Surprise Staycation in Boise

In early December the hubs and I talked about doing a staycation during Christmas break.  We decided he would take some days off just to be home and enjoy the holidays.  

We do what we do best, we talk about things and then we keep saying we need to call, we research hotels separately tell each other what we find, say 'yeah, that sounds great', and then we never, ever make the actual reservations.  We are that good.

So the week of vacation time rolls around and again I am doing another research.  We knew we just wanted to drive to the 'big city' of Boise, short drive for Little Man, and we have to drive really far to get warmer, so no sense in driving  kinda far....to still be frozen.  

I made reservations at Oxford Inn in Boise and we will definitely be going back.

Going up to our room!

Excited, pretending to be nervous on the elevator.

Our suite, the couch folded out to a bed but we brought the pack and play for Little Man.

The bathroom was gorgeous.  Huge tub and shower to your right and closed off toilet to your left.  {on a side note I wish the shower doors weren't clear, it would have made bathing the younger two while the oldest took a shower much easier.  Instead we all had to take turns, which is time consuming after hours of swimming and dinner and you are exhausted!}

They go into their swim suits in record time!

He was so excited, he skipped the whole way down to the pool. 

There was a hot tub, this awesome 1 ft kiddy pool and a 3-5ft big pool.  And, it was saltwater!

Calling Grammie to tell her about the amazing room. 

At home I set up a water station so he can get his own water. He seized the opportunity to do that here too. 

Walked across the parking lot for dinner to Tuscano's.  Don't let the hubby's face fool you.  He likes to not smile for pictures.  That and he's a realist when I say I am an optimist.   He knows what its going to be like in 5 minutes eating in a restaurant with Little Man.  And he did not disappoint. Oi. 

Back at the hotel and begging to go swimming again. 

Its cold! 

I asked if I could take his picture.

Working off all that Brazilian Buffet food!

Bath and bed

 We never watch TV {Netflix and Amazon Prime are great and we just invested in Sling} because the commercials are usually so bad, usually racy and gory.  We ended up shutting it off and snoozing till 730 am.

Morning ride down to breakfast.  They have been talking about 'the best breakfast ever' from a continental breakfast in Hailey ID 3 years ago.  What was so great about it?  JellyBeans answer is "Froot Loops!" and Peanut loves the danishes and donuts.  Basically they get things I won't buy to have at home.  

Best Cereal and hot chocolate. 

Cheese.

Waiting for omelettes made your way.

Morning swim.

I have to admit, its hard for me to take the kids swimming when its like this outside, but when a hot tub is involved, I am in! Literally.

Our cost for an amazing room, complimentary beer/wine/soda/juice ticket for each of us in the evening (we didn't use since we went out to eat), and complimentary breakfast, and we asked for early check in was $118.  I found it cheaper than any other hotel deal going on and a bigger room than what others were offering.  I loved that they had a 1 ft kiddy pool and free breakfast.  This was such a fun time for us.

Another tip a friend told me was to take hangers to hang up suits and if she hadn't told me that minutes before we left we would had a wet mess on our hands, most of us had 2 suits each but it was still so helpful.  Oh, and take your robe and kids' robes.  It was so nice to wrap up in those on our way to our rooms.  The pool tools are the size of kitchen hand towels, not even kidding.  It took at least 2 each to dry off before going into the cool hallways so the robes were a great idea.