Sunny days away...

We have just returned from a lovely little holiday in sunny Dorset. We stayed with Mr Husband's lovely big sister; Auntie Poppy who lives in Weymouth.  I'm a big fan of breaks in this country anyway, but whilst Wiggles is small I just can't face taking her abroad just yet.  Plus as someone who has (fairly recently) suffered from Deep Vein Thrombosis I have been advised to keep travelling time down for the time being.  When we are eventually allowed to fly again I'll be restricted to four hours or less for a little while.  But hey, that's just me.  Plus this little break was so lovely that it really made very little difference.

We decided that Wiggles might not appreciate too long a car journey all in one go, so to keep her happy and much to Biscuit's excitement we called in at Paulton's Family Theme Park which happens to be the home of.....ta da da da: Peppa Pig World! Housed in a small corner of the park is a section of rides and attractions based around Peppa, her friends and her family. Biscuit LOVED it. I did not. It wasn't that it was bad, just extremely busy. I felt claustrophobic from the sheer number of people all clambering to get to the same places. There were buggies strewn everywhere, queues an hour long, which, with a baby were no fun at all, but perhaps the most wearing thing was the constant piped music. Anyone who's heard the Peppa Pig theme tune will know it's something of an earworm. Alternate it with "Recycle, recycle we love to recycle!" on a constant loop and it's a recipe for imminent insanity!

Packed!

Biscuit enjoyed it til her heart was content, playing pretty much until the park closed and we gained serious parent points! We then continued our journey to Weymouth. We arrived at Auntie Poppy's, ate a lovely tea and put the small worn out people to bed.

The following day Auntie Poppy had to work, so we headed down to the Weymouth seafront. They certainly make a lot of effort caring for their beach, ensuring it is clean and pleasant, so we dragged out our picnic rug and marked out our spot for some sandcastle making and a picnic. It was fantastic weather and the beach did get rather full, but that's ok. I did feel a little bit of a poor relation with just a picnic rug as most of our beachy neighbours seemed to have elaborate windbreak and sand tents set up, which looked great, but heavy to cart around!

The children had a fantastic time and we stayed put for a good couple of hours enjoying our lunch and the view before deciding to pack up and go for a walk in search of ice cream!

The result - Santa Baby!

We walked a long way up the seafront and then back through the town centre before heading back for tea with Auntie Poppy. 

The next day Poppy came with us to Weymouth Sealife Centre, which was truly excellent, well worth a visit. Especially if you can find a reduced price entry coupon, which we did. We spent the majority of our day here, looking at the varied creatures they have. My personal favourites were the weedy sea dragons, an elegant seahorse which floated around a sparkling tank.

The staff were all very friendly and Wiggles and Biscuit enjoyed stroking crabs and starfish as well as getting to meet Octonauts who were this season's star attraction! It was a really great place to visit and well worth our pennies.

After that we went to a nearby play area with lots of wooden climbing equipment and a big pirate ship for the kids to clamber all over. We relaxed on our picnic blanket and watched them whilst glugging a well earned coffee. 

On our final day we packed up out lunch once again and headed out to nearby Portland. To begin with we had a look around the iconic red and white lighthouse that marks out the coastline. Sadly Biscuit was below the height limit up climb the tower which did upset her a little, but I can't say I was too worried. Despite being an interesting place I disliked all the negative posters that were up everywhere telling visitors not to touch, not to stand in certain places not to do this and not to do that. It just seemed such a stark contrast to the Sealife Centre with their wonderful posters dotted around with interesting little nuggets of information about the creatures on display.  Frankly it made me want to leave. Hey ho.

Instead we stretched ourselves out on a wonderful little piece of flat grass overlooking the sea.  It gave Wiggles the space to practice her walking and she made full use of the lack of obstacles in her way.  We spent around four wonderful hours blowing bubbles, flying kites, eating our picnic and enjoying the sea air and sunshine.  I haven't had so much fun, or felt so relaxed for a long time.  It really was wonderful.

We then decided to visit a rugged little farm nearby with goats, sheep and even wallabies.  Both children loved it!  Then we headed back to Auntie Poppy's house via yet another adventure playground and had a lovely meal, all together.

Behind you!

We may not have done anything wild, or fantastically exciting or exotic but we all had a brilliant time.  Biscuit didn't want to leave. I think it just goes to show that it doesn't matter where your destination is, you could go five minutes down the road from your house and provided you were with the right people you can still have a brilliant time.

Have you got holiday plans this year?  Anyone been to Weymouth before?  Where's your favourite destination?

Love, love,