Tuesday 29 June 2010

25 weeks 5 days - holiday post! With photos!

Well finally Jonathan has managed to get all the photos from the holiday sorted and up. We have decided, since it's the last series, to watch Big Bother this year (sp intentional! ;) ) and had the series link recorded while we were on holiday so we had a good week to catch up on which left only an hour or so for Jonathan to do photos. Anyway! So finally photos are sorted, and I've been holding off posting them on facebook so you lovely ladies get to see them first! (well, most of them anyway!)

We booked a holiday cottage which was owned by some people who also ran a farm. I'd seen the pictures from the internet but they didn't really do it justice. The views were stunning, although we couldn't see the sea from our cottage, we had lovely views across the hills and fields... and just.. wow, you know? The actual cottage was lovely and big, a large kitchen with a walk in larder which they used to put all the pots/pans etc. The living area was huge. Robert loved this room!



This was actually a panarama that Jonathan did of the living space, which is why you can see two Roberts running around holding teddies ;) The door you can see at the far end leads off to the main bedroom, a walk in wardrobe and a bathroom with shower (no baths anywhere in the cottage!) We spent quite a while trying to decide where to sleep ourselves, and where to have Robert sleep. The cot they provided was upstairs between the other bedroom and the upstairs shower room. Eventually we settled in to moving the cot into the upstairs bedroom, and us sleeping in the downstairs one. The first night I slept TERRIBLY because I was so worried, Robert usually sleeps with a wall between us! I was sick as well that night, presumably from the sandwiches we ate for lunch from the service station. But I ended up climbing into the bed that Robert's cot was in and I still slept badly because the cot was so creaky! The rest of the week I slept downstairs and was ok with it in the end. My main worry was that he'd get out of the cot somehow and then fall down the stairs!!

Anyway, Robert really enjoyed exploring the cottage for an hour or two after we got there, while we unpacked. We got there around 3.30pm, having left home around 8.30am. So not too bad! He was good for the journey there and we had a couple of breaks. After we'd unpacked we decided to head down to the local beach in Crackington Haven. It's a pebbly beach at high tide, with some sand at low tide except the sand is always saturated because of the water from the streams running down into the sea! The first day we went at high tide. I took him right up to the waters edge, and he seemed very wary of it, then when the water washed over his feet he went into hysterics! Poor fella!



So I lifted him up and he watched the waves from the safety of my arms, and he seemed much happier then.




After a while we climbed up the beach well away from the waters edge, and let him play with the stones and pebbles. He loved this! And for the rest of the holiday, whenever he saw pebbles he kept wanting to play with them!





Later we walked along the beach a bit more (it's not a huge beach there) to where there was a pool of water in the stones, and Robert would have literally spent HOURS there. Jonathan threw a stone in, and Robert wanted to do the same, and he did love throwing the stones into the water to make them splash!





When the local pub had started to accept patrons for meals we went in there for our evening meal. I had the BEST lasagne I've ever tasted there. I couldn't shut up about it!!! Robert enjoyed his pasta meal and Jonathan had a chilli con carne.

The next day was Sunday. The weather forecast wasn't good for this day, so we decided to play it by ear and see what happened. We went for a walk along the coast path for a while which Robert loved! There was a thin obvious path and he loved running along it!




There were loads of flowers along the side of the path for him to look at and lots of butterflies and other bugs!




He did seem to enjoy picking flowers a lot of the time!

Back in the car park he took a liking to Mummy's hat!!



That afternoon we didn't do a lot. It had started raining so we had to cut the walk short and head back, we mainly drove around a lot in the afternoon. We were going to stop at a beach, but when we did there was a particularly heavy downpour of rain at that moment and we decided against it! It was forecast for rain on the Monday too so we thought we'd go to a soft play centre in Bude but in the end we didn't need to as it was lovely all day! (and for the rest of the week!)

We went to Boscastle on Monday which is a nice little town on the sea's edge but it runs along a stream going into the sea as it doesn't have a beach.



I picked some big daisies for him to hold :) They were still intact when we got into the car to go back but by the time we got back to the cottage they were petal-less! ;)




After lunch and his nap we headed back to Crackington Haven beach and let him play on the sand there (low but rising tide!). He loved splashing in the puddles of water left in dips of the sand.




And later enjoyed picking up sand and throwing the sand into the puddles!!



Rather predictably he did end up falling over in the puddles and getting his dungarees all wet and sandy!!!



And did some drawing in the sand with a rather.. erm.. limp looking stick!



After we got him stripped off, and changed into dry clothes, we then went and got us all an ice cream, which Robert thoroughly enjoyed :)






Afterwards we drove into Bude and found a little Italian restaurant to eat at. Absolutely delicious food, unfortunately I don't know if I strained something or if Squidge was lying on a nerve, but I had a constant very painful stitch which made it difficult for me to properly enjoy the meal :( But Robert certainly enjoyed it!!





He was getting tired towards the end so started rubbing his very sticky hands covered in sauce all over his face!!!

The next day we went down to one of the beaches in Bude, it was huge and very sandy. The tide was going out, and it was amazing just how quickly the tide went back. Robert enjoyed going to the water's edge a lot more this time, and also he got a much better opportunity to dig in the sand which he seemed to quite enjoy!











That afternoon we went to Tamar Otter & Wildlife Centre which we were quite impressed with. They had about 10 pens of otters but they also had ducks, geese, peafowl, owls, deer, wallabies and wildcats! Apart from the owls, the birds roamed freely on the grounds which meant Robert could get quite close up to them!



He liked pointing out the owls and other animals he saw (he's now very much into pointing!)


This one is just a nice picture of my big boy (big brother to be!) taken by me, while he was riding on Daddy's shoulders.


On Thursday we went to Tintagel. It was quite a nice little town, although much more of a tourist location as it is apparently Arthur's town of birth (that is, Arthur of the round table, King Arthur ;) ) so it was all about Merlin and things like that, in fact we saw a giant Merlin statue outside one of the tourist shops, and saw people posing with it for photos! Haha!

We walked down and although we couldn't get up to the ruins (not pushchair friendly!) we had a nice lunch looking over the bay and the ruins, and Jonathan took Robert for a little walk around where I was sitting with the buggy and bags, hense this photo:


Then Robert stopped to pick flowers and tickle Daddy with them :D




We then had the looooong walk back up the hill and oh my god... I was absolutely knackered by the time we got to the top. They did a landrover service and by the time we were half way up I wished we'd taken it! It was a very very steep hill! One of the pubs at the top were clearly capitalising on this and even had a sign outside saying "Walked up that hill? Stop in for a drink, you deserve it!"

The shops there were quite touristy but there was one that I liked looking round, they sold lots of necklaces but also beads and necklace making things! We didn't buy anything but I've been planning on buying a nursing necklace for oooh. About a year now? So I might well just make one ;) Thinking of trying my hand at necklace making and seeing what happens lol!

Anyway as that hill wasn't punishment enough, by the time we finished at Tintagel it was quite late into the afternoon for us to go back to the cottage for Robert to nap, so we decided to go on a long drive so he could nap in the car. As chance happened I saw a sign for Clovelly, where I'd been once as a child, so we drove there. It gave Robert plenty of time to nap, and we had another long walk dooooown a steep slope, with me thinking whole heartedly "boy am I glad we didn't go on holiday in late August like Jonathan originally wanted!!"

Robert liked the cobbles, but he got very frustrated that he couldn't pick any of them up!!

Here we are walking back up. Note to self, find the landrover services for such places if we go there again!


And Robert on the donkey that was half way up


I probably slept VERY well that night!! ;)

Thursday morning we decided to take Robert swimming for the first time in one of the local pools. We weren't sure how he was going to be but he seemed to really love it! We went for a toddler swim session and they had a woman there singing songs and we'd splash Robert into the pool when Humpty Dumpty fell down for example, and just let him play around with the toys they'd got out and he did enjoy it, so much he wanted to go back in once the session ended! Getting him ready afterwards was an experience, so I don't think I'd be in a hurry to take him on my own! In the afternoon I was really tired so Jonathan took Robert out again for a walk along the coast path.






The last full day we were in Cornwall we went to a leisure farm, which was great. They had a large shed filled with pens with lambs, pigs, goats, what looked like llamas, a cow, and some horses (one shire, a couple of shetlands), and they also did a pet the animals session where they took out rabbits, guinea pigs, ducklings, chicks etc for the children to hold on their laps. Robert LOVED this bit unfortunately we didn't get any photos, Jonathan just took video footage instead. Robert was so gentle with the animals :) The duckling he held was very wriggly and Robert did keep trying to pick it up (probably squeezing the little thing a bit too hard) but I think that was because it kept trying to run away! You can see a pen with some lambs in here, they had about 3 different pens full of lambs from different litters (if that's what it's called!!!)



He got to see some chickens in a coop as well which he liked :)



And they had so many kid play areas as well there was no chance of them being bored! They had a large outside play area with stuff for kids of all ages, including a wooden tractor for the kids to play in!


And a huge sandpit with a wooden climbing frame with slides and allsorts, but they even had trucks and digger things in the sand, along with wheelbarrows!




I love the look of concentration on his face as he's pushing the wheelbarrow along! :)

Back at the cottage we started to tidy up in preparation for leaving the next day, where Robert enjoyed helping out too :)


So that was our holiday! As you can see he did thoroughly enjoy himself and I really think it must have helped his confidence with words, he started to say words spontaneously while we were away, especially "car" and he just seemed to love it all! :)