In a old house on a hillside, next to the sea far from the madness that folds around me. Peaceful and gentle, like sails on the breeze. In an old house on a hillside next to the sea, there's a warm light on a cold night and clean cotton sheets. Soap smelling skin and tingling feet, with stars lining the skyline and shine through the trees
19th July 2021
The weekend after the initial holiday was spent at home relaxing with the washing machine constantly spinning. They'd only have a couple of days at home before heading over to the north of Devon with Hunith and Balinor in tow. Fortunately, like the week former the weather was forecast to be lovely and warm once more so they had to bring their summer clothes (alongside rainy day clothes just in case) and rearrange the car. Amhar had to go in the pop-up seat in the boot, they moved Alfie's car seat to the middle so Hunith and Balinor would sit either side of the baby, Merlin and Morgana in the front with the latter driving. They loaded up the car with their several contraptions—their suitcases, swim bags, food boxes, a folding wagon that Hunith and Balinor had bought and their two buggies (Joolz aer for Amhar and a bugaboo bee for Alfie).
They'd set Amhar up well in his 'first class cabin' as Merlin liked to refer to it as (given that he had his own secluded little spot with all the amenities that a toddler needed as well as the fact it was similar to the emirates first class cabin), with drinks, snacks and a DVD player with lots of options of films for him to choose from. Alfie had his Lamaze octopus and dragonfly dangling from the handle above his car seat and his mirror on the back, morgana and Merlin not wanting his noisy light up singing bear even though it was his favourite. The journey was much shorter than the one to Butlins, being just over two and a half hours arriving in time for lunch at one on the beach as they couldn't get their lodge until three.
"Gwandma push me" Amhar insisted. "Not daddy or mummy. Gwandma".
"Well thanks kiddo" Merlin remarked sarcastically as he threw his hands up in surrender and Hunith took over pushing his buggy.
"Grandma's boy" Morgana chuckled as she went ahead with the baby and her sulking husband. "Chips for lunch thank you very much".
"And chocolate?" Amhar asked.
"Maybe later" Morgana shrugged.
"Yes, chocolate too" Hunith whispered. "Don't tell mummy".
Amhar squealed in agreement and hissed "shhhhhh" as he kicked his legs up and down.
"What's that Amhar?" Morgana smirked.
"Secret" Amhar insisted.
"Chocolate?" Hunith mouthed.
"After lunch and none for the baby" Morgana agreed.
"He's not having chocolate till he's three" Merlin added. "Right, one small kids chips, a large salted chips for me and Morgana to share, what're you having mum and dad?".
"Salt and vinegar please" Balinor said. "I'll give you a hand, Merlin". Without their usual tank of a double buggy, it would be slightly harder to get to the actual beach as they would have to make Amhar walk and collapse his buggy, though as they planned swimming for later that day they all agreed to not go on there yet.
"We're so lucky" Morgana smiled.
"We are" Merlin agreed. "Lovely weather, a great holiday, our two boys".
"And your parents" Morgana added with a smile.
"Should've invited Morgause" Merlin smirked.
"Maybe at Christmas" Morgana shrugged.
"So much has changed!" Merlin exclaimed. "Hopefully by Christmas, it won't be just us four".
"Hopefully a little bun in the oven" Morgana smiled as she put her hand on her stomach. She was slightly self conscious, while she was pretty much back to pre-pregnancy she had a slight 'mum tum'.
"And you'll be back at work too".
"I know. I'm excited, but at the same time it's like so much has changed since when we last were working".
"You get used to it" Merlin shrugged. "For a while they had bubbles of year groups in certain areas to keep the sets and whatnot, though Geoffrey said we're back to normal".
"Good" Morgana sighed. "So we have a little while over here walking around, golf at two then soft play afterwards. Hole in one?".
"Oh it's on!" Merlin declared as he thumped his knee.
"What on?" Amhar asked as he climbed out his buggy.
"After lunch, we're going to do some golf".
"Why?" He asked.
"Cause it's fun" Balinor shrugged.
"Why?"
"I think you'll have fun".
"Why?"
"Because … oh just be patient". They had to load the car back up and drove to their holiday park, the Gold Coast. Still, they couldn't check in yet so parked up and put Alfie in his buggy before making their way to the adventure golf. They had to park it and morgana wore the baby in the ergo as they all collected their clubs, a tiny one for Amhar (the same size as Alfie when he could stand with assistance) and four bigger ones with an array of colourful golf balls for all of them.
"Amhar, this is how you do it" Merlin said as he placed his ball on the floor. "You need to hit the ball, and try and get it in the hole with the flag. Like this". They all stood back and Merlin swung his club, hitting the ball into a nearby rock and it bouncing off.
"Not bad" Morgana smirked as she sauntered to her husband. "Now, my turn. Let's see if I can do better while carrying the baby". She was unsure on how to arrange herself at first, awkwardly moving her arms around the ergo then settling on a comfortable position and whacking the ball. She managed to avoid the rock placed in the middle of the track and the bounced off a corner, going further down.
"And me!" Amhar said happily as he batted his club. He missed the ball, scraping the floor and did so around three more times before he managed to hit it. It didn't go far, not even past the rock though Merlin and Morgana were very proud of him for doing it and not melting down even though his one didn't go as far as his parents. Hunith and Balinor took their turns last, nobody ended up with a hole-in-one (Morgana almost did on the last hole, though it just missed by a small fraction).
"Now what!" Amhar asked. "What do next?"
"You can go have some time in soft play, while all the adults get drinks and some snacks" Merlin answered.
"Gwandma come play wif me?" Amhar asked as he blinked his chocolate brown eyes slowly (he tended to use this for sympathy or when he was bribing his parents for something).
"Okay, of course I can" Hunith smiled as Merlin and Morgana exchanged a smirk.
"Have fun, soft play's the best" Morgana put her best fake smile on. In reality, she rather hated it though it did give her a break especially if he'd made some friends there, otherwise she'd have to go up with him which was annoying and very tedious (she was almost certain that the ball pit was covered in wee and avoided it as much as she could). A frazzled Hunith returned with a bouncing Amhar at the end of their session.
"Tired, mum?" Merlin smirked.
Hunith raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Exhausted".
"You'll have fun, I'm sure" Morgana smiled. "With both of them. The preschool doesn't start until the sixth and we go back on the first … so you'll have a fun day".
"I look forward to it" Hunith smiled.
"Swimming now?" Amhar asked as he bounced up.
"Yes dear" Hunith sighed exasperatedly. "Is he always this energetic?"
"So now you understand why we're constantly tired" Merlin retorted. "But they're worth it, truly".
"So morgana, are you ready to head back to work?" Hunith asked.
"I guess, though at the same time so much has happened and changed".
"You mean all your favourite students have moved on" Merlin murmured.
"Maybe" Morgana shrugged. "It's hot man! Let's go for a swim". There was two pools outside, one beach style and another regular one. Indoors was a regular pool with a separate baby area, not as good as some though they were content with it (especially since it was absolutely boiling). The family holiday was off to a great start.
20th July 2021
For once in their lives, Merlin and Morgana got a slight lie-in, not having to wake up until half-eight. Hunith and Balinor were happy to get up with Amhar and feed him coco pops and all sorts of other unhealthy snacks (as most grandmothers tended to do, Hunith was absolutely loving spoiling the boy). For the day they'd be heading over to another beach not too far away so that they could go crabbing, something Morgana had wanted to do for a long time but never managed to get around to due to being too far away from any specific place where they could go crabbing. The drive down was just shy of an hour and fortunately it wasn't busy, they parked up and loaded their buggies up with the usual essentials before walking down to the beach with five new crabbing essentials (net with hook and line, a bucket and some dead fish to use as bait).
"What do we do?" Amhar asked.
"You gotta stay with mummy or daddy cause it's high" Merlin said. They went on a sort of walkway that went out to many boats into the sea, though there was a tall wall so that it was rather safe.
"Look, like this" Morgana explained. She hooked her bucket to her line and she and the parent in-laws used it to get some water into the bucket for the crabs. "Now we have water, we can get our crabs. First, we gotta put some fish in the net".
"Eww" Amhar scrunched his nose up at the raw fish. "So slimy and yucky".
"It is" Morgana agreed. "But the crabs like it. So we need to unwind some of the string on the net and then throw the net in".
"Me do it" Amhar insisted as he threw the net in.
"Amhar no!" Merlin protested. Too late, they hadn't fully unwinded it and the whole net went in.
"Uh oh! Sorry daddy" he said as he gave Merlin a cuddle and kissed his stubbly face. "You're all scratchy".
"It's okay Amhar" Merlin said. "Maybe if you're nice to granny and grandad they might let you have theirs".
"Gwandma sharing pwease?" Amhar asked as he used his puppy eyes.
"Amhar, you need to ask nicely and wait to see if grandma wants to let you have a turn" Merlin warned.
"Of course you can have a turn" Hunith smiled as she helped him throw the net into the sea. Amhar was rather impatient, as they had to wait a while for the crabs to go into their net and then take them out and put them into their bucket.
"I want it back now" Amhar insisted as he began pulling it up.
"There might not be any crabs yet" Hunith reminded him.
Amhar shrugged and continued to pull the net back up. As expected, there weren't any crabs but instead a horrible brown and white gooey substance.
"Lovely" Morgana muttered.
"Oooh! Bird poo" Amhar beamed. Without any time for anyone to react, he put his fingers in the bird poo and ate it.
"Amhar no" Morgana groaned. "That's yucky".
"Tastes yummy" Amhar shrugged.
"Amhar, poo has germs in it. Germs make you sick" Merlin reminded the toddler.
"So we need to wash our hands" Amhar completed.
"And we don't eat bird poo either!" Morgana exclaimed. "I am so glad we have the spa today". They released all the crabs back into the wild and had a lovely snack of ice cream, fudge and stick of rock (a classic British seaside treat) before heading back to the holiday park. Amhar fell asleep as they headed back and so did Alfie so instead of eating out they headed back to their chalet pushing the sleeping children then leaving them in the bedroom or on the side (Amhar had a room all to himself whereas Alfie was in his parents bed still so remained in the buggy). The spa was in another park at the resort so they drove down to that one, while Merlin and morgana headed over to the spa Hunith and Balinor took the boys to play table tennis. While their park did have a sauna that all the adults made use of, the spa was much nicer with some Finnish and Turkish experience saunas, reflexology foot baths, ice buckets and showers and relaxation areas. Suffice to say, Merlin and morgana were very relaxed by the time they found Hunith and Balinor playing table tennis, Alfie squealing and giggling on Hunith's hip while Balinor lifted Amhar up every so often to help Amhar hit the ball.
"You two look relaxed" Hunith commented with a smile.
"And they said holidays with kids weren't relaxing!" Morgana snorted.
21st July 2021
As they walked around the Victorian experience rooms in Watermouth castle with a screaming Amhar and a crying Alfie, Morgana found herself biting back her words. On the website it appeared to be a nice little castle attraction with some miniature rides outside, though the Victorian element with wax figures was currently terrifying Amhar and Alfie was not amused with the sounds his brother made (fortunately he was easier to settle, being strapped to Morgana's chest and having a feed was enough to calm the baby down) as they made their way around the attraction.
"Whose idea was this?" Merlin grimaced as Amhar wailed onto his shoulder, now covered in snot, tears and drool as the two year old clung onto the ear of his bunny.
"It looked better on the website" Morgana shrugged. "And we can't even just strap him in the buggy and cover him with the canopy. Oh boy, dungeons". They fortunately managed to avoid the dungeons and a traumatised Amhar finally began to calm down once they were out of the castle and he had an ice cream while strapped into his buggy.
"Not do that again" Amhar insisted.
"And we won't, don't worry" Merlin reassured him. "Now we're going to do on some rides and we're going to look at the water fountain".
"All dark" Amhar whimpered as they pushed him and Alfie into the room.
"It's okay, look! Isn't that pretty!" Morgana smiled as she unstrapped him and carried him, many jets of colourful water exploding into the air.
"Woah!" Amhar gasped. He stood there in absolute awe as the show went on, happily squealing and jumping up and down as they walked out.
"Did you like that?" Merlin asked with a smirk.
"Again! Again!" Amhar insisted.
"We've got some other rides to do then we can come here later" Morgana explained.
"Okay" Amhar shrugged. "Let's go". They made their way around the theme park, passing lots of interesting gnomes and other quirky things. There were fortunately no queues for the rides and they managed to get on them all almost straight away (the favourite undoubtedly being the toboggan run) and eating sandwiches for lunch before they drove back to the resort for the afternoon as it was too hot to stay there any longer. Unlike their holiday park, one of the other ones had a huge waterpark with flumes so they headed there for the afternoon. Both Amhar and Alfie were in their element, much more than before as this one was much more fun, with Hunith and Balinor looking after them while Merlin and Morgana went on the flumes.
"I'm scared" Merlin admitted.
"Me too" Morgana agreed with a grimace. "Well, Arthur went on one of these when he was eight, we're in our twenties. Look how little that kid is".
"We'll be fine" Merlin reassured himself and his wife. At the end of the flume in the landing pool, Merlin and his wife shared a look that clearly said 'never again'.
23rd July 2021
And just like that, the holiday was over. Merlin and Morgana rushed around the chalet packing their clothes into their suitcases as they made breakfast and drunk their coffee. Last night after a lovely show of 'be our guest' they began packing up the clothes and had an early night though now they continued to pack all the toys and baby amenities. It was slightly colder which was nice as they packed up their belongings and drove down to the beach for one last trip before heading home.
A/N: Just realised it's been almost a month since I last updated. Having returned to college and work, life's been rather hectic but I've managed to get some more chapters done and I only have two left now