Jude Marguerite & Ben's blog: There's a first time for everything

Now here are a bunch of happy campers if ever you saw one. Jude, Ben, Cormac, Marguerite, Grace and Kevin are all smiles as they enjoy the craic in a wee pub in Rostrevor, County Down.

This is the story of Jude, Marguerite and Ben's first ever family camping trip.

On Friday morning they got all packed up and were ready to go in good time. The excitement was building at this stage.

An hour or so later and they were pulling into Kilbroney Park in Rostrevor. This is a beautiful wee spot indeed and they headed in to see where they would be pitching up.

What about this wee spot here Ben? They had managed to snap up this cool corner spot which was quite large.

Quicker than you could say 'what the temperature due to be through the night' ....... well the tent was up.

Coats on, windmills blowing and super family sized top quality BBQ on the go. Sure what else would you want?

Cormac and Grace had also came down for the weekend with Kevin. Here they are cooking up some marshmallows on the BBQ.

The next morning and Jude is up bright and breezy and supping on his cup of tea. It's kind of hard to believe that Jude had never been camping before but it's true. He and his friends were just never into it. But within hours, minutes maybe, of arriving he was all over it like a Donald Trump hairdo. 'This is great', 'this is that', 'this is the other thing' ....... rambling on like he had been doing this all his life. Ben is getting dressed for the day.

Marguerite gets her tea made for her every morning and brought down to her. Today was no exception!! This is her sitting in the living room area. It is quite large as you can see, a six man tent or something like that. That the bedroom area in the back there.

All in all it's a really cool tent.

Recently Ben got his stabilizers off his bike and he's been loving the added freedom that brings, so much so that he is on his bike every day at the moment. Here he is scooting around the park.

Rostrevor is a beautiful little village in County Down.

The scenery is beautiful, especially down at the majestic Fairy Glen.

Heading out for the day are: Kevin, Marguerite, Cormac, Ben, Grace and Jude (taking the pic).

First stop was the tennis courts. This is an added bonus at Kilbroney Park, a proper full size tennis court ..... perfection!!!

There Jude going for one down the line.

And there's Ben hitting a forehand return.

Marguerite likes a game of tennis too .........

......... check out that forehand and nifty foot work!!

Ben's taking no chances with Marguerite at the other side of the net ....... so he's keeping his helmet on ..... just in case!!

Kevin and Grace were loving the tennis too.

Meanwhile Cormac had to pinch himself to remind him he was at Kilbroney Park Rostrevor and not Centre Court at Wimbledon!!

Ahhh the freedom, the speed, the excitement ......... for stabilizers-less Ben.

Next stop was the Narnia Trail. This little adventure park is great and is located in the middle of the larger Kilbroney Park.

Ben really loved walking around here.

Ben, Grace and Marguerite try out the super cool over-sized Narnia chairs.

After all that walking a nice lunch was needed big time and the little restaurant in Kilbroney Park hit the spot perfectly well.

Cormac, Jude and Ben are having a great time on their camping trip.

After lunch they made a stop at the play park for 30 minutes before .....

........ dandering down the hill towards the Rostrevor village.

So as stated earlier .... Fairy Glen is a beautiful place. However ...... water is water ..... and you need to be careful around water .... 'take no chances' is Jude's motto .... stand back a bit .... if in doubt use a boat, a rubber ring thingy, a bridge or a snorkel. So check out this pic. About 3 seconds after this was taken Grace went to step onto some rather wet, slimey and altogether dodgy looking large stones in the river and no sooner had Jude shouted 'those stones look slippy' when Grace was in ....... flapping like a salmon ..... and 3 seconds later she was out ...... completely soaked, and I mean completely soaked.

While Kevin and Grace took themselves off to get a change of clothes and a powerful hairdryer the rest of the happy campers took themselves off for another walk around the beautiful countryside of Rostrevor.

After today's swimming lesson (and that quick change of clothes) it was all smiles as everyone met up again at the pub in the centre of the village.

If Jude had any doubts about camping they were all dispelled by this trip ...... it was a brilliant weekend from start to finish.

That smile there on Ben's face ...... that says it all.

After a couple of pints they all headed ......