Firstly, thank you SO MUCH for all your fantastic comments on my previous post for the Gallery. I'm overwhelmed by the response. It seems that I really do need to look into getting greetings cards/notecards printed up and for sale. My apologies for not responding to the comments before now but we went away on Wednesday lunch time camping and didn't get back until Sunday night and then I've had to do all the boring shite that goes with coming back from a holiday.. packing everything away again, shopping because my house looked like Old Mother Hubbard lived here etc... so hubby has gone back to work today and I finally have the house to myself, some peace and quiet and time to catch up on the computer.
If anyone wants to buy any of my photographs in any shape or form, please email me and I'm sure we can come to some agreement :)
So we set off on Wednesday lunchtime for our camping trip on the Llyn Peninsular in North Wales. It's only a couple of hours drive thankfully, as Isabelle doesn't travel too well.. but all hail to Boots travel tablets.. she travelled just great this time and was very proud of herself when she asked if she'd been very patient and not grumbling, and I told her yes she had been very good and I was very pleased with her.
I was looking forward to this camping trip a bit more than previous trips. We had a 4 man tent but it was quite small once you got both bedrooms up. There was only a small floor area inside and we couldn't stand up straight inside the tent, and I'm only 5' 3". So, I'd bought us a new tent, much to hubby's disgust. His idea of camping is the smallest tent you can find and a sleeping bag (not essential). Whilst I'm not one for taking everything including the kitchen sink, there are a few things I do find necessary. This includes airbed and sleeping bags. Enough room to stand up. Enough room for 3 people to move around without falling over everything. A few food basics (milk, bread, bacon, coffee), eating utensils and our little camping cooker. Hubby thinks I take far too much, but we have a 4 year old who does not live life as simply as hubby does. We need juice for her to drink and a few snacks to keep her going. She's happy to eat fruit, so I take some. I'm not prepared to take nothing and then 'pop to the spar' and pay twice as much for them once we get there.
Hubby complained about the size of the tent before it was even put up. He wasn't prepared to listen to any suggestions on the best way to put it up. He just complained. I ended up telling him to bugger off and I'd put it up on my own. And why on earth does he have to make the guy ropes so tight that it pulls the tent out of shape and you can't open and close the zips on the doors? I went and loosened them all off a bit LOL. He broke the zips on the last tent from pulling it too tight. So once the tent was up, he complained we might as well have stayed at home, seeing as the tent was almost the size of a house! It isn't. It is a 6 man tent... but it's one that has the sleeping pods on each end and a circular bit in the middle.. that I COULD stand up in. So I ignored him. I'd got a bargain and I was happy with it. It is £250 worth of tent that I picked up from ebay. It had only been used once (confirmed once it was put up) and I paid £75 for it - yay! By the end of the holiday, hubby had warmed to the tent and agreed I'd got a bargain, a helluva lot of tent for the money I paid and that it was really nice having that bit extra room. (ever wanted to smack your hubby for being an arse and then chaning his mind?)
Then we had a catastrophe according to Isabelle. Isabelle still had her bedtime bottle of milk to get her off to sleep. I've been trying to get her off it for ages, afterall she's going to be 5 in July. Neither of my other kids had bottles to go to bed with. Isabelle never had a dummy, and her bottle of milk was her most favouritest thing in the whole wide world (according to her). Hubby could see no problem with her having it and didn't back me up when I wanted rid of it. He said she'd stop having it when she was ready.. I said she'd be in her teens. Well, when I looked for it at bedtime, it wasn't there. I remember some things falling out of the box I'd packed, which hubby put back in and put the box in the car. The bottle didn't get put back in the box. Hubby said he'd go and find one at the spar shop. I said no. I told Isabelle that we had a bit of a problem and I needed her to be a big girl about it because I know she's a big girl and is very understanding. I told her we had no bottle. She cried a bit and told me she loved it and couldn't sleep without it etc.. but I put her some milk in her sports bottle in case she needed a drink, and she actually went to sleep. I had to phone my older son who was still at home (hopefully not wrecking the place) to find and then lose the bottle before we got home. She'd got it into her head that she could have it again when she got home, but I told her I couldn't find it, and she went to sleep without it again. She did cry a little bit to start with, but did good. Last night however, she woke in the night and really struggled to get back to sleep. I sat and held her hand, stroked her back and shushed her till she relaxed and she did go back to sleep again, although I heard her whimpering a couple of times, but she did it. Her 'going to bed' sticker chart is filling up nicely now. As a special treat while we were on holiday because she'd been such a big girl, she got to take a ride on a pony. She's been wanting to do it for ages but has never been quite brave enough. But now.. she's a big girl and big girls can ride a pony. she absolutely loved it, despite the slightly aprehensive look on her face.
Her other most favourite thing of the holiday was at the same place she had the pony ride. It was a bunny farm which was a little farm park with small animals that the kids could feed. There were baby lambs, baby pigs, puppies, ponies, hundreds of baby rabbits (which the kids could cuddle) chickens, ducks, alpaca, donkeys and Isabelle's two favourites, the peacock who (according to Isabelle) was showing off for the ladies.
Her other favourite was feeding the Rea. She was actually feeding the donkeys when all of a sudden a little head on a long neck poked it's way through the gate and pinched the animal food out of her hands. She laughed so hard i thought she was going to fall on the floor. She squealed with delight every time the rea pecked her hand for some food and all the other visitors near us were laughing at her laughing. Hysterical!
We had a lovely break camping and were lucky enough to get the tent all packed away literally 10 minutes before the rain started.
So we set off on Wednesday lunchtime for our camping trip on the Llyn Peninsular in North Wales. It's only a couple of hours drive thankfully, as Isabelle doesn't travel too well.. but all hail to Boots travel tablets.. she travelled just great this time and was very proud of herself when she asked if she'd been very patient and not grumbling, and I told her yes she had been very good and I was very pleased with her.
I was looking forward to this camping trip a bit more than previous trips. We had a 4 man tent but it was quite small once you got both bedrooms up. There was only a small floor area inside and we couldn't stand up straight inside the tent, and I'm only 5' 3". So, I'd bought us a new tent, much to hubby's disgust. His idea of camping is the smallest tent you can find and a sleeping bag (not essential). Whilst I'm not one for taking everything including the kitchen sink, there are a few things I do find necessary. This includes airbed and sleeping bags. Enough room to stand up. Enough room for 3 people to move around without falling over everything. A few food basics (milk, bread, bacon, coffee), eating utensils and our little camping cooker. Hubby thinks I take far too much, but we have a 4 year old who does not live life as simply as hubby does. We need juice for her to drink and a few snacks to keep her going. She's happy to eat fruit, so I take some. I'm not prepared to take nothing and then 'pop to the spar' and pay twice as much for them once we get there.
Hubby complained about the size of the tent before it was even put up. He wasn't prepared to listen to any suggestions on the best way to put it up. He just complained. I ended up telling him to bugger off and I'd put it up on my own. And why on earth does he have to make the guy ropes so tight that it pulls the tent out of shape and you can't open and close the zips on the doors? I went and loosened them all off a bit LOL. He broke the zips on the last tent from pulling it too tight. So once the tent was up, he complained we might as well have stayed at home, seeing as the tent was almost the size of a house! It isn't. It is a 6 man tent... but it's one that has the sleeping pods on each end and a circular bit in the middle.. that I COULD stand up in. So I ignored him. I'd got a bargain and I was happy with it. It is £250 worth of tent that I picked up from ebay. It had only been used once (confirmed once it was put up) and I paid £75 for it - yay! By the end of the holiday, hubby had warmed to the tent and agreed I'd got a bargain, a helluva lot of tent for the money I paid and that it was really nice having that bit extra room. (ever wanted to smack your hubby for being an arse and then chaning his mind?)
Then we had a catastrophe according to Isabelle. Isabelle still had her bedtime bottle of milk to get her off to sleep. I've been trying to get her off it for ages, afterall she's going to be 5 in July. Neither of my other kids had bottles to go to bed with. Isabelle never had a dummy, and her bottle of milk was her most favouritest thing in the whole wide world (according to her). Hubby could see no problem with her having it and didn't back me up when I wanted rid of it. He said she'd stop having it when she was ready.. I said she'd be in her teens. Well, when I looked for it at bedtime, it wasn't there. I remember some things falling out of the box I'd packed, which hubby put back in and put the box in the car. The bottle didn't get put back in the box. Hubby said he'd go and find one at the spar shop. I said no. I told Isabelle that we had a bit of a problem and I needed her to be a big girl about it because I know she's a big girl and is very understanding. I told her we had no bottle. She cried a bit and told me she loved it and couldn't sleep without it etc.. but I put her some milk in her sports bottle in case she needed a drink, and she actually went to sleep. I had to phone my older son who was still at home (hopefully not wrecking the place) to find and then lose the bottle before we got home. She'd got it into her head that she could have it again when she got home, but I told her I couldn't find it, and she went to sleep without it again. She did cry a little bit to start with, but did good. Last night however, she woke in the night and really struggled to get back to sleep. I sat and held her hand, stroked her back and shushed her till she relaxed and she did go back to sleep again, although I heard her whimpering a couple of times, but she did it. Her 'going to bed' sticker chart is filling up nicely now. As a special treat while we were on holiday because she'd been such a big girl, she got to take a ride on a pony. She's been wanting to do it for ages but has never been quite brave enough. But now.. she's a big girl and big girls can ride a pony. she absolutely loved it, despite the slightly aprehensive look on her face.
Her other most favourite thing of the holiday was at the same place she had the pony ride. It was a bunny farm which was a little farm park with small animals that the kids could feed. There were baby lambs, baby pigs, puppies, ponies, hundreds of baby rabbits (which the kids could cuddle) chickens, ducks, alpaca, donkeys and Isabelle's two favourites, the peacock who (according to Isabelle) was showing off for the ladies.
Her other favourite was feeding the Rea. She was actually feeding the donkeys when all of a sudden a little head on a long neck poked it's way through the gate and pinched the animal food out of her hands. She laughed so hard i thought she was going to fall on the floor. She squealed with delight every time the rea pecked her hand for some food and all the other visitors near us were laughing at her laughing. Hysterical!
We had a lovely break camping and were lucky enough to get the tent all packed away literally 10 minutes before the rain started.
I love camping, although I am not a minimal girl. I even have fairy llights for the tent!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos and i'm glad you had such a good time. i miss you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Julie. We really need to get together soon, it's been way too long!! missed a good old yap with you. ((hugs))
ReplyDeleteLOL. I love the sound of that. Yes, I'd have fairy lights too if I could get away with it. I got into trouble for taking milk for my coffee when we could have bought it at the shop when we got there. Men! tut!
ReplyDelete