This year's trips (and baby number three joins us!)

Been very slack on the blog lately - we've been busy!

We welcomed our third child into the family in January, which meant he was old enough to come along with us when we went on our first trip of the year in the van back in May.  It was a super weekend in Skegness with family.  Fitting three kids in the van was "interesting" - we settled on putting our middle child in the front car seat with the eldest and youngest wedged in the back, with the non driving adult sat in the back too to keep an eye on things! 

Next up was Swanage in July for the town's festival week, and what a brilliant time we had. Great, traditional entertainment for the kids including 'wacky races', a tots disco, fancy dress, sandcastle competitions and for the grown ups a fun run, darts, pool competitions and of course the infamous wheelbarrow race! Mentioning the pool competition brings me onto the most dramatic van moment of the holiday - Dave entered the pool comp and as it got later I took the kids back to the van (we'd driven into town) to put them to bed and wait for him to get knocked out...

Hours passed....it got darker...still hours went by...kids were asleep and I was bored...I saw a lone pool player walking home with his cue...still no Dave.  Has he walked home to the campsite, I thought?  About 1130pm I decided to start the van and drive up to the venue to check - however there was absolutely nothing happening when I tried starting it.  Great.  I couldn't ring Dave as my phone battery had died, so eventually spotted some girls going home and asked to borrow their phone - it was now 1230am, and I got through to Dave who had literally just won the pool competition!  (thank goodness - I wouldn't have been happy if all that waiting was for nothing!)

Dave returned victorious to the van having also won the wine in the raffle (my pay off for babysitting I think!) - there was no starting the camper so in the back streets of Swanage at 1am we pushed the campervan and eventually managed to restart it - thank goodness! Could have been interesting for local residents to see us brushing our teeth on the pavement come the next morning....

Dave's written a separate post about all the maintenance jobs from this summer - a long list as usual!  My job is going to be to repaint the van - the paintwork is looking decidedly tired now and some bits are peeling off. We are off to France in October so I'm hoping to have it spruced up by then...I'll be checking our European breakdown cover too....

Another baby bunk idea

On our holiday to North Yorkshire this summer we were joined by some good friends who've come along on our trips before (in fact, they gave us the idea to get an awning). They have a Toyota Hi Top and this year came along with another little addition - their gorgeous 10month old daughter.

As you know, we've had our own challenges with finding a good place to put a baby to sleep in a camper van, and very often it ended up with three (and now four) in the bed!  I was intrigued to find out how our friends were coping with their little one's bed and thought I'd share their great solution in case it helps out any other campervanning parents!

Like many campervan owners our friends have custom built a bed for their baby, in the form of a solid based bunk above their own "rock and roll" bed. They have constructed it by bracketing wood onto the shelves that run around the roof space and because it's spacious they are able to put the baby's own cot mattress in to make it cosy and familiar:

That looks comfy to me!

The Dad then fitted a hinged bed guard type thing kept in place by two hooks which thankfully the little one can't undo herself (yet?!):

Hello zebra!!

Safe and sound zeds for baby

It's another great idea on how to sleep those babes whilst away on a trip - has anyone else got any other good solutions?

Norfolk n' chance of a smooth journey...

Our last trip of 2011 was to Norfolk last weekend for the Annual Irish Family Camp.  Having secured Trevor's MOT first time around, it was smooth sailing all the way to Fakenham (bar traffic around Kings Lynn) and we were at the site late afternoon just as the rain set in for the evening.  It's at these moments though that being a campervanner really can make you smug - as everyone was grappling with their canvas shelters, we simply popped the top, got a brew on and started entertaining our baby.

looks like brolly weather again, Mum!

We had a few sleep related issues throughout the weekend mainly that our baby is now getting too big for 'The Coffin' sleeping arrangement and on Sunday night managed to flip over and get himself into a tizz as he couldn't get back over to get comfy. He ended up in with us, and somehow dominated the lion's share of the space in the double bed ("three in the bed, and the little one said...roll over..."). Hmph. 

Anyway Husband has decided to resolve this for next year  - apparently we can simply manufacture our own 'baby bunk' which will sit over the front driver/passenger seats, and we can curtain off the cab to give baby his very own bedroom. Some CFs were manufactured with this option and it sounds like it could work for us - more of that no doubt in a future post!


Coming back was a smooth journey until we got nearly home - we decided to pick up a curry from a local restaurant but no sooner had we collected our goodies, Trevor played up. The darned key barrel was being a pain again (it's sometimes tricky to turn the key, weirdly) and Husband couldn't get the camper started as the key just wouldn't fully rotate round. This was a problem - not just because we were nearly home, but because our curry was getting cold!

I suggested we pop the top, and sit down at the table with our dinner (bit random on a busy high street type place, with people milling around but when you gotta eat...) but Husband pressed on, whipping out a screwdriver (we have many to hand in the van), and taking off the steering column cover. He fiddled about and after another few gos, the key decided to turn. This seems completely random to me and he was scratching his head too. Who knows - something else to add to the list of "Things to sort out over Winter" I guess!

Just to round off this post, here's some great places we visited whilst around Fakenham:

Wiveton Hall Farm Cafe - a brilliant brunch, baby friendly and a load of fruit to pick if you're inclined. Cakes were fabulous too.

The Fish Shed - in Brancaster, a really lovely fresh fish shop which also has veg, herbs, bread and other lovely things. We got a whole grey mullet from here for our BBQ and it was awesome! (great cooking advice given for free)

Splash swimming pool in Sheringham - great fun, well set up for babies - although the wave machine was a bit scary for our boy...