Two years ago, I decided to plan a surprise day for our family to do something that we have never done together before. Enter the Annual Wyers Family Adventure Day!
The first year, 2017, I was about 6 months pregnant. I had blocked off a day in our joint family calendar in late August and made plans that only I knew about.
We started off our day by heading out to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. I had planned a day for us over on Bowen Island, where none of us had been before. It just so happened to be the same day as Bowen Island Days, so the plans unfolded themselves.
Archer was excited to be taking a boat. It’s a short ferry ride to Bowen, only about 20 minutes from the terminal in West Vancouver. We all sat on the top deck of the ferry and plugged our ears when they sounded the horn as we set sail. It’s funny what little things stick out in your memory from past adventures.
For our second annual adventure, I found a small dairy farm in Langley, BC, that did tours. Eagle Acres Dairy Farm. We started off our day by letting Maverick take his first nap at home (I’m a stickler for naps and sleep for my kids…more on that another time if anyone’s interested?) and then we went for lunch. A favourite restaurant in my family from Prince George is the Olive Garden. It’s a bit of a drive from our place in Port Moody, but we were headed out that way anyways so it was perfect. Maverick tried breadsticks for the first time and we had a lovely meal before our tour of the farm.
I didn’t tell them where we were going, so Archer was really excited when we pulled up in front of a big barn.
We were going on a tour where they would show us the progression of how cows have been milked over the years, including by robot!
We got to mix some fresh cream into butter by hand and see the cows walk into the robot-milking machine when they were full and ready for milking. All three of us "big kids" got to feed the farm animals! It ended up being a slightly rainy day, but we were under cover in the barn the whole time. Archer got to feed the cows some hay and gave a baby goat a bottle of milk. The farm was also home to bunnies, baby cows, goats and kittens.
It felt great to visit a small local farm and learn about how they operate, the challenges they face and, of course, get to meet the animals. My favourite was the little baby goat, I believe her name was Marianne, that bounded over as soon as she saw the bottle of milk.
No AWFAD (Annual Wyers Family Adventure Day – too much?) would be complete without an ice cream treat to top it all off.
We chose to head closer to home for some Rocky Point Ice Cream to end our adventure day.
Family Fun at Eagle Acres Farm
I have a great idea for this year, but you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what it is at the end of August. All I can tell you is that it will likely involve ice cream at some point. Shocking, I know.
Planning family adventure day surprises is my jam,
Anya