2 Adults and 5 kids: A Scarborough Adventure.
What a few days it has been! I'm not usually one to share random events in my life, but I've learned lessons from my adventures this week. Brace yourselves, this is a long one but I'll include pictures to break it up.
So the plan was this. Myself, my two children, my mum and my three younger brothers (13, 11, 10) were going camping together while the hubby was away. I had an audition Friday morning and we were heading off to Scarborough straight afterwards. In preparation, my children were sleeping at my dads overnight on the Thursday night so I could pack, tidy the house and have childcare for my audition. I'd dropped them off and was home by 2pm.
That morning I had received a phone call from my mother in law asking if we still had the pump for the airbed we had borrowed as my father in law couldn't find it in the bag. My intention was to look for it, and deliver it when the kids were settled at dads. I tore my house apart for and hour and a half searching for it but I could not find it. I hate not being able to return borrowed things and I knew that she needed it. I waited until Tom was on a reasonable hour (he's in Las Vegas so I didn't want to wake him), messaged him on what's app and he was adamant that the pump was in the bag. Obviously I didn't want to question the MIL because it felt disrespectful (even though she's lovely and we get on really well) but I phoned her and asked if it definitely wasn't there. She said my FIL had checked but she would look again. Thankfully, it was hidden under the airbed on the floor! Massive relief because I thought I'd lost it.
That settled, I decided to have some food, beans on toast because yum! Whilst cooking said food I received a phone call from the camp site. You may recall we had a fair bit of rain over those few days. Yep. Campsite flooded, Holiday cancelled. The lady was very apologetic and super aware that we were disappointing children but as I said to her, she doesn't control the weather and it really wasn't there fault. So, I phoned mum and we searched for campsites but, given it was now after 5pm, we couldn't book anywhere. New plan! After my audition, we would go to Filey and have a picnic on the beach. She would get the picnic all sorted so I could focus on my audition, all I needed to do was pack for a day at the beach. Great. So now I had half an hour to get a shower and do my hair and make up before my tribe buddy and business partner arrived to film a video for our business.
The next day came, I drove to Leeds, aced my audition (if I do say so myself) and went to my dads to pick up my babies (yes, I know they're not babies anymore). I explained the camping cancellation to them and told them about the seaside picnic and they were very excited. We borrowed two CD's from my dad (Razors Edge by ACDC and The Yellow Submarine by the Beatles because my kids are cool af) and set off to my mums. After a brief coffee break, we were on our way to Filey. Barring the odd lorry trying to kill us, we arrived without incident and had an amazing time on the beach. Evie (my youngest) had seen the seaside before but not been on it and the both absolutely loved it! I really enjoyed taking them in the sea and my brothers (Kieran, Kyle and Kallum) were amazing with them.
So great time had by all and we didn't want it to end! Let's stay over!! We decided to be spontaneous and adventurous and book a hotel in Scarborough for the night, how exciting! We booked into the Grand Hotel and started to pack up our things. Cleaning off sandy toddlers is a challenge. On the way to the hotel, we stopped off at a supermarket to get supplies. We were hoping (perhaps naively) for the typical Bradford, big supermarket with clothes and all kinds of supplies. We were disappointed. Nevermind, we'd have to rough it and wear dirty clothes, I managed clean underwear for William (my son) and nappies for Evie plus some toys and treats for being good sports. We then headed to the hotel.
We parked outside in the loading bay and checked in. Manhandled two toddlers, all the shopping and luggage to my room only to find I'd been given the wrong key. So we took everything to mums room and Evie (aka my beautiful limpet) and I went back to reception to get the correct key. We had three rooms all below ground where it stank of mildew and mould. The rooms were tiny and not very pleasant but we accepted that we were last minute bookers in the school holidays and got on with it. By this time it was very late so we all piled back in the cars and went in search of a McDonalds.
After McDonalds we returned to search for parking near the hotel. Eventually we found it in a multi story but my goodness it was a task. We walked to the hotel, carrying a sleeping Evie, and my mum and brothers saw us to our room and helped me settle my kiddies. Evie woke up, but after milk and a bedtime story, she soon fell back to sleep in our double bed (I think double bed is an exaggeration). It was about two hours past their usual bedtime but they were doing really well. I poured myself a mug of wine (I didn't have a glass) and settled to read a magazine in the hopes that William would go to sleep, but he clearly wanted mummy next to him and sleeping as well.
Due to lack of pyjamas I was dressed in only a tank top and knickers when there was a knock at my door. Having had two children and pretty much letting go of all sense of dignity, I answered the door as I was. Kyle and Kallum were there and I was informed that mum had fallen down a step, pretty much broken her ankle and couldn't really weight bear. O.M.G! They asked if I had pain killers, which I didn't, she was sure it'd be fine in the morning. We all went to bed knowing we would deal with the ankle situation in the morning. We had agreed to meet in the lobby at 10am.
At 3:20am Evie fell out of the "double" bed and was disturbed enough to fight over 'being next to mammy' rights with an unaware, mostly asleep William. After a struggle and some more milk, the argument was settled and we went back to sleep. But only until 6:45am, when my darlings decided it was time to be awake. Fortunately, the toys I'd bought them at the supermarket and their Kindles kept them entertained while an exhausted mammy came to life. And by entertained I mean felt tip pen all over the bed sheets and sweets all over the floor. After countless arguments I gave up and got in the shower. Following instructions on the door in the en suite I closed the door so that the fire alarm system was not set off and trusted the kids to not destroy the hotel for 5 minutes. Of course when I returned to them Evie had emptied the little pots of milk that you get with coffee, all over the bed and floor. I'd say I got off lightly. I got us all dressed, packed up and we headed to the lobby.
While sat in the lobby trying to control two tired, uncooperative children I noted just how un-grand the Grand Hotel was. Whilst being subjected to rather loud Muzak being piped through the lobby, I noted the cheap gold paint that adorned the banisters, tacky cherubs and worn out paint. All of which added to the tacky feel of a place more fitting with customers with open shirts, hairy chests and gold medallions. Sad really, as I'm sure in its day it was a very grand and upmarket hotel. But today is not its day.
When my mum and brothers arrived it became apparent very quickly that she was not making the two hour drive home. A plan B was needed. After some thought, negotiation and transfer of funds we had organised that Dave (my mums partner) would get the train to us and drive them home. I didn't want to leave her stranded and to be honest would have struggled to find my way home (my phone and therefore sat nav had lost power the night before) I stayed with them. That sorted, the next challenge was feeding everyone in the hotel and entertaining the kids.
Kyle and Kallum trotted off to see what they could do on the sea front and the rest of us waited until the stated 12pm opening time for the restaurant. This came and went with no sign of opening. Apparently they don't open until tea time, they should maybe change their signs a little. Anyhoo it turns out they had a cafe at the bar so we headed there and ordered lunch. Of course overall this extra time cost us extra money in food, treats and entertainment for the kids. Evie was being very clingy and cheeky and William wanted to be outside on the terrace constantly. Fortunately my brothers were little superstars and kept him busy.
The next job was getting Dave from the train station to the hotel. So I went and picked him up in my car (with Evie in tow obviously) and brought him back to the hotel where parking was again an issue, so I drove around in circles trying to find a spot. Dave set off to get their car with my brother and I managed to sneak in to a loading spot to reserve it for them. Cars loaded up we set off home.
Just as we got out of Scarborough I noticed a warning light on my speedo. Oh crap. The car felt fine and so I decided to keep going hoping that I got home before its inevitable demise. The light looked familiar so once I'd calmed myself a little I started tentatively playing with the buttons in my car and Bingo! Apparently I had knocked my ASC button, problem solved and back to a stress free journey. Until Evie.
We were tootling along the A64 happily following the other car when Evie started struggling and moaning in frustration. I talked to her but obviously kept my eye on the road. Until she started saying 'stuck, get out!' Oh hells no. So I briefly turned my head to see my 2 year old daughter with both arms out of her car seat straps, trying to lift herself out of her car seat. I tried to remain calm and persuade her to put her arms back in but it didn't work. As it happened, we were coming up to a petrol station so I pulled up and proceeded to lecture her on car safety. I also pulled her straps that little bit tighter. Back on our way, with no idea where I was going, we hit traffic and to my relief Dave had pulled over and waited for us. The rest of the journey was uneventful until we got home when William decided to melt down because he wanted to go to grandmas house.
That night was a late one. They'd both had naps and were wired so it was 9:45pm before they stopped asking for things and mucking about. I confess that Saturday night and most of Sunday I did absolutely nothing. Sunday night I treat us to a take away and the kids meals came with chocolate cake. They thought it would be great fun to decorate mummy and I went along with it. I let them laugh and make mess and we enjoyed a little naughty fun. That night was much better and they went to bed straight away.
Lessons learnt:
1) If a hotel has 'Grand' in its name, it probably isn't.
2) Kids are resilient little buggers and will cope with routine changes (they will also punish you for it).
3) Chocolate cake is messy.
4) I am a badass mamma who can handle whatever is thrown at me (sometimes literally thrown). We survived, we coped and we had an adventure on the way. We made lots of memories that we can look back and laugh at. Incidentally, my mums foot isn't broken, it's a bad sprain.
I hope you've enjoyed my crazy weekend, now go have an adventure of your own.
Much love.
So the plan was this. Myself, my two children, my mum and my three younger brothers (13, 11, 10) were going camping together while the hubby was away. I had an audition Friday morning and we were heading off to Scarborough straight afterwards. In preparation, my children were sleeping at my dads overnight on the Thursday night so I could pack, tidy the house and have childcare for my audition. I'd dropped them off and was home by 2pm.
That morning I had received a phone call from my mother in law asking if we still had the pump for the airbed we had borrowed as my father in law couldn't find it in the bag. My intention was to look for it, and deliver it when the kids were settled at dads. I tore my house apart for and hour and a half searching for it but I could not find it. I hate not being able to return borrowed things and I knew that she needed it. I waited until Tom was on a reasonable hour (he's in Las Vegas so I didn't want to wake him), messaged him on what's app and he was adamant that the pump was in the bag. Obviously I didn't want to question the MIL because it felt disrespectful (even though she's lovely and we get on really well) but I phoned her and asked if it definitely wasn't there. She said my FIL had checked but she would look again. Thankfully, it was hidden under the airbed on the floor! Massive relief because I thought I'd lost it.
That settled, I decided to have some food, beans on toast because yum! Whilst cooking said food I received a phone call from the camp site. You may recall we had a fair bit of rain over those few days. Yep. Campsite flooded, Holiday cancelled. The lady was very apologetic and super aware that we were disappointing children but as I said to her, she doesn't control the weather and it really wasn't there fault. So, I phoned mum and we searched for campsites but, given it was now after 5pm, we couldn't book anywhere. New plan! After my audition, we would go to Filey and have a picnic on the beach. She would get the picnic all sorted so I could focus on my audition, all I needed to do was pack for a day at the beach. Great. So now I had half an hour to get a shower and do my hair and make up before my tribe buddy and business partner arrived to film a video for our business.
The next day came, I drove to Leeds, aced my audition (if I do say so myself) and went to my dads to pick up my babies (yes, I know they're not babies anymore). I explained the camping cancellation to them and told them about the seaside picnic and they were very excited. We borrowed two CD's from my dad (Razors Edge by ACDC and The Yellow Submarine by the Beatles because my kids are cool af) and set off to my mums. After a brief coffee break, we were on our way to Filey. Barring the odd lorry trying to kill us, we arrived without incident and had an amazing time on the beach. Evie (my youngest) had seen the seaside before but not been on it and the both absolutely loved it! I really enjoyed taking them in the sea and my brothers (Kieran, Kyle and Kallum) were amazing with them.
So great time had by all and we didn't want it to end! Let's stay over!! We decided to be spontaneous and adventurous and book a hotel in Scarborough for the night, how exciting! We booked into the Grand Hotel and started to pack up our things. Cleaning off sandy toddlers is a challenge. On the way to the hotel, we stopped off at a supermarket to get supplies. We were hoping (perhaps naively) for the typical Bradford, big supermarket with clothes and all kinds of supplies. We were disappointed. Nevermind, we'd have to rough it and wear dirty clothes, I managed clean underwear for William (my son) and nappies for Evie plus some toys and treats for being good sports. We then headed to the hotel.
We parked outside in the loading bay and checked in. Manhandled two toddlers, all the shopping and luggage to my room only to find I'd been given the wrong key. So we took everything to mums room and Evie (aka my beautiful limpet) and I went back to reception to get the correct key. We had three rooms all below ground where it stank of mildew and mould. The rooms were tiny and not very pleasant but we accepted that we were last minute bookers in the school holidays and got on with it. By this time it was very late so we all piled back in the cars and went in search of a McDonalds.
After McDonalds we returned to search for parking near the hotel. Eventually we found it in a multi story but my goodness it was a task. We walked to the hotel, carrying a sleeping Evie, and my mum and brothers saw us to our room and helped me settle my kiddies. Evie woke up, but after milk and a bedtime story, she soon fell back to sleep in our double bed (I think double bed is an exaggeration). It was about two hours past their usual bedtime but they were doing really well. I poured myself a mug of wine (I didn't have a glass) and settled to read a magazine in the hopes that William would go to sleep, but he clearly wanted mummy next to him and sleeping as well.
At 3:20am Evie fell out of the "double" bed and was disturbed enough to fight over 'being next to mammy' rights with an unaware, mostly asleep William. After a struggle and some more milk, the argument was settled and we went back to sleep. But only until 6:45am, when my darlings decided it was time to be awake. Fortunately, the toys I'd bought them at the supermarket and their Kindles kept them entertained while an exhausted mammy came to life. And by entertained I mean felt tip pen all over the bed sheets and sweets all over the floor. After countless arguments I gave up and got in the shower. Following instructions on the door in the en suite I closed the door so that the fire alarm system was not set off and trusted the kids to not destroy the hotel for 5 minutes. Of course when I returned to them Evie had emptied the little pots of milk that you get with coffee, all over the bed and floor. I'd say I got off lightly. I got us all dressed, packed up and we headed to the lobby.
While sat in the lobby trying to control two tired, uncooperative children I noted just how un-grand the Grand Hotel was. Whilst being subjected to rather loud Muzak being piped through the lobby, I noted the cheap gold paint that adorned the banisters, tacky cherubs and worn out paint. All of which added to the tacky feel of a place more fitting with customers with open shirts, hairy chests and gold medallions. Sad really, as I'm sure in its day it was a very grand and upmarket hotel. But today is not its day.
When my mum and brothers arrived it became apparent very quickly that she was not making the two hour drive home. A plan B was needed. After some thought, negotiation and transfer of funds we had organised that Dave (my mums partner) would get the train to us and drive them home. I didn't want to leave her stranded and to be honest would have struggled to find my way home (my phone and therefore sat nav had lost power the night before) I stayed with them. That sorted, the next challenge was feeding everyone in the hotel and entertaining the kids.
Kyle and Kallum trotted off to see what they could do on the sea front and the rest of us waited until the stated 12pm opening time for the restaurant. This came and went with no sign of opening. Apparently they don't open until tea time, they should maybe change their signs a little. Anyhoo it turns out they had a cafe at the bar so we headed there and ordered lunch. Of course overall this extra time cost us extra money in food, treats and entertainment for the kids. Evie was being very clingy and cheeky and William wanted to be outside on the terrace constantly. Fortunately my brothers were little superstars and kept him busy.
The next job was getting Dave from the train station to the hotel. So I went and picked him up in my car (with Evie in tow obviously) and brought him back to the hotel where parking was again an issue, so I drove around in circles trying to find a spot. Dave set off to get their car with my brother and I managed to sneak in to a loading spot to reserve it for them. Cars loaded up we set off home.
Just as we got out of Scarborough I noticed a warning light on my speedo. Oh crap. The car felt fine and so I decided to keep going hoping that I got home before its inevitable demise. The light looked familiar so once I'd calmed myself a little I started tentatively playing with the buttons in my car and Bingo! Apparently I had knocked my ASC button, problem solved and back to a stress free journey. Until Evie.
We were tootling along the A64 happily following the other car when Evie started struggling and moaning in frustration. I talked to her but obviously kept my eye on the road. Until she started saying 'stuck, get out!' Oh hells no. So I briefly turned my head to see my 2 year old daughter with both arms out of her car seat straps, trying to lift herself out of her car seat. I tried to remain calm and persuade her to put her arms back in but it didn't work. As it happened, we were coming up to a petrol station so I pulled up and proceeded to lecture her on car safety. I also pulled her straps that little bit tighter. Back on our way, with no idea where I was going, we hit traffic and to my relief Dave had pulled over and waited for us. The rest of the journey was uneventful until we got home when William decided to melt down because he wanted to go to grandmas house.
That night was a late one. They'd both had naps and were wired so it was 9:45pm before they stopped asking for things and mucking about. I confess that Saturday night and most of Sunday I did absolutely nothing. Sunday night I treat us to a take away and the kids meals came with chocolate cake. They thought it would be great fun to decorate mummy and I went along with it. I let them laugh and make mess and we enjoyed a little naughty fun. That night was much better and they went to bed straight away.
1) If a hotel has 'Grand' in its name, it probably isn't.
2) Kids are resilient little buggers and will cope with routine changes (they will also punish you for it).
3) Chocolate cake is messy.
4) I am a badass mamma who can handle whatever is thrown at me (sometimes literally thrown). We survived, we coped and we had an adventure on the way. We made lots of memories that we can look back and laugh at. Incidentally, my mums foot isn't broken, it's a bad sprain.
I hope you've enjoyed my crazy weekend, now go have an adventure of your own.
Much love.
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