Drayton Manor Pt.1

Just got back from a fantastic weekend away with my family. A very welcome rest having ran over 100km last week and cycled 100 miles in prep for the forthcoming 24hr race. On Saturday we spent the day in Drayton Manor / Thomas Land and then today we was in Sutton Coldfield for a friends baby girl's Christening. Our two boys were so well behaved in the Church, in fact Joshua fell asleep! As for me, well I have been a parent for nearly 3 years and as from today I am now a god parent as well.

Anyway onto Thomas Land / Drayton Manor. As you can probably imagine I got a bit trigger happy with the camera so this visit will have to be posted in 2 or 3 parts. Anyway Drayton Manor is a top Theme Park with some great rides. We spent from 10am in the morning until nearly 6pm in there and the time absolutely flew past. The bizarre thing for me is that probably about 60% of our time was spent in Thomas Land. This is bizarre because 3 years ago we would have walked straight past Thomas Land without contemplation - how children change you eh? In fact we didn't go on any of the big coasters, the entire day was about the children and letting them have some fun.

Anyway the day started with a close up view of the Thomas train which runs frequently from the entrance up to the zoo.

Brandon loved watching the trains and was getting really impatient to get a ride on one.

However Brandon had to wait for a while as the first ride we went on was a mini roller coaster which he was too small for. Joshua 1st went on the coaster with his Mummy and wasn't to sure initially as it was pretty fast for a 2.5 year old.

Second time around he went on with me and enjoyed the ride much more. The theme park operates a parent swap idea which is fab because it basically means one parent can go on with a child whilst the other buggy/baby sits. Then without having to queue again the parents can swap, what a great idea. Anyway you can see from this picture that the coaster was pretty high up for little Joshua. To give you an idea of how high up we are, remember the red train in the background and on a later blog you will see the size of that up close.

Once we finished on the coaster we then headed over to Jeremy Jet so that Brandon could get his first ride. For this one we abandoned the buggy completely and all four of us flew in a jet together.

Brandon "Biggles" flying high.

And here is Joshua "Maverick" co-pilot.

The next ride was a spinning boat type of ride which Tina went on with the two boys. This was a bit hairy for Brandon and he didn't like it one little bit.

The next ride surprised me some what. It was a mini version of one of those vertical drops where you get bounced around and experience weightlessness. Joshua was old/tall enough and so I decided what the hell. I think I was more scared than he was as the dude just sat there sucking his thumb as if to say "whats the deal with this one Dad!". And yes I was wearing by Holland football shirt again in support of the Netherlands being the best team left in the 2010 World Cup.

You can just about see Joshua's little legs hanging over the edge.

It was a bit of a scorcher weather wise and after lunch we found (or should I say "Joshua found") and ice cream parlour. Cheeky little Brandon suddenly decides to like choc-and-mint and subsequently steals his poor Dad's ice cream. But I would give my ice cream up any day if it means seeing a beautiful little face like this. Brandon doesn't know it just yet, but in years to come those beautiful dark eyes and long lashes of his are going to have the girlies falling at his feet.

Anyway that's all for today. In between multiple 10k runs tomorrow I will try and get pt.2 of this blog update.