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I have definitely made the most out of turning 30 on the 12th July, it has been amazing and I have been thoroughly spoilt by my friends and family! It all kicked off with a big BBQ hosted by my mum (hostess with the mostess, she loves it!) we had a bouncy castle, enough wine for 100 more people and my parents (already beautiful) country garden was stunningly decorated with the prettiest floral arrangements put together by their lovely neighbour.
The weather was perfect, the food was great, my brother and brother-in-law
were over from Scotland and it was all topped off with a surprise visit from some family friends from Sheffield, Christine, Paul and their daughters Emma and Clare had flown over because Emma was 30 on the 10th of July! Me and Emma have literally known each other our whole lives, we used to write to each other (before the days of Facebook) they all attended our wedding last year and we'll be attending hers next year so it was just perfect being able to celebrate the milestone together (once I got over the shock and stopped blubbing!)
My husband had been telling me he had to work all week, that he would be off on the Thursday for my actual birthday and that we would get a trip away later in the year so I was expecting a quiet week after all the visitors went home on Monday. Over "goodbye" tea and cake in the garden for our English and Scottish party guests however, he told me to pack a case and that we'd be heading off first thing the following morning! Surprises are great, packing for them is not (I'm a terrible over-packer at the best of times, at least this time I had a good excuse for packing 15 outfits for an overnight stay though!)
After dropping off the girls and the dog we set off on our adventure, still with me having no idea what to expect, until we stopped off for breakfast and he told me he'd hired out a boat for a day on Lough Erne followed by an overnight stay in a hotel that he wasn't going to reveal just yet!
We arrived at Castle Archdale Marina (www.castlearchdaleboathire.com) where we were kitted out with life jackets, given a map and shown to our boat! We were both complete novices but we (Martyn) took to it straight away and soon we were surrounded by the beautiful, and thankfully very calm, waters of Lough Erne, navigating our way to Lusty Beg Island for a spot of lunch!
We moored up, had a beautiful lunch outside, overlooking the water and decided that the boating life is definitely for us (if we win the lottery that is). Lunch was delicious, as was the gin, I have no pictures as I was starving so got stuck right in! Lusty Beg is wonderful, we stayed here afew years ago when Aryah was only a couple of months old but we will definitely be back when the girls are both older and can take full advantage of all of the activities on offer, there was alot of families there and I'm sure it makes for a fantastic break away for the kids!
After lunch we got ourselves back on the boat (ours is so tiny you can't even see it in the photo!) and made our way slowly back across the Lough, stopping at White Island to see the stone figures and old ruins that the gentleman at the boat hire office had recommended. Of course when we pulled up there were quite afew boats already there and we didn't manage to "park" the boat up as smoothly as we had previously when there was no-one watching but no damage was done and a kind man came over to lend us a hand! We had a lovely little explore around the ruins and the island and decided after it to head back in, we did have another hour or so left with the boat but we didn't want to risk getting back late.
It was the most wonderful experience and one which we will certainly be repeating in the future as there are so many more islands to discover, you can head right down into Enniskillen and Martyn has a fishing trip in his head (I think I'll skip that one). We were so lucky to get such a calm, beautiful day and it is a day I will never forget!
Quality time, romance and adventuring made for the perfect birthday surprise! I will also be forever grateful that he didn't bring the girls because a) I was really ready for a break from the constant tantrums and b) someone would have definitely ended up overboard.
