A trip to Formby Beach

With Damian being off work this week we headed off to Formby for the day. We have had a bit of a nightmare with Daniel and Emma’s sleep this week so we were all a bit tired but we decided that the drive over to Merseyside and the fresh air would do us all the world of good.

We parked up at Formby but soon realised that there wasn’t anywhere on site to get something to eat so we headed back out again and grabbed a sandwich from M&S. We then parked up and put both children in the carriers (Daniel was REALLY tired) and had a wander around the Red Squirrel walk. I’m always surprised at just how much smaller red squirrels are compared to their grey friends. It was lovely though to see them darting around through the trees and Emma took great delight in pointing them out to us from the carrier (I think she enjoys being carried by her daddy as she ends up much higher up and with a better view point than she does being with me!). Daniel always enjoys spotting animals and nature in general (He managed to spot three snails hidden in a fence post within minutes of getting out of the car).

We then took a walk down to the beach itself. The beach is lovely and the sand is so soft. Both the children wanted to walk at this stage so, armed with a small bucket they set off and collected a range of shells and stones (I ended up filtering out a lot of sand and broken bricks and shells as Emma could barely lift the bucket up!).

We walked down to the sea, and it is always fascinating to me to see the difference in how both Daniel and Emma approach things. Daniel is naturally wary and didn’t want to get too close – he preferred to be away from the sea collecting stones and shells. Emma however inched closer and closer to the sea as it was coming in until she managed to get it to lap her toes. I think she was surprised at how cold it was, but it didn’t deter her. Really I should have packed a change of clothes for them both. We hadn’t so I was a bit reluctant to let her get too wet as it wasn’t the warmest day and I wasn’t keen on the idea of letting her sit in wet clothes for the rest of the trip.

We had a good walk up the beach and it was nice to see the children just enjoying themselves collecting bits and pieces. We found a couple of (dead) crabs which we pointed out to Daniel and he was quite interested in them. He told us they were going on their holidays. We said they didn’t have any suitcases to which he replied ‘they’ll buy one’. I love this imagination at the moment. It’s lovely to see.

We then stopped at the ice cream van for Daniel to get an ice cream. Damian also had one which he ended up sharing with Emma. We were all pretty tired by the time we got back and I think Daniel, Emma and I all managed to snooze for much of the journey home!

We had a really lovely day out and I am sure Formby will be a place we will visit again soon. The beach was lovely, clean, soft and the children really did enjoy their day.

Next week I plan to do some work with them on beaches and the seaside so if you can suggest any books or resources leave me a comment below, or get in touch via twitter (@MsSBurns).