Our holiday in the forest

We went to Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest, with Rob's mum and dad. I didn't really know what to expect, and was totally bowled over by the location. It was beautiful!

Close to our cabin was a lake, a stream, a couple of waterfalls, and the place was teeming with wildlife. As soon as we arrived, a young swan called by to let us know we were expected to feed our neighbourhood wildfowl.

The swan was soon joined by an older swan pair, some ducks, moorhens and their chicks, rabbits and squirrels. It felt like we were in a Disney forest (tra la la la la!).

Pretty much as soon as we were settled, Rob took the big kids swimming. They loved it! The pool had a waterslide for young children, a boat rapids waterslide that is really fast and enormous fun, a wave machine, all sorts. They went swimming every day, mostly with Rob.

On Tuesday it was Gerry's 79th birthday. We went out for dinner, to Strada. Betsy ate nothing, had a bit of a meltdown and left early with Rob. Freddie ate gralic bread and some chips. I hope one day eating out gets easier.



Wednesday was busy busy busy. Mave and I went to the spa. Mave had a head and shoulder massage, and I had a manicure. Lovely.

We got back in time to see Rob have a falconry session. It was amazing. He handled 5 birds - a barn owl, a buzzard, a caracara, a kookaburra and a bird we can't remember


Freddie loved it too, and was fascinated by the whole thing. Afterwards he said it was much more excting than he thought it would be.



After that we played crazy golf. Freddie and Betsy raced around superfast. Mave and Gerry took it a little more seriously.


Next up was a mooch around the lake on a pedalo.



Then the kids played in the playground. There were swings:


climbing frames:
very exciting water engineering set-ups:
and icecream:

Meg spent her time getting round either on the front of my bike (shame on us for taking no photos of this, she loved it), or in a wrap. Granny got to push Meg a couple of times in the buggy too.

Thursday we missed a thunder storm as we were bowling.

We left on Friday afternoon, after a marathon swimming session for F and B and a toodle around the village for M.

We had a brilliant time. We'd taken lots of food so didn't spend too much in the expensive shop. The activities on offer were fab. We've booked for next year (very kindly paid for by my in laws) so I think we'll book activities slowly over the year to spread the cost. Can't wait!