Beautiful Wales

Well we made it back from holiday in one piece. We had a lovely time although the children were quite unsettled in various ways.

DS was excited the whole time due to the presence of Grandma and the beach etc so he was up early and was wakeful in the night and general a pain due to being tired etc. DD was producing 2 molars and was sharing our room so she was also wakeful in the night and up early. I hoped it would be a wonderful restful holiday and in the main it was but I was still worn out due to constant broken sleep which was worse than being at home! DH and I managed a couple of evenings out for dinner and we explored what steps we could take to make things better / different for me. I always feel like I am treading water or biding my time for something but I dont know what that is! I'd still like to do a PGCE one day so maybe I feel like I cant move on until then, until the children are in full time school. I keep thinking about getting a childminder or something but the logistics of the part time course make it almost impossible to deal with.

As well as our meals out, we enjoyed making sandcastles etc on the beach and enjoyed watching the children exploring the sand and playing in the water. We saw such an improvement in DS's confidence - he even fell out of the dinghy at one point and came up smiling! DD was much like DS in his first toddling year there - running in and out of the water, not really sure if the liked it or not but seeming not to mind the cold. Both of them loved exploring the rock pools and DS was brilliant at spotting and catching crabs and tiny fish for his bucket.

His favourite phrase was "DD, you can collect a selection of shells" so that he could collect important things (living!) and he could pinch her shells to decorate his castles. He was very fond of telling Daddy to get on with the building while he found stuff for the interior design - how like his mother he is, all about the embellishment!

We made a familiar journey to Folly Farm which is much improved since last year and as usual we could have been there for days. It is ideal for DS's age group with all the play areas etc and thankfully as much inside as out! We also ventured to Oakwood but were really disappointed. The really big new rollercoaster was out of action as it kept getting stuck at the top and they had to lift people out, the huge water ride wasnt open until 2pm each day, the 3rd of the big rides wasnt very good (one of those bouncing things), which only left Megaphobia as one of the Big 4 worth going on. It is brilliant, all made of wood, very fast with lots of drops - just what we like. The park itself though was unkempt, the staff were grumpy and untidy, and there really wasnt enough stuff there to keep you busy all day unless you repeated rides. Also the food was shocking in comparison to the huge portions of loveliness at Folly Farm. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Cardigan Island Farm Park which is beautiful and a great place to spot seals. Sadly they are still fighting a plan to have open access to their land and its been going on for 4 years now.

So, all in all, the weather wasnt brilliant, the children werent brilliant, but we had a lovely time. I miss the white washed and old stone cottages and the lovely lilting accents, I miss the daily walk down to the tiny village centre to get the paper and fresh bread, and I miss the fabulous wholefood shop that sells my favourite Japanese Rice Cakes (by Clearspring) and sells herbs and spices by the teaspoon. I managed to find a lovely herbalist there who gave me some fabulous tea to help me sleep. Just wondering about feeding it to the children... ;-)