We’re all going on a summer holiday, we’re all going on a summer holiday 🎶

Yesterday evening we collected Sam’s dad and step mum from the airport and we’re heading to down to West Cork for a week. We’ll base ourselves in Kinsale where we’ve hired a cottage and will tour around whenever the weather holds up.

We stayed a night in Kinsale in our campervan a couple of years ago when we were touring the area and we promised ourselves we would come back for longer.

Kinsale is definitely one of the most picturesque, popular and fashionable resorts of the south-west. Famous for yachting, sea angling, dolphin and whale watching trips, gourmet restaurants and golf. It is also an ideal base for touring the costal route.

I am heading now to collect the hire car, a seven seater that will accommodate us all.

More from us later.

Yesterday we had a visit and stay over from our cousin Karen. Karen is a very talented hairdresser/stylist with her own studio in Cavan town and was up in Dublin on a new products training course.

We had all planned on an early night but predictably we stayed up rather late and chatted over a few glasses.

Great to catch up, looking forward to seeing you, Ellie and John in August for the Cavan Fladgh.

Thankfully both the girls are feeling much better this evening. Rosie hasn’t had a fever since early today and is pretty much back to her normal cheeky self. Lily is well on the mend also and her cold has nearly passed.

We were all pretty bushwhacked last night and were in bed by 8 and 10 and slept in until 11 this morning – the longest lie in since the girls were born.

It’s tough and worrying watching your babies fight a fever. We learnt a lot and will be better equipped next time around. Cuddles definitely help!

As this is my fist half marathon I guess it warrants a post of its own. I completed the Clontarf half in 1:43.41 (chipped time).

I’ve been toying with the idea of a half for a while and started to up the miles on my regular runs. I had planned on the Dublin half in September but a friend recommended Clontarf as a great starter as it’s Ireland’s flattest half run.

As I mentioned in the previous post, both the girls have viruses. The last couple of days I’ve also had a chesty cough and an overall lack of energy. Only that I had paid for the run a couple of weeks ago I probably wouldn’t have bothered today. But now I’m glad I did. I was feeling pretty groggy before the race but once the horn had blown muscle memory kicked in and I soon forgot about my illness. I felt good throughout with plenty of energy but had to dig deep at the end to get well within my targeted 1:45 time.

The course itself was beautiful, all along the coastline with about 5 mile of it on the actual beach which I didn’t expect but it didn’t make it any harder just windier.

It was great having Sam and the girls at the end to cheer me on. Thanks guys. Another milestone achieved and now looking forward to the Dublin half where I hope to shave off a few minutes as its on my training ground in the Phoenix Park.

We have a very poorly household here at present. We’ve spent the last six nights nursing poor Lily back to health from some virus and now Rosie has it.

It has hit the girls pretty bad with fever, serial vomiting, diarrhea, snotty nose and a chesty cough. We took Lily to the doctor as her temperature was hitting 39 degrees but there was little he could offer other than some sound advice, Calpol and cuddles.

Since we woke this morning Rosie has been vomiting and feeling pretty poor too. I went on a big run earlier and when we returned Rosie’s temperature also hit 39. We’ve been nursing her here since with a combination of Nurofen, Calpol and cuddles.

I guess we won’t be getting much sleep this week either. Hopefully all will have settled down in time for our holiday to Kinsale on Thursday.