Well here I am, back from my week in Portugal with Joe and his family and my buddies Duckie, Bongo and Pip. We had a lovely time – very sunny and warm, perfect for having fun!

I kept a diary while I was away, so here’s what I got up to:

Thursday 22.07.10

We’re all packed and ready to go!

Joe’s mummy booked us a hotel for tonight at Gatwick so we didn’t need to get up at some unearthly hour to get our flight. We had some dinner and settled down for the night (which was a little prolonged as Liam and Joe got the giggles and took a while to get to sleep….).

Friday 23.07.10

Taxi collected us from the hotel at 5.30am (!!) and then we got checked in for our flight. Lots of excitement and I am sure the security scanner must have thought Joe’s mummy was slightly odd to have so many toys in her bag. I supposed she can at least blame that on the children she had with her this time, unlike her travels to Slovenia earlier this year.

Joe’s daddy bought a round of bacon butties for breakfast and we sat in the café looking at the planes…. more excitement!

Then it was time to get on our plane, so we found our seats and got strapped in. This economy class is a little crowded LOL

Anyway, the flight was great (apart from Bongo and Pip embarrassing themselves but you’ll need to check Bongo’s blog for more details on that). We got a taxi to our villa and it was fab! It was very big compared to the 4 of us perched on the little ‘thingy’ in the garden.

Check out our bedroom, plenty of room for all of us in that bed!

The boys were straight in the pool as soon as they had had some lunch…..

To be honest, I was pretty tried after my early morning so I just had a lazy afternoon on a sun lounger ;-)

Saturday 24.07.10

Up early (thanks to Joe) and my buddies and me decided to have an explore of our grounds…… check this out – cool trees to climb, although a little on the spiky side!

The rest of the day went much the same as yesterday. I didn’t realise holidays could be so relaxing!

Joe’s mummy on the other hand wasn’t so relaxed….. oh dear – no neighbourhood recycling facilities could be found and she all but had a pink fit when we had to throw some bottles away last night. Good news today though, on the way to the bigger supermarket we went past some recycling bins – all was not lost after all!

And not to let an extreme sports opportunity pass me by, I had a go at bungee jumping off the top of one while the humans were busy…

Sunday 25.07.10

Today I decided that I should venture into the pool instead of just watching from my lounger. Plus some of the older humans were getting fed up of me hogging it all the time. So with the aid of one of Joe’s armbands I was splashing around and having fun with my friends.

And to finish a great day, I had a beer with my Cuz while the ladies were doing something lady-ish….

Monday 26.07.10

We walked to the local beach today and it was really nice. Not very child friendly in terms of swimming, but we are all quite happy swimming in our pool and not having sand in places we’d rather it wasn’t.

It did however had some rock pools which we had fun exploring

and in one of them we found this crab. Cool!

So after that little adventure it was back to the villa for some more pool and sun lounger action - I’m really loving this holiday lark.

Tuesday 27.07.10

We had a day out today to Zoomarie. It was great! There was a fab aquarium with sharks and everything!

and rides.

I really like the alligator (glad he was behind caged wire though!)

and the sealion show.

But my favourite was the dolphins. I now understand why Joe’s mummy loves them so much.

So cute when they were dancing together. I had a little boogie in my chair along to the music too LOL

The boys were very impressed too

They had loads more stuff to see there, to much to add photos of everything I’m afraid.

When we got back to the villa, we had a really relaxing evening as it was quite tiring being in the heat all day.

Wednesday 28.07.10

We had a bit of a surprise today as on the walk back from the supermarket for food supplies, there was a thunderstorm and after Joe’s nanny announcing that you don’t always get rain with thunder over here, it promptly chucked it down and we had to take cover under a restaurant canopy for a while.

Got back to the villa and it was drying up but then after a while the thunder was rumbling again and so we had to take precautions as we wanted to stay out by the pool.

but within an hour or so, it was back to hot and sunny – yay!

You will notice that little lilo next to Joe. What a result that was….. we bought some crisps this morning and it came free in the packet – and it was perfect for us little members of the group. Well I just had to try it out

but then even better….. we found a body board in the garage so we all got on to ride the waves. But HELP, a shark!!! ARRRGGGHHHHHH

we all (except brave Duckie who stayed rooted to the spot) promptly fainted and it was a wonder we weren’t eaten for his lunch. Duckie said he was just full of hot air, but we weren’t so sure.

I needed a serious lie down after that adventure I can tell you.

Thursday 29.07.10

Our last full day here so it was a mega chilled one. More fun in the pool….

In the afternoon Bongo and I had a game of Rummikub in the shade. I really enjoyed it, especially when I whooped his butt LOL

Then we did some monkeying around

before having dinner and the best pudding of all. Yep, can’t go a week without my lovely bananas!!

Friday 30.07.10

We’re going home today, booo hoo. We had one last ride on the inflatable croc (out of the pool so we had some sort of chance of staying on it!)

and then I listened to some tunes on Liam’s MP3 player while they all got showered and ready to go.

We tried to sneak out of the bags and back into the house, hoping we’d blend in and be able to stay longer but no such luck….

So off we went to the airport. Unfortunately we had an hour’s delay coming back but they had some footie on the TV in one of the cafés so us and the boys were happy.

And then it was onto the plane and home to Gatwick. Another good flight with the boys being as good as gold. Back to the hotel to collect the car, then the drive home. It was getting late and Duckie kept falling asleep and sliding off the dashboard but eventually we got our last photo of our holiday….

It really was a great week, and I hope we go on holiday again soon!

It was my turn to set the prompts this week, and so I chose the theme of Hide and Seek. The boys have taught me this while we have been playing outside and it is lots of fun. Plus I know how to count to 10 and 20 really well now :-)

Here's some of the hiding places I tried:

This seems to work for Cleo as she hides away in the shade on the patio and sleeps the day away. Unfortunately I disturbed her - ooops.

And would you look at this. How embarrassing to have a huge pile of ironing like that on show! Made a good hiding place though. I reckon even Liam could have hid behind it LOL.

I ventured back outside and found these sweet peas that were a good hiding place. Bit scary climbing up there though!

And lastly here I am blending in with some long lost relatives and some other soft toys types. Perhaps they were in this area on their way to or from Bongo's wedding?