The weekend just gone saw this family head to our happy place of the Yorkshire Coast to spend some quality down time in the breathtaking Broom House on Egton Bridge as part of the Dorset Cereals Dorset B&B Awards campaign.
It was my Dad, George's birthday on Friday so I wanted to arrange something a little bit special for the big man this weekend, and Gorgeous Cottages were just the company to call.
As you get older and perhaps a little wiser (or in my Dad's case, sillier, much, much sillier-it can go both ways) you start to realise what really matters in life.
I think having kids can do that to you, that whirlwind of new love for the kid you made merged with the mammoth overwhelming weight of responsibility (no more spontaneity in life is pretty sobering) and puts everything that came before, and after it, into sharp perspective.
You don't need to have a kid for this I should add. Yay for being wiser without having to actually use your cervix! Life experience, travel, pets, nurturing plants, charity work, whatever it is that takes you out of yourself, can be enlightening,
It got me thinking about all the tiny touching moments that make up the bigger picture, the intricately woven happy-making little things I reflect on right before I go to sleep or if I'm away from my kids, missing them madly, or my zone out to more joyous times when I find the children fighting over toys/films/my affection and I need a happy place pronto.