I always like living in Wales. For one thing, our little valley town is the most beautiful place I've ever lived. From every window in our house, we can see gorgeous, looming hills and mountains. And on the more practical side, not only do we get free medical treatment through the NHS, like all other British citizens, but because we live in Wales, we get free prescriptions, too. Wow. All in all, Wales is a really good place to live and raise a family.

But some days? Some days - like yesterday - I'm reminded that I don't just like living here. I really, really LOVE it, and this is why:



Castles are scattered all throughout Wales, and within fifteen minutes' drive of our house, there are two. This one is Raglan Castle, which might just be my favorite castle in the world. Yesterday, we drove out there with MrD and had the most amazing morning running around the castle, exploring every inch of it. All three of us had so much fun.

The sad thing is, though, yesterday was the first time we'd visited Raglan Castle in almost a year. Why? Why on earth did we wait so long between trips? It's not even expensive to get in - Welsh heritage prices are totally reasonable, and if we went often enough, we could buy a family membership for even more of a discount. But somehow, we've gone a year between trips, for no better reason than general apathy. It's just too easy to spend our weekends mooching around the house or going to the same coffeeshop in town every time we go out. Sadly, Patrick and I really are creatures of habit...and sometimes the comfortable grooves we fall into aren't actually the ones we most want.

Yesterday, though, we broke our usual habits - and I'm so glad we did. The sun was shining. It was a cold but brilliantly clear autumn day. My usual castle joy was maximized by a thousand percent because I got to share it with Patrick AND with MrD, who's old enough to love castles, too. As we drove home (carrying, yes, a whole load of castle-related paraphenalia from the attached giftshop), Patrick and I swore to each other that we won't let it go another year before we come back. We're going to try to break our old habits and make at least one cool family trip every weekend, whether it's to a castle or a forest or a museum.

I don't know if we'll manage our goal every single week. Sometimes we'll feel too tired. Sometimes it'll be raining. Sometimes we probably just won't feel like it.

But I really hope we will, most of the time.

What about you guys? What do you wish you could remember to do more often?