03 September 2006

Family Visit 2 - Karen, Nick, Charlotte, Curtis, Connor & Joe

Maria spent a hectic day changing beds and then Nick, Karen, Charlotte, Curtis, Connor and Joe arrived on Monday so the house was now really full and quite chaotic. The weather was a little mixed for them for the week, but overall was pretty good. I think that they all had a good time with visits to Lusty Glaze, Crealy, Trevone and Trenance Boating Lake amongst various other trips. They all got wet on the trip to the Boating Lake when it rained in addition to the splashes from the oars but they all had a go at rowing and didn’t manage to crash into the islands too many times. The children enjoyed feeding the birds; as usual, the pigeons were particularly friendly and would sit on people’s hands as long as there was food around.

The day at Trevone started badly with the drive up the coast road to Padstow. As those of us who live here know, the coast road can be a nightmare, especially when there are any buses on the road. Nick managed to get stuck behind a bus on one of the narrow sections with a couple of brewery delivery lorries and umpteen cars coming the other way. Joe kept on wanting to know where the sea was! After considerable manoeuvering, the situation was resolved and Trevone was finally reached. A splendid day ensued with the weather probably as good as it was any day. The children enjoyed the rock pools and caught a number of crabs which were safely returned to the sea at the end of the day.

On Saturday they all went back to Crealy for the day and took Annette with them. Maria and I went a little later in time for a picnic lunch and for the children to see how many funny faces they could manage whilst I tried my best to get a group photo.


As usual, I was inveigled onto the Log Flume, this time by young Joe, who insisted that I covered his eyes as we came down the drop. Also as usual, I seemed to be the only one who got really wet. The photo is not very good but one of my arms is just visible whilst the other is covering Joe’s eyes.


From the Log Flume, we proceeded to the water slides which have changed slightly since last year in that there seemed to be more water and smaller sides on the boats! Joe wanted to go on the straight slide rather than the bumpy one and I was again instructed to cover his eyes. We had a long queue here but finally made it. If I thought that I got wet on the Log Flume, it was like nothing compared to the drenching I got as we hit the bottom water puddle!! Joe seemed to enjoy it however and wanted to go again but, after the long queue, we decided to go and find something else to do.

Amonst the other things I decided to do was join the children on the slide into the Ball Pool. Well there is nothing like an old fool and I went straight under the balls ending upside down. When I climbed out, I realised that when I started I had a camera but where was it now? Nick and I climbed back into the Balls and, with children still coming down the slide, we scrabbled about in the mass of balls until I eventually found it, unscathed fortunately.

Nick and Karen’s children have been to Crealy many times and don’t worry too much about throwing themselves off death slides, but for Andrew’s Joe, it was a little different. He is also a couple of years younger than Connor so it was good to see him joining in and eventually tackling some of the slides by himself. The following photo has all four children on the outside bumps with one extra in the background.


A good day was had by all with a visit to the shops at the end for the children to buy some odds and ends; Joe managed to persuade Nanny that he ought to have a Triceratops so I think a little “sub” was made. Then it was time to leave and for the family to pack up ready to travel back to Hampshire later in the evening. The following photo was taken by Karen in the evening.


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