Life With The Hocks: May 2016

Hey Everyone

Firstly let us apologise for being bad bloggers and not blogging for a long time! It has been longer than we would have liked but due to family bereavements, illnesses that seem to never stop and more hours in work than ever before we just have not had the time and to be perfectly honest due to everything mentioned above we havent always been the happy family that you all love recently so we thought it was better to stay quiet instead of boring even more people with our moaning!

We are going to start more from now on and aim for at least one or two posts a month. We are feeling loads better now and much happier and one of the main reasons for this better and refreshed feeling is our recent holiday to our favourite destination - +Center Parcs UK

Now you all should know our love for this Company and their holidays but this holiday was completely different - why? well firstly only half of the Hocks went - Colin, Anna, Allan and Rosie! (Dont tell them but the oldies were left at home this time) and secondly we went to Sherwood Forest which Colin had never been to before and lastly it was different because it was just 4 nights, oh no, we were not having that this time, we went the whole way and did the full 7 nights

We did however have to suffer an agonisingly long wait for this holiday as we booked it on the 7th July 2015 and did not go until 22nd April 2016! So as we are sure you will understand - we were all very excited for it finally to arrive - So what did we get up to whilst there?

Here is our Sherwood Diary!

Thursday 21st April

So, While we were at Center Parcs, Tommy and Michelle went on their own little holiday to Bournemouth (They had a really nice time in a really lovely hotel incase you were wondering!) So early on the Thursday Morning they drove Colin over to Anna & Allan's house ready for our holiday the next day and off they went to Bournemouth!

Allan Was working all day on the Thursday and Rosie was in school until 3pm so Anna and Colin used this time to get prepared ready to set off bright and early the next day! They started the Thursday off by going to +Asda in Wrexham to get the food shopping for the holiday and then went back to Anna and Allan's to get everything together ready to load the car when Allan got home.

We didn't quite realise just how much we had to take with us until it was all piled up on the dining room table! Allan was far from impressed when he got home from work and had to spend the next hour trying to squeeze everything into the car! Lesson Learned for next time ...... YOU DO NOT NEED ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED A SMALL COUNTRY! lol!

Once the stress of packing the car was over we all sat and watched TV Then went to bed really early ready to leave as early as possible the next morning! Not that we slept much though... we were all far too excited!!

Friday 22nd April

On the Friday morning we all got up nice and early and excitedly got ready to go! We took an equally as excited Milo to Lynne and Eif's because he was staying at their house whilst we were away! Once we had said bye bye to Milo we set off on our journey to Sherwood.

The journey took about 2 1/2 hours and we stopped halfway for a much needed +Starbucks Coffee . However, maybe this wasn't the best idea because it resulted in both Anna and Rosie being desperate for the toilet with nowhere to stop! Note to Anna.. DO NOT DRINK COFFEE ON A CAR JOURNEY BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED A WEE! Lol!

When we finally arrived at Sherwood we were all ready to burst with excitement. We drove to check in to pick up our keys and were greeted by the first of many wonderful members of staff. Now we have to mention just how amazing the staff were in Sherwood. They were so happy and helpful, by far the best staff we have come across in any of the Center Parcs villages. Such a credit to the company.

Once we had picked up our keys we parked the car in the car park and headed off to explore for a few hours until we could get into our lodge at 3pm.

The first place we headed to was the Jardin Des Sports. We always spend a lot of time here when we go to Center Parxs because it is where the soft play and pool tables are, both of which we use a lot! We walked in and were taken aback by how great it looked. It is newly refurbished and it looked absolutely wonderful. So modern and spacious, we were seriously impressed! After we had had a look around we decided to head to the village square for a bite to eat and another wonderful member of staff gave Rosie a balloon as we were leaving, much to her delight!

We headed to the village square and decided to have our lunch in Dexters Kitchen. We each had a delicious burger (Rosie had a hot dog!) then we went to explore the rest of the village square. We had a look around the fabulous shops (although there were a few tears when Rosie accidentally let her ballon go in the toy shop and it floated up to the very high ceiling!) and went to have a peek at the Subtropical Swimming Paradise (more about this later!). We all agreed that it was by far the best layout of all of the villages. We loved the way that it was all outdoors and it felt really spacious and homely. We loved it.

When 3pm came, Allan went to fetch the car and the rest of us headed to our lodge. We paid for a central lodge so it literally took less than five minutes to walk from all the main facilities to our lodge, it was great! When we walked into our lodge.. O M G we were delighted! It was the usual high standard of accommodation that Center Parcs always provides, however, we walked outside to find that we had the most beautiful pond right outside our back door. Honestly it made our holiday. It was full of wildlife and it was just so pretty.

When Allan got back with the car we spent the next few hours unpacking and getting settled into our new home for the week. Once we had finished it was time for tea! Anna cooked fajitas and we all sat around the table happily eating and chatting whilst the log fire crackled in the background. We felt so at home.

We spent the rest of the evening just sat in front of the fire and talked and watched TV before going to bed (in the most comfy beds in the universe might I add!) ready for the first full day of our holiday the next day..

Saturday 23rd April

On Saturday we got up a bit later and spent the morning eating breakfast and chilling in the lodge just taking in the relaxing atmosphere. Although there is so much to do at Center Parcs there are some days where all you need to do is relax and take in the environment. The whole place is just so relaxing. The sounds of all the different animals, the smells of the flowers and trees.. It just instantly calms you down and cheers you up.

It was a glorious sunny day on Saturday so we didn't book any activities because we chose to take advantage of the sunny weather and do some exploring. We had a walk in the sunshine then headed to the Sports Bar for Rosie to have a play in the soft play area and for the rest of us to have a nice few drinks and some games of pool. Anybody who knows our family will know how much we love a game of pool!

Once we had finished our games of pool we headed back to the lodge for lunch. Whilst we were eating lunch we made the decision to spend the rest of the afternoon in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise.

Now, the Subtropical Swimming Paradise in Sherwood beats all the other villages hands down. It's AMAZING! It has so many slides and a wonderful children's area. The best part however is the HUGE outdoor pool area they have. When you go outside you can see all the steam from it rising from the water because the water is so warm. It's like being in a giant hot tub. SOOOO RELAXING! We went on the rapids a few times but although they were fantastic, with it being a Saturday and lovely weather they were very busy so we decided to go back to them another day! We spent a good few hours in the pool and it was early evening before we got out! Time flies when you're in there!

We had a nice meal booked for the Saturday evening in the posh Indian restaurant Rajjinda Pradesh so we all went back to the lodge to get all dressed up before making our way to the restaurant.

Oh my gosh the meal was just beautiful. And yet again the service and staff were exceptional. Anna, Allan and Colin decided on "The Rajinda Experience" which was basically their version of an Indian banquet. SO.MUCH.FOOD! To start we got a big platter of Indian snacks which consisted of poppadoms and dips, onion bhajis, pakoras, samosas, chicken tikka and more.. They were all absolutely delicious! For main course we got a big bowl of rice to share and a massive naan bread along with a choice of curry each. Anna had Makhani and Allan and Colin both had Bhuna. We all agreed that it was one of the best Indian meals we had ever had, it was exceptional. Rosie not being a massive fan of Indian food tried Indian tomato soup for her starter but wasn't keen so Anna and Colin ate it for her (it was gorgeous!) and Rosie had a poppadom instead! For her main course she had fish and chips and she had chocolate brownie for dessert whilst Allan and Colin had sorbet (Anna was too full for pudding!).

Once the delicious meal was over it was late and time for Rosie to go to bed so we headed back to the lodge via the beach and after Rosie had gone to bed the rest of us started the log fire and had another relaxing night chatting and watching the TV.. Lovely!

Sunday 24th April

Sunday saw an early rise as Rosie had the Cake Pops activity booked for her by Colin for Christmas. It was at 9:30am in the Activity Den which was located in the Jardin Des Sports. We all headed down and were shown to a room where a lovely young girl greeted us all. Once everyone had arrived the Member of staff started the activity that included breaking up biscuits and then smothering them in icing. Then Sprinkling them with all sorts. Rosie really enjoyed herself and again as mentioned already the member of staff was excellent.

After this we stayed in the sports bar area for a little while before heading to an activity we were all very excited about - 30 Minutes on an Electric boat on the Sherwood Lake.

We were all equipped with some lovely but very important life jackets and headed to the boat. where the instructors very clearly gave us the instructions we needed and some safety advice. Then we were off and before we knew it we were relaxing on a boat in the middle of the lake - it was idyllic!

After a quick play in the park for Rosie we all then decided to have a game of Ten Pin Bowling which was fun. Anna won Game 1 and Allan won game 2 (just don't tell Rosie as we told her she had won to her utter delight!)

Anna and Colin then headed to the Dining In to Collect the Takeaway we had ordered earlier in the day and Allan headed back to the lodge to put Rosie to bed - She had eaten earlier on!

Colin had a Pizza, Anna had Chilli Beef and Allan decided on a Thai Curry. Not one of us had any complaints about the food, it was hot and delicious! We then settled down again for another cosy night in front of the gorgeous log fire with some decent TV on!

Monday 25th April

When we woke up on Monday we looked out of the window and saw that the weather has changed and it was raining! We were a bit gutted but we decided it was only a bit of water and no way was it going to spoil our day!

We got up and had a chat amongst ourselves about what we were going to do that day. We did have an outdoor treasure hunt booked for the Monday morning however, none of us particularly fancied walking around in the rain meaning we wouldn't have particularly enjoyed it so decided to swap it for another activity and we decided on soft tennis!

After breakfast we walked to the Jardin Des Sports to swap our treasure hunt to soft tennis and luckily they had a court available there and then so we took it! Soft tennis is just like regular tennis but has slightly smaller rackets and soft balls meaning it's easier for children to play. We got an hour on the court and after half an hour Rosie lost interest a little bit so Anna took her to Starbucks to get a hot chocolate then they watched Allan and Colin play for the last half hour. We have played soft tennis a lot on our previous Center Parcs visits and we always enjoy it and it's great exercise which we all admit we could do with a bit more of!

After tennis we decided to treat ourselves to lunch in the Sports Cafe. Anna and Allan shared a chip shop platter, Colin had burger and chips and Rosie had hot dog, chips and beans.. Therefore putting back on any calories we had burned during tennis.. Haha ah well what are holidays for?!! It was lovely too!

After lunch we spent an hour or so around the sports cafe playing pool and Rosie had a play in the soft play then we decided to go pottery painting!

It's become a bit of a tradition for Anna and Colin to go pottery painting on our visits to Center Parcs and this time Allan and Rosie joined them and really enjoyed it! We love pottery painting, it's so much fun and is actually very relaxing. Plus it's great seeing your pottery when you pick it up the next day and it's been glazed and fired, you feel a real sense of achievement! Anna and Colin painted a "Family" sign and Allan and Rosie painted a red arrow plane. Before we knew it it was 5pm and they were closing for the day in 10 minutes! Luckily we finished just in time.. Time always flies in there!

After pottery we had a little browse around the shops (Rosie loved the toy and sweet shops!) then headed back to the lodge to get changed and freshen up.

That evening we headed to the Pancake House to take part in the Family Quiz! We have taken part in the quiz on previous visits but this one was the best! The Pancake House is located right on the beach so it was a lovely location, the quiz master was really good and funny and although we didn't win our score wasn't at all bad, especially considering we were one of the youngest groups there! We did ourselves proud really! We have to say, we did see a few people with their phones out so we think there was a bit of cheating going on, the winning team couldn't look the quiz master in the eye at all when he asked if they had cheated! So at least we can say we got a decent score without cheating at all and we really enjoyed ourselves. Rosie had her tea in the Pancake House whilst we were doing the quiz and she had a colouring book so she was kept amused.

Once the quiz had finished it was around 9pm and we were all hungry and Rosie was tired so we headed back to our lodge, put Rosie to bed and had a picnic type tea of all different nibbles and watched TV in front of the fire for a few hours. Another lovely day, despite the rain!

Tuesday 26th April

Tuesday turned out to be one of our busiest days. It started with Colin taking Rosie to her favourite play area whilst Anna and Allan got themselves ready for the day. After about 20 minutes they joined us and Allan enjoyed his time on the park nearly as much as Rosie!

Then Another Christmas Present from Colin from Rosie was the Pony Pals activity, where Rosie groomed and rode and walked a pony after the forest. Unfortunately just as we were leaving the lodge to go to this activity the weather suddenly changed from nice sunshine to a SNOW STORM! it was unbelievable how different it was in such a short time, but to be fair the staff at the activity did a brilliant job of keeping the children interested and the ponies were adorable. They started off with a short talk in a hut about the different brushes and tools they would be using and interacted very well with the children. Then the 4 Children were split into 2 groups of 2 and each group headed out to the ponies with a member of staff and started using the brushes they had just learnt about. Then after about 40 minutes it was time for the children to ride the ponies around the forest and as they were in groups of 2 one of the children was riding and the other child was helping the member of staff walk the pony. Rosie thoroughly enjoyed this activity but due to the weather, by the end of it her hands were freezing cold so we had to take hr back to the lodge to warm up. Blinking UK Weather eh!

After the activity as we said we headed back the lodge as it was so cold, we put some logs on the fire and decided to stay in for the rest of the day - Anna prepared the tea which was a lovely Curry and we watched a film and played a game of travel monopoly - a really nice family night in! The end to yet another awesome day in Sherwood.

Wednesday 27th April

On Wednesday we had an activity booked that we had all been looking forward to, making bird feeders in the country club! We got up nice and early and had breakfast and a chill in the lodge then we headed off on the 20 minute walk to the country club.

We thoroughly enjoyed this walk because it mean we walked past all the exclusive lodges and treehouses and we got to be nosy and see how the other half live! Lol! We couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the treehouses, they are incredible! We have definitely put a week in a Sherwood treehouse on our bucket list!

We were slightly early when we arrived at the country club so we had a little look around and were very impressed. It consists of a driving range, the foresters inn (a country style bar and restaurant) a really cool soft play area a nature shop and the nature centre in which all the nature themed activities are held. It was all very modern and impressive!

We met the lady who was leading the make a bird feeder activity (again a wonderful and friendly member of staff!) and she showed us all how to make bird feeders out of completely natural products. We each got to make one out of a log and one out of a pine cone and whilst we were making them the lady told us all about the different types of birds and what they can and cannot eat. Did you know bread is actually bad for birds? We won't be feeding the ducks bread anymore, we will be using bird seed for now on!

After we had finished making our feeders the lady took us outside to show us how to properly feed the birds then we all went back inside to collect our feeders. The ones that Rosie and Allan made are hung up in the garden and the ones that Anna made will be hung up on the tree where Anna's grandad's ashes are a scattered as he loved to feed the birds.

It started snowing again so we decided to go to the foresters inn for a drink and to let Rosie have a play on the soft play until it settled down! Once the snow had eased off the sun came back out and it melted pretty much straight away we walked back to the centre of the village and decided to have a game of crazy golf! None of us were particularly good at it but that just made it more fun!!

After crazy golf we went back to our lodge to decide what we were going to do that evening. Ever since our first trip to Center Parcs we have wanted to book ourselves into one of the Cabanas in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise so today we thought "why not, let's just treat ourselves!" So we went ahead and booked it for later that evening!

The cabana was booked for 5-15pm until 8-15pm so Anna made a spaghetti bolognese for tea that we could heat up when we got in then we got in our swimming gear and off we headed to the Subtropical Swimming Paradise!

We booked into our cabana at the pool reception and the lovely staff shower is where to go and explained what we got on the cabana.. We were really impressed! The cabana cost £40 for three hours and we got a HUGE flat screen TV with digital channels, a safe to keep all our things safe, 2 free drinks each, sun loungers and magazines. It was such a treat!

Although we were thoroughly impressed with our cabana and would definitely book one again in the future there was one disappointing thing about the evening (probably the only disappointment of our holiday!). Our main reason for booking the cabana for later in the evening was because we wanted to go swimming outdoors in the dark when the pool was all lit up. It was one of the things we had most been looking forward to! However at around 6pm Rosie and Allan were abruptly told to get out of the outdoor pool because it was being closed for the day for maintenance . When they asked why they were not given a reason, just an abrupt "it's closing get out". This upset us all, particularly Rosie as she couldn't understand why she had been shouted at by the lifeguard and thought she was in trouble!

We ended up leaving our cabana a bit early and decided to go and tell guest services about how they had been spoken to and also to ask why they had closed the pool with no prior warning to anyone. When the wonderful lady phoned the pool to see why this had happened it turned out they had only closed the outdoor pool for ten minutes and they had reopened it again! Meaning we had missed out on the outdoor swimming and left our cabana early when we needn't have! When the lady on guest services asked them why they hadn't announced the pool was back open they couldn't give her an answer!

The two lovely ladies on guest services were so extremely apologetic about how Allan and Rosie had been spoken to and we were so genuinely shocked when they gave Rosie a big chocolate bar and a pen and gave us a £50 voucher to go out for a meal the next night! We couldn't believe it, it was far more than we would have ever expected and it was so gratefully received. The guest services staff are truly a credit to the place and deserve recognition! Just wonderful!

After our trip to guest services we headed back to our lodge and Allan put Rosie to bed while Anna warmed the bolognese up and we all sat in front of the fire and ate our dinner whilst watching Mrs Doubtfire on TV. Apart from that one incident in the pool it turned out to be another wonderful day and the amazing staff in guest services more than made up for it!

Thursday 28th April

Before we know it and we were on our LAST FULL DAY! We couldn't believe how fast time had gone yet again! The morning consisted of Rosie having her photos taken in a special Photo Shoot that her mum and dad had bought for her!

They are done in a studio in the Village Square by Pret a Portrait and the lady doing the shoot was excellent with Rosie - i think u will agree she is very photogenic! As part of the package that you pay for you recieve a free print of any one of the pictures (She took nearly 90!) either a small one framed or a larger one unframed - All you do is a few days after the shoot log into their website and choose at your own leisure - was a really enjoyable and rewarding activity!

After the Shoot we decided to head back the lodge for lunch and enjoy the wildlife that had been joining us all week at the back of our lodge. We literally could have mentioned the wildlife every single day as we had so many visitors. Swans, Ducks, Egyptian Geese, Squirrels, Birds - So So many - i dont think im lying when i say we were all amazed at how many things we saw and it just added to the holiday! Here are just a selection of pictures of the wildlife we saw during our stay!

Then on Thursday afternoon we Allan, Colin & Rosie returned to the Subtropical Swimming Paradise for an hour or so whilst Anna decided to start the packing and have a tidy of the lodge.

Once back in the lodge, we all got ourselves dressed up and headed out for our final supper to Hucks! Again, the quality of the food, the cleaniness of the place, the Service - Everything was just (As Tommy Hock would Say) FABULOUS!

Then it was back to the lodge for the final nights sleep :(

Friday 29th April

Friday was home day (much to our disgust!) so we had to be up bright and early as we had to be out of our lodge by 10am. We decided we were going to treat ourselves to one last treat and decided to go for a cooked breakfast in the sports cafe. Allan went to fetch the car and we loaded all our stuff into it then we all sadly said goodbye to our lovely lodge. Allan drove the car back to the car park and Anna, Colin and Rosie headed to the sports bar ready for breakfast.

Once Allan got to the sports cafe we all ordered our breakfast, a lovely young man served us, he had only just started there so was a little bit overwhelmed and it was incredibly busy due to it being departure day but he tried incredibly hard and he was great! Colin and Rosie had sausage baps and Anna and Allan had a full English breakfast which was really yummy!

After breakfast we had one last game of pool then headed to the village square for one last look around the shops (Anna treated herself to some lovely smelly candles to add to her collection.. She's a bit obsessed with scented candles!) then we went for another game of bowling before we went home.

After bowling we walked to the car and made the very long journey home (the traffic was terrible!).. We won't lie.. We were all so sad and gutted to be leaving and could have happily stayed for another week (or 100).

When we got home we ordered a takeaway and spent the evening talking and laughing about all the lovely memories we had made on our wonderful week in Center Parcs.

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We had such a wonderful week in Center Parcs and all agreed that Sherwood was by far our favourite Village. We loved everything about it from the layout to the lodge to the wonderful staff. We will definitely be back and hope to bring the rest of the Hocks with us next time because we think they will love it just as much as us! The seven nights was definitely better than the four nights and we all agreed that next time we go we will definitely try and make it seven nights again! We had the best time ever and as always Center Parcs didn't let us down. It always feels like a second home. Thank you for the wonderful memories Center Parcs.. Here's to many more to come!

Thank you for reading our blog, we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!

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