Up to date!

So the house is now tidy, the washing and ironing is all done and put away and I am shattered!!!
To give you an idea, this was load one of two of ironing I finished off lol.

As the house was empty of food I went to Asda with Mum. I was starting to flag by this point as still not had much sleep but didn't realise how tired I was until I rung Mark.

Me - Do we need any bars of jam?
Mark - What?
Me - Melty jam.
Mark - What?!
Me - The jam you melt into water then it goes hard again!
Mark - You mean Jelly?
Me - Um, yeah thats it.
Mark - Buy coffee.

Early night I'm thinking.

Spain Summer photography scavenger hunt!

While we were away I managed to get loads crossed off my bucket list, and my scavenger hunt list :) Some I might change later but I like them for now. :)
If you don't know what I'm on about look here. Each year there is a list of items you have to find and photograph. Its not a contest its just a bit of fun and its great to see the photos others take as well as inspiring you to take photos you otherwise might not :)
Anyway, while away I managed to find:

3. Birds on a wire
Ok was a little liberal with this as its birds on a wire fence, but counts IMO ;) Took this in the aviary at Marineland.

4. A group of tourists
Us (we were tourists at the time) and a load of other tourists waiting for the Dolphin show again at Marineland.

5. A rack of post cards
My Mum and Dad were having a laugh at some of the more racy ones on this rack, which obviously prompted the kids to come see what was so funny resulting in Mum buying them all sweets to distract them! So had to take this picture lol.

8. A tattoo on a person
Was spoilt for choice around the pool but my Dad picked this one out as the winner. :) Called 'Healing hands in prayer'

9. A bakery
Not a typical bakery! At breakfast about 4 days into the holiday Cameron said he wanted a bread roll but couldn't find them. I pointed out there was a whole wall of bread rolls as you enter the resturaunt! 'Oh yeah' was the reply.

12. A mascot
Cam and the Harrods bear at Gatwick airport (would have bought him this if he wanted it and we couldn't find Teddy)

13. A sunrise
This didn't turn out as well as in real life as it was taken by my phone, but this is the sunrise from the plane on the way home.

14. A parade
The princess parade the girls took part in at the hotel :)

15. A juggler
There was a group of acrobats at the hotel one night and I took loads of pictures but not many turned out :( Did get this one though of a woman juggling a table with her feet!

16. A sign in a language other than English
Another Marineland one

17. A lamp post
Pretty lamp post by the lake at the hotel.

18. A water fall
Marineland again! Beautiful one though :)

Still have a few to go so will be keeping my eyes out! Managed them all but one of the extras last year so hoping to get every single one this year :)

Back to normality

Wouldn't be a Steele family holiday without a little drama would it?! Last night we took the coach to the airport and arrived around 2am. The kids were all tired and grumpy so we got them off with their little cases, got our cases and went into the airport. At that moment Cameron asked 'Where's Teddy?' Teddy, who he has had since he was 2, slept with every night and took every holiday we've been on. Mark moved faster than I have ever seen him and went back but the bus had gone. Cameron by this point was hysterical with Mum and I offering to take him to Build a bear in London, on the moon, buy him any bear he wanted?! Honestly I think if someone had said 'here I have Teddy but it will cost you £300' I'd have handed over my credit card without question. We couldn't find an english speaking rep anywhere so had to join the queue to check our luggage.
The girls were little stars, telling cam Teddy was on an adventure, he would come home when he was done etc but Cam was having none of it and kept asking us to please find him. By now all our hearts were breaking so when Mark and Bri found an English member of staff I was so excited! Bless her she said she would go look and see if she could ring someone and find out if Teddy was still on the bus and if we could get him posted out of something. If I'm honest I wasn't holding out much hope but we went and sat by the Thompson desk as instructed.
20, sad, dressing minutes later my Mum suddenly says, 'Cameron, who's this' and we turned to see the lady walking towards us holding Teddy! OMG I could have kissed her! Luckily she had thought to check the bus parking in case the driver was waiting for a airport pickup which he was and she had found Teddy. I have never been so happy to see that threadbare little toy in my life!
So after that the trip was pretty uneventful. Travelling through the night, and 4 red bulls to keep me going on the drive home we were back! Luckily our luggage made it with us as Gatwick have been having problems past couple of days but my Mum and Dads case was bashed to hell and covered in oil! Did complain but nobody cared so not much to do there.
On the way home we went to the kennels and picked up my baby :) I had missed him SO much while we were away but the kennels had put pictures and videos of him on Facebook for us to see so that helped. :) Think he's happy to be home too :)

Poor Mark is suffering though. It's been a long week and journey for him and he's in a lot of pain in his joints and ankles so has gone to bed with his feet raised to help.

I however have a mountain of washing to tackle before the red bull wears off!

Last day :(

This has been such an amazing week. I think it's been the break from all the rubbish going on at home as well as the great hotel, weather, just everything really! We had to check out of our room by 11 but weren't getting picked up until midnight so had loooooots of time to fill with the kids. Luckily we sent them to kids club in the morning while we packed and got all the cases downstairs. SO glad we did that as Caitlin seems to have developed a fear of lifts. No idea why. She was scared of them a while back but then stopped and has suddenly started again. As we were on floor 8 this week was a lot of dragging her into them saying they were safe and nothing would happen. What was our first sight returning to the hotel after dropping off the kids? A mechanic trying to free a group of people stuck in the lift by crow barring open the doors. Don't think we'd have ever got Caitlin on a lift again if she saw that!
When we picked up the kids we were told there was an extra session on tonight from 7-10, a PJ party, did we want to book them in? Um yes!! Perfect! By the time we had played in the pool a bit, got dinner, a quick wash, pj party and nighttime snack it would be time for pickup! :)
So kids all booked in and adults less stressed as we had a plan it was time for our last play at the pool :( We had bought the kids some bouncy balls on elastic at the market which attach to your wrist so bounce back for you to catch. My over competitive Mum got into a race with Cam to see how many times they could do it in a minute.

Mum ended up missing it and belting some poor guy behind her. woops!

The rest of the day zoomed past and while sharing a cocktail while kids were at the party we all agreed it was the best holiday of the 3 we had been on. I think we all know next year circumstances mean it's unlikely we'll be going anywhere but then again I said that this year didn't I? lol. Fingers crossed we can come back one day as it really was an amazing holiday.

Bye bye club mac!

Pirates!!!

Our last full day before going home :( As we hadn't gone to the local market yet Mum, Mark and I decided to get a taxi down. The kids didn't want to come but as we couldn't leave Bri with all three kids I bribed Cam with computer time to come with us ;)

The market was, well, rubbish! I think we've been spoiled by the Turkish market where everything is pennies. I got a pretty bracelet and a few gifts for friends back home but that was it. Everything was either tat or really expencive. Oh well.
Market over we had some more pool time before we went on our second excursion, Pirates adventure! We had gone into holiday mode and before we figured out the conversion rates on day one had splashed out on VIP seats for the show so were a little worried we had wasted our money. OMG it was amazing! I got to cross off another bucket list item as some of the cast were from Spelbound who won britans got talent years ago and I really wanted to see!
As we had VIP seats we went into a special queue in the shade and were given a glass of champagne for the adults and juice for the kids. The staff then came out to chat to us before getting some pictures taken and led to our seats. While other tables were just black booths, ours had a white table clothes scattered with rose petals and a bottle of rose and white wine in a bucket of ice in the center. Very posh! :) The view was perfect with a small stage right next to us and the main stage right ahead. Honestly if we went back I'd pay the same again. The kids were given a free program, bandanas and special VIP lanyards to wear for the show which just made it even more special.

Cameron being a pirate lol.

As they had a little spending money my Gran gave them they each bought 'booty bags' A really good quality cloth backpack which had lots of bits in, sword, earring, eyepatch, hook, magnet etc etc. OK so most of the items could have come from poundland but you pay for the memory don't you.

Before the show started we had dinner and the main cast all came over to chat to us. Each area in the hall is designated a Pirate captain to cheer for and ours was Captain Scarlet. She was so sweet to the kids and Caitlin loved her. Before the show even started we were all in a great mood and made to feel really special.
Photographs were not allowed in the show so as not to put of the gymnasts but it was AMAZING! The flips, jumps and acrobatics were breathtaking. At one point a pirate stood on the small stage by us with a guy balanced one handed on his head (these were spelbound cast unsurprisingly) he then walked off that stage, across the room, onto the main stage and climbed the rigging of the ship, all with the guy still on his head! I'd honestly go back and see it all again in a heartbeat.
After the show the adults were all a little merry from the free wine and sangria which I think gave me the confidence to pose with my fave pirate lol

Mum was a bit more confident than me and actually grabbed this poor guys arm as he was leaving and made him get his picture taken!

Best night out in AGES!

Lets go to the beach!

Today we decided to make the most of the free bus and went to the beach. Now I used to love the beach, I'd spend hours in the water as a kid. Since I had kids of my own however I see the beach for what it really is, a huge amount of sand that gets EVERYWHERE and a vast amount of water to lose sight of said children in. With four adults to three kids though it couldn't be that bad, right?
As I've said before my Mum has a huge phobia of water so she stayed on the beach with the kids. Mark was struggling today so he sat on a lounger under a umbrella and watched Mollie and Cait leaving me and Bri with Cameron in the sea.

Now we did fine, apprently though there wasn't enough sand on the beach for the girls to share so that led to a row and Caitlin having sand thrown into her face *sigh* so she went off to play with my Mum and the beach ball while Mollie sulked. Oh well can't be happy families all the time!

Cameron on the other hand was quite content to just walk about in the water jumping over waves, surprising considering he hates water and the pool which you can't get Caitlin out of it :s

Typical beach, buried shot lol.

After managing to get rid of most of the sand we walked to the local shops for some bargains. They seemed to have lots of 'end of season' sales on which confused me as I thought it was the start of the season :s Got the kids these two yappy dogs which they just HAD to have though. Same kind of thing you get at the beach markets here where the dog yaps and walks forward. Mum was a bit gutted as she bought one at the hotel the night before for 13 euros which these were only 6. Opps.

Also bought Caitlins this beautiful Spanish dress set. Dress, shoes, hair clip and fan, 14 euros! The dress alone in the hotel was 26!

With not much on in the hotel tonight we took the kids to the park and let them play while we had a cocktail. Its a hard life ;)

Princess for a day :)

This morning we had a surprise for the girls :) We'd booked them in to be princesses for the day! It was a free activity run by the hotel where they would get a princess dress, hair done, make up done etc. They were so excited :)
So while the girls were off being spoiled we asked Cam what he would like to do and he picked crazy golf. Now the rules for crazy golf are quite bendable in Camerons mind. Apprently as long as the club doesn't lose contact with the ball it counts as one hit, so pushing the ball to the top of the hill and into the hole counts as a hole in one. Tiger woods eat your heart out! lol.

He also decided this was a magic ball and only he could use it. Love his mind. :) We were all wetting ourselves by the end of the game, with Mum getting her putter stuck in one of the courses, Mark refusing to get his ball because the hole was full of ants and all of us being generally dreadful at it it was pity none of us had a camcorder for 'You've been framed!'

Before we knew it it was time to go get the girls. They had had a great time and their beaming faces were so sweet.

As part of the day they were guests on the princess parade after lunch, where we all walked behind a big train dancing and singing onto a big stage where everyone clapped for them. My normally shy daughter loved it! I love how confident she gets on holiday, I'm not sure if it's because nobody knows her but I wish she could bottle it up and take it home with her.

Well having crossed 'Eat at Jamies resturant' off my list (kind of) another item off my bucket list is to go in one of this big balloon things! I think it's called Zorbing, I've no idea but its really funny and SO much harder than it looks! No sooner would I stand up than I was on my butt again. My family found it hilarious.

So much so that the kids wanted a go too! Show off Cam was he was great at it! Caitlin got a little stuck but was laughing away as Cameron came to 'save' her.

Tried to get my Mum to have a go but with her phobia of drowning I think it would have killed her off lol.

Happy birthday Mollie!

Today was Mollies 8th birthday :) So at her request we spent it by the pool lol. Just after breakfast a lady asked if we were staying and would we like her two giant inflatable fish! The kids were thrilled! Grown ups less so, my poor Mum couldn't even fit in the lift with them so we had to take one up each lol.

At dinner we ordered Mollie a cake as a surprise. Her face when the music started up was priceless! A mixture of 'Oh god what have they done?!' and 'This is fun, but I'm too cool to find it fun' lol

We gave Mollie a few of her gifts (couldn't fit the bigger ones in the case) then went down to the port for a while. The view was stunning and there were loads of stalls and street performers.

There was a huge bridge that went over the port, the kids scared the life out of all of us by continuing to run ahead and up to the sides. Next time I'm taking kiddie leads!

Everyone was so nice to Mollie as it was her birthday, she got free drinks and a lady painted her name for her :) Was lovely to see her so spoiled after everything she has been though.
One performer had a special costume on where it looked like he didn't have a head. Surprisingly all three kids wanted a photo taken with him and he was happy to help.

We were just walking off and he pulled us back and posed with Mark and his walking stick lol, can't wait to scrap this one!

The kids were all shattered when we got back as it had been a full day of sunshine so we missed the shows and had an early night, but had a special surprise for the girls tomorrow ;)

Marineland

Today we had our excursion to Marineland and it was amazing! We started off with a parrot show which the kids loved so much they now all want parrots lol.

There was a giant boat on stage and the parrots were the crew, having to clean it, raise the flag etc. Was a great show, this was Caitlins fave bit where they had to swab the deck lol.

They also got to feed the parrots afterwards. I was surprised Caitlin did it was shes usually shy but she was at the front of the queue.

Next was the seal lion show. It was getting VERY hot by this point (35) so we sat in the shade off to the side. As a result our view wasn't as good as at the front but we didn't melt, which is always a plus ;)

Personally I loved the sea lions as I think they're amazing creatures and love how they move. The kids however prefered the dolphins who were beautiful :) I got loads of photos but won't bore you with them all! This one is my fave though.

After the shows we were all melting so after taking a few more photos (including on where I fell off a wall) the kids played in the splash park for a bit before we ventured home and Caitlin got her first treat by having a braid put in her hair.

Pretty, but it's now a nightmare to brush as I keep catching it! After dinner we went to a nearby arcade where each of the kids were given a euro to go on a ride of their choice. Mollie and Cam picked one of those moving horse type ones you always get at supermarkets. Caitlin however picked a teddy crane machine. I warned her she wouldn't win so it might be better to go one something else but she had her heart set on a Hello kitty teddy that was in there. She had one go and...

I'll never hear the end of it now ;)