Day 35

Liz -

Not alot today i'm afriad, spent most of the day travelling home from a great week away. We all had breakfast together again today with Jack having toast, Nat, Harry & the kids having cereal and Mike and I on our vanilla shakes.

We then packed & cleared the caravan, amazing how this takes alot less time than packing to go away, shove it in a bag and wedge the bags in the car. Nat, Harry & their kids headed off for home whilst we stayed for Jack's final surprise, he had a go on one of the machines outside the arcade and then went to play in the park for a little while before the time arrived for him to stuff his own teddy to have at Daddy & Liz's house. He choose a giraffee and named him 'Gerry'. He thoroughly enjoyed doing this and had an amazing time, the beem on his face at the end as he posed for a photo made my day. We then set off on the journey back. He slept most the way back and this soon made me feel tired so I stopped and asked Mike to drive the rest of the way. We dropped Jack off at his mums on our way back home & then quickly unpacked the car & grabbed a chocolate shake before heading off for our quality time together in the tattoo shop.

We stopped on the way back to get a mushroom curry & mixed veg for dinner, we added some beansprouts into the mix this time and they were a welcome addition.

We now have the evening to ourselves before we see Jack & his brother tomorrow for a family BBQ to celebrate a 9th birthday. We are looking forward to this as they have told us they will do us some veg skewers on the bbq with a salad side.

We also get Lexi dropped off tomorrow morning so i'm looking forward to some quality time with her this weekend & over the next week with some nice long walks.

Holiday had it's ups and downs but overall we had a fantastic week away and it was nice to get out (covid has kept us in so long now i'm done with it). I'm not sure Nat, Harry & the kids will recover quite as quickly as we will from the week but I do hope it hasn't put them off holiday's with is in years to come.

Mike -

The holiday experience is over! We were up and at it around 06:00 again this morning and enjoyed some chill time together before we got packing to hit the road. Packing didn't take too long and before we knew it Nat, Jack and the kids were leaving to head home. Me and Liz feel like we need a holiday to recover from the holiday but there was one last treat for Jack before we headed home. Gerry the giraffe was born today around 11:00 and he loved making his own teddy and dressing him up. I was sad to see him go back to his mums but i am seeing him tomorrow and need a rest tonight.

The drive back was an adventure as we decided to divert ourselves around the traffic and accidents of the M25 so did a nice scenic tour around the back roads of Essex which saved us a lot of time. We had just enough time to come in and down a shake before heading out for our tattoo together. Liz was very brave and didn't make any fuss at all despite seeing the pain etched all over her face. I have had tattoos before so knew what to expect. It had been a while but i enjoy the pain most of the time. There was a couple of scratchy bits but otherwise i found it really relaxing. So much so that i am booked in to have some more work done at the end of July.

Dinner was beautiful tonight but i couldn't eat it all. My appetite is so small now. I had a mushroom curry with bean sprouts and mixed veg and couldn't eat it all. That is not like me at all.

Tomorrow is weigh in day and I am excited to see how this week has gone. We also have a bbq to look forward to and our hosts are catering for our Newcastle diet needs.

Carpe Diem 4L