We arrived late last night (Monday) as Eliot had been poorly since Thursday evening and we weren't sure if were going to be able to make it. I didn't spend Sunday packing as I would've done as I wanted to see how Eliot was on Monday morning. He woke up very much back to himself so we made the decision to go on our Bluestone get away. There was quite a lot to sort out so we didn't leave till around 5pm, it was a long way to travel but we figured we'd be able to make more of our break by getting there late Monday rather than on Tuesday.
On route I asked the OH to call the resort as I was worried we'd be too late to check in but we were reassured by a very polite member of staff that security were on 24/7 so there would be no problem. We arrived around 11:30pm after one stop off for food. Check in was super easy, we just drove the car up to the check in window where we were given a welcome pack with resort info and the card keys for our lodge. We followed the one way system round to our lodge, when we opened the door we were highly impressed! Everywhere was clean, fresh and extremely inviting. We're staying in a Gateholm lodge which sleeps six. When we booked two friends were meant to be joining us but they couldn't make it due to illness.
We all settled down for the night, Eliot in the travel cot provided by Bluestone and we all had an undisturbed sleep.
In the morning we awoke to this beautiful view, you can't see here but the mountain top in the distance was sprinkled with snow. We had a relaxed breakfast, Eliot enjoyed looking out of the Juliet balcony and emptying the contents of the kitchen drawers!
We decided to explore the resort and headed to the Adventure Centre first. We all enjoyed the bouncy castle, daddy more so than Eliot!
The Chicken Run soft play for children under six also proved popular, Eliot had fun in the ball pit but was set on attempting to climb up the slides rather than going down them.
Next we went for lunch in the Wild Wood Café which serves sandwiches, burgers, jacket potatoes and some lighter options. I waited quite a few minutes to be served as there wasn't anyone behind the bar. However when I'd ordered we didn't wait too long for the food to be served. Over lunch we looked over the bookable activities, the OH decided on a couple and we thought Eliot could try toddler sensory. We booked them and ventured off around the rest of the resort. Strolling through the village which is host to some shops and restaurants we browsed the menus for the Farmhouse Grill and the Knights Tafarn which we plan to try out later in the week.
Just next to the village is the Bluestone lake which we walked around before heading down a nature trail. We were debating to whether to go thorough one of the gates when I noticed lots of tiny birds fluttering down around us. I've never seen so many small birds so close, it really was a back to nature moment.
