This weekend was our much longed for retreat to Center Parcs. The expectations were high and the car was laden down with warm clothes and Erin’s homemade rocky road. We had seen the weather was not going to be kind but had already decided that it wouldn’t matter that nothing was going to spoil the weekend.
The children were impressed with the lodge and couldn’t wait for the grandparents and uncle Sam to join us. Once settled in, water and fed we went for a walk around the forest. We stumbled across the Aerial Challenge course that we had chosen as our activity and Chloe immediately began to doubt her own courage. I, myself tried not to look worried!
After a bacon butty in the morning, Dylan headed off to archery with Grandad and he really enjoyed it. Chloe and Sam took off together and went swimming and exploring the Forest. Erin was just revelling in the freedom she now has post spica and loved touching nature and befriending a duck she decided to call Greg!
The afternoon activity was our aerial challenge which consisted of being 80ft in the air, clambouring from platform to platform. This consisted of side stepping the rope spidersweb, tightrope walking and stepping from moving plank to plank. Chloe was ahead of me which I respect so much as she didn’t have the benefit of watching someone she knew do it first. However I wanted her in front of me so I could see her. This meant that for every obstacle she crossed I had to man up and do it! I could hardly bottle what she had done!!
At times I froze, it wasn’t easy, why is it that my 16 year old self would have flown through the course with no hesitation, laughing whilst being gobby at the same time but the 36 yr old me saw danger at every step. The final part was a zip wire, that was the ultimate finale and all three of us loved that section! We zipped across the lake to the landing pad. It was a challenge it wasn’t easy and I am really proud of us for encouraging each other to do it.
I rewarded myself witha nice glass of white followed by a few gins. My dad questioned why I drink gin out of the same size glasses he drinks beer from!! I told him it was a fine art Iv’e been practising over time!
The following morning we all slumbered in our beds, even Erin didn’t awake till just gone 9. Unfortunately an hour or so later reality hit when the ranger came calling. He broke the news that a tree had landed on my dads car causing plenty of damage.
Therefore dad was left to sort that little mess out – thankfully he is such a calm man that he made sure it didn’t ruin the rest of the day for everyone else. We headed back to the pool for a final swim before packing up and heading home. It has been great to give Erin some fun and new experiences before the spica comes calling again.
Overall, even though the weather wasn’t on our side the children had a great weekend and that is all I wanted!
4 Responses
Poor Uncle Terry!! Glad you had fun though! xx
Sounds great, some lovely family time! Well done on the aerial challenge – bet you felt proud of yourself that evening! xx
So glad you had a fab time, shame about the windscreen eeek! We have some very similar pics from our trip to Centre Parcs, took me back, the kids loved getting close to nature!
It’s so great for them to experince it all. Thank god it was dads car and not mine 😉