Isle of Wight

We are home from the Isle of Wight. It was a great trip. We thought the weather would be in the 50's, but instead it was in the 70's the entire time! There were 7 of us total. Hopefully we will do another joint trip, with 8 next time (Christa is unfortunately in Afghanistan right now…). The Isle of Wight is about a 4 hour drive from us, including the ferry. We stayed in a “caravan park resort.” To those of you from the States, that would be a trailer park. Yep. That’s right. We stayed at a trailer park. Don't you worry, we went for the Gold Level Caravan. No Bronze for us.


It was fun, though! I think our neighbors actually lived at the park, but otherwise you rent the trailers for a week. They have entertainment, a pool, restaurant, playground, etc, right on the grounds. The caravan was tidy and big enough for the 7 of us. The price was right and we could cook our own meals to save a buck (or quid…). We did something fun every day. We were all exhausted at the end of each day, especially the grown ups. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Highlights from the trip:

• Ava and Augi arguing one minute then giggling hysterically the next. Those girls can argue about freakin anything.
• Ava’s giggle. Her giggle can make anybody smile.
• Augi’s sweet love of the horses and donkeys. There were some horses in a field near us. They were nice and the kids loved petting and feeding them. Augi is enamoured with horses now.
• Em running around in his Super Em cape. Sarah made it for him last year and he is just now beginning to love it.

• ALL of Finn’s phrases:
           • Ah wan money. Real money. (I want money, real money, not chocolate money)
           • What havin deena? (What would you like for dinner?)
           • What doin Jessi?
• The Neverending Story. It was the only movie we had. Then, Chris found the techno version of the song.
• Chris taking walks at EVERY SINGLE spot to take pictures and disappearing for an hour each time then telling us about the epic journey and how it was longer than he had expected.
• Evan’s chili and spaghetti. Yum.
• The snacks. My god, the snacks. The kids constantly asked me for snacks.
• Me leaving my purse at the playground, and Chris getting it back for me before I even missed it the next day from the nice guys at the restaurant. Oops.
• The weirdos waiting for our caravan right outside at the end. Seriously. We still had a few hours left and the lady was lingering around the rubbish bin waiting for us to get out.
• Evan and Chris having some weirdo competition to see who could shower the least.
• Evan dressed like it was winter.
• “Emmett’s Hill”
• Augi wanting to “dole out” everything, even when she didn’t want any.
• Vacationing in a caravan park. Enough said.
• Our neighbors with the lawn and garden/disco business.
• Augi and Ava whining the ENTIRE way to the geocache, then eagerly asking to find another as soon as we found it.
• Emmett using the potty with NO accidents the entire week!
• Figuring out what a Blackgang Chine is…
• Wearing wetsuits in the indoor pool because the water was so freakin cold.
• Chris and Evan riding the cable chair together at the Needles. So endearing.
• Augi collecting 9,000 sea shells.

• Trying to figure out what was odd about the play group facilitator. No neck.
• Spending time with good friends. The best.

We have more than 4 GB of pictures to sort through, so I will post them one day at a time. There will be some great ones!!!