Mass descend on Devon

So every year my family (that is my parents, siblings, their patners and as of this year their children) go on a holiday together staying in increasing large cottages. I am number 3 of 4 siblings, we all have partners and sibling 2 also has babies just a little you get then Nem

Last year I was full term with Nemo and my sister in law was about 27 weeks pregnant with twins so we were both sporting significant bumps. So this year there were 3 additions to the holiday Nemo and the twin girls. This made a total of 10 adults, 3 babies, 1 dog and 1 very small extra (!!???!!!) 

We staying in Devon very close to the boarder to Cornwall. 

On the first day we went to went to Bude and took Nemo to a proper beach. 

Nemo and Daddy sharing an icecream!

Nemo LOVED the sea, he just sat there happily for ages, we had to take him out when he started to shiver but I think he could have stayed there for hours! 

On day two the entire family descended on Gnome Reserve; a wonderful little place with gardens and woodland areas with thousands of gnomes. This proved a great photo shoot area for the babies!

Oh yeah you also have to wear gnome hats when you go around! 

You'll notice in the photos that little Nemo has a watery red eye, unfortunately his mummy trying to be responsible got a bit over zealous with the sun cream!

Yeah you get the idea! 

After doing the fairy garden quiz (!) Nemo was shattered!

:)

So day 3 we headed for Padstow, which is this gorgeous harbour town in North Cornwall.

 It has really cute little shops and if you walk for 20 minutes or so you get to this really cute little beach. The sand was so soft and the sea so clean and blue it felt like being abroad. 

We set up a little tent on the beach for Nemo to play with (even though I spent more time in it then he did!) he loved he sea again and again we had to drag him out! 

I love this picture of Nemo and Daddy crawling together to the sea! 

Again the day ended with Nemo wiped out in his pram!

 

Poppy had lots of people around to entertain her and the cottage was on a nature reserve so there were lovely dogs walks on the doorstep.

Day 4 we headed out with all the siblings to Port Issac which is another stunning harbour town where they filmed Doc Martin. 

My siblings and husband took part in some seagull feeding seeing how close they would let the seagull get whilst offering them food!

On the way home me and hubby dropped in with Nemo to Widemouth Bay just to make sure Nemo got his sea fix for the day :)

Guess who was tired again!!

On day 5 me and hubby went together on our own for an evening date without Nemo curiosity of my parents. This was the first time since Nemo was born and it felt very weird! 

We'd seen people crabbing when we went to Padstow and having not done it since my young childhood we decided to give it a try. 

So we got our fish and chips then found a spot on the harbour side to start crabbing. 

We started off well, we caught 11 crabs (and some of them were the size of my hand) however we 

lost ALL of them in the lift up the the peer. Even with our trusty fishing net we could get them quick enough. 

We decided that these crabs have been caught so much that they learnt to get easy food and let go before they had to serve time in a bucket being gawked at by hundreds of children! 

Sad face no crabs!

So figuring the peer was too high we moved to a ramp were the drop is much less. Did we catch a single crab.....no! Seriously these crabs are not idiots! After a whole of no luck we moved to a set of steps by the side. But again time after time nothing I decided we would have one last go and then..... we caught a crab and I caught it with the net on the way up. What a relief!! We proudly displayed our catch in our bucket on the peer and named it after our first born!!! 

I did catch one crab after that but it didn't make it into the net and into the bucket! It didnt matter though because our efforts weren't in vain, we may not have caught loads but you only need one! 

Happy face! 

Celebratory icecreams!

We released crab Nemo into the sea, said our goodbyes and walked to the beach as the sun went down, how romantic! 

It was such a lovely evening :) 

Day 6 saw all the family bar my Dad head to the Eden Project. 

It was a great way to spend the last day. Especially as it was the only rainy day we had whilst we were on holiday (I know lucky!) 

Nemo loved the Mediterranean dome most of all for some reason and spent almost the entire way making giggly and happy noises! I think it may have been all the bright colours. 

It was lovely to spend time with all the family. Things are certainly more complicated with 3 babies to add into the mix who are at different stages/ have different routines but despite the fact I don't think anyone got as much sleep as we did last year before babies it was definitely special. 

Nemo really recognises his Grandparents down and seeing Nemo react to my Dad when he came to help us move really showed how much he's bonded with them now he's a little older.