The start of October is always a cause for celebration. Not just because Daddy will allow the heating to be officially switched on, but because it's Mummy's birthday.
Interestingly, Jim posted this photo - and we almost all did a double take thinking it was Lily.
What's that poking out of the chimney? Must be nearly time for a fiery fire.
But first, Lily's latest craze appeared as a luggage tag. It says he's on the case (geddit). Waitaminute. Luggage...?
Yup, we were off on our travels again. As luck would have it, on precisely the same day as nanny Rachel. So as an added bonus, we all met up for a lovely meal at the airport.
Hello Barbados. It's us again.
We arrived quite late in the evening (after we'd waited ages for our cases to come off the plane). But made use of the sunset for a first walk along that lovely beach.
And here it is in the sunshine.
Look at these beach babes.
This year, the sea was particularly fantastic. Warm, clear and not too rough. We actually ended up spending the most time we ever had swimming, turtle-spotting and just bobbing up and down in the lovely water.
Lily and Mummy are happy to be back.
Lily and Daddy are happy to be back.
It was still good for a bit of boogie-boarding.
There were different pop-up bars. lily loved the snow cone stall.
As ever, we treated ourselves to a trip on the catamaran.
That strap looks a bit tight Daddy.
Geronimo!
One of the crew was kind enough to take a family shot.
Yes, we've done this same trip over and over again. But it really is fantastic every time.
And right on cue, Lily falls asleep on the way back to the harbour.
Lily really took to snorkelling. Her and mummy even swam out to explore the rocks at the edge of our resort's bay.
Yeeeeessssssssss.
On Friday night, there was a fab outdoors Food and Rum festival. We had a selection of nibbly dishes and tried various different cocktails, under the stars.
We did try something a bit different this visit. We donned hard hats and went spelunking, down in Harrison's Cave.
Hello pretty girls.
The 'cave' is a massive stretch of underground caverns, with a little guided tram tour running through it.
Rock!
From there, we headed to a wildlife reserve (stopping off for a photo-opportunity at Bathsheba).
This is Lily at the wildlife reserve.
It has a windy stone path through an open forest and you're likely to encounter all sorts of creatures. Especially tortoises and monkeys. We also saw caiman (caimen?), a mara, brocket deer and a komodo dragon. That we ran away from.
There are some green monkeys behind the tie-dyed one.
A shellfie.
We made time for a bit of reading too.
And we had to have a photo taken on 'our tree'.
It's become a bit of a tradition. As you can see over these four visits, at least two of the people in these shots are noticeably getting older.
Ten nights later, the sun started to go down on our amazing holiday.
One last evening walk to see the crabbies.
And a beautiful sunset to see us off.
For the first time since our honeymoon, we were able to eat at Asiagos (you have to be 12 or over). Very nice it was too and a fitting final meal.
Bye Barbados. There's every chance we'll be back one day.
Back to a dark and chilly Autumn. But there was still some fun to be had.
Lily shrugged off the jetlag to make the most of Halloween.
She made a spooktacular pizza.
And headed out to scare the neighbourhood.
Not a bad haul.
Here's this year's little roundup film. WAs you can see, we really, truly had an absolutely amazing time.
