Monday 22nd March 2010

Just returned from a lovely long weekend spent at the Rockley Park Haven resort in Poole with my mum and the Viljoen family. Poole is approximately 2.5 hours South West of us on the Dorset coast and once again the prospect of a sandy beach was the ultimate draw card.

Friday saw mum, the children and I arriving well after dark having got lost a number of times on the way down, satnav is all very well when you can actually see where you are going, but England is renowned for it's traffic circles (some as big as 4 lanes) and I kept finding myself in the wrong lane, needless to say my stress levels where through the roof by the time we arrived so it was up to the restaurant for a much needed drink and dinner before an early night was had by all in preparation for a busy day on Saturday.

Unfortunately Saturday dawned cold and rainy, but as all Haven parks have really good indoor facilities the children were quite happy playing in the indoor swimming pool until we were joined for lunch by Rob's friends Debbie, Jonny and their children.

All 3 children were THRILLED to have Granny with us and were quick to jump into bed for a snuggle in the morning

Phil and 9 year old Caylee instantly hit it off and my son's first holiday romance quickly blossomed (eish). The children were all AMAZING and I can honestly say we didn't hear peep from them all afternoon, which was no small thing considering the size of the caravan that was at that point housing 7 adults and 8 children between the ages of 20 months and 11 years. Nicholas LOVED playing with all the big children and they were all in turn very good at spending time with him and including him in their games.

Megs and Donay spending some quality time over a game of cards in the caravan

Megs, Phil and Donay enjoying the water walkers on Saturday evening

Sunday dawned clear and relatively warm (12 degrees) so it was all into the car after a very speedy breakfast and down to the beach for a play, again the children were wonderful and while the grownups enjoyed coffee and newspapers on the beach they all played together so incredibly well. A late lunch back at the caravan was followed by more swimming in the indoor pool and some rock climbing before an exhausted group settled down for a chilled evening of pizza and dvd's.

After playing on the beach I realised I didn't have a change of clothes for Nick Nick so he ended up playing in the park in his sisters jumper.....looked like a little oompa loompa (lol)

All the excitement was simply too much for him

This morning after a relatively late start we enjoyed a huge big fry up together before heading home and back to reality....must say I really enjoy the 3 night weekend as I find going home on Sunday tends to break the weekend whereas having that extra night seems to finish it off somehow.

This is the first time we have been away with our close friends and it is definitely not going to be the last, as I have said the children all got on so well and it was more like being away with family than friends....such a FANTASTIC weekend guys, thank you so so much.