Holiday at Goddards House, Surrey, 9-15 May 2009

Here is the whole house-full of people who shared our holiday at Goddards: Millie, El, Charlie, Phil, Katherine, Rosie, David, Daniel, Judith, Susan, Claudia, Stephen, Tim and Andrew. This breaks down into the Moore family; the Clapp family; the Edwards family; Susan & Stephen, and Claudia Baines.

On the way down to Surrey for our holiday, Phil & Rosie, and El, Tim, Charlie & Millie stopped off at Ightham Mote for an outing. Rosie enjoyed dancing inside the Grade I listed dog kennel, and then posed for a photo with El and Millie. Rosie and Charlie found a pond to throw fir cones into too.

For the first few days of our holiday the weather was sunny and we enjoyed playing and relaxing in the garden. El set Rosie and Charlie a game to hunt for packets of raisins in the garden which they enjoyed. Andrew made sure there were always newspapers to read. Sometimes it was just too relaxing!

There was a play park down the road in Abinger Common where the children enjoyed taking their parents to play. It had the bonus of being opposite the village pub too, which served a decent lunch and pint.

When the weather wasn't sunny there was plenty to do inside the house, as there were always people willing to read stories to various combinations of little ones, and plenty of drawing and colouring in to be done. We also enjoyed playing skittles in the house's very own skittle alley, family meals in the dining room, and the tots liked playing with each others' toys.

On the Monday Rosie, Phil and Andrew went to the seaside at Brighton for the day. We played on the beach, had ice cream and then explored the amusements on the pier, before heading to The Grand Hotel for some lunch. Brighton was also the destination for Susan, Stephen and Claudia the next day.

On the way home on Friday, the Moores and Clapps stopped for an outing and lunch at Knole House to see some deer and explore another big house. Here are some pictures of El with Millie, who was being cute that day.

By the way, just out of interest, here is the picture from the holiday at Goddards some of us went on in September 2005.