I only wrote my last post a few days ago but I’m back again! We’ve been off school this last week, like most of the country, but the boys have got two inset days this week so they’re not actually back until Wednesday. We made the most of the week off school to use our new tent again and go on another camping trip.

We weren’t staying too far from home – Mason’s Campsite is near Skipton in Yorkshire, and about an hour and a half from home for us. We arrived on Monday afternoon and spent the evening on the campsite. I think it probably would have been busy wherever we went camping given it was half term and the Jubilee week but the campsite seemed to be especially noisy late into the night which was a bit of a shame.

The weather was a bit hit and miss as well but for the most part we managed to avoid getting too wet! On Tuesday we went to Skipton Castle which was really interesting to look round – the boys were mostly excited by pretending to be an archer at every arrow slit they came across!

In the afternoon the heaven’s opened but we stayed out of the rain by going underground at Stump Cross Caverns. If you’re ever in the area I would thoroughly recommend a visit. Toby and Gabe both loved looking round the caves, and that they got to choose a rock or crystal when they finished the quiz they were given to do as we went.

On Wednesday we went to Bolton Abbey and did the Welly Walk there. The walk is about a mile one way with lots of obstacles to go over, under and round along the way. The boys loved it, and didn’t even complain about the calmer walk back along the river in the other direction!

You can’t cross the famous stepping stones across the river at Bolton Abbey at the moment because some of them are missing, so we had to make do with these wooden ones that are part of the Welly Walk.

Toby is going to be 9 next month and he’s looking so grown up these days. The walking boots he’s wearing in the photo are a size 5 and fit me! And he’s mostly wearing 11-12 clothes now too – I reckon he’ll definitely be taller than me by the end of primary school!

So anyway, despite the noisy campsite, and a bit more rain than we would have liked, we did enjoy our camping trip. It’s been nice to have a few days to relax at home before going back to school too though. And when we get back the six week countdown to the summer holidays will be on!

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.