Newquay Hendra Camping Day 1

With this years work bonus not being too great we could not afford a holiday abroad and instead booked 10 days camping down in Hendra Holiday Park in Newquay. Personally I have not been to Cornwall since childhood so whilst we were not jetting off somewhere exotic, I was really excited at the thought of this adventure, having a break from work and some quality family time.

 

As it is over 500 miles to Newquay we set the alarms early and was on the road by 3.30am. The plan was to leave the kids sleeping in the car for most of the journey. However it appeared Joshua and Brandon were equally excited about the holiday, set their alarms for 3am and then refused to sleep on the entire journey. We stopped off twice at 100 mile intervals and had a really good journey down there taking just over 5 hours (a much different story coming home, but I'll save that for another day).

 

The S-Max performed outstanding with its very heavy load and we owe a big thank you to Uncle Paul and Auntie Nicky for letting us borrow the roof box. Its amazing just how much gear we crammed in to the roof box and would not have got everything packed without it for sure.

 

Our second stop and the S-Max is looking fine in the glorious sunshine. Still 100 miles to go but Hendra is advertised on the billboard in front of us.

After 5+ hours in the car we arrived at Hendra about 2 hours ahead of our pitch time. So to pass some time we had something to eat and the kids played in the park.

 

 

Joshua on the climbing wall in the park.

Brandon took to the climbing wall like a fish to water and by the end of the holiday his world record was over 3 times up and down all 8 panels of the climbing wall!

Holiday enjoying a slide in the park. Full of energy after sleeping most of the journey.

The three kids in a large off roader at the arcades.

Eventually we could pitch up and it was all hands on deck to get the tent up. Starting with pegging the foot print out.

Then we spread the canvas out over the foot print.

Tina and Holly helping get all of the steel poles inserted in to the canvas.

Within no time at all the tent is up and Joshua is going around clipping the tent to all of the poles.

Brandon was doing some of the lower clips that he could reach.

Holly helping Daddy as we go around pegging all of the tent down.

Under two hours later and everything is set-up and we are ready to start holidaying. Doesn't it all look very blue?

 

Once the tent was up and we all had some refreshments the kids all wanted to hit the outdoor swimming pool which seemed like a good idea. However despite the glorious weather the water was pretty cold and Brandon and Holly didn't last long. So we ended up abandoning that idea and then heading inside to the Oasis pool where we enjoyed loads of fun on the water slides in much warmer water.

 

Holly not really sure about the cold water in the outdoor pool.

"Oh this water is cold Daddy!".

Joshua just doesn't feel the cold at all and was more than happy playing outside.

Brandon enjoying some time in the pool. But he does feel the cold a lot quicker than Josh.

Is that the Oasis in the background? Time to head in and get warm me thinks.

Great under water shots of Brandon  and Joshua diving under water.

Quick selfie of me and the boys in the outdoor pool.

Joshua playing in the pool with his little Sis.

Holly playing with a little water fountain in the outdoor pool.

Brandon poised to go down the green slide.

Inside the Oasis and Brandon heads off down the green slide.

Brandon on the ring to go down the blue slide.

Joshua ready to go down the blue slide.

The blue slide drops down in to a little plunge pool, then carried on back down to the bottom.

Holly could only ride the green slide and had to sit on our lap to come down. But she absolutely loved it and hit the bottom and immediately started saying "again, again!".

I think Holly enjoyed that slide more than Tina.

Brandon lands at the bottom of the blue slide.

Joshua had no problem chilling out on holiday.

My turn to take Holly down the green slide (even with a very bad back!).

When Holly wasn't on the big slides she was up and down this little dolphin slide like a yo-yo.

Joshua and Brandon being eaten by a whale.

Lovely picture of Holly playing in the Oasis pool.

Now that's what I call a power shower!

Brandon getting ready to dive through the tap water.

For our first nights dinner we decided to cook at the tent and Joshua was very keen to help out. So the boys knocked up a nice spaghetti bolognese whilst the girls both sat inside chilling. We pretty much had everything covered in terms of equipment for camping, but we could do with a table to cook on instead of on the floor and also our dinner table only sits 4 people so I think we need to upgrade to a bigger table for our next camp.

 



Dinner cooking, some bigger pans might not be a bad idea for next time we go camping as well!

The ladies just sitting there chilling whilst the boys do all the cooking.

Our first evening meal on camp before hitting the arcades for the night. Definitely need a larger dining table next time.

 

Southend Adventure Island Crazy Golf

As it was such a glorious day today and that I am now officially on 2 weeks holiday, we decided to spend the evening in Southend today. So after dinner we headed to the seafront and enjoyed a nice ice-cream, a walk along the beach, a round of crazy golf and then the kids had a play in the water fountains.

 

Holly showed an interesting technique with the golf. She wanted to do it herself and was kind of holding the club straight up and scooping the ball. After a few misses she would soon pick her ball up and run to the hole, then place it down about 2 inches from the hole before tapping it in.

 

Holly showing an interesting putting technique.

The impressive airplane and dinosaur on the course.

Brandon just taking his tee shot.

Our 3 babies posing in front of a nice old defender.



A family picture with everyone except me. Why does Tina look grumpy and have 3 horns.

My big boy Joshua enjoying the back nine Aztec themed holes.

Lovely picture of Holly smiling and enjoying her golf.

Joshua lines up his tee shot.

Holly cheats and picks up her ball to place it right by the hole before tapping it in.

Our 3 little beauties enjoying an evening out in the sun.

Joshua Stage 6 Swimming FINALLY and a PB Park Run

Talk about super strict. Joshua has been a blue hat in swimming for probably over 2 years and in my opinion has been held back. Both his current instructor and previous held him back because of one little thing that he just really struggles with - turning his feet out on breast stroke. He is such a confident, strong swimmer........ but because of this one foot position he has remained a blue hat for 2+ years. However despite Joshua feeling very poorly today and being sick twice, he decided to go swimming and low and behold he finally passes the criteria and has gone up to Stage 6. His teacher commented that his feet still are not quite there, but his timing was much better tonight and that he is now more than ready to go up a stage. So at last.........

 

Finally Joshua passes his Stage 5 and moves up to Stage 6 with his swimming.

 

 

At the weekend the boys also completed another park run and Joshua was on fire hitting a new PB in a time of 9:21 finishing in 16th place, 9th in his age category. Brandon was just one place behind his bigger brother in a time of 9:24. They are both getting ever closer to breaking 9 minutes for the 2k.

 

Joshua gets a new PB for his 18th park run.

Great Notley Park

Today I took a day off of work to run Auntie Nicky and family to the airport this morning and then to enjoy spending some time with the kids during the school holidays. We decided to try Great Notley Park in Braintree as I had seen pictures from peoples visits on facebook and it looked really nice. They have a sky ropes facility there but in the end we didn't use it as there was plenty to do on the 1.2km play trail that they have there. The park has a water splash area for the kids and a large sand pit play area. We also had a nice little picnic and played a bit of rounders on the field before heading home. I would like to try the sky ropes one day when we have a bit more time, today we spent about 4 hours over there and didn't do half the stuff we had planned. So I am sure we will go back there one day.



Joshua and Brandon playing in the splash park.

Joshua getting a wet bum as the water pours down the shoot.

Brandon practicing his surfer stance ready for Newquay.

Happy Holly playing in the water.

 

Joshua showing Holly how to use a water wheel.

Holly and Joshua playing together in the water.

 

Got to love Holly's Supergirl swim costume which she was given by a friend.

 

Holly keeping warm in a towel and enjoying some slides.

 

Holly on a larger bumpy slide.

Brandon's turn on the slide.

 

Brandon again.

The 3 kids giggling away on a large swing.

 

Needing some extra push so I jump up on the back to give them some momentum.

 

This was a really unualy 4 seater sideways swing that they had in the park.

 

Holly tackling the wobbly bridge.

God knows how I got in here, but Holly insisted I climbed in her house with her.

Me doing some weighted ring chin-ups holding Holly between my legs. Good for the core!

 

Brandon up on the high ropes course.

Brandon trying to traverse the rings.

 

Joshua failed big time on the rings!

 

Brandon on a tire swing.

Joshua on the tire swing.



Even Holly the daredevil had a go and kept asking me to swing her higher and faster!!!

Before a game of rounders we finished our day with a run up a big hill to this odd looking eagle monument.