Leah Loves: We all WENT on a summer holiday

Back in May my mother celebrated her 60th birthday by doing a sponsored walk up Snowdon. Not only is this awesome, but she's had a knee replacement a few years ago and still made it up! The whole family walked up and I was nominated to take my youngest niece up on the train (A lot of hanging around and waiting was expected so I was chosen to be entertainer) and also to escort my mother back down the mountain because walking downhill on a knee replacement pretty much ruins the work that the doctors did.

While we were in North Wales, we stayed with my oldest brother and we had a BBQ or two and made the decision that we should all take the same week off work and try and grab a holiday somewhere sunny. Well, this was a drama in itself - finding a week where 6 working adults in very different employment could get a week off but more importantly my 16yr old niece is doing her GCSE years and so it had to fall within school breaks. The last week of August was decided upon and Oli and I managed to find an excellent holiday deal to Egypt. Unfortunately it wasn't cheap and wasn't all inclusive! Bit gutting but it was holiday peak season and in the end no one cared cos we all just wanted a much needed break.

It was a good holiday, unfortunately 7 out of 9 of us got really bad tummy problems (both ends, we're so sexy) and we blamed the sea. The snorkelling experiences were well worth it and to see my nephew so excited about the tropical fish just off the beach was worth it. Luckily the pool was great fun, my 4yr old niece absolutely loved it and learnt to swim! The main thing is that we had a good family time and had a laugh.

Egypt isn't somewhere I'd ever go again, Habibi and I were lucky enough to join my mother, stepdad, and sister in 2007 and we did a tour of the touristy bits. We stayed in Hurgada, and took a flight to Cairo to see the Pyramids, Sphinx, Museums, The Nile, Colossi of Memnon, and many other places of interest. Another day we took a bus trip to Luxor to see Karnac and places and so we well and truly have seen Egypt in all its glory. When we wet this past august we went to Sharm-el-Sheik and to be honest it was just hotel after hotel after hotel and tourism tourism tourism. It was stressful to walk up the streets, everything was so much more effort than it needed to be etc. When I compare any holiday now unfortunately I always think of our honeymoon where things were peaceful, serene, so simple and so amazingly comfortable that thinking of going back to Egypt absolutely fills me with dread.

I'm glad we went, it was more a family building exercise and I think we all benefited from some vitamin D and a good week of laughs.

Here are a few pics!

My nephew, brother and niece enjoying snorkelling