What an awesome week!

Everyday our routine involved checking that Tammy and her friend were in their beds and still in one piece from the night before and this drove me mad. They were either sleeping, dressing, showering, eating or out. I’d rather have a brother I told my Mom.

We all had breakfast together after a couple of hours on the beach. Dad and I splashed about in the sea for at least an hour before we dragged ourselves out exhausted. The beach routine was to build roads and castles for trains, but especially our special task was to build according to me…. “A weight retaining bridge” “so it can hold my weight”. Were my family holding out on me? Or is it coincidence that we finally managed to create it perfectly the day we left? Maybe the latter. We had such a nice shelf on the beach as it had changed shape since the last time we were there, and there were so many pools around the rocks. Apparently the rocks have not been seen for about a decade, so they made up for so much fun. I think my statement about a brother to Mom came from our friends meeting up at the beach in the morning, and Michael was there and I had tons of fun with him. Mom and Jen noted how gentle I was with him and how I always game him a love before we left.

After the beach I needed a bath to warm up, which has become my routine. In the afternoon we were back on the beach. This time Dad built me a ‘Game of Thrones’ set of castles. The late afternoon was spent poolside.

He bought me some goo and a sticky hand, which I love. My Gran was cleaning it off the ceiling and walls before we left. See the video below for the night’s events! I’ll have you know my folks don’t learn quick because they keep buying me these kinds of toys and I keep throwing them to the ceiling.

Tuesday morning Dad, Gran and I were back at the beach. We played in the sea for a while, and then Matt, Jen and little Michael joined us. Dad dug a really deep hole, and then we dug another. I decided the two needed to be joined by a tunnel. Matt got to work on it and digging deeper into the sand we came across a live crab. Matt tried to catch him and scoop him out for all to see, but no luck, it just burrowed deeper and deeper. Pretty soon the tunnel was complete; Michael and I were thrilled. I decided to see if it could hold my weight – it did, but only a few times. Next Dad built a huge mound of sand and we burrowed a ‘bridge’ under it – it did not hold my weight.

Down on the shoreline we watched as shells buried themselves in the sand. I simply picked it up and took it to show Mom.

I took part in the Sun Kids activity of egg throwing and catching, but I lobbed my egg so hard it shattered on some other kid. I did get a sweet for effort though.

In the evening we had our family braai, which introduced us to more friends with more little people. Although they were younger than me, I was very happy playing with everyone. That’s the name of the game at Umhlanga Sands, make friends and happy times. Of course I knew my way around having been there often, so I led the little people a bit astray sometimes. Matt did most of the braai’ing, as most of you know Dad is more of a braai-eater than a braai’er! I’m not planning to follow in those footsteps so I got busy with tongs and helped Matt turn the meat and get beers. Dinner was really awesome, and our table was so festive! Tammy and Allegra finally surfaced, and their friend Jenna was also there. Mom, Dad and I munched away happily, with me playing with the littlies occasionally. Mom, Dad, Matt, Jen chatted again merrily. Gareth and Karen and their littlies also joined in the festivities. What a wonderful evening.

Tammy and her friends were also very cool, when awake, made up and fed. They made it to the pool a couple of times so I could spend time with them. I also made it my mission to go everywhere Dad dropped them off so I could get some time with them. Part of this was also to ensure Dad did the collecting and picking up properly, as pretty soon he’ll need to do the same for me! On the last day, I couldn’t help it, I took a picture of the girl’s room, clothes and makeup everywhere but no toys to be seen.

Wednesday was cloudy and rainy so we headed to the gateway for some Mr Funtubbles. We spent a good couple of hours there. Tammy was desperate to win a dog, and complained to such a degree that she got her money back on her card. I was in awe, the adults were in fits of laughter over it. Gran and Tam went to Spiderman on IMAX, I desperately wanted to go but it was PG 13 and Gran said after it was very loud. Maybe next time. Mom says IMAX is her favourite kind of movie, so I am keen to see what it is about.

Before heading home Mom and Dad spoiled me with a visit to Toys-R-Us where I could pick a toy for myself. I choose MetalBeard’s Duel from the Lego Movie. It is really awesome, and it had Dad busy for an age to construct! I really like MetalBeard and played with him a lot. Mom and Dad found the Micro Manager really funny and joked a lot about him – stuff I didn’t understand. Because the weather was bleak we stayed indoors playing and watching videos.

Thursday we were back on the beach and had one or two home meals to make up for all the eating out we did. One thing however that did not elude us were the Dinky Doughnuts. I remembered them from our last holiday and I wanted them. My mantra went from “Are we there yet” to, “I NEED Dinky Doughnuts!” The girls did too, because we got three plates and they were literally inhaled by the girls in when we arrived home. On the last day, Dad mistakenly finished my plate for me, and I was devastated, I refused to go to dinner, play at the Joy Land or anything. Dad sprinted off to find some more, but they had already closed. Next time! In the afternoon I spent some time playing in the games room.

Friday was our last full day on holiday, so we really packed it in. First we played on the beach and built more sand castles, bridges and tunnels. Matt, Jen and Michael joined in the fun. Afterwards we all headed poolside where it was really busy. Dad and I swam for almost two hours. It was such a lot of fun. Viv, the entertainment director, can the Sun Kids doing all sorts of activities on the stage next to the pool – I opted to participate, but with my Dad in the pool! Eventually it got so hot that we had to head to our rooms and get out of the sun for a while.

In the afternoon we took a nice long walk to Umhlanga Pier and then to Umhlanga Lighthouse. On the return trip we bought more Dinky Doughnuts, and as you already saw, Dad gobbled up my last few! In the evening we had farewell drinks downstairs with all our friends. The girls had already caught their flight back home, so it was just Mom, Dad, Gran and me.

Saturday morning we did our ritual last play and visit to the beach and swim in the sea. We then showered, had the porter collect our luggage, check out and lastly eat breakfast before we headed home. We saw Matt, Jen and Michael one last time and bug hugs and promises of playdates were made.

You’ll see a special edition of our sand castle building where Gran and I built a huge track for my trains and cars, this was such a highlight I asked specifically for Mom to remind me to mention it tonight.

And after all was said and done, we had an awesome journey back and Dad got straight to work. On Saturday afternoon, as I settled into my room, I shouted out “Mom! You have to come help me!” So Mom hurried to my room expecting the worst. My issue? I didn’t know what to play with first after being reunited with all my toys!

Sunday Mom and I went out to run errands and have breakfast and spend my pocket money. I got Phineas for Infinity and a Ninja Turtle Lego set. I built it completely on my own, with only Dad showing me which picture to follow and occasional he found the right piece for me. I’m so chuffed with myself! TOTALLY AWESOME DUDE!!! Mom and Dad have been taking strain lately and as a result I have been telling them, “It will all work out if we work as a team” Mom says Lego is taking over my life. It’s my birthday in 46 days. Yes I am counting and I am shopping online again this year. Or should I rather say I have already done my shopping. I change my mind as to the theme though so I am keeping Mom on her toes a bit.

Back to school this week, I am dreading it. I am already asking Mom not to take me. However I don’t think she is going to relent.

From a well rested me, Ciao!

Video 1 Slime (click here)

Photo 1 The shelf that’s developed on the beach

Photo 2 Love being back at the beach

Photo 3 And some running

Photo 4 Jumping

Photo 5 Digging (those rocks in the background have been hidden under the beach for over a decade)

Photo 6 Serious digging

Photo 7 Hard at work

Photo 8 Collecting water to make ‘cement’

Photo 9 Loving the beach

Photo 10 The bucket dash

Photo 11 Got Granny working hard too

Photo 12 Giggles

Photo 13 Umhlanga Sands Resort

Photo 14 Love the beach

Photo 15 Engineer Granny

Photo 16 My track on the beach

Photo 17 Beach ball time

Photo 18 Chasing….

Photo 19 ….and kicking

Photo 20 Me on holiday!

Photo 21 Slush Puppy poolside

Photo 22 After a hard day’s play

Photo 23 Early morning on the beach

Photo 24 Gran and I hard at work

Photo 25 And Matt the expert tunnel builder

Photo 26 Mmmmmm, chocolate ice-cream

Photo 27 Helping Matt at the braai

Photo 28 Braai’ing

Photo 29 Fire truck at Mr Funtumbles

Photo 30 Being The Hulk

Photo 31 Parachuting

Photo 32 Dad and I racing cars

Photo 33 Loving the Rocking Tug

Photo 34 Rocking like mad

Photo 35 Some speedy driving

Photo 36 Hard cornering

Photo 37 Some flying

Photo 38 On the carousel

Photo 39 Loving it!

Photo 40 Some quiet play

Photo 41 And climbing

Photo 42 Mom and I playing Mini Air Hockey

Photo 43 MetalBeard

Photo 44 Some Nintendo time

Photo 45 Tunnelling

Photo 46 Loving the pools

Photo 47 Sandy giggles

Photo 48 Peek-a-boo with Michael

Photo 49 Silhouette running

Photo 50 Busy day on the beach

Photo 51 Climbing at the Spur

Photo 52 Giggles with Michael

Photo 53 Happiness

Photo 54 In awe of the fishies

Photo 55 Slime!

Photo 56 Beach smiles

Photo 57 Digging again

Photo 58 Watching the sea

Photo 59 Loving the sea

Photo 60 Mom and me

Photo 61 Exploring

Photo 62 Interesting!

Photo 63 Rock climbing

Photo 64 Going for a stroll

Photo 65 Solitary

Photo 66 Dad and I hard at work

Photo 67 Swimming in the pool

Photo 68 Loving it

Photo 69 Swimming with Dad

Photo 70 Flying bunny!

Photo 71 On Umhlanga Pier

Photo 72 Umhlanga Lighthouse

Photo 73 I took a sneak peek at the girls’ room

Photo 74 Our last holiday sunrise

Photo 75 Chocolate croissant breakfast for the road

Photo 76 Playing at Bergview en route home

Photo 77 Its EXACTLY 600km from Umhlanga Sands to our home!

1 Comment on I’d rather have a brother!

  1. lilonurse says:

    Wow looks like you had an AWESOME holiday! I did have to laugh at this….”my folks don’t learn quick…..”

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