So, last weekend, at the end of half term, we headed off for the beach. May as well end half-term with a bang eh? It was overcast and not particularly hot but that wasn't the reason we were going. We wanted to go on the rides, enjoy the "sea" air, look out to "sea" and just generally be there. Hubby doesn't like the heat, so it was the perfect day to go. Aaron's not yet done the whole beach thing (his last time at the beach was Summer 2012, a day trip to Brighton) so he wasn't nagging us to paddle or anything like that. PLUS he'd just been (I nearly forgot there) on Wednesday of half term, to Southend with me, ALL of his cousins, and my brother in law. So to him now, beach means rides. By the way did you know that Southend has the longest pleasure pier in the world - no I didn't either! Anyway rides is what we went to both beaches for. Great eh! No beach for 2 years and then 2 in 1 week. Like buses, you wait ages and two come along at once!
Will have to re-train Aaron when the weather kicks in, that sun, beach, sand and sea, means towels, picnics, cossies, sun cream, tans and sandcastles, and NOT rides.
You can tell by how he's dressed that it wasn't a particularly warm day:
He's sporting his brand new bucket and spade, as he's never owned one bless him!
I join in with #CountryKids when I can because Aaron is SUCH an outdoors active boy and because he ADORES animals and is fearless unlike me:
On honeymoon, would I go on a camel ride? Would I 'eck. But suggest a donkey ride to Aaron and on he hops, and even makes his Dad pay four times as he refuses to get off. I think if he could have done he'd have taken one of them home. Dare I go to Coombe Mill when he literally won't want to leave?
So, above kind of gives you an idea as to how a beach post has become a #CountryKids post. My boy, preferred more time with the animals than on rides. I am so glad I get out and about with him as much as I do, as this boy was built for the great outdoors. Don't get me wrong, he has about 15 favourite shows on TV, so he's not a complete farm hand, but he is a robust adventurer!
By the way, it's deliberate that he is on a donkey called JAKE as Jake and the Neverland Pirates is his favourite show on TV.
As enamoured as he was with the donkeys, what then made even more of an impression on him was the Weston Wheel,
The views from up there are spectacular which you don't really get from my photos - sorry. Hopefully you can see the bars on the right hand side of the beach photo to see that that is an on ride view :-)
What I haven't told you is Aaron did not at all want to go on. We had to drag him on convince him! Yet he couldn't get on quick enough for the second ride and as this pic shows, due to the cool temperatures (it didn't actually rain) there were no crowds, so bliss, no queues!
Whenever Aaron's had a good time, he doesn't want to leave. This was the "I don't want to go home yet pose!"
Which was closely followed by the "you will if I carry you pose"
But bless my fun seekers, on the way to the carpark they stopped at an arcades place (we got kicked off the pier as it closes quite early). So we stopped in somewhere, after the above, and they ended up having a full game of ten pin bowling. Considering I was on the team at Uni, you'd think I would have joined in, but my gout had given up the ghost by this point so I sat on a high bar stool and just enjoyed watching them have fun:
Oh, before I forget, apart from some GREAT donkey photos, this is my favourite photo from the day:
With our beach day in the bag, the next day, the Sunday, the last day of half-term, when the temperatures soared and everyone else was at the beach, we spent the day gardening:
With our beach day in the bag, the next day, the Sunday, the last day of half-term, when the temperatures soared and everyone else was at the beach, we spent the day gardening:
I did a bit much, despite going easy, and ached for the next few days after. Clearly I need to do it more often and get fit. Who knew gardening could be exercise ;-)
Bye for now,
Liska xxxx
