For those who've never visited Bluestone before, you book your accommodation initially and then book any activities/amenities on top, though swimming and the adventure centre is included in the price. Having been a couple of times before, we knew which activities to avoid and only took the boys to a couple that we thought they'd love to try, mainly the outdoorsy things, most of which are located in the steep ravine (somewhere we'd never been to before, and such a beautiful part of the park).

They panned for 'gold' at Camp Smokey and loved scooping up their own and having it made into a keepsake, both still constantly asking if they can wear them even after being home for a few weeks. Being down in the woods, where there are so many trees to climb, pools to throw pebbles in and bugs to look for, was probably the highlight for us in the warmer season, there's nothing more peaceful and it would've been easy to spend the majority of our time down there, ending each afternoon with marshmallow roasting over the Camp Smokey firepit.

A smaller seaside town we tend to visit a lot is Saundersfoot and we popped down there on the Thursday afternoon, once again ending up on the beach (and once again having brought no spare outfits for the kids, am I even very good at this mothering thing at all?). We'd been searching for crabs for the entire holiday at every beach or rockpool we passed and only at Saundersfoot did we finally find a couple hiding amongst the pools and the boys loved the discovery. We also hid one of the multiple rocks we brought with us on Saundersfoot beach and I'm keeping everything crossed that someone finds and shares it on our Facebook group for the boys to see.

The night before we're due to leave, we always book into the dinner party in the adventure centre and this time it was pirate-themed (we've previously booked for Alice in Wonderland, which was fantastic, and a mythical-themed dinner) as it's such a nice way to end the holiday and the boys love the show that's put on throughout the entirety of dinner (and the distraction from actually having to eat). Archie is one of those kids that loves to be in the thick of it, he's always dancing, warbling away at the front and first in line to have his picture taken with the actors at the end (he's well known by them all as the kid who insists on being called Shadow).

I picked up my camera the morning we were due to leave and wanted to capture the boys outside of our cabin (and in our trusty buggy - always go for the golf buggy if you have young kids!) as it's something I never tend to do in the rush of packing, and something I always regret missing out on. I love documenting our holidays like this and we're actually off in another week back to Wales to stay in the holiday home whilst our bathroom is fitted, so I'm not sure whether to document it again or take a break and simply take pictures for the sake of taking pictures (a great way of being inspired, taking away the pressure!).

Sadly, with Archie starting school in September and school holiday prices through the roof, I'm not sure we'll be back to Bluestone anytime soon but we're happy to have had made some wonderful memories there whilst the kids are still young.

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