Back to school

We are now into the final week of the 6 week holidays and everywhere you look when shopping 'Back to School' signs can be seen. In actual fact these signs have been up since the first day of the holidays in most supermarkets.

At a recent gathering I heard friends talking about how they couldn't wait to send their kids back to school so that normal routines could resume, and ,likewise, the Husband can't wait for Titch and I to go back either.  Now I may be biased ,being a teacher, and I totally understand how having 6 weeks off can affect parents - it is a long time to try and keep them amused, but I love the holidays and , although I am also looking forward to getting back into normal routines, I will miss the holidays and these are my reasons why.

Trip to London: Day Three Hampton Court Palce

Day Three: Our last day and the day we were to come home.  Being the 'travelling day' we decided on a quieter, less thrill seeker day and decided to visit Hampton Court Palace - a place that I have always wanted to visit.  The night before we looked on line to book tickets and purchased the years Palace pass for a family as it was only £40 more than a day pass, and we knew we would use the pass later in the year when we visit London in August.

We we arrive we collected our annual passes and then headed straight for the maze which Titch was desperate to do.

On the way to the maze you walk through the rose gardens and these are stunning. It did help that it was such a glorious day, but I could have spent ages walked around just taking pictures of the roses.

The maze was great fun, and we all enjoyed getting lost and then eventually succeeding in finding the centre. We then had to find our way out, to which Titch asked if we could use Sat Nav - not sure it would work!

We then headed inside to explore the Palace and the rooms. There was so much to see and do. Titch even got to turn the roast beef that was cooking on the open fire. The smell was amazing.  There were staff all around dressed up, in character, who you could talk to and ask questions.

The grounds at the back of the palace were amazing. We had brought ourselves a picnic and sat under the trees just admiring the view whilst we ate.

We only managed to spend around 3 hours here, but could have easily spend double that, so hopefully we will get to go again.

We have so many beautiful places in this country and luckily when the weather is good as it has been these places just come to life.  

Trip to London: Day Two Thorpe Park

Day Two and Thorpe Park were on the cards. This is the one that Titch and the Husband had been looking forward the most. As it was somewhere that we may not go to again this year we decide to treat ourselves to fastback passes as we knew that the queues had been long all week and wanted to make the most of the day that we had.

Thorpe Park and having the fast passes did not disappoint us at all. We loved it! The first thing that we noticed was that everything was so close together. this meant that the walk between rides did not take off riding time. Using the fast track passes we managed to complete most of the big rides (apart from the water ones and swarm) and a few smaller rides before Lunch.

Now we are all thrill ride lovers and this is definitely a thrill ride lovers dream.  Each ride was different and exhilarating in its own way.

The only ride that we were all disappointed in was Derren Brown's Ghost Train. We had read so many great things about it and the ride just did not live up to the hype. Luckily with the fast track we only waited 10 minutes but some people had been in the queue for over 1.5 hours.

For lunch we ate a Pasta, Pizza Buffet and found this reasonably priced. The food was warm and tasty and the restaurant was as clean as it could bee seen as the tables were all full.  For a theme park place to eat it was okay.

In the afternoon we spent the time re doing the rides we enjoyed the most (Nemesis Inferno for me) and riding the ones we hadn't done - leaving the water rides till last, and we are glad that we did. After being drenched on Tidal Wave, we then spent an hour on the beach whilst Titch played in the Water and on the slides.

We all loved Thorpe Park and would recommend it if you are a thrill seeker like us.

An Autumn Break

This week we decide to book ourselves a holiday in the U.K for 4 nights - but this time with the dog in tow. never before had we taken the dog with us so this was a new experience for us.  Now one thing to bare in mind is that although our Huffy is loveable and cute, when he is in the company of another dog he is a nightmare. Whether he is scared or being territorial we are unsure, so we knew this was going to be an interesting break.  We wanted somewhere that would offer us opportunities for days out with the dog and, if it rained, accommodation that we could stay in during the day, so we finally chose a Log Lodge in Gloucester. It was an ideal location as it was not too far from the Cotswolds and was next to the Forest of Dean.

The journey down was relatively peaceful and surprisingly the dog enjoyed sleeping most of the way - except when we went around roundabouts.

When we arrive we were greeted by the owner who showed us around the lodge and gave us all the relative information. The lodge of beautiful. There was nothing on the site other than lodges and a small walking area for the dog. Inside the lodge it was clean and spacious and definitely perfect for a 4 night stay.

Over the week we wanted to get out as much as possible.  Taking Huffy with us we needed to find places that were dog friendly.  The first place we visited was a National Trust - Croome in Worcester. We obviously couldn't go into the house but the grounds were open to dog walkers.  It was spacious and lots of different walking routes and , although it rained a bit, was a great few hours out.

The next day the weather was a beautiful Autumn crisp day, so we decided to head to the Forest of Dean to Symonds Yat. After a few wrong turns and scary up hill drives we managed to find a place to park and went exploring.

The Forest of dean was beautiful and Symonds Yat offered stunning views of the Wye Valley.

On the Thursday we decide to take a drive to the Cotswolds and headed to another National Trust place Woodchester Park.  It was quite scary on the drive up as the fog descended on us and this was the view of the Cotswolds that we had.

We did finally arrive and it rained non stopped.  This did not dampen our spirits. After a good walk around we ventured back to the car for a picnic after cleaning the dog with baby wipes!

Huffy enjoyed the mud and so did we.


After getting back he slept, actually we all did.

Titch enjoyed himself so much that he decided he wanted to draw a picture of the Lodge to remember his holiday.

The British weather was not on our side, but we had an amazing week.  We laughed, spent time together. played board games, and just had fun.  Holidays are what you make of them and no matter the weather you can still get out and about - even if you do end up covered in mud.