our first overnight trip with all four kids was to visit a place that we’d been five years earlier and that i love more than most other places on earth – the jurassic coast in southern england. i think this is one of the most stunningly beautiful places on earth!

we met up with our dear friends the finters on this trip, which was great fun. the kids had a great time playing together, and the adults had a great time talking together. we weren’t able to stay at the same place, per covid restrictions, but it was so wonderful to meet up at several places and be with good friends.

we decided to stop by the new forest on our way to the coast. when we saw this cottage on our drive, i made ian pull over, turn around and stop so that i could take photos of it, haha. so perfectly british and charming!

we got our wiggles out in the forest for just an hour or so, and it was beautiful and refreshing.

funny family selfie attempts…

we loved seeing the redwood trees and the wild horses in new forest.

when we got to our airbnb, i had to take a photo of the blossoms on a tree in the front garden … so pretty. i love this type of tree.

in the morning, we met up with the finters at an awesome national trust site, corfe castle. these hilltop ruins overlooking an ancient village blew us away! adults and kids alike loved it.

we got caught in a downpour back down in the town, but found some pizza for lunch and then a playground!

the finters volunteered to watch our boys at the playground for half an hour while ian and i took the babies on a walk. so nice! with four kids four and under, it’s amazing what thirty minutes with your spouse and half the kids can do! 🙂

then we all did the easy hike to see old harry rocks. it was drizzling the whole time but we were so glad we toughed it out to see these incredible cliffs and rock formations.

corfe castle and old harry rocks we hadn’t been to before. the next morning we went to where we had been before and were so excited to go back to – durdle door and the surrounding beaches / coastline.

check out this picture from the last time ian and i were in this spot – a lot can change in five years!!!

oh! the colours and textures and drama and beauty of this place! i love it so much. we lucked out with a brilliant weather day.

we went down to the beach and played in the pebbles and before too long…

the boys were in their underwear wading in the ocean! we didn’t think there was any way it would be warm enough to swim but the kids couldn’t help themselves under the balmy sun. they had a blast while ian and i had a great time chatting with landon and nina (i can’t believe we didn’t take any photos of all of us together!). and the babies sacked out in their tent 🙂

we decided to go next to lulworth cove, so we hiked up from the durdle door beach…

and while the finters drove to lulworth, we decided to hike along the trail! the views were seeeeensational.

lulworth is a darling little village with a cute cove beach, but we ended up not spending much time there because we realised we wanted to get to fossil beach before too late. when we got to fossil beach, it was soooooo windy and freezing! but nina took asher and moses to look for fossils and they found a bunch! i was breastfeeding the babies so don’t have any photos … but it was an invigorating way to finish off the day 🙂 we had a little church service together on fossil beach – one of our most memorable covid sunday services to date 🙂

the next morning we popped by a national trust site on our way home to london. i can’t remember what this place is called! but there were loads of baby lambs there, which was very exciting.

we continued on towards london, but had to stop to snap some photos at these rapeseed fields. these stretches of intense yellow are all over england in the spring, and it’s incredible. now we had a photo of us together in the yellow!

and our last stop on the way home was at a bluebell forest, since mo and ian hadn’t experienced the bluebell carpet before. it was gorgeous and soothing and a perfect cherry on top of a great (and exhausting!) first overnighter with four kids four and under!