Half way through the week at Bluestone I was reflecting on everything. Cliche? weird? I don't know but I was thinking about the fact this time next year we'll have a 6/7 month old, we'll be a family of five and also how for someone who had not thought they'd enjoy a holiday in the UK, I was wrong. The kids faces we're perfect, constant smiles, the things they were learning, the things they were loving and to be honest, Iris especially, was just loving that once again Mummy and Daddy were together instead of one being at work or asleep.
Being working parents, Brad and I having to work opposite shifts, meaning that basically everyday of the week one of us is asleep, one of us is always exhausted and that means our spontaneous family walks, trips to the park or days out are not just limited, they're practically non existent at the moment. So mini breaks like these are so important. Of course things are changing, maternity leave is there in the distance, but until then a mini break like this was really, really important for us and something we don't take for granted.
On the third day we headed off to swimming again first, the blue lagoon, for the last time. Iris is now the most confident little swimmer going and Lucas is practically a fish, who is scared of water being near his face!
After swimming, a spot of lunch we headed out for a treat!
Ty coffee! which apparently has the best coffee ever but most importantly the best ice cream/ice cream milkshakes too.
Iris had vanilla ice cream in a tub, Lucas had banana and toffee ice cream, I had a salted caramel milkshake and Brad had a welsh cake and banana toffee milkshake.
Ty coffee, is very instagrammable too, the walls are so cute and well, everything about bluestone is instagrammable to be honest.
It wasn't overly priced, I think Brad said it was £10.40 for all of it and I don't think thats expensive at all really.
It was rather hot on Thursday so it was very necessary to cool down with ice cream. The weather at bluestone was really lovely, it drizzled a bit on Thursday evening and it rained slightly on Friday morning but that was it really.
We decided to explore and see what we could find during our last walk and although we got lost on a dusty, hot trail with Lucas moaning, it didn't take away that we found a beautiful field to take photos in.
The kids picked buttercups and Lucas was interested to know whether in fact him and Iris did really like butter. Even if he has it on toast and crumpets, that does not necessarily mean he likes butter... Okay, kiddo.
Watching Lucas and Iris run through the fields, sniffing flowers, looking at bee's and butterflies was so cute. I attempted to set up a camera on the pram for a photo and sadly it's out of focus quite a lot, but one we'll cherish nonetheless. Next time I must remember to pack the blooming tripod.
We finally made it back to our lodge where I cooked a lovely pasta bake. I actually really enjoyed a self catering holiday. I was impressed with the amount of cooking essentials that were supplied, I was worried about the little things like a cheese grater and things, but nope there was a box one, and a glass baking dish the perfect size for a family pasta bake. The oven was easy to use and although I haven't taken any photos of our dinner, you can see that in the vlog thats live and linked at the bottom too. (It also shows you the lodge too)
The lodge has the kitchen and lounge upstairs and the stairs have stair gates too! Which was wonderful for us as Iris is up and down the stairs like a yo yo otherwise. We all sat round the dining table too to eat. We sat together basically every meal time except breakfast. We either sat outside on the picnic bench or we sat upstairs at the dining table which was really lovely.
After dinner, we switched the dishwasher on and chucked on raincoats and headed out the the complimentary entertainment, it was pirates whilst we were there but I have seen other bluestone bloggers with fairies and elves at different times. Black Bart, Bones and Scully were the entertainment along with Kelly and Louise and a huge Black Beard came down for a few minutes too.
The parade starts from up at the activity centre and finishes in the village. You can follow it but we went straight to the village so the littles could play in the park and we could grab some milk (and chocolate) from Newton stores and look around the emporium which sells cute little souvenirs and even Frugi clothing.
Before this all started we took advantage of the yellow wall at the side of the spa (which sadly I never got to visit this time).
Kelly and Louise started the games whilst we waited for the parade and it involved a game of corners, which sadly Lucas and Iris were too young to understand but they enjoyed the dancing either way.
Black beard, Black Bart, Scully and Bones arrived and Lucas loved it and after putting Black Beard to bed, they spent about 45minutes to an hour, dancing, playing games, performances of live music and singing from the "cast" and the kids all loved it. It's your typical children's entertainment and they did a great job. Lucas and Iris spent the whole time dancing (which you can also see on the vlog).
They ended up "custard pieing" Scully and Louise, the losers of the games and the giggles from all the children really was lovely.
We arrived home about 7:20pm and arrived at 6pm so was a nice hour and twenty of fun for the kids.
The final day, we packed up our suitcases, walked them up to check out and they do have a holding area for bags if you haven't driven and want to use the facilities until 3pm that day. I would say most people will drive though. We used TP & Narberth taxi's and it cost £15 each way from Narberth station to Bluestone. They had a booster seat for Lucas too which was a nice touch. I would recommend booking them in advance, you can google Narberth taxis and they come up as when we arrived we couldn't get hold of anyone for nearly 30 minutes, both Brad and I's phones were under 10% battery and we were getting a little panicky. They only take cash too. Narberth appears really small so I can't imagine the demand for taxi's is huge so there is only a limited amount of them and if they're in use when you want to book you'll have to wait. We booked on the morning of the Friday for 3:30pm and they were there on time, slightly early but he was willing to wait until 3:30pm but we were happy to go then as that was perfect for us.
On the last day we headed to the activity centre for the day, the weather was drizzly and we hadn't been before and thought this would have been the best day to cram it in.
We found the big downstairs area overwhelming and didn't spend too long in there, thats purely because Iris is in to everything and she wanted to be up in the older area. The mini golf looked amazing, and if Lucas was slightly older he would have loved it, he's just too young to get it at the moment and Iris would have driven us barmy.
The arcade bit is also fun, although it was like a game of tipping point on the 10p machine and I got so many riders.... I'm going with the fact it's a fix and not the fact i'm a sore loser and just not tactful with that game. Haha.
We headed upstairs to the Wildwood cafe which was lovely, it was so cute and well done. There was a computer area, a little cosy room with a TV showing a film and the food was lovely, as was the hot chocolate. The kids had chips at their request and Brad and I had a jacket potato each and it was truly delicious.
We then discovered the upstairs soft play for under 5's and it was perfect and the littles spent 3 hours playing up there before we headed to get our taxi. It's enclosed, lots of areas including a rollercoaster track and car, balance beams, huge duplo and a soft play area too. It was perfect and stress free (to an extent) for Brad and I. Sadly Lucas was overtired and overwhelmed from his busy week, so he had a few tantrums (which is very unlike him) but other than that it was perfect and the littles didn't get bored either.
Finally, it was time to go home and Lucas was very sad about this. We had to flag our train down at Narberth which was so strange but Lucas found it super cool.
Thank you for having us Bluestone Wales and we hope to come back in the future. Such a lovely week.
*We were invited to stay at Bluestone in return for an honest blog post, all words, photos and opinions are my own*
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