Our unplanned family day out

Last updated on November 19th, 2023 at 12:34 am

When you wake up and the sun is unexpectedly shining, you must go out and make sand angels. Or take the family to where it is that makes you all the happiest. That place that’s always there for you for those unplanned days out and you come home with the best memories, tired but giggling children and know it was a day to remember. For us, that place is Formby Beach. 

It’s that place we always have in the back of our mind to go to if the sun decides to come out and play. It’s that place that holds so many dear memories, captures, fun, laughter and so much to do all in one place. Each time we visit is a different experience. 

I think as parents you always have to have a few of these types of places on your radar for those unexpected nice weekends. We don’t get many so it’s hard to plan for sunny family days out. So here is how we make sure to have the best unplanned family days out. 

We always have the sand buckets, shovels, sand toys, soccer ball, beach ball, blanket, and folding chairs in the same plastic box in the garage ready to be thrown into the trunk at the drop of the hat. This saves me from looking all over for random beach days like this one. It also saves time because when you are having a great unplanned family day out, it’s more than likely you will forget something or spend more time trying to prepare for it before you leave, last minute. Those just make for stressful starts to a family day out. Why not have a few things always put together for those days out whatever type of day it is going to be. If it’s swimming you always resort to, have that swimming bag with fresh towels, goggles, swimsuits and sun block, if necessary, ready. If it’s biking, have the helmets, knee pads and bike pump ready. It’s more about being organized in the house so when you finally get a nice day you can jump in the car and throw what you need in quickly. 

Some of my friends do a day out jar. They write a variety of fun things to do for sunny days and rainy days in two separate jars. On the weekends, they check the weather, than they choose something from the appropriate jar. I love this idea. We are a little more scattered. Sometimes we literally get in the car and drive to a town we haven’t been before for lunch and walk around. It’s fun to explore the local areas surrounding us. And other days, depending on the weather we have our favorite go to spots.

The best part about unplanned family days out is that I always find they are the ones I cherish the most. The ones that are less stressful and everyone is in on the thrill of what we are about to go do. Even when we go to places we have been before because it wasn’t planned it seems even more exciting. 

On this particular day, we woke up and the sun was blazing which is unheard of. We weren’t going to question it for long, we were packed up in the car and on the road heading to our favorite sandy beach. The sand at Formby Beach literally is the softest sand I have ever felt in between my toes. I could play in it for hours along side the kids. It’s a place that’s special for us with picnics and we always take family visiting from America there. It’s peaceful and clean too. 

We have yet to walk around the paths surrounding the beach but they look amazing. There are ice cream vans, and coffee trucks along the parking side of the woods too. But we love to go watch the waves rolling in and the sand beneath us. I think we could just sit and let the kids build sandcastles and sand angel over and over, forever. It never seems too busy either which we love. 

The kids were really missing the beach and sand from our trip to America so it really had them buzzing when we told them we were going to Formby Beach that morning. It’s a good excuse not to stay in bed for a lie in and getting moving too. The kids were dressed and ate breakfast faster than I have ever seen them. It was hilarious. In the UK, you just never know when it’s going to be your last day of summer so each day counts. Since we recently been without Daddy for six long weeks it was a very special day having the four of us together. We spent the day catching up and sharing all our American adventures with Daddy. 

I came home feeling so grateful for my little family and the love and fun we share together. I hope the kids start to remember our family days out now as they get a little older. I hope they look back and think that we were a fun and adventurous family. I loved my childhood and I hope they do too. It’s what we all want for our children isn’t it? To look back and feel like they had a good one.

Sometimes even though you don’t have any extra clothes or shoes because it was an unplanned family day out, you just have to roll with it. So we took our shoes off, ran through the water and waves like we didn’t care. We splashed and giggled our way up and down the shoreline. I watched at a distance these three playing soccer in the mud and just had to take it all in for a moment. This is my wild, dirty, fun adventurous family. I love our mini adventures as much as I do the big adventures in life together. 

It was windy, like it always is near the coast, and may have wind blown us around all day. But the sun stayed out until the end of the day and we even got the airshow from Southport flying over us to add to our fun day out. I love having a fulfilling Sunday like this one so we have these great feelings to start off the busy work week ahead. 

This is how we have a great unplanned family day out. We pick a place, we know we love or go for the more random town search. Either way, we relax, we let the road take us there and we don’t stress if we forgot to bring something. We have our box of fun day out toys, wellies, accessories for whatever type of day it is and that is enough for us to make the most out of it. I think for these types of days out you have to be prepared for them to go a bit out of the norm. You might have tired children, dirty/wet children (like in our case), you might have no food and need to whip in somewhere, you might end up a place that isn’t that fun and need to hop back in the car and relocate. Either way, go with the flow and even those car rides to nowhere can be cherished with family singing and car games too. No matter what, the kids will love not knowing what comes next. It’s a thrill for them. It doesn’t take much effort to make it feel so magical too. We really enjoyed our unplanned family day out at the beach. It was quality time well spent and a few new good memories to add to our family adventure book.

Why not pin this below for future reference:

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*We weren’t paid to write this nor is it a review of Formby Point. We just really love this place and wanted to share how fun unplanned family days out can be.