Cyprus Holiday Day 1

On our first night Holly had a bit of a bad night as she had another one of her top teeth coming through and we didn't sleep great as the beds were not too comfortable.Once we all woke up we stared first full day by exploring the resort and getting our bearings.  The hotel pool was split into 3 sections and was absolutely massive. The beach was a 1 minute walk out of the back of the hotel and the water park was a 2 minute walk to the side of the hotel. We had a lovely cooked breakfast and Holly enjoyed a bowl of strawberry yogurt. After breakfast we spent the morning in the hotel pool as we had a meeting with the holiday rep at 10:30am to get a low down on the island and to look at any excursions that we might be interested in.

 

Anyway being day 1 of our holiday and being Holly's first holiday  was a bit trigger happy with the camera.

 

Joshua and Brandon standing by the main hotel pool with their new "Trainee Lifeguard".

The pool is quiet early in the morning and Joshua dips his feet in the little childrens pool.

Holly enjoying her strawberry yogurt for breakfast.

The beach on the back of Electra Village was just a small walk and had its own water sports centre.

Joshua practicing some snorkeling in the pool before we get out in to the sea.

Another underwater shot of Joshua snorkeling. Brandon had a little go but the snorkel is still slightly too big for his mouth.

Joshua and Brandon relaxing in the sun on their little Spiderman lilo.

Joshua enjoying some time in an inflatable ring.

Brandon leaping into the pool in an attempt to land on the lilo.

An interesting picture of Brandon playing bat and ball taken through the hole of an inflatable ring.

Holly basks in the glorious weather and enjoys her first dip in the pool.

Beautiful little Holly sitting in the shallow end of the pool playing with a ring.

And then a ball.

Quick selfie of me, Holly and Brandon.

The resort had some lovely hanging flowers which made a good backdrop for some pictures.

So with the morning pool fun out of the way we took a nice long lunch to get the kids out of the mid day sun. Brandon was happy as he found chicken nuggets and chips. Joshua wasn't eating too great on the first day and was being quite sick. We are not sure whether he had some dodgy water or whether he was just overly excited. He was desperately wanting to eat but just kept bringing everything up again. Luckily this only lasted a day and he was back on top form with the food and drink. Anyway after lunch we decided to pop over to our Water Park which was included in the "all inclusive" package. The boys absolutely loved the water park as the lifeguards were very relaxed about the height restrictions. A lot of the slides were minimum 1.2m or even 1.4m, but Joshua and Brandon were allowed to go on every single one.

Joshua coming out of one of the smaller kids slides.

Brandon going down the multi slide.

Brave Brandon getting ready for one of the larger slides.

The water park was well laid out and not too big that you couldn't keep an eye on the kiddies as they ran around enjoying themselves.

Joshua coming down one of the bigger slides.

Brandon splashes down at the bottom, one happy chappy.

Joshua going down the really big curly slides.

Brandon was even allowed to ride on thee slides!

Around and around he goes.

The Pirate ship and play area.

Joshua and Brandon enjoying cooling down in the lazy river.

Half way around the lazy river you get a good soaking from these overhead spheres.

What a great idea, a water seesaw.

I think Joshua and Brandon are a bit on the big side for the little pirate ship slide.

Me and my boys.

Probably the most hair raising rides in the park was the Sidewinder which is supposed to be for 1.4m and above and in theory should exclude both boys. But they were both allowed to go on it! Brandon loved it and screamed every time he went down the initial drop off. I tried this ride a few time and it really feels like you are free falling and going to come out of the inflatable ring. 

Joshua on Sidewinder.

Brandon screams as he rapidly goes down the initial drop off.

I think the Sidewinder was Joshua's favourite slide.

Brandon smiling as the Sidewinder comes to an end.

Brandon relaxing on an inflatable in the main pool.

The water park featured an genius idea for babies which was basically a baby swing which hung underneath an giant mushroom to shelter them from the sun, but allowed them to walk around in the shallow water. Holly absolutely loved just bouncing up and down, spinning herself around or simply just trying to walk in the water whilst in the chair. 

A genius idea of using a baby swing type device for the little ones.

Holly thoroughly enjoyed these baby chairs.

Our beautiful 3 kids enjoying their first holiday together.

"I'm just chilling!".

Tina holding Holly to go down the small pirate ship slide as Brandon waits at the bottom to catch her.

Then it was my turn.

Holly absolutely loved being held up in the shallow water and learning to find her feet.

Can you spot Joshua and Brandon getting a right royal soaking in this picture.

Selfie of me and my daughter.

 

To get Holly asleep in the evening, me and Joshua took a walk along the beach and stumbled across this rather small church!

Our first evenings entertainment in the hotel included the kids mini disco followed by a parrot show. Joshua and Brandon loved the parrot show especially when the parrots rode a scooter and a bike on the stage. 

Tina, Holly and one of the show parrots.

After the show the boys had a quick game of pool before we headed back to our room for a good nights sleep.

Brandon eyeing up a long shot.

Day 2 includes our first day at the beach and a very exciting water sport experience for me and the boys.

Cyprus Holiday Day 0 - Missing Luggage

This years summer vacation was in Electra Village in Cyprus and was Holly's first aeroplane trip and first holiday abroad at the tender age of just 8 months older (beating Joshua who travelled abroad when he was 9 months old). Unfortunately we are bound to school holiday's now and subsequently end up paying the extortionate prices as a result of supply and demand. I have to say I was very worried about travelling abroad with 3 children for the first time and with Holly being so young. My initial thoughts were that we should stay in the UK for this year, but it was lovely to get away from Wickford/Essex and all of the kids seemed to thoroughly enjoy their holiday.

 

As with previous years we were "all inclusive" which makes meal times much more accommodating for the children and gives them the opportunity to try lots of new foods. The boys also seemed to enjoy being able to order unlimited drinks and icecreams and could often be found sitting at one of the pool bars. We was slightly concerned about Holly's eating and whether we would be able to find any food suitable for her given that she hasn't long been on solids. However she was an absolute dream and was trying lots and lots of new foods. For breakfast she was enjoying scrambled eggs with beans, sausage and potato. After most meals she was enjoying a nice bowl of ice cream and some banana.

 

So over the next few weeks I will try and recall as much as I can from our 2 weeks in Cyprus starting with Day 0 today. The journey started well and Uncle Paul kindly drove us to Gatwick North terminal with the Galaxy absolutely rammed to the roof with cases, trunkies and hand luggage. All the extra luggage we required for Holly was ridiculous given that she was only allowed 10kg's in her bag! Once at the airport we bought a few snacks for the plane and then grabbed some lunch as there was no food served on the flight. After a spot of food we found a soft play area to pass the time until boarding commenced.

 

Holly playing happily in the soft play area as we wait to board our plane.

Little B keeping his sister entertained.

Such a happy little girl.

One perk of having 3 kids and a buggy to get on board is that you pretty much get priority boarding and as such we were one of the first to board the plane. 

The Thomson Boeing plane ready for Holly's first ever flight abroad.

Me taking Holly aboard her first ever aeroplane.

Holly wasn't quite as excited as Joshua and Brandon about the flight and the holiday experience and pretty much slept the whole way there (much to the satisfaction of surrounding passengers!).

Holly fast asleep in Mummy's arms.

....and still asleep but wrapped up in a warmer fleece.

So the transport to the airport and the flight all went very smoothly with us arriving in Cyprus about 9pm local time. We quickly made our way through passport control and then onto baggage reclaim where we had a major hiccup. After waiting maybe 30 minutes or so watching case after case slowly get collected from the conveyor it became apparent that 1 of our 4 cases had gone missing and unfortunately it was Joshua and Brandon's! This is every passengers worst fear and over the years we have been fortunate enough to never have a bag go missing. As it happened there was one case left on the conveyor which looked almost identical to ours but had a tag with the name "Mitchell" on it. So clearly someone had not looked at the tag and had just picked up our case by mistake. So we had a bit of waiting around in the airport whilst I filled in some lost luggage forms and the Thomson reps tried making some calls to track our missing luggage. This really wasn't the ideal start to our holiday and with three very tired kids in a very hot and clammy airport our patience was being tested. I think we eventually got to our hotel at about midnight where I sank a very quick beer before heading to our room. Poor Josh and Brandon were almost in tears at there lost luggage and very concerned about what they were going to wear and if they were going to be able to go into the pool or the waterparks. We eventually settled into our room and got everyone asleep only to be woken at about 2:30am with the holiday rep knocking on the door with our missing luggage.

 

All's well that ends well. We all got to sleep and the boys were very pleased to see their case when they woke in the morning. We were ready to start enjoying our holiday.