Thursday 10 March 2011

Our holidays with a large young family.....

Our holiday winners and loosers from a family of 8! Who live in a wonderful holdiay farm already!

Our first holiday: Quack quack – oops!

I had erased this particular early holiday from my memory until Rachael, the TAMBA editor, encouraged me to drag it up for everyone’s benefit. At the time our eldest was just 6 and the triplets a few months old. We were desperate for to find an easy way to have a break from life and the business for a few days at a time and spend some quality family time together. In a moment of madness we decided that a caravan was the answer. The sensible thing would have been to book a few days away in a rented van, but no, we went the whole hog thinking we had holidays sorted and bought a caravan. Storage on the farm was simple enough, but actually getting it ready to go away was no 5 minute exercise and all my visions of happy children playing in a field while I watch sipping my wine all went out the window on our first outing. It drizzled! I was fed up with indoor card games in a confined space, trying to keep the space tidy and dry and carrying children to and from a shower block in the cold and soggy weather. That on top of the logistics of 3 mosses baskets on the floor at night, every one hearing everyone else waking up and precious little sleep causing fraying tempers. 3 nights was all we could take before packing up and returning home. I don’t even have a picture to mark the event! Needless to say 6 months down the line we conceded defeat and sold the van. Funnily enough, looking back I think it really could work for us all now that the children are older (age 6 – 12) but frankly I don’t think we will be attempting it again, one bitten and all that!

The gang playing in our holiday cottage

Looking up......
Apart from our relaxed visits to the grandparents, our only other real early holiday was a few nights just ½ hour from home in a little holiday cottage. We put it down to ‘competition shopping’ as a home from home type of holiday and it did work out for us. With 3 bedrooms, all modern facilities and space inside the cottage everyone was warm and relaxed despite the weather (again a bit mixed). I do have fond memories of silly things like playing peek-a-boo with the triplets from behind the coffee table, playing football in the communal gardens outside with our older children and a basic but adequate indoor play barn which used up those spare ½ an hour slots early evening for my husband while I cooked our dinner. The cottage was well placed for local attractions and we visited Lapper Valley, still a favourite family day out now.
Picnic in the woods while away with the grandparents a relaxing holiday for us!


On the back of this holiday we were determined to create an indoor play barn of our own at Coombe Mill, which is now a very popular feature with all our younger visitors.


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