So here goes! This is my first ever blog post review! As some of you may know from other blog posts, Keri (Nemo) is the official blogger, but as this weekend away happened while she was away with her fellow Girl guide leaders in Disneyland Paris (and yes, I was very jealous!) then I’d better write about it myself!

So anyway, as she was buggering off for a few days, and I had the little dude home as it was the school holidays,my mum had the idea of us going on our own mini break to the isle of wight. So Nemo found us a cheap hotel (she’s good at that sort of thing) then we packed mums car and we were off! Going on a ferry makes it feel like a real holiday, even if it does only take an hour to sail over! Haha!

Mum forgot to tell me she’d never actually driven on and off the ferry before 🙈 So we drove onto the Ferry fine and stayed in the car while the other vehicles were loading on, and then we realised we were on the part of the ferry that lifts up to let more cars in underneath! Well you can imagine what we were like, with my mum and me who are both very nervous people most the time, but us having to try and act completely calm so Finley doesn’t freak out in the back of the car! But it was actually all fine, we got out of the car and had a lovely time sailing across to the Island…..Getting off the ferry was a whole other story! Obvoiusly if we had driven up onto the ferry then we would have to come down, but we didn’t know it would be by a ramp (I don’t know how this thought hadn’t occurred to us!) So by now my Mum was freaking out, although we got off with no trouble at all (phew!) and started the short journey to the hotel.

Our hotel was on the sea front which was on a one way system! Well the sat nav was not our friend that day as we must have driven around 3 times before we actually found it! We were finally there though so it was all good, we had to wait an hour for the room to be ready but the hotel looked lovely so we didn’t mind, and we went to the bar and sat in the lounge and Dude checked out the balcony.

Then we got the keys and were directed to the second floor, and then down the corridor. We opened the door and this was when ‘you get what u paid for’ comes into its true meaning! First of all I went in with my case and was at the bed straight away (literally!) and then could only get to the room if we shut the door again, so we all shuffled into the bathroom and then finally got into the room. I seriously felt like I was staying at my nans house for the weekend, the bathroom sink and bath where brown, no not dirty brown, actually brown! One wall had mould on (no I’m not kidding) and the window on the other side looked out onto the main road. But it gave us a chuckle, ok maybe it’s more one of those you’ve got to laugh or you’ll cry moments! At the end of the day though it was a place to sleep and had a DVD player, so we where very happy.

With the cover on the bed giving you a headache to look at, we didn’t stay in the room long before venturing out to getting our movie night snacks and have a wonder around Sandown Pier. We spent a while down at the arcades which everyone loves and had a pizza in a café, then we headed back for a movie (I know, the party animals that we are! Lol!) then we watched a film and caught up on our beauty sleep for the night.

The next day we were going to Dinosaur Isle, but just as we where about to leave my ‘Aunt Flo’ decided to pay me her monthly visit! Yes, I of course had forgotten to pack any of the essentials, but as we could see a Boots from outside our window we got in the car and drove round. I am unfortunately one of those people who gets very nervous going into a shop, and even more so for stuff like pads etc, so I naturally sent my Mum in! Well now I wish I had just gone in myself…she came back with jumbo pads which were basically nappies, and I was wearing leggings so definitely not a good combo! You girls know what its like with a normal pad when you feel like people can see a bulge down there, or notice it through your leggings, well I was very worried about the JUMBO ones, but with nothing else to do I had no choice but to wear them, and not just for that day but the whole blooming weekend!

So with that fiasco out of the way we were finally at dinosaur isle. Befor Keri left she tried to find us a place to blog about while we were there, and kind enough Dinosaur Isle said they would let us do a blog review of the attraction. I’ll be honest, we were searching places to go and I came across their website and Dude absolutely loves dinosaurs, but I saw the prices at just £5 for an adult and £4 for a child and thought it can’t be that good at that price! Boy was I wrong. Even  when you get there it’s just the one building and doesn’t look too big, but its like a Mary Poppins bag once you get inside. The staff on the desk were very lovely and they had activity sheets for the kids to fill in on the way round. We absolutely loved the place, not just Finley but all of us! It had so much that you could learn about and there’s no way you could already know all of it as there was sooo much! There were puzzles to solve, microscopes to look into, bones, fossils etc…you name it, it’s there. There are also great picture opportunities and lots of sculptures. If your children are into dinosaurs then they would love it, and just when we thought we’d seen it all there was an upstairs area where they can dress up, play with the teddies and toys or even do colouring or painting! It’s one those places you could spend hours in if you wanted, and even with a great gift shop with reasonable prices too! We definitely recommend it if you’re stuck for places to go on the Isle Of Wight.

So that was a day well spent for us and we headed back to the hotel to make use of the pool! First of all we had to tell the hotel we wanted to go in the pool, so they could open the door, and then we had to get changed in our actual room and walk through the hotel in our swimwear and towels to get to the pool, which turned out to be empty because it was freezing!!  It had one shower and a Jacuzzi which was lovely, but once you got in that it made the pool feel even colder, so we didn’t spend too long in there as we didn’t want to catch pneumonia! But Finley loved it.

The next day we were getting the ferry back about midday so decided just to go to Shanklin Town for a nosey around the shops and something to eat. We found  a lovely place called Old Thatch Teashop which had a lovely character to it and even serves children’s afternoon tea which we thought was a cute touch. They have a fairy garden out the back which is great for keeping the little ones busy while you’re waiting for the food, and the people there were lovely. We thoroughly enjoyed our meals aswell it was a great place to end our weekend away.

Over all we actually had a lovely funny weekend even if the weather wasn’t perfect, but it kept us happy and busy while Keri was away!

So go visit Dinosaur Isle and enjoy this fun day out for yourself!

“We all have a dinosaur deep within us just trying to get out” ~ Colin Mochrie

Much Love,

2 Birds 1 Love!

Xxx