Dad on FIRE

  Feels like only yesterday I was writing last month's update, this summer is absolutely flying by! Having to consciously get this update out this week as we're off to France for two weeks from tomorrow, and it'll be September when we get back so time for the next month's post! As mentioned last month, June was absolutely insane busy, and July started out fairly quiet but soon became almost as busy! The first half was finishing off the last few weeks at school, and as mentioned last month, there seemed to be a lot of assemblies, sports days, matches, summer fairs to attend and this continued into the first bit of July. As most long term readers will know, we're big campers and have been doing it both before having kids, as well as a lot with the kids as well. In July we did camping twice.... Camping at Sherwood Pines This is one of our favourite campsites, facilities are excellent and you are right in the middle of Sherwood forest and all of the bike trails that com...

Very busy month, quite possibly the busiest I've ever been! I turned 40, lots of trips out, too many side quests from school(!) and an ISO audit at work! Phew...strap in! Also, apologies for the late posting of this, it was a bit of a beast to write and also July has continued with the business! Given the May half term straddled both May and June, I've left some of that for this month. We decided to take advantage of an offer from Merlin a few months ago where they were giving a family annual pass if you stayed a night at one of their resorts. We chose to stay at Warwick at the start of June, and although the cost for a nightly stay was around £300, the value of the pass was worth going for. We set off for Birmingham at the start of the month and headed first to Cadbury's world for a few hours (also Merlin), stayed the night in a Premier Inn (using the share perk of 4x free breakfasts!), and set off to Warwick Castle the morning after. Such a good place, and the shows were ...

Bit more of a chilled out May compared to the previous month that kinda took it out me. Trip with the Beavers to Forbidden Corner Every once in a while I get to go on trips away with the Beaver scout group that I help out with, normally it's going away on camp but sometimes it's somewhere different. We've been to sleepovers at Gullivers Valley theme park and The Deep in Hull where we got to sleep feet away from sharks and manta ray! This year we chose to go to Forbidden Corner in North Yorkshire. It's an absolutely mad place that's quite hard to describe, probably most like an Alice in Wonderland-like labryinth, walking through narrow tunnels and passageways, getting lost in mases and exploring different follies and castles. If you're in the area and have a couple of hours to kill then I'd highly recommend it! I'm already planning on taking my 2 kids there in the future. May Half term: Prestatyn Every few years my parents hire out a big Airbnb to accomod...

  April was an absolute rollercoaster; financially speaking, emotionally speaking, and at some times literally speaking! Easter holiday in The Netherlands: Efterling, tandems and nature reserves I mentioned on my last update that we headed off to The Netherlands during the first week of the kids Easter holidays. We drove across to Hull and got the ferry overnight to Rotterdam. First up, we headed north to Zandvoort staying in an apartment. The owner of the apartments showed us around, including getting to hold the 1-day old guinea pigs! The next day we picked up a couple of tandem bikes and set off on a 30km route across the tulip fields at Keukenhof and on to the beach and sand dunes, very cool! Had some amazing fish at a place called Hoogies. The morning after we popped in at the Formula 1 track at Zandvoort, free entry and literally no one about, apart from half a dozen people out on the track in their own cars, very fun to watch! We then headed south to Gouda, did a Sirupwaffle...