We crossed Dover-Calais  on the Saturday and drove down the coast of France to St Valery, where we spent the first night, it teamed with rain and we thought great start to the holiday. The next day we kept heading South to where we spent a week, it was near St. Malo at an amazing park/resort . We camped the whole time and it was fantastic. As we headed South the weather got better and better. We camped with canvas holidays and they have the tents already set up and equiped, a great option when we don’t have any equipment here.This would definitely be somewhere that we would visit annually if we lived here.When we picked it ,I thought it had heaps to do, but it was way better than what I had read. Another surprise was, that with the kids club ,they had sourced in another company to organise activities and organise the Hoopi Club (thename of the kids club),they were amazing and the kids got to do so many things that they will probably not have the chance to again. I think Gwynfor and I had the most time alone together for ages, sometimes we would go to the bar sometimes we would just chill out and read.It was a fantastic week, because we camped the kids would all play out in the evening and we met so many great families that we will stay in touch with, the kids are emailing some kids that they met as well.

our tent, quite roomy really,beds very comfy.

Water walker,was a crack up to watch. They looked like hamsters running in a wheel. Harder than it looks there is nowhere to lean on ,to stabilise.

The sea scooter was really cool to scoot around on, Jack and Aislin couldn’t do this one as you had to be 9 and over.

The canoes was funny to watch, you didn’t have to be there but I enjoyed watching them, enjoy themselves and having so much fun. They had teams within the canoe and they had to play these tricky games, you could hear them chanting and yelling all over the park. They happen to be filming and shooting for the new catalogue for 2009, so they will be in the interenet video and in the catalogue, we had to sign forms to say that their images could be used for Canvas holidays.

Ella being Ella ,was a bit of a worry wart on the horse but Ais was very relaxed and really enjoyed her ride on Blue Eyes.

There was a couple of lakes in the resort. Some were for fishing but this one was near the  pub, with nice tables and chairs to sit and relax by with a lovely view. The pedolas were also there and the kids just had to have a go,so Gwynfor and I sat and watched over a nice cold beer. Ahhh! the serenity.

We arrived at Sian and Keiths , South of London on the Thursday night, Sian had prepared a lovely dinner and the weather was lovely and we sat outside it really felt like we were in Aus and to top it off we had several bottles of wines( Aussie style).

Sian was kind enough to be our tour guide for the day ,when we set off for our day in London.  We all got day tickets for the train which allowed us to get on and off all transport in London.The train took about an hour to get into the centre , we wanted to catch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Aislin was disappointed that she didn’t get to actually ,see the queen.

It wasn’t that exciting ,so we went over to St James park which used to be the palaces’ front garden ,but Lizzie gave it to the people ,to use and it is lovely.The kids were swinging and playing in the playground when we heard very loud music, we followed the noise and were really very lucky to witness , the beefeaters practicing for the colours parade, there would have been over 500 of them marching along in time . It was an amazing site that we didn’t have to fight the crowds to see ,as not many knew it was on. It felt like they were doing it  just for us..

We then walked back through the St. James gardens onto see the mounted horse guards. They are the ones that aren’t allowed to move or anything , although I saw one check out a nice looking young girl as she went passed (too much temptation for the most strictly trained). The boots they wear are certainly not  made for walkin’.

After that we walked past all the parliamentary houses including number 10 Downing St. we also caught our first glimpses of the London eye which wasn’t there, last time we were in London. We passed Big Ben, the huge and stunning Westminster, grabbed some lunch and we sat down on the lawn infront of the London eye and ate and watched everyone. The London Eye takes half an hour to go around, you get an amazing view of London it’s self. It was great and nice to sit for half an hour.

After stepping off the Eye we went along the path ,where there were heaps of street performers, the kids were absolutely fascinated. Talking with the kids later they said this was one of the best things of the day. They are very clever people, most of them are frozen until they hear the clinking of coins in their hat then they move or entertain you and show you what they do.

We took the underground to Kings Cross Station where Harry Potter was filmed, when then catch platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts. It was pretty cool to see that they have a sign up to mark it.We had a couple of minor catastrophes here at the station, on the way we raced to catch a train and Rhys was first on and the doors shut with him in and us out. Luckily quick thinking Sian ,put her foot in the door to jam it just ajar and after a panicked moment the doors opened for us to all get in. Poor ole Rhys’ (and Mum) thought we would loose him to another station, and we wouldn’t have known if he would get off at the next station or not…….anyway all was fine,something we giggle about now. Then at the station we all had a toilet stop, the girls went in around the corner and I heard screaming which I could instantly hear was Aislin. She couldn’t get the toilet door open and she was panicking, after sometime the cleaning lady had to climb over the next door cubicle into hers, to unlock the door for her , the lady said it was a faulty lock,other than that we had a really great day.

Last stop for the day was the world famous toy store Hamleys, 4 stories of every childs best dream. Us adults enjoyed it as well , we only looked but the kids were happy with that. They demonstrated alot of the new and flashy toys, you’d go around a corner to find helicopter hovering in your face by remote control, fun.The bottom story was almost all lego with a life size Indiana Jones, Oh yeah we saw Becks….there as well

We got home about 6 and we were all happy and exhausted and slept like babes.