18 July 2017

MEETING THE WILDES IN BOGNOR REGIS


Last week I received and message from Amber (Meet The Wildes) about doing a little meet-up whilst she and her lovely little family were holidaying at Butlins.
I went straight onto the 'trainline' and saw how cheap tickets were and booked the train - Then told Brad about our upcoming adventure. He was thrilled at the idea, luckily, although he didn't really have much choice.

We set off at 10:30am after a photoshoot I had in the morning and headed for the train station. Lucas loves riding on the train so he was absolutely ecstatic about it. We were 20 minutes into our journey when the train driver apologised and said we'd need to get off the train in Portsmouth and re-board a different change and make a few changes. Sadly someone had been hit by a train and this was what was causing the delay.
After a LONG journey we finally arrived at 2pm!

This called for a picnic and a much needed bum change for Iris. We had packed our new Bibetta changing mat which is in the shape of a star. This made life so much easier as we rolled up a cardigan under her head (because of the stones) and she was comfortable on the stones for a bum change. It's so handy and in the shape of clutch bag so fits perfectly under our pram.
I am useless for bringing a changing mat on our day trips as they're so bulky and barely fit in the bag, if at all with two kids so this is great. No more changing on floors or our clothing items.






Finally we settled down for our picnic and we'd bought our super cute picnic hamper. I bought it years ago from BHS and I just don't use it enough. I think we last used it when I was pregnant with Lucas. We packed little juice cartons, which made me feel really nostalgic as my Nan used to do that with us as kids. We had sandwiches, crisps & party rings which were all fun as well as other bits and bobs. It was so lovely sitting by the sea and eating a picnic. Lucas called it a "pink-pink" which was cute!!!

After our picnic we took a stroll up towards Butlins and stopped off for a while by the speed boats area and watched them doing loads of tricks and Lucas found it utterly hilarious.
We threw stones and took pictures before heading to the local pub for some ice-cream, coffee and a plug socket to charge my phone which was dying.





Lucas found a telescope that he love looking through. This led to a chat about stars and planets and Peppa Pig. It's crazy how clever he is and how much he is taking in too. He knows a lot and is learning a lot.

After coffee and Ice-cream we headed up to the beach to meet the Wildes. Lucas loved playing with 'the boys' (Balthazar and Lysander) and Olympia was super cute and toddled around the beach eating pebbles and seaweed like Iris. Embla stayed attached to her Mama!
Now, I've been following Amber on Instagram, youtube and her blog for a long time and admiring her photography, so to finally meet up and exchange family photos was lovely. I ended up sending her nearly 40 photos as I just loved snapping away at her family. Kirsty is lovely, as is Amber and their family is just lovely. Amber blogs at 'Meet the wildes' and her family are utter bonkers in the best way.

We were lucky enough to have some pictures taken of us as a family by Amber too, which I leave a few below which I love. Especially our family photo. It's the first photo of Me I have loved in a long time.

Photography by Amber

Photography by Amber

Photography by Amber

Photography by Amber

We finally finished off the day with some fish and chips (Sausage and chips) on the beach. The typical British thing to do and we watched the boats, sat by a boat and threw left over chips at the seagulls to eat.
Whilst eating we saw a man walking a lizard. It was called Popeye and Lucas got to stroke it. Brad said it felt like a cheese grater. I kept my distance with Iris cause it sort of creeped me out and I hate reptiles.
Lucas liked the fact it climbed a wall and thought it was hungry every time it stuck its tongue out.

We then headed back to the train station. Our day was super lovely and we had the best time. It cost basically nothing and we just enjoyed spending time as a family, burning some of Lucas' energy and making memories as a family.
Something we'll always do is make memories as a family. Our life is family, we'll honeymoon as a family, get married as a family and love life as a family.

So many more photos below including some of 'The Wildes' I took too. So check them out.

*We were gifted the Bibetta Changing mat in return for an honest review. All words and opinions are my own and honest.*

















The Wildes...