Holiday post - part one

Ok so as not to bore you about our holiday too much I thought I'd cut it down into bitesize pieces. If you get bored don't worry am sure that the endless madness of our holiday will cheer you all up.

So day 1 of holiday arrived, and after spending not such a good night sleep (Car waking us up at 1 and coming into our bed, and Bel then quickly followed - so 4 people on double air bed not much room to move!!) we were all up quite early. The kids feasted on coco-pops and nutella on toast for brekkie (always a good idea to start them on a chocolate high me thinks!!) and after traipsing across the field for a pee and a wash (no showers for us, queue so big and didn't want Car screaming place down - yes folks we were smelly and dirty campers!) off we went in the car to Dovedale.

Now, I've never been to the Peak District before but can I say it was beautiful, the small roads I made Neb drive down ( I love small roads, if I'm going somewhere and Neb lets me I would make him drive down white roads all the time - even better if they have grass in the middle!!) took us passed fields with stone walling and lovely houses. Neb being bought up in West Midlands had visited Dovedale and the Stepping stones many a time before and he was elated to be back in a favourite childhood walk.

 Unfortuntaley not many of my pictures take advantage of the peacefulness of the place .. well it would have been peaceful but for the busloads of holiday makers, school kids and Car screaming!! She had decided that walking was not something she would be doing, so tantrums and huggie mummy were what we had. I gave in after a bit and carried her until we could let her stamp in the river!!

As you can see from the Stepping stones they have been fixed which was causing bit of an uproar in the area (you can read about it here). I can see their point as they now look a bit like a sandwich and the water isn't that deep so falling in would just have left you a bit wet.



Anyway as we walked on from Dovedale toward Milldale, Car got worse at the "Not walking Mummy, huggy" so we only made it a bit up the path before we turned round and came back. We wouldn't have walked all the way anyway as I know that both Car and Bel would have been too tired to walk back. While Neb was taking Bel to the loo, Car and I wandered towards the car(!) and some woman asked if we could give her husband a lift to Milldale as their two young toddlers were to tired to walk back. Now, some of you may think I was nasty as I said that we had no room and were unsure as to which way we were going. She looked at me, and I did point out that with a booster seat and a child's car seat in the car there would be no room for him unless he was very slim. Is it me or should they have thought about the long walk before doing it all? Or am i just a cold hearted bitch.. who knows? (if your worried about them they managed to catch a bus up the road - and if you know her then sorry x!)

So after our pleasant walk in the dovedale area and having half a day left we decided to carry on up to Buxton and so we did. We wandered around and realised that we had parked on the top end of the hill and so after having lunch we had to drag (and carry) the kids back up the hill. As we left Buxton, the grey clouds set in so we decided to visit Poole's Cavern.

I had emailed the cavern before we had left on holiday as many such places don't let you take small children in (there are two mines near us who don't allow children to be carried / pushchairs due to uneven grounds!). Poole's Cavern though was fantastic. They replied to my email straight away and can I say that even though I had to carry my annoying child around - the place was fantastic and well worth a visit! Here are some of the pictures that Neb took of the caverns (as I obviously had hands full again!!!GRRR!)

After our lovely trip to Poole's cavern we decided to treat ourselves and take the kids to an italian restaurant that we'd seen in Ashbourne. They were (god only knows how) impeccably behaved and I'd like to thank the staff for putting up with us ~ putting us on the top floor with noone else there was a definite good step, as was giving the girls traffic light lollies to end the meal. If you fancy an italian then why not pop into Da Carlo if you are in the area!!


Anyway thats probaly enough rambling from me for now - part 2 will be written shortly....