Day 7 - Centre Parcs - Allgaü, Germany

Today has been much easier - Henry is in toddler heaven! We've been swimming, playing at the outdoor park and then the huge indoor play area.

Not so long ago, places like this would have been my idea of hell, but I now I see the appeal! happy kids = relaxed parents. Plus I do love a water slide and there's plenty of those 😊💦.

We also managed to go out for dinner. This is how it started ☝️ and about 20 minutes later, this is how it ended! 👇🏻

The walk back to the lodge involved Andrew carrying Henry still asleep and snoring, and me carrying a huge bag of shopping plus a bike, whilst its was raining/almost snowing.

Sleep score from Centre Parcs was a solid 9/10 last night. It was the first night of the trip where Henry didn't wake up and the beds are pretty comfy 🙌.

Thoughts from today:

> Must get outside more. Henry loves it and it's good for my soul too.

> There's a trampoline in the indoor play area that I really want to bounce on and see what I can still do 😂...just need to find an impossible moment when there's no kids on it!

> At some point soon I really need to embrace the 'go with the flow' parenting style and let go of routine and structure...not sure it's going to come easily to me...

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Day 20 - Driving (and flying) home for Christmas! Lüsen Italy to Tewkesbury, UK via Austria

Time to go home for Christmas! In some ways the last 3 weeks seem very long and in another sense, it's gone very quickly. A few days ago, given Henry's unpredictable mood, we decided it would be better for me and him to fly home and Andy to drive. Luckily we got some reasonably priced flights from Innsbruck which was only a 90 minute drive from the hotel. We're all very ready to come home. The hotel has become a lot busier with families arriving for Christmas week and there seems to be a noticeable change in the type of people. Lots of shiny outfits and enhanced cheekbones! Breakfast this morning felt like it had gone from calm to chaos with the extra people. Doggy packed and ready for the flight. Great mountain views from the departure lounge at Innsbruck airport. Henry's first flight with his own seat, which was made even better by us having a row of 3 to ourselves. He was so good. Collected by Grandpa from the airport and a quic...

The backstory

So what made us want to travel? Where are we going? What about your stuff? What's happening to your house? How long are you going for? What about school? These are all questions we've been asked and we only know the answer to a few of them! Rewind 2 1/2 years to Easter 2022. We'd just moved into what we thought was a lovely but slightly too big house. We never wanted a big house but assumed with a baby on the way, we'd grow into it. It needed a complete renovation and I was 7 months pregnant. Not the best combination! With Andrew working tirelessly on renovating the house and juggling work, and me suffering from serious post natal depression we quickly realised the size of the house and ongoing maintenance needed due to the age of the house was not for us. Think of the stressed out couples you see on Grand Designs - we were fully living that nightmare. All of our time was consumed with work, renovations, house maintenance...

The last supper

The last supper - a pizza picnic with a glass of champagne. Zero pans, hardly any washing up and no need to pack the bottle of champagne 😂. The camera doesn't lie - those tired faces are very real! It had been a very long week that week and that night was about to get longer... The night before (Wednesday) our immediate neighbours were burgled and their 2 cars stolen. On this evening they returned from the pub to find their back door wide open and the stolen handbag strewn across the floor. Feeling very spooked, they came to ours with their three pyjama-clad kids in tow. That then quickly turned into an impromptu sleepover, turning our lounge into a make-shift hostel. So no more packing happened after this photo 🤦‍♀️.

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