It took a bit of convincing to persuade my husband that a caravan in Weymouth is much more appealing than an all inclusive holiday in Turkey but after weighing up the costs we agreed that this is what we will do.

We packed the car full of board games, soft pillows, toys and tea bags and were all set for our 6 hour road trip. The journey despite being very long wasn’t as bad as we thought and we were pleasantly surprised when we stumbled across Gloucester services which is exactly the same as Tebay with a farm shop and lovely play area.

When we arrived at The Waterside Holiday park my heart sunk when I saw all the slot machines as they were nowhere to be seen on the website photos.  Despite the slot machines, seeing Freya and Rory’s face light up when we walked into the caravan was priceless.  Rory looked up at me and said “are we sleeping in here?” It was as if all his dreams had come true.  Freya was equally as excited especially when she saw their little room.

We unpacked our things and headed out for food at a beautiful beach side café.  The food was great although Freya and I agreed that Daddy’s steaks were actually better.

The weather wasn’t the best that week but come rain or shine we decided to embrace it and make sure we all had a holiday to remember.  We signed Freya and Rory up for football sessions every day with the Arsenal training squad and surprisingly they both absolutely loved it, despite a few hiccups such as Rory saving a goal with his face and Freya being the only girl on the squad.

Tim and I are now experts on what to do when it rains in Weymouth and can highly recommend the Sand World where you can take a selfie with One Direction and Chitty Chitty bang bang.  We made minion sand sculptures and learnt how to make the sand into a cement like paste which was fun.  Tim even saw someone he thought he knew and then realised it was Jill Halfpenny from strictly! Surely that must happen to everyone when they see a celebrity and think they know them.

We also visited the Teddy bear museum but were quite disappointed with it despite the positive reviews on trip adviser.  There are more teddies in my garage than in that museum and we were in and out in about 15 minutes.

For one of the sunny days we went on an hour boat trip at the Weymouth port which was really enjoyable although Freya and Rory slept through the whole experience.  We found some kids wetsuits and then spent the rest of the day on Weymouth beach building sandcastles that looked like they were from star wars and splashing around in the sea.

I managed to re-discover my love of reading on the holiday thanks to Danielle Steel and her book about childhood friends – it was an easy read and despite a few twists that I didn’t like I loved every minute of it and even managed to finish the whole book before the end of the holiday.  This is a big feat for me as I usually fall asleep after reading one page.

As our holiday was coming to an end we managed to squeeze in a trip to Brownsea Island which was fantastic despite having to pay about £60 to get on.  We took part in a pirate treasure hunt, ran around the wooden adventure playground and even climbed a couple of trees.  It really is a beautiful island and we’re definitely glad we had time to visit.  When we got back to Poole, Tim was really keen to find a good fish restaurant and we found a fantastic little place that was owned by a local fisherman.  The food was exquisite and the service first rate.  I did feel slightly under dressed especially when I noticed the mud up the side of my leg which I must have picked up on Brownsea Island when I did an almighty accidental skid in front of lots of passers by. Freya and I had muscles, Rory unsurprisingly had fish pieces in breadcrumbs and Tim ordered a fish that had been caught that day.

If the day couldn’t have been any better we then found ourselves in the middle of a street festival with live music everywhere you turned.  This was certainly a fantastic end to our wonderful Weymouth trip and we even managed to have fun with the slot machines too.