A question we have heard a lot from the boys lately is ‘can we go to the seaside?’. As we live a two and a half hour drive from the seaside and currently have no car, it hasn’t been possible, and that broke my heart. They so desperately wanted to go!

Last Sunday, my sister in law got married. The wedding was just outside of Telford, which is about an hour away on the motorway. Knowing how difficult we would find it to get to, she lent us her car for the weekend. We booked a hotel for two nights, so we didn’t have to rush in the morning or drive back on the night.

The wedding (which was beautiful!) was on the Sunday. We woke up very early on the Monday morning, and decided that we were going to make the most of having the car and take the kids to the seaside.

Because it was a spur of the moment decision, we weren’t very well organised – we had nothing to sit on except a towel and a baby blanket, and I didn’t have a cardigan or jacket.

We ummed and ahhed between Prestatyn, where we have been on holiday twice before, or Barmouth, where we have been for a couple of weekends before we had the kids. Prestatyn was closer, but there is more to do at Barmouth. Plus, to get to Barmouth we would need to drive some beautiful areas of the Snowdonia National Park.

We packed up the car and set off with a backseat of excited children. We stopped off in Welshpool (I think!) for some lunch in a little tearooms, where we had a burger and a coffee, and the kids had sausage rolls, chips and chocolate milkshakes. The town was decked out in bunting, and Harrison thought it was a ‘great party!’

As we travelled through the mountain areas, Harrison and Alex had a slight disagreement whether they were hills or mountains. Eventually, Alex dozed off and Harrison entertained us with his incessant chatter!

We arrived at Barmouth at about 2pm, and considering it was a warm bank holiday and was packed, we managed to find a parking spot straight away on the sea front. We loaded the pushchair up and headed straight to the beach. As soon as we got onto the sand, the kids kicked off their shoes and socks and were off! Graham trailed slightly behind – it appears our beautiful pushchair isn’t great on sand! It was lovely and warm on the beach, and the kids took their jeans off for a paddle in the sea. I was a bit unsure about how they would react, but they loved it. Even Ben had a paddle!

Alex had brought along his digger and was having the time of his life digging up the wet sand. We then trundled back up the beach and found a shop which sold buckets and spades. After a quick ice cream stop, we headed back on to the beach. The kids (and Graham!) got to work on building and knocking down sand castles. Ben loved putting his tiny toes in the sand and eating fistfuls of it. Graham took them for a ride on the donkeys whilst Ben and me chilled in the sunshine.

We then went for a wander down the promenade to look at the boats in the harbour. We saw some huge jellyfish that had been washed up which fascinated the kids.

We walked back down to by where we had parked and had some chips – has to be done at the seaside. By this point it was gone 6pm, and we had a two and a half hour journey home to do. We loaded three very tired but very happy little boys into the car. They all dozed for half an hour or so before waking with renewed energy. This meant I spent half of the journey with my arm twisted into extremely uncomfortable positions to give Ben his dummy and Sophie the Giraffe every time he dropped them. Alex was content to watch the world go by out of the window but Harrison drove us mad with question after question:

Why are there sheep?

Can we have a pet sheep?

What do sheep eat?

Why do the sheep have colours on them?

Can I drive?

What do windmills do?

Can we go to a party?

Can we go to the farm?

The day finished off a really lovely weekend. I can’t wait to take them again!