I am sat at the dining table as I write this (and not in my newly painted office on account of the floor and desk still be covered in props and magazines and paper that I took to BritMums and hastily emptied out of the boot) looking out of the window up into the blue skies and feeling thankful that it seems the summer has returned to the UK!

This blog has been a rather quiet place over the last few weeks, our feet have barely touched the ground and I am wildly racing between photo libraries trying to keep my laptop from crying under the weight of thousands of images I've taken in the last couple of months.

I scroll through my camera roll on my phone and almost can't believe all the things we have done this summer. The work I have felt so lucky and grateful for, the experiences we have had with the boys because of this blog and the family celebrations that have taken us to Paris and America! I have so many photos to share with you, stories and tales behind the glossy photos (Yes my husband is the one in 3 people a day at Heathrow who tries to travel to the US without a valid visa and almost gave my mum a heart attack at check in) and places I have discovered that I want you all to know about!

For me it's all the anecdotes that make the sentimental memories. The perfect times are great but it's the mishaps, the laughs and the "it could only happen to us" incidents that I will look back on with a happy heart. Sheltering in the rain in the beach hut on my birthday last week with the boys and my niece dancing in the rain, poking her tongue out to catch some raindrops, watching my brother and sister in law look completely relieved walking through the crowded Gare du Nord after getting very last minute tickets on the Eurostar to get home to London when their flight was cancelled and looking at Rich on the plane back from Greece, smiling that we had 3 boys in the 2 seats next to us playing games, on account of a new holiday friend squeezing in with the boys and his lovely mummy and daddy up at the front of the plane relaxing!!!

One of our adventures this summer started off as the perfect mini break. We headed to one of my favourite hotels in Bradford on Avon near Bath where I did some photography work 18 months ago. Woolley Grange is a sanctuary for families, nestled in an area of unspoilt British countryside. We'd been counting down the days until our stay there after our first trip had to be postponed as Sammy had come down with a sick bug that was working it's way around his school. 

We had watched the weather forecast all week, hoping for a sunny day to use the outdoor pool and sit outside the orangery with cocktails and mocktails and arrived to blue skies and a delightful suite with adjoining rooms. The boys went straight for a bounce on the enormous bed in our room and we hurriedly unpacked our swimming things ready for an afternoon pond dipping, trampolining and swimming. They raced from one activity to another, too excited to stop for any length of time and we promised that we would do it all again the next day when it was time for dinner. Our room has a magical pointed bay window which overlooked the pond and the beautiful front lawns.

Woolley Grange understands that nights away as a family are about keeping everyone happy. We joined a couple of other families in the main restaurant giving their children an early dinner and the boys tucked into their pizzas with glee as we had a pre dinner drink and a starter to share. By the time it was bedtime they were worn out from swimming in the indoor pool and were desperate to watch a movie in our bed.

We had never used a hotel listening service before, we have always had the boys with us or in bed at a holiday apartment or villa so I felt terribly nervous as the lovely hotel manager talked me through how it worked. Once the boys were settled we went down to join the other couples in the intimate, candle lit restaurant and we joked that you could spot the first timers like us, as each of the couples took it in turns to go up and check on their little ones, like we did every 10-15 minutes! We couldn't fault the staff, the food and the promptness of the manager when he popped into the restaurant to tell us he could hear one of the boys.

We scurried upstairs and poor Ollie spent the next couple of hours being poorly before we made the decision at 11pm to head home. He was so upset to have to leave, but when your small ones are sick you just want to be at home. I can't praise the manager on duty enough that night. He was so sympathetic, so kind when we were trying to pack up and deal with Ollie in the bathroom, and reassured me that I wasn't to feel terrible for letting them watch a movie whilst we and dinner! I'm sure it doesn't happen all the time but he dealt with it all like a pro, and calmed my frantic nerves.

The next day Ollie felt much better and was so disappointed to be stuck at home instead of swinging on the tree swing! But that is life, you can't ever predict when you might be ill. Mini breaks have to wait! Lucky I had these photos from my time before - we know we are in for a treat at breakfast when we go back and the boys are desperate to play in the wendy house!

We are so lucky that Woolley Grange are going to have us back soon and hopefully this time everyone will be fighting fit.

I am working my way through all the photos I took in Greece, it's almost impossible to choose which ones to post to make sure you get to see just how fantastic the resort was. But I will do my best! So the blog is going to turn fifty shades of blue this week, with clear blue skies and deep blue seas.

2015 is definitely our Summer of adventure. So sunshine, please stay with us so we don't feel like it's over already!  

Our stay at Woolley Grange was part of the #SummerGoodTimes campaign with Boots.

Linking up with The Ordinary Moments 

If you love capturing your adventures then this is the competition for you. Every week I host a weekly Instagram hashtag and encourage everyone to join in and share their colourful captures with #capturingcolour.

This month I am teaming up with the fabulous team at Joules and we want to celebrate getting outdoors. A couple of weeks ago we took the boys to a beautiful walled garden at Pythouse in Tisbury and wandered through the cut flower beds, snipping a bucket full of home grown stems for Granny. We were testing out some items from their new collection, The Walk, and I can't wait to see the photos on the Joules blog soon.

Joules are offering a lucky follower a £50 gift card and one of their lovely Home Fragrance Room Diffusers of their choice. 

To enter all you have to do is share a photo on Instagram and tell us where you are walking. Are you close to home, in the garden or having an adventure abroad? Get as creative as you want, share a scene or just a snippet, anything goes! I love seeing toes creeping into the bottom of a photo, small people exploring through big trees and just a hint of where you are. 

I am amazed each week by the different stories people share and tell with colour. The gallery has grown to over 17,500 posts and I find it so inspiring to look through all the compositions, the way people capture light and movement. 

This past month has seen us walking along the Champs-Élysées, racing through London Waterloo, dragging suitcases along station platforms, wobbling over white pebbles in Greece and feeling the sand between our toes as we ran into the sea. It's been one of the busiest Summer's we've ever had and we are packing in as much as possible before Ollie starts school in September. 

And last week was full of blue skies, lush green grass, flowers of every colour of the rainbow and the most delicious food I have ever tasted. It's a strange feeling, when you share so much of your daily life on the internet, to not share even a peek from a whole week of work. But I am hoping you will all be excited when the book comes out next Easter! We sounded like broken records by the end of the week, all crowded around the laptop saying in unison "Ooh that's nice, no wait that's really nice!" The challenge of a recipe book, or any book for that matter, is that every image is a hero shot. Each page needs to stand up against the one before with even the incidental imagery holding it's own amongst the magic winning shots. 

I loved the fact that one minute we were in a field of long grass, balancing cables and the tripod on uneven ground and the next minute tucked away in a beautifully lit corner of the owner's farmhouse. We had to create every season through the course of the week, conjuring up a wintry morning on what was actually a glorious day and in contrast trying to capture a summer's balmy afternoon under umbrellas, sheltering from stormy skies! 

And the gallery had scenes from different seasons, people joining in in from wintry Australia to sunny seaside resorts in the UK. 

Each week it gets harder and harder to create a grid of favourites. I scroll through and just see what catches my eye. It's funny because my subconscious must be drawn to certain hues each week because when I open all the tabs once I have selected 9 and they all seem to compliment each other!

And my absolute favourite form last week was this image by Elizabeth. So simple, beautifully composed and perfect even natural light.

It made me realise how much I have missed playing with flowers from our garden being so hectic in the last couple of weeks - on the list for next week! 

Follow Elizabeth's inspiring feed here. 

So what are you waiting for? Join Joules and I for the month of August and snap your seasonal walks. Show us your sandals or super wellies! Rain or shine we want you to get out and about. I'll be sharing our birthday/anniversary trip to New York this week, there's something about being in a city that makes me just want to walk and walk and walk. We fly on Thursday morning and have booked a lovely hotel in the Lower East Side so expect a cliché Brooklyn Bridge shot or two on Friday!

You can find Joules on Instagram here.

The competition is open from 3rd August 2015 - midnight GMT 31st August 2015. A winner will be announced on the 1st September. You can enter as many times as you like. Tag your photos with #capturingcolour.

Gift cards will be valid for UK only. 

Rich and I always joke that you can spot a family house on Google maps by all the black circle shapes in the back gardens. House after house features a trampoline, 360 degree netting and discarded shoes that stay out all night getting soaked in the early morning dew. Please tell me we aren't the only ones who have had to use emergency school shoes because they've been left at the bottom of the ladder?!

They feature on birthdays and Christmas lists and every Summer since we bought our first one, our boys have whiled away sunny and rainy days bouncing around! We searched and searched for the perfect trampoline under £100, we wanted something they could share for a birthday present, one that would withstand being outside all year and with high quality netting that doesn't tear immediately!

I have never met a child who doesn't love a bounce on a trampoline and our boys were mortified when theirs blew over the hedge a couple of months ago! I dragged it back to the garden in a sorry state and it's sat destined for the rubbish dump ever since. So can you imagine their delight when Asda kindly offered to send them their £99 Sportspower 10ft trampoline from their Outdoor Toy range?!

They scrambled all over the box as soon as they got home from school and passed Rich each spring individually like a mini production line. After a couple of hours they were hauling me on it (Goodness me, 2 babies, 2 labours and a trampoline is not a good combination!) and rolling around laughing making me tumble about like a fool!

But trampoline's aren't just for bouncing! Sammy and I tried out some chalk painting and it worked a treat! The boys often get the jar full of sticks of chalk out and draw all over the patio but the black, smooth surface of the trampoline is a much more fun idea. One spell of rain or a soaking with the garden hose and it all washed away.

We tried out a few designs and with a wee bit of editing, hoorah, we have a set of photos to print out for the gallery wall in their bedroom! 

We have been so impressed with their £99 trampoline and couldn't recommend it more. Easy to assemble, good quality netting, water proof protector matting around the outside of the net and high quality dense foam around the assembly poles. It's even big enough for them to bounce on with a couple of friends. 

Ollie thought for a while that our local Asda had stolen ours, as they have a display model in the car park! Check with your local store to see if they keep them in stock or Asda Direct offers free standard delivery.

This 10ft version is ideal for our boys ages. It will see them through primary school if they look after it and we have moved it into a more sheltered position in the garden so we don't lose it to the hedge again! Even my sister, who has a 2 year old little girl thought it was a great option, because it will last, like a big school uniform on the first day of Reception! Although it's designed for a minimum of 6 years, I think with adequate supervision this is an ideal option for anyone with preschoolers too. It was a huge hit at Sammy's birthday party, with 4 at a time bouncing around. 

We are now trying to think what we can mock up next, Yazzy is coming to visit soon so we are thinking butterfly wings, a crown and magic wand and flying amongst the clouds above the rooftops!

Have a go at chalk painting your trampoline, I'd love to see what designs your kids come up with. The perfect Summer holiday activity!

Thank you to Asda for sending the boys the 10ft £99 trampoline and a sandpit, which we have kept as a surprise! I'll share some photos too, I have an idea to help get Ollie writing before he starts school in September. They have been incredible this week, whilst I have been working on an intense 5 day book shoot. They have stayed at Granny's, blasted home for a couple of nights then have headed to their Grandparent's in Poole for another 2 night sleepover after school holiday club this afternoon. So this weekend is all about fun in the garden. We just need some sunshine now!