OUR FAMILY HOLIDAY 2017 (Part One)

Our eagerly anticipated family holiday has been and gone, and now I'm just about over the post holiday blues I can write about everything we got up to. I'd looked forward to heading away with the boys and John for so long, we didn't manage to head abroad last year as Patrick arrived mid-way through the year and he was quite the poorly baby, so I was definitely in need of some tropical heat. We're fortunate that my parents bought a villa in Alicante a couple of years ago, so holidays for us have those home comforts more than most, as it really is a home from home now they've put their own stamp on the villa. Anyway, we headed off on a cold dreary May evening, for 8 days in the Spanish sun.

Out of any holiday abroad we've ever been on since having children, I'm always most nervous about the flight, naturally. It's not easy trying to keep little ones occupied for any length of time, without them having oodles of room to run free and wild. This was no different, it was only a three hour flight and something pretty damn magical happened whilst we taxied down the runway - the stuff dreams are made of, you know, that only ever happens in a story book, yes, both boys fell asleep. I couldn't believe it, we'd chosen a day time flight so they wouldn't be groggy and grumpy from and early morning wake up, yet here they both were exhaustively snoring away. I didn't complain, Patrick managed to sleep for around 45 minutes, whilst Noah lasted much longer at just under two hours. We landed and met our driver to take us to the villa shortly after collecting our luggage. By ten o'clock that night (as they're an hour ahead) the boys were tucked up in their beds and I had unpacked everything.

The next few days were spent lounging in the pool, me trying to soak up every single ray I possibly could and John doing quite the opposite and quite literally sweating at the sight of the sun. The boys loved the pool, especially Noah, three years of swimming lessons have paid off unimaginably as the water confidence he has is truly astounding. He wanted to be in the pool all day and night, happily preoccupying himself in the shallows whilst we juggled keeping him and Patrick happy. The villa is situated in a little seaside town of Javea, it's popular with expats but still very Spanish - exactly how I like it, I'm not overly keen on the towns like Benidorm which have been saturated with the English now. The weather each day was mid to high twenties, meaning we all caught the sun and to my surprise John for the first time in the eight years we've been together, he managed to avoid being sunburnt. I really can't tell you how much of a miracle this is, the man burns on an overcast day in Nottingham.

I'll be filling you in on part two next week! Have you holidayed abroad this year, or do you have something booked in that you're eagerly anticipating?