Adventuring in Rochester | Ordinary Moments #31

Joe decided to take a few days off this week and my gosh did we all need it! I had so much work going on and also wanting to get Elsie’s bedroom all finished (blog post coming soon!) and a couple of blog deadlines all mounted up to one very stressed Mother. Suffice to say the first couple of days we spent lounging around, lego playing and getting things sorted in the house. I forget how messy the house is when the children are off school. I get used to having my own little routine and it staying relatively well kept during the week. That has all gone completely out of the window and I fee like we’re living in a complete pit.

So we escaped the house for the day on Saturday and decided to go adventuring. We didn’t have much of a plan and didn’t really know where we were heading but we loaded up the car with coats and snacks and set off. I had mentioned to Joe I fancied going near the coast and he wanted to do something slightly educational so we settled on Rochester.

There isn’t a huge amount to do in Rochester but the Cathedral and Castle are both beautiful and it was lovely to just walk around the high street popping in and out the little shops and having a general nosey! We did go into the cathedral but it isn’t really somewhere the kids were fussed about and they were more than happy to run around the grounds of the castle that do anything remotely educational 😉

We were lucky enough to be on the high street when Old School Samba set up camp and played to a very happy crowd all in aid of Demelza charity. The atmosphere was awesome and nothing beats that feeling when live music is so loud you can feel it pumping in your chest. I think Elsie enjoyed it too!!

It was so lovely to spend the day together with no time restraints but of course it didn’t come without the usual stories to tell, like Elsie tipping an entire mug of hot chocolate over herself (white top and yellow jeans…) with no spare clothes to hand. Thank goodness it didn’t burn her and there are 600 charity shops on the high street so a quick rummage we picked up a pair of too-big-jeans for £2 and we were off on our way again!

Please note the brown stain all over her top in 95% of the pictures. I feel it just adds to the realism of our pictures…

We had the most delicious crepes in Crepe & Co. and dodged the rain, we found a park and rolled down banks. We laughed, some cried, and we made memories. Here’s to our next spontaneous adventure!

Char x

www.charlotterawlesphotography.co.uk

Me and Mine June ’16

I am fully aware I have exhausted all outlet for holiday snaps but just let me have this one more post, okay?! 😉

We couldn’t resist having our June family photos from our holibobs from the beginning of the month. I again, had visioned them to be like this at all and I had hoped for some on the beach more, but alas I really do love a sunset so a sunset it shall be!

The bonus about going away with family is they can take your pictures for you without having to use the remote and a tripod! Thank you Harri for taking our me and mine photos for June!

You can have a look at some of my other posts about our time away here , here and here!

Char x

www.charlotterawlesphotography.co.uk

Chasing the sunset | Kos ’16

One thing about being on holiday that always instantly makes you relax more is knowing that it really doesn’t matter what time you eat, go to bed or get up! There are no strict timings, it doesn’t matter if you miss breakfast, it doesn’t matter if the kids are still dancing the night away at 10pm. There is something really quite special about the way you feel whilst away. If only I could have that chilled out manner whilst getting the kids out of the door in time for school 😉

One of the things I really wanted to do whilst in Greece was watch the sunset. Unfortunately the coast line we were on in Kos the sun set behind the mountains rather than over the beach but that didn’t take away the wow effect and it was still so so beautiful. The sun set at around 8.15 which was when we were right in the middle of eating our dinner so one evening we had had a late lunch and decided to take a stroll around the hotel and out onto the beach and chase the sunset before we ate. And boy, was I glad we did! No photographer can deny the fact that that golden light is one of the most perfect times to photograph people in. The crispness of it just makes my heart happy.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I adored taking them. Elsie is by far the easiest out of the 3 of them to photograph at the minute so I went slightly over board with hers as she is always so willing!

Char x

www.charlotterawlesphotography.co.uk

Camping with Halfords

The team at Halfords have asked me to share some fond memories of our camping trips or any UK holidays that we have shared together as a family.

Being avid campers I jumped at the chance and was thrilled when they sent me a Guide to Camping booklet to give me loads of tips and advice for future trips and holidays.

One things for sure is that camping is definitely the perfect way to spend some quality family time. We often feel like we don’t see Joe much and with him owning a shop it means he works every Saturday. Our weekends consist of one day together and every other week we don’t have Harvey so spending a few days away is always time well cherished.

I feel like every camping trip we have been on has a hilarious story behind it, from our middle child walking like a cow boy across the campsite after he had an accident (you don’t even want to know the details…!!) to when my husband reversed into a tree. There is always a tale to tell and so many memories made. Our camping trips are made easy by the tent we have, we were very lucky in our find and I am even going to brave a Mum’s camping holiday so i will be putting it all up myself!! You can check out the huge range of tents in Halfords right here and they also have a web only sale on at the moment so it is the perfect time to buy yours ready for the camping season.

If it wasn’t for capturing our day to day lives on camera I would for sure forget half of the things that have happened to us. With so many campsites and holiday cottages right on our doorstep it also easily forgotten how beautiful the country we live in really is. We focus all our energy on going abroad when we have stunning coast lines, tranquil countrysides and historical towns surrounding us.

Flicking through The Ultimate Camping Guide has made me super excited to book our next camping trip and I have had so much inspiration from it. From games to play to meals to cook and also where to stay! You can download this guide right here, it is super easy and quick and packed full of useful info!

Thank you Halfords for reigniting my love for all things camping!

Char x

*Disclosure, although this is a sponsored post, the views and opinions are completely my own.

My siblings in June ’16

So this month I had definite visions of beautiful greek sunset photos, on the beach, sand between our toes. Turns out we didn’t actually take that many of all 3 of the kiddies altogether whilst we were away. Partly because I didn’t think about it as much and also because I didn’t want to force them into a load of photos every day. We wanted to relax and enjoy our week away without turning it into a photo shoot opportunity at every turn. Alas, we did get a couple of the 3 of them but not as many as I would have liked.

I will keep this pretty short and sweet, but what I will say is Joe and I couldn’t be more proud of the 3 of them this month. They were exceptional throughout the week we were away, I rarely had to raise my voice and they had so many late nights and early starts. Along with swimming nearly all day every day and the heat, it could have been the recipe for a really horrific week for us. I love it when a plan comes together, and especially when we weren’t expecting it to go quite so well as it did.

We took these photos whilst in a little village on Nisyros Island. Which was the most perfect idyllic place you have ever been. It was our last (and hottest!) day in Greece so they weren’t playing ball as much as I had hoped but I think I will let them off… I will chat more about it all in a seperate blog post but for now… Here are a couple of my wonderful siblings this month! (totally lapping this up, lets face it, next month i’ll be telling you how my July was fuelled on gin and fudge cake and how we have re introduced time out and the cain.)

Char x

www.charlotterawlesphotography.co.uk

We’re all going on a summer holiday! | Part 1

Nearly 2 weeks of no blogging can only mean one thing – holiday! I will most definitely be making up for that over the next couple of weeks and be warned – an awful lot of holiday posts will grace your computer screens! I’m also going to be sneaky and say this is our Ordinary Moments for the past 200 weeks as I seem to have forgotten to keep up with that too!!

Last year, between my parents, brothers and us we decided to go on a big group holiday in 2016. We searched and searched high and low for the perfect place and we ended up booking a beautiful villa in Spain before Christmas ’15. Things changed, plans moved and a few of us had to opt out. The villa was huge and would have been too big for just the 10 of us that wanted to still go away so we ended up booking a hotel in Kos, Greece for a week instead. And boy, are we glad we did!

We had never been able to afford to go abroad on such a big holiday, what with having babies every couple of years and starting up our businesses, moving house and getting married it just never worked out. Life has somewhat settled down for us over the past year or two and we were all so so excited to celebrate life calming down with a family holiday.

It was the first time Oliver and Elsie had been on a plane and Harvey doesn’t remember when he went on one at 18m old, so it felt like his first time too which made it really special. They were all most excited about the flight and although Harvey was quite nervous about it, we had a marvellous journey going out so it instantly put his mind at rest. In actual fact they are all saying it was one of their favourite things about the whole week!! Travelling with family also made it really special.

Our flight was delayed by just over an hour on the way out so we didn’t arrive at our resort until nearly midnight. The kids were all running on adrenaline and what better way to start off your holiday than with midnight crepes! These then became the highlight of every breakfast every morning and all 4 children were fuelled on pancakes with nutella and lemonade!

The resort we stayed in was called Akti Beach Club. It was perfectly located right on the beach and just a short 5 minute journey into Kardamena which during the day was quiet and quaint, the complete opposite to the nightlife we had heard about! It is quite a large complex and our rooms were situated at the far end of the resort which meant it was a few minutes walk to the main restaurant and reception area. This also meant where we were was really quiet and if you didn’t want to be near any entertainment then you could set up camp at our nearest pool and not be disturbed. I can’t get over how calm and relaxed it felt the entire holiday, you would have never have known it was such a big hotel! There wasn’t much of a fight for sun beds and there was always enough room and every meal for all 10 of us to sit together. There was always a kids pool with every main pool which meant we could sit at the side or on our sun beds and the kids could play in the pool without a worry. It was waist height on Elsie who isn’t a very tall 4 year old so it was absolutely perfect for them, and for us! It meant we could do a lot of relaxing and sunbathing whilst they were happily playing in the pool and we could join them when we needed to cool down!! It really was the perfect set up for families. Although it isn’t a hotel aimed solely at families, it was a great mix of the two. Perfect for adults and enough things to do for children that they weren’t bored.

We spent our first couple of days literally by the pool side, eating and drinking cocktails and soaking up the sun. It was super warm the first half of the week so we really made the most of it! We also did an after dinner stroll along the beach front which was utterly divine. That milky light is just perfect for photographs and although I really tried to hold back on taking 2 million photos, here are some snaps of the first few days. I am going to do a few posts about the holiday as there are too many things to talk about and too many photos to post all on one! So apologies if you are uninterested in holiday spam, maybe give it a couple of weeks before coming back 😉

We also videoed our holiday so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven’t already! Our first video is live!

Char x

What’s in my hand luggage

First things first, I am totally aware this has been done 100x over but for my own personal record I am going to write it down anyway!

Being a family of 5 and what with both my husband and myself being self employed, we haven’t been able to go on many big holidays since having children. My heart is pining for a couple of holidays a year in faraway places, I want to be accustomed to travelling life and I want the children to grow up experiencing different cultures, temperatures and surroundings. But my bank balance says otherwise. So when we saved up and booked our first big holiday its safe to say I was dancing on the ceiling excited.

Heck, I am going to lap up every bit of excitement and aint nobody gonna stop me!

I consulted my own Mum with this post. She did get a bit too excited when I said I wanted her advice on hand luggage essentials, after all who else do I turn to? She has been all over the world and is queen traveller in our circle! Expert packer none the less.

So without further a do, this is what will be in MY hand luggage.

A lage scarf.

In mum’s eyes, this is ESSENTIAL and one of the first things you should be packing! I get her point, it seems logical. If you’re anything like us, then you can switch from being boiling hot to freezing cold within seconds. We both get cold on a plane so it can double up as a blanket too. If your suitcase is lost the other end then voila! You have got yourself a sarong too!

One pair of knickers.

Self explanatory? I think so. The last thing you want is your suitcase to be lost for a day and you have sweaty cacks from a day of travelling!! I won’t take a picture of them though, don’t worry 😉

A swimming costume / bikini.

Again, pretty self explanatory. You don’t want to be tapping your feet waiting for your luggage if it goes walk abouts, you want to enjoy every second you can by the pool so have a bikini ready and waiting for you when you get to your chosen destination!

SFTJ.

Sweets for the journey. Mentos or boiled sweets are perfect to stop those ears popping, and I always fancy a little something whilst sitting reading a magazine (or wrestling with 3 children.)

Something to read.

You never know, your children may surprise you and sit still for 5 minutes. Snap up the opportunity to have a read of a little summin’ summin’.

Headphones.

Lets face it, plane headphones are useless. Pack a spare pair of headphones to save the trouble of untangling and holding in the free pair you are given!

Travel bag.

This bag consists of medical essentials and toiletries. I haven’t photographed the bag as it will be a clear plastic food bag, not so attractive!

-Sudafed. Take this about an hour before you fly and those popped ears you are expecting won’t be so painful!

-Moisturiser. My hands are dry anyway, but they seem to get super dried out on a plane so a little hand cream is essential in my travel bag!

-Hand sanitiser. I feel like this is standard with travelling with children. I get quite clammy hands whilst travelling, especially in a hot country. And after the children scoff all the snacks and the queue to the toilets is 10 people long, you’ll be glad you packed it!

-Vaseline or lip balm. Air con on a plane = dry skin and dry lips. Vaseline is a must have.

-Wet wipes. You never know when you may need them!!

-Tissues. Again, just so handy to have in your bag

Folder with all your travel documents in. There is nothing worse than getting to the check in desk and you have to rummage around to find passports, boarding passes etc etc. Keep them all in one place and you can just hand the lot over!

Electronics.

Camera! I do not trust to put any of my camera equipment into my main luggage so it is all coming with me in my hand luggage.

I will have my Canon 6D, Canon powershot S120 and a GoPro Hero4. I will also be taking spare batteries for all with their chargers and lots of memory cards! This is all going to go in this awesome bag I picked up in primark for just £4! Keeps it all together and easy to whip in and out if you need to take any snaps on your journey!

I am also taking my laptop as I know I will want to clear off some memory cards half way through the holiday so my apple mac is coming along for the ride too.

That sums up my hand luggage! I hope you have found it useful and not too boring 😉 I will pre warn that next week will be filled with holiday snaps galore!!

Char x