Holiday Heaven Pt 4

Saturday we reduced to another paddling trip to Postbridge, before buying bbq stuff and heading back to the campsite ready to babysit M and Iz and Joe and Lou wanted to go to a concert. (To be fair, i think ‘wanted’ states Joe’s stance on the particular band rather too strongly… 😆 ) So we had 6 girls for the night and it was lovely, all very easy and enjoyable. M is a particular delight, she knows how to play her audience, so consequently she had me wrapped round her little finger! 😆

Sunday we all, including the cousins and Joe and Lou, went to Lydford Gorge and picnicked before doing the circuit of the gorge. It’s quite steep and rocky in places, with lots of steps in the other bits, so i was highly impressed by them all making it round, including Joey. We took Fran the year i was pregnant with Maddy and she did it too back then at only 18 months or so (i only just did, i was a bit portly for it really!) but it is quite a hike so they did very well. More posing for photos (must find camera) and paddling there too. Think we Little Cheffed for tea again that night, cooking seems a bit of an effort when camping. Max and i stayed up late watching Peter Kay segments on You Tube. Laughed much to much for my pelvic floor 😉 😆
Monday we packed up, discovered we had inadvertantly stayed a day longer than we’d booked and had caused them hassle but they were lovely about it. Less lovely were the sons of the family who had been expecting to have out pitch. They walked backwards and forwards in front of our tent talking in that “outloud because really we want you to hear” way about how we’d stolen their pitch and we supposed to book out while throwing us evil looks. In fact, i only realised because of this, so was able to settle up with the owner without her having to ask, but why the kids had to be so ridiculous i have no idea, there were spare pitches so they were just a few spaces along 🙄 Oh well, we all make mistakes. Still haven’t quite worked out what went wrong!

My favourite thing about monday was stopping in to see the friends who i met when she bought stuff on BM and we discovered she’d been at school with Max. We spent 2-3 happy hours with them on their lovely small holding with their great kids and their delicious cakes. Still very much an HE family, in fact, not sure i know a MORE HE family than they are and it was great. How fab to have a life where tea in the garden is improved by the family pony popping over to say hello? Hoping to get back down to see them this autumn if i can as the combination of setting and family is almost instantly restful 🙂

Finally made it over to Joe and Lou’s after tearing ourselves away, primed the kids with calories and drinks and then headed off to Heavitree’s Party in the Park. Never been to anything like it before but it was lots of fun, though a bit loud for me and i seem to lose the power of speech and thought when things are loud. However, picnic, Pimms, fast rides, sun and lots of good music made for a very enjoyable evening. The girls liked Take That 2 and LOVED The Spicey Girls; i took the younger 3 home before Queen as they were drooping by 10pm but Fran, Iz and M made it to the end. Huge amount of fun and 6 very tired girls.

This morning i had to go and shout at a florist (sometimes having worked in retail really is excellent, i got £30 out of her in about 20 seconds flat after failing to achieve anything over the phone in a whole month) and then we dropped in to TRB with breakfast. Spent a lovely 90 minutes or so there, put some dirty handprints on the newly painted wall ( 😳 ) and then headed home. And now we’re back with no family holidays for… oh.. a month or so 😆 I have started having nightmares about exploding planes though, so plenty of time for me to get used to that idea!!!!