In The Know: Plan B's and trusted favourites in the latest blog from Susie

Thanks to the both of us having jobs which don’t chain us to a desk from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday, we get to pick and choose when the working hours fall and when we want to just go out on a jolly with the family. For this reason, we tend to pack ourselves off for an afternoon of fun mid-week because we know it’ll be suitably quiet, we won’t have to turn up ridiculously early to beat the queues and Greg won’t get stopped 9367 times to talk about the Olympics (not that he minds, it’s just it means it tends to take us much longer to get around public places. The Natural History Museum on our 3^rd date was a NIGHTMARE)

Last weekend however, we thought we’d mix things up a little and do something a bit different. We had a friend over from Dubai & Greg had a busy week ahead of him before leaving for the U.S so we wanted to make sure we crammed some fun in before it was just me and the boys again. It was a Saturday and we’d normally be hibernating on a quiet dog walk but we knew we didn’t want to waste an entire work free day so we all clambered in to the car, packed enough snacks to sink Grandpa Pig’s boat and headed to our local dinosaur park.

Greg and I had been spelling out where we were going all morning so as not to make Milo too excited but he guessed it pretty quick as we turned in to the car park. The digging for fossils, the T Rex’s looking out from plants, the roaring, the train ride, the sit-on diggers! Except it wasn’t open. Not for another week. So I trudged back to the car to deliver the bad news.

Milo was fine and thankfully we hadn’t yet dragged Rex/all our stuff out the car so we did a bit of research (that's exactly where Day Out With The Kids comes in!) and found a nearby trampoline park we hadn’t yet visited. Endless jumping, a foam pit, basketball, a floor to ceiling slide! Except we weren’t allowed in. This trampoline park was for over fours only so Milo could watch everyone else have fun from the sidelines, but not join in.

So, we went back to the car (this time we HAD dragged Rex/all our stuff out) and set off to the nearby swimming baths. The splashing, the inflatables, the wave machine, Rex being able to join in! We rang ahead before heading home to grab our swimming costumes only to find out, nope. They weren’t open. We weren’t going swimming either.

We were feeling pretty defeated by this point and had spent a solid chunk of the day driving around and hoping neither of our children started trying to break out their car seats so after much discussion of what exactly was actually left to do, we settled with another trip to Mead Open Farm.

Our trusty fall back, the day out we can always rely on and thankfully, somewhere we were actually allowed in. It may have taken us until the middle of the afternoon to enjoy all being together and yes, it may have been slightly busier than normal but last weekend was proof that sometimes it’s just best sticking to what you know - or actually checking information on ages and opening times on www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk first!

Have you ever had a day out that didn't go to plan at all? Do you have somewhere near you that's always your trusty fall back option? Let us know in a comment below!

Next up on our blog: 10 ways to beat the January blues and Susie's latest family adventure