#CountryKids An afternoon out in Kendal

Some days even when you feel everyone needs to relax there comes a point when you just have to get the family out the door to save your sanity! Today was one of those days with the children starting to get on each other's and my nerves an excursion was required....

So we dug my daughter's bike out from the shed and I pumped up the tyres:

Her little brother prefers 2 feet to 2 wheels so he opted to "jog" and I had to put my running shoes on to keep up:

Having to carry a rucksack of library books didn't make it the easiest of runs for me and I also took chances to pause and photograph them as they shot ahead:

We padlocked my daughter's bike to the convenient bike rack outside the library and returned all the books:

Then the rucksack was re-filled with books my son spent a book token on and some drinks to take to the park. We reclaimed the bike and negotiated the market place and some cobble stone streets to get us down to the river:

My daughter didn't enjoy cycling on cobbles they made her arms all wobbly! She was much happier on the river path:

It's a lovely stretch to go down with plenty to look at on the way:

By the time we got to the park my daughter's hi-vis vest was showing signs of how many puddles she had cycled through:

The park was a lot busier than on our visit last weekend but there was still plenty of room for my little monkeys to burn off some energy:

It was a shame that the park benches were all very wet so we couldn't sit down for a drink:

But the children were far too busy to want to pause any way:

We were just in time to be able to nip into the neighbouring cafe for a warming hot chocolate before they closed:

Though I was good and just had a coffee (do you like the way my daughter set up this still life!):

When we came out my son was still full of energy:

So we took the canal path route home which was about 3 km from the park. Although my daughter took a wrong turn on her bike and ended up going a mile in the wrong direction... hopefully a mistake she won't make again. I look forward to more trips like this one.