Thursday 25 April 2013

Porthmadog, Wales

 We've just had a wonderful long weekend in beautiful Wales. It was just lovely, such a wonderful place to take a breath. The car journey wasn't too bad, The boys both took a small nap and Ethan had this checklist that he asked me to draw for him (pretty great idea, he sat ticking things for about an hour and a half).
 
It also helped spread out the "when will we get there?" questions, which he has now discovered.

When we got to the caravan site we had a note saying we'd been upgraded to a deluxe van, which was nice! We'd already paid a small fee to go up to luxury, so it was a nice surprise. The van was really great, proper kitchen area, three bedrooms (we'd paid for 2) a shower room and an en-suite toilet from our room. The living area was nice too, the sofas had nice covers rather than the coarse ones that look and feel a bit like carpet. There was also a decent tv with freeview which was handy on the Sunday when it rained and the kids were bored and in Sam's case, covered in chickenpox.

 On Saturday morning Ethan went for a fencing and archery lesson. It was less a lesson and more playing with swords, but he loved it :) They played with foam swords at first and then had the 'foils'. They were electronic so when you got a good poke in they buzzed.

 The archery also turned out to be crossbow shooting (foam darts thankfully!) but as he was the only one signed up, and a little girl who showed up a bit late and was very shy and left pretty quickly, He got pretty much undivided attention from the guy leading the activity and thought it was brilliant. He was actually not too bad at it either, and LOVED it when the guy said he could lay on the floor to do it.

 

 Saturday was gorgeous. Really warm and beautiful sunshine. We went to the park, and the high street to buy a bucket and spade and beach shoes for the boys, then headed to the beach that is right behind the caravan site. There was a little stream at the top of the beach which was lucky as we'd timed it badly and the tide was completely out! The boys played in the water and built and smashed castles to the sound of Sam's war cries of "seaside an' a beach!" He still hasn't grasped that they are one and the same.


 There may have also been a date and walnut scone with clotted cream and jam on our trip into town. Unfortunately I was so preoccupied with devouring the deliciousness that no pictures were taken. And that is a real shame because I'm telling you, that was heaven. It was in Cadwaladers ice cream parlour. Where I might also have bought ice cream. A couple of times over the weekend. For the boys of course.....and myself...

On Sunday Sam was really bad with the chicken pox so we skipped church. The branch there is VERY small, they meet in the town hall and are mostly quite old with a smattering of small children. One bad case of the pox could take them down for a month! Sam spent most of the morning watching telly curled up with Daddy and no nappy with occasional sobs, poor thing.

Ethan and I went swimming, and it was great! He normally wants his giant rubber ring and armbands, but he decided he didn't need the ring this time, which was great, til I let go in the water and realised both armbands had a puncture and he sunk a *tiny* amount :S He was quite upset, til we went to the poolside shop and bought new angry birds armbands. Then we worked on swimming - he's not very confident in the water, so he clung on for a long time, but I eventually convinced him to let go of one hand, and then a bit later the other. He swam! not for long, and for only about 10 feet maybe, but he did it! I am so proud of him, he's usually very scared and almost completely unwilling to try anything, and this time he was scared but did it anyway! 

I rewarded him with a play in the soft play area, and we went back to a much happier Sam.

Monday came around far too quickly, and after a play in the arcade it was time to come home. It was a brilliant and much needed break, and we really lucked out with the weather. Now it's back to reality, and school and stuff, but there are so many great things to look forward to, Ethan's birthday is in a month, then a couple more weeks and it's baby time! Yay! and EEK! and yay again!


Update: This blog has now moved to www.undomesticaited.wordpress.com - Hope to see you over there!

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