Center Parks Day 1

This must be a new record number of days since my last blog update. But rest assured there has been plenty going on in the boys lives as we have recently returned from vacation in Center Parcs. During the vacation we took some 300+ photo's (mostly of Joshua and Brandon) and endless video files, so there is a lot of new material to share on this blog. So over the next week I will try to show a day by day report on Brandon's first holiday and Joshua's second trip to Centre Parcs.

But before I get into Day 1 just a few generic updates about the boys. Firstly Brandon continues to gain weight and topped the scales at 17lb 4oz today. Would you believe he is already in the same size nappies as Joshua and I swear his legs are thicker than Joshies. Secondly over the course of our holiday I have only just noticed that Joshua doesn't really make noises to communicate anymore. He pretty much talks constantly all the time. Everyone will say he has been talking for ages now and they are right. But within the talking there was still the odd grunt or noise where words were missing. But now he seems to have a word for everything. The grunting has been passed to Brandon who has developed this nicely (especially at feeding times!). Thirdly the two boys are really starting to interact well together. Its lovely to see them rolling around on the floor or the bed and Joshua is constantly giving his brother kisses (and the odd slap!!!). I can't wait until they start talking to each other and playing with toys together.

So with that out of the way its onto holiday - a week in Center Parcs. Both boys travelled very well. Brandon slept most of the way and Joshua watched a DVD (Scooby Doo) half the journey and then slept the other half. Once we arrived there we parked up and headed straight to the Village to get some lunch and find something to entertain the boys until we had access to our Villa at 3pm.

Upon arrival Joshua was clearly excited by the stunning view around the lake.

And here is Joshua in sitting in a chair carved from a tree trunk.

We stumbled across a large playtime session for babies and toddlers which was perfect to entertain the boys for a few hours. Joshua was absolutely fixated on this Little Tykes car and at times got a bit over protective about it by pushing other children away from it. We already knew he liked these cars and with his love of "nee nahs" we have ordered him the police version for his 2nd birthday in just under a months time (don't tell him as its a secret!).

Brandon on the other hand was fixated by this floor standing mobile which has lots of mirrors and jingle bells on it.

And here is a selection of a few other nice pictures taken from the boys play session.

If anyone has ever been to Elveden before you will know that the squirrels, rabbits and bird life is fantastic and extremely tame. On Day 1 Joshua was greeted with squirrels and rabbits. He soon learnt how to say squirrel and rabbit and was very sharp at spotting them as you walked through the woodland.

This was the view from the patio doors of our Villa.

Joshua was very good at playing in the woods and was very water safe. Don't ask me what he was doing here though. PS You can hardly see the little guy dressed in all his camo gear!

At the end of day 1 we headed into the Village and had a nice family meal in Huck's restaurant. Great food, great service, good child's menu's and a play area for Joshua afterwards. Brandon could get free baby food here, so it was smiles all around. Its very weird going out for dinner now as all your focus is on whether they have a good child's menu and baby seats as opposed to what we fancy eating. After dinner we had a nice walk back to the Villa and found this electrifying tree!

Check in tomorrow for day 2 of the holiday.