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| Oh, deer. |
Oh my, this one has been a long time in coming. I haven’t posted in
months, due to life stuff, and in May we went to CenterParcs(1) at Elveden
Forest over the bank holiday, for fun and family time.
After a fairly stressful journey out, thanks to unrevealing postcodes
and the world’s most horrendous car parking one-way system, we arrived to find
a friendly chalkboard welcoming us in, which Arya proceeded to redecorate with
glee. Hanna and Andy went to pick up a couple of trikes, and while we were
waiting for them, Arya and I saw a little deer outside the window, which was
like a whole bag of squee and really made the trip seem worthwhile to Arya. We
saw a lot of deer over the long weekend, including a male getting all
protective of his fam while we were sat on the patio.
On Saturday, Hanna headed in early to get some head-shots taken, and we
followed later once Arya was up and lively. I have a note here that says ‘saga
of the boots (sandals)’ but can’t remember what that was. Presumably Arya was
unwilling to wear her boots or we hadn’t brought the boots she wanted. After we
met up with Mummy, we went out on the lake in a pedalo, which more or less
broke Hanna, then went for an owl walk, which involved several owls, a couple
of hawks, a falcon and surprisingly little walking. Hanna has the photos of
Arya with owls. After Lunch we went swimming – Arya was made up about the big pool
and the artificial waves and currents – before going home for a barbecue, which
was only slightly disrupted by the appearance of a couple of rowdy aggro-geese.
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| It's tough being captain. |
On Sunday we went for family photos, and Arya proved her natural diva
qualities by basically photobombing her own portraits. After that it was time
for pottery painting – since the local place closed down – and a blatant
triumph of vision over common sense which saw us painting almost completely up
to our scheduled boat time for the day. We ate a swift pancake lunch and headed
to the lake, where Andrew took Arya on the ‘Mini-Captain’s Adventure’, which
came with a natty nautical hat, while Hanna and I cruised around in a motor
boat. Then swimming, then a curry, and home for a very late night.
On Monday we got up and packed, but had time for a few more things. Andrew
went on the treetop climbing adventure, while the rest of us went for a row.
The plan was to get a shot of him from below the zipline, but our time ran out
and there was still no sign of him. We went to the little beach, and waited.
Then I picked up the pots, and we waited. Finally, Andrew appeared, having been
held up by some shenanigans involving the guy in front and a celphone.
Lunch, one last swim and a sit down, and then it was time to go home. It
was a grand break – although far from cheap – and we plan to go again.
(1) If you’re going with the Francophone ‘parcs’, could we not use ‘centre’?
No?
