nice days out

We have been musing for a while on what to do in seeing family down south and we figured instead of one party doing the whole trip why not meet up half way so Saturday was our first go and we plumped for Dudley zoo and castle
What a great place!!!! The trip down only took us just under 2 hours with loo stops for kids which was great and only the same back which is doable every once in a while. The zoo was fantastic and really great fun, plus the keepers were available to ask lots of questions which Toby took full advantage of :-)

They had a lemur wood, penguins, sea lions, giraffes, red pandas, flamingos, tigers, lions, etc etc plus otters you could watch being fed.
Not to mention the fabulous castle for climbing up to the top and exploring, be it a ruin its a fantastic one, in fact I think if we'd just gone for the castle that would have been enough but you get both in the price which is pretty cool. They have a small child's fun fair with bumpers cars etc which is extra but the food isn't badly priced and tasted nice (we took picnic but were treated to yummy hot dogs and chips - thank you Lancasters!!!!). Was really nice to see family that we don't get to see that often and do mummy's day with Andy's mum too.

Would highly recommend, is a tad hilly though so if your kids aren't walkers and are little take a buggy!!!. Ours have been drilled in Everest training since birth (LOL) and managed fine though Hannah needed a few sit downs bless her. Toby and I did come to the conclusion that it was a massive shame that they didn't allow scooters as some of the hills were cracking!!!!!!! Sam was cameraman extraordinaire and one of his photos Ill put in a separate post to say hes only 5 he has quite a talent and I'm being honest when I say he took the shot himself