Camping

I think I'm converted to camping. This weekend we went off to a campsite near West Wittering with a group of friends. I took a whole load of hugely indulgent photographs, didn't really record the weekend like I usually do but enjoyed being an artist rather than a journalist for a change.

More pics here.

We set off Friday evening (after a fantastic swimming lesson for Ben where he did SO well and I'm SO proud of him), had a chip supper on the way, pitched the tent in a blessed brief moment when it wasn't raining, and eventually we all managed to gather the children in and went to bed. Very late! Tell you what though after a stressful time packing and feeling sick and needing food and almost not going, having the kids who'd already got to the campsite run up to the car screaming "BEN!!!!!" was the best welcoming committee we could have wished for :) Proper cheered me up!

It rained.

And the wind blew.

But the tent stayed up. Apparently there was a panic with the gazebo which had to be hastily put down after it blew over and either into a car or into a tent - I'm not entirely sure what happened but it must have been while I was dozing because I didn't hear a thing!

Saturday started off in a bit of a daze. We'd not slept well because of the wind and the heat - the tent was incredibly stuffy because we'd battened down the hatches. Ben however, despite his very late night, was up bright and early and demanding breakfast and demanding to go and see the other children. I suspect we've been up far earlier this weekend than we are normally... So we had first breakfast in the tent while I came to, then more breakfast outside with everyone else.

And with no activities planned for the weekend the only thing on the agenda was chatting and relaxing :) So Ben and Steve stayed outside socialising and I went back to bed!

I only dozed lightly because I was aware of a lot of conversation going on. Particularly the girls - they were counting. Over and over, counting up to 30, then dissolving into hysterical laughter. Not being able to see what they were doing this was most odd. Turned out there was a point :) (Put your hands together, palms together, and push them together as hard as you can, and count to 30. When you drop your hands after 30 your arms'll start to rise of their own accord. I remember finding this hilarious as a kid too!)

In the afternoon we walked down to the beach. It was a bit breezy down by the tents, but not bad, so we didn't think anything of it... got down to the beach and it was quite chilly and blowing a gale!! Even with the sun making an appearance it was pretty chilly. Half the kids didn't care though and charged headlong down the pebbles to the sand. One came back pretty quickly and wrapped herself up in a towel and snuggled in to her mum, and Ben decided he wasn't interested in going down onto the beach but preferred to run around with Steve at the top.

We stayed a while, got a hot chocolate and some icecreams and enjoyed them a little way out of the wind. On the way back Ben wanted a cuddle and promptly fell asleep on my shoulder! He's not done that for me in such a long time. So lovely. He woke up when we got back to camp and tried to lay him down though, so he didn't get much of a sleep...

Which wasn't great as Steve and I were leaving him there in the evening while we went out to dinner with other friends! He was ok though. Mostly. Cried a bit when he wanted to go to bed, but got pyjamas on for Hayley and went to sleep without a fuss. Was still asleep when we got back, and stayed asleep another couple of hours at least before waking and being brought in with us.

We had a lovely dinner with friends back in Worthing, talking about all sorts of things, and I got completely distracted when we were about to leave and left my insulin at their house! Steve said he'd go and get it in the morning for me... D'oh!