Stay-cation

We planned a little stay-cation with some of our very favorite friends, the Christensens.  I'm not sure what makes Phoenix a destination city, but there are a number or nice resorts with great golf courses and mini water parks.  And since no one in their right mind travels to Arizona in the summer, they are always offering great rates.

I will say after we got *real* water park season passes this summer, the resort water park paled in comparison, but we couldn't beat the company. We did the lazy river and wave pool.

 

 PS This picture is of Dustin, not me totally topless like my sister thought.  I am not that pasty white ever

Followed by a very lame and short lived attempt at pool volleyball. Then we had to dig deep to entertain ourselves. Luckily there isn't anything I love more than making absolutely nothing into some sort of competition.  We took turns jumping into the intertubes to see who could get the furthest out. Played Marco Polo in the hot tub.  A few rounds of throwing the kids as far as we could and Guppies and Minnows. And a rousing game of "See who can get across the pool in the least amount of breaths."

Poor Nate really wanted to go down one of the free fall slides but every time he got up there he would just freak out. In his defense, Brenna and I actually refused to go down them ourselves.  Well, I said I would go down one, but only if my kids were around. I'm not going to freak myself out without some glory. Plus everyone getting off the slide had major bathing suit issues when they got up -- tops sliding up, giant wedgies. . . One time he had me come watch and he got as far as sitting down on the slide and then stood back up and ran all the way down the stairs.  On the second day he kept telling me how scared he was, but how much he really really wanted to do it, so we all went over to cheer him on.  Dustin went up with him, there was no line and he when straight up to the slide. I seriously thought he was going to do it. But I'm guessing you know how this story goes.  He didn't.  When he got back down he was seriously mad at himself, so I told him that I would go back up and do it with him even though I was freaked out too.

As we started climbing the steps, Nate wanted to turn back around, so I resorted to bribery.  There's a reason it's been around since the beginning of time.  I promised him $20. When we got to the top of the slides, I made him turn around while we stood in line. He finally got up to the front and he told me that he was fine and pushed me aside.  He sat down.  Next he laid down. And then the panic set in. I could tell he was about to get up and run away and I knew he was going to be upset at himself if he did, so I did what any mother would do, I pushed him down. I'm not proud and I'm out $20, but everyone at the top of the slides cheered for Nate and apparently he had a giant smile on his face when he finished, so it was totally worth it.  And of course then I had to get down someway. . .

At night, we played Elevator Tag (boys versus girls) which was surprisingly fun. Plus a midnight run to Target for a boatload of cookies to eat while we played the Name Game.

 

Luke actually insisted that he wanted to go to bed because he was so tired (as seen by the fact that I had to stay in the car while everyone else went on the cookie run since Luke had pooped out in the car) but somehow found his second wind.

 

Brenna and I even snuck away to the spa Saturday morning to get massages. It was just a fun way to be together as a family and you didn't even have a terrible flight home to worry about.