Ad | #PhotaYourMota ~ I love my van

This is my van.

I love my van.

When I took my partner to work yesterday to drop off his sick note and show everyone he was getting better, it dumped all it's water on the car park. In the pictures above and below it has no radiator. That's because I have spent a lot of today fetching a new one and replacing my old one - which had sprung a leak. It's a good job I love my van.

No radiator!

I met my partner because we had a love of Volkswagen Camper Vans. He rang me for advice on what to look for when he bought his. I knew where the rust patches are, and what is serious and what's normal in an old van.

It was 2 years later that we started seeing each other and for a long time after that we ferried our 5 children around in both of our campervans in convoy. All VW's are a bit special, but mine was very special because it was an incredibly rare 4WD campervan. This is me driving...

I adored my camper - my 3 kids and I could go to Tesco in it, sleep in it, cook in it, live in it, and when they were with their Dad, I could go off for weekends off-roading. It was an all-round great thing.

When I became pregnant with our 6th child between us I decided the time had come. We spent a fortune on fuel whenever we all went somewhere. It was time to say goodbye to my van and buy something a lot more sensible, so I bought the green van. It had 8 seats, and when baby no.7 came along we swapped to a bench seat in the front so that we still had enough seats for everyone.

The children have inherited our love of vehicles

It might not be a camper, but we still use it for camping - we have silver screens for the windows and the 2 older boys especially have slept in it many, many times rather than put up a pup tent. We use it to tow a trailer and have a huge tent that 7 of us can sleep in very comfortably.

Cornwall 2012

Two years ago our van did us proud on a road trip of Europe. We took all 7 children through France and Belguim, The Netherlands and into Denmark to Legoland, Billund. We came home through Germany and never once in all those miles did our van let us down. It's a star.

Apparently you can still sleep in my VW van even though it doesn't have a bed!
(Waiting for a ferry)

So kids, what was the best thing about your 2000 mile European Tour?
"Sitting on top of the van"

Saying 'Goodbye' to Legoland Family Hostel, Billund, Denmark

I love my van, we have so many happy memories which have been made possible because we have it. That's why I am not upset I spent my day changing it's radiator, it deserves it.... Any RV must be well maintained to have a comfortable trip with no problem - you may want to rent an RV for travelling with the whole family,

This is my very last minute entry into the Photo Your Mota Competition. I've been tagged twice and because of what's been happening at home I really hadn't the time to give to something that I hadn't committed myself to, but today I realised that I really want to give my van some credit, so the teenagers are making tea while I write!

It's unfair to tag anyone at this very late stage, but I will reference the two bloggers who tagged me - Anna from In The Playroom and Laura from Tired Mummy Of Two. Thank you.