Forgot my camera

I have better photos from today (admittedly not much better), but this one almost has both teens in it and it represents today.

Today was Joel's last day of the summer holidays (Tess doesn't go back until Monday). He starts his new course at 6th form college tomorrow. It's quite a long bus journey so he has to get up early. He's been working hard washing dishes and kp-ing all summer and his days off haven't usually coincided with his dad's (very infrequent) days off, so I wanted to make sure we all did something today.

So we went to the climbing wall in South Molton.

Tess rather stole the limelight by being the very best climber (even the people who run the place were impressed and suggested she join one of their groups) but I think - I hope - Joel had a good day, and Gemma had an okay day too.

We did other stuff like buying school shoes for Tess and having lunch in South Molton (quite fun - it's even more North Devony than where we live !) and this evening we went to the beach for Tess to try out her new (second hand) surf board. She loves it.
A couple of young life guards were carving up the shallows on a motor boat like boy racers - which was totally stupid, but otherwise it was a really lovely evening.

Gemma's gone to a friend's house this evening to say goodbye to a long-standing school friend who is off to uni in Edinburgh on Thursday.
I've been dreading this for her. I think watching people move away while she's still trying to make decisions about her own life is going to make her feel incredibly emotional and possibly a little jealous.