Trip Down Memory Lane: Previous Visits To Bath

This weekend we are in Bath, so I pre-wrote a couple of posts for when I am away. I hope you enjoyed yesterdays post about everything pumpkin! I'm glad I've still got some pumpkin butter and pumpkin cheese waiting for me in the fridge when I get back, yum!

Today I am going to look back at our last couple of visits to Bath. My Dad lives there so we go quite regularly, although according to my photos we haven't been since May 2010! I'm sure we came last year for the Christmas Markets (such fun!) but that trip must have gone undocumented!

So let's start with May 2010 - we went up to Bath for the weekend to celebrate mine and Liam's birthdays. I didn't take as many food photos back then - it seems my focus was more on cupcakes:

Oreo x2, Strawberry, Black Forest, Caramel Macchiato, Coconut-Lime

"Improved" by Isabelle for my birthday!

Cocktails:

And, of course, people - I can't get over how young Izzy and Toby look!

Liam and I at the Ice Bar on my actual birthday night

I also love all the buildings in Bath - even just the regular houses look so grand! My Dad used to live in one of the flats pictured below, although he has since moved at least twice I think. I'm looking forward to seeing his latest place this weekend!

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Going back even further, we also visited Bath for a week in September 2009. We had booked a holiday to Tunisia, but when I fell pregnant with Toby we cancelled that and booked a holiday to Portugal instead. But then there was all the issues with swine flu at the time, so we decided that with me being pregnant, it wasn't worth the risk of flying in a plane of potentially infected people. Instead, my Dad kindly swapped houses with us! He stayed in our house and looked after Izzy for the week, and Liam and I got to have a break in Bath.

I haven't actually got many photos of this trip as I think they were on my old camera which got broken shortly afterwards. The one food photo I do have is definitely worth sharing though - fudge!

I can't remember the flavours but I know that they were all amazing! We haven't been back to this fudge shop since this visit - over 2 years ago - so a trip is definitely in order this weekend!

I also have a few photos of Liam and I to share. I was only about 6 months pregnant at the time...I can't quite believe how big I was already!!!

Getting ready for a meal out...

If I remember correctly, we went to Las Iguanas that night, where I had an amazing Brie & Mango Quesadilla for my starter, mmm, must remember that combination next time we have quesadillas!

We also visited the Roman Baths which were really interesting...

Liam got very into the Audio thing!

And we also spent time chilling in the sunshine...

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I imagine there'll be less relaxing this weekend, with both the children to watch out for, but I'm still really looking forward to it. On Saturday (yesterday by the time you read this) we are meeting my Dad for lunch. I sent him and Liam links to Demuths' menu and they both agreed we can go there, woo hoo! :) And today (Sunday) there is a Love Food Festival which I am excited to go to. It looks like it has lots of foodie stalls as well as an area dedicated to the children, and a picnic area for lunch...it should be a great day!

Have you ever been to Bath before? Or to a food festival? I went to Exeter Food Festival with my Mum back in April, which was really good fun. I'd been once before to the Exeter one a couple of years ago, but I saw it through different eyes once I was writing this blog - I made sure to experience everything to share it with all of you! :) I love Bath - it is such a historic city with so much to do. Now that Liam doesn't work weekends, I hope we can visit more often. The Christmas Market there is really good so that will probably be our next trip.

Lunch at the Beach Hut

Today has been such a good day :) After my amazing cocoa-raspberry "pudding" smoothie for breakfast, it was then time to get ready to spend some time on the beach. Liam went into uni, but the kids and I met up with my Mum...having an equal ratio of adults to children is always helpful!! Mum rents out a beach hut each summer with two of her friends, which provides a great base everyone :)

Fully stocked with mugs, plates etc...Mum even cooked a risotto down there a couple of nights ago!!

We walked through town to get to the beach and picked up a couple of salad pots for lunch - one with egg mayonnaise on top, and one with prawn mayonnaise (daughter's choice). These are a bargain at £3.20 and can feed 2 adults, they're huge!

I only ate the egg mayonnaise one, probably had about two thirds of that pot in total. It had lots of different food in the mix - the basic cucumber, lettuce, grated carrot, sweetcorn plus plain cooked pasta, potato salad, coleslaw, cooked beetroot, and couscous...

this was so tasty...

...I went back for seconds!

For dessert, daughter cut up & arranged a fruit plate for us all to share. There would have been more but baby ate a whole banana to himself, as well as munching a load of grapes!

It was then play-time! Mum sat with a magazine whilst "watching" baby in the pushchair, and daughter and I went to play in the sea! Note to self: revealing bikini body for the first time this year after eating a big lunch was not the prettiest sight...but who cares, we had fun! Don't worry, I won't scare everyone with a bikini photo, but I did get a photo of the rare sight of me in a skirt!

I desperately need some new clothes - I'm currently existing on a few tops, a couple of pairs of jeans, plus hand-me-down skirts/trousers from my Mum that are too big for her!! Old before my time!! Speaking of which, my Honeymoon Clothes Weight Loss Challenge was a complete fail - I only managed to lose 0.6 of a pound in 8 weeks!!! Grrr, I have no willpower - I did well for a few weeks then put most of it back on again! Mum and I couldn't go shopping this week anyway as Liam had to go into uni each day to make sure his dissertation gets done. We're going to go shopping in May/June half term instead...hopefully I'll be a bit happier with my body by then as well - whether I've lost weight or not, I'll hopefully have accepted by then that that is the body I'm taking to Barcelona!

Anyway, back to the fun stuff! Daughter and I had a great time playing in the sea...

We weren't brave enough to actually swim (the water was so cold my feet went numb!) but we still got wet - despite the small waves, daughter and I used our hands/feet to splash each other!

Poor little girl didn't stand a chance - she only managed to get me wet up to the middle of my back, whereas she was drenched from head to toe!! Heehee, good fun, she loved it, and she obviously wasn't too cold as she managed an ice lolly afterwards for the walk home!

The beach was really busy - nothing like it will be in summer of course - but lots of people making the most of the sunshine :)

Such a good day :) Baby was really good as well which made all the difference - he happily stayed in his pushchair in the shade until the last twenty minutes or so, when he had a quick wander around on the beach.

Once back home, baby had a nap and daughter and I relaxed until Liam got home. Then it was time for an easy dinner - the others had leftover meatballs from the freezer and I had the last of last night's Sweet Potato & Kidney Bean Burritos with some lettuce and sweet chilli sauce...

This was delicious again, but not a big enough dinner considering a) I'd had no snacks today, and b) I ate twice this amount for dinner yesterday! So I followed it up with a Nakd bar dipped in peanut butter, an idea I first got from Jess' blog...

A really tasty combo!

I ended up eating it with a spoon as the Nakd bar turned out to be really crumbly for some reason, odd. Still just as tasty though :)

And that's it for today, I think anyway. After I posted last night I ended up sharing a box of fudge with Liam...

That was a rational decision though as, weirdly, I checked the box yesterday, the 20th April, and it was best before 20th April exactly! I know it would've been fine to leave for longer...but any excuse to eat it! It was a mixed flavour box, and luckily for me Liam dislikes walnut fudge, one of my favourites (from this selection anyway, I don't want to limit my options in regards to favourite fudge flavours in general!!)

I don't think there's anything sugary left in the house that I really fancy at the moment though, and not feeling hungry at the moment, so hopefully I won't just snack for the sake of it once I hit 'publish' on this post!