Our Amazing Family Time

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Good afternoon. How are you all? After not being able to go anywhere or do much for a while, it was lovely to get away. I rented a car and we drove from the Midlands to the south coast - just under 200 miles. I was a little worried as I'd not driven for well over a year! Luckily, I remembered how to do it, and picked the car up a couple of days before we went. We had made plans to do various things with our daughters and granddaughters. We'd also had a message from another relative (my husband's late cousin's daughter) who had been 'collateral damage' in a family feud. She (I'll call her S) wanted to get to know her family again so we planned to meet her as well. There were some not good things, so I'll get them out of the way first! Unfortunately, two of our grandchildren were with other grandparents for the week - we were annoyed and upset, considering we'd made plans with them and had said we'd come down a different time if it wasn't convenient for them. The girls had even decided on what they wanted to do with us. So we did find it quite rude and thoughtless that, knowing the distance we were travelling to specifically see them, we had a message a couple of days before we were supposed to see them. I had asked our youngest daughter to decide what she wanted to do so I could book something. She didn't decide until the last minute. Then we said we'd take her for lunch only to meet her in a pub to find she'd just had lunch. Now to the good bits! It was nice to spend time with the youngest daughter, of course. We met her as well as S and her partner and their baby daughter. We all got on really well, and my husband was really happy to be back in touch with S. They'd missed each other. My husband wanted to get in touch but was worried about repercussions. Thankfully, S was the one to get in touch with us and I won't let us lose her again. Another day, we spent some time with our eldest daughter, her husband, and their youngest (Baby3). We took them to various attractions including caves, an aquarium, and a crime museum. That was a really lovely day. I bought a keyring and print of a photo we took of all of us. It was funny because we were all at various stages of taking off masks (had to wear them at the aquarium) so we got a lovely fun picture. Baby3 was very happy to see her granddad. I always worry the grandchildren won't know us as we don't see them often, but Baby3 clearly adored her granddad! We always love the aquarium, especially with extra information from our personal tour guide - eldest daughter used to volunteer there! The caves were interesting, especially as there is information on one of my husband's relatives in there as he had something to do with Hastings' smuggling trade. My husband, the boys, and I did other bits and bobs - I took the boys out to a museum one day, and we spent time in a lovely local park. We picked up some souvenirs from the Old Town shops, and enjoyed the views over the sea. My favourite day (and, I think, my husband's favourite day) was our last one. We met up with everyone together, and had a lovely surprise of the other two grandchildren joining us. We had to book, and there was some confusion and muddlement as we weren't sure how many there would be. We had to pre-order the meals, which was a little awkward, but it all turned out OK. I must have spent more on that one meal than I did on the rest of the week put together! It was all worth it, though, to see all of our children and grandchildren together, and the added bonus of the extra family. The place we went to eat was beautiful. Our eldest daughter said she felt like she was under-dressed and didn't belong there as it was so posh It was a beautiful place, and I wanted to treat everyone. It was also the only place I could find to book for the number of people we wanted. Youngest daughter suggested a couple of places but I'd already tried them - one was fully booked (at least not available for the number of people we had) and the other (which did look nice and I would have liked to go) had a limit of 3 adults. It all worked out nicely, though, as we had a lovely meal in a lovely place. We drove back home on Saturday. Got back quite late as we came home straight after having lunch with everyone. We're missing the girls already, and looking forward to seeing them when they come this way in October. What have you all been up to while we've been away?