We chose Tenby as a holiday destination as we were keen for the children to experience a truly British seaside holiday!  Considering how much I love the coast, they’ve spent very little time playing around on a beach (although they are regulars in our local sandpits!).  With the weather forecast dire, I was nervous our trip to Wales was going to be a complete washout, and we were going to have to forgo the beach for the local softplays.

Our first two attempts at beachtime were somewhat disastrous – with Sophie immediately falling in a freezing cold rockpool within minutes of arriving on the first trip, and Alex walking too far into the incoming tide and being soaked to the waist on our second trip.

Buy things improved substantially after that, and we enjoyed hours of coastal fun over our week in Tenby!  It’s a stunning spot on a beautiful coastline – we loved the beautifully painted buildings around the harbour (and took a ridiculous number of photos of them!)

I’m so glad we visited off season – we had the beaches almost to ourselves and the peace and quiet was such a treat after the bustle of London.  I’d love to have a holiday home here – like the lucky people who purchased and developed the old lifeboat station shown below and featured on one of my favourite Channel4 “Grand Designs”!

Nothing clears your head better than some fresh air and the sound of the sea

The children weren’t quite so interested in peace and quiet – finding the beach one enormous playground!  Of course, Alex made a beeline for any stone he could lay his hands on, throwing as many as possible into the waves.

And we all enjoyed some clambering and climbing on the rocks and in the caves.

Sophie had a permanent grin on her face on the beach – just love these pictures of her looking so full of joy and life

She followed Alex everywhere, copying everything he did.  Here are my gorgeous siblings closely inspecting little rock pools together.

Alex helped Sophie climb into a little cave where they posed for a cheesy sibling photo – I love how he’s looking at his little sister here.

When you’re 2 and 4, the best thing about the beach are the waves – we spent ages splashing in our wellies and running away from the tide – they literally screamed with laughter.

Here’s Sophie following Alex again!

We, of course, spend many hours digging and building sandcastles – it was fun watching Alex directing Sophie in their construction project, which seemed to involve digging a river, lake and dam.

They worked so hard – and roped in Daddy as a helper when it got too tiring!

We were lucky enough to bump into a photographer who kindly took a few family portraits of us – they make me giggle everytime I see them.

And unusually I handed over the camera and Matt snapped some pics of me with the children

We loved the beach views from Tenby’s Castle Hill, where there were canons to climb on and massive hills to roll down!

We were keen to get out on the water, and were thrilled to find that the first boat trip of the 2015 season took place during our stay.  So we headed out on a Seal Safari to explore the shoreline of nearby Caldey Island, home to lots of seabirds and seals.  Sophie loved it, not minding the sea swell and the freezing cold wind!

We were lucky enough to see a fair number of seals who were fairly inquisitive, having not seen a boatload of tourists for months!

What a week!  I’m still finding sand in random places, and the car smells somewhat fishy after all the shells the children collected, but we had such an amazing time, I don’t mind.  Can’t wait to get to Cornwall in May for more seaside fun.