’s went the furthest…of course Daddy always won:

On the way home I picked up my phone to see if my parents were in and up for a little visit when I noticed a text message. Daisy was 25 minutes late for a party and we were still 25 minutes away. I felt terrible! Thankfully she was in a dress already so we rushed home, changed her from wellies into party shoes, grabbed the pressie and ran there. Phew…She was almost an hour late but we made it:

All in all a great day out, except for the mix up at the end. Thankfully it was a great party and worth all the rushing around though. Have you ever done things like this? I cant believe I actually forgot!

Karen x