This weekend we went for an early morning walk to Blenheim Palace – handily about 10 minutes away from our house. This is where Elliot and I spent the vast majority of my maternity leave 2 years ago (the victoria sponge is AMAZING, and don’t even get me started on the chocolate brownie…I do credit this as my sole reason for not losing baby weight quite as fast as I had wanted!)

Anyway, whilst walking this weekend I took this picture of my boys in the early morning sun, down by the lake:

It reminded me of one that I took on our very first visit to Blenheim with Elliot when he was a few weeks old in early 2011. Here he is, in the same spot, cosily wrapped up in a bear suit and the Baby Bjorn:

I love this place.

I made it through the highs and lows of the first year as a mummy here, with the help of some of my nicest friends (my NCT group) as we met each and every Thursday come rain or shine for pretty much an entire year.

Elliot made friends here too. From the time when all the babies would take it in turns to wake up for feeding and we began to wonder (through that tired-new-mummy fog – remember that?) if they’d ever actually be awake at the same time, to the times when two or three of them finally were awake enough to meet each other. From them rolling over in the grass and taking tentative first steps, to enjoying first tastes of summer picnics on lazy afternoons.

Now we don’t get to visit as much, but I still love coming here. We come here more as a family now. Elliot loves going on the little train and visiting the butterflies – this is honestly enough to keep him talking about it for days afterwards, even more so if we meet up with any of his little friends.

Blenheim will always be “our place” – I just love it.

If you missed my overly excited post from yesterday, you won’t know already that I’ve been amazingly lucky enough to be shortlisted in the Family category in the Brilliance in Blogging awards run by the amazing people over at Britmums. I’d really love to make it through to the final, so if you think I deserve a place there please do vote for me. Voting closes on 12th May. To vote, click on the below badge and fill in the details – be sure to select Letters to Elliot in the Family category! In return I promise to carry on blogging, for me, for my little boy, and for all of you who enjoy seeing what we’ve been up to. Thank you so much xx