Stay-cation

Scott had some days off of school last week and we really wanted to squeeze in a mini family vacation. We decided that instead of spending all our time and money going somewhere far away we would just find a hotel in Salt Lake and have a fun filled stay-cation. The only criteria we had for the hotel was that it had to have an indoor swimming pool. We stayed at the Raddison which ended up being in the perfect location where we were within walking distance of everything we wanted to do. I'll spare all the boring details and stick to the highlights.

• Discovery Gateway children's museum. It was fun to watch Brynn and Mason enjoy some of their old time favorites and also discover some new things they liked. It was Miles' first time there and he absolutely loved it. No surprise that his favorite spot was the ball area. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Swimming in the hotel pool.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• City Creek lighting of Christmas lights and arrival of Santa. Mason and Brynn had a lot of fun. Miles was not impressed being bundled up in his stroller all night.
  
  
  
  
• Eating at McDonalds every single day.
• Swimming in the hotel pool, again.
• Disney on Ice. Brynn was really into it and loved all the songs. Mason was so preoccupied with a silly little Mushu stuffed animal he wanted, but we wouldn't get for him, that he hardly paid attention to the show until the Mulan part at the very end. Miles did well for the first half and then decided he was done sitting still. Thank goodness for back row isle seats. Mason and Brynn have been on a serious Mulan kick so the Mulan segment was definitely their favorite. As we were leaving, Mason told us he wants to be Shang in Disney on Ice when he grows up. To give him credit, Shang's back flip was definitely the coolest trick during the show.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Scott was beaming with pride when Mason was adding every Eagles and Phillies item in Fanzz to his Christmas wish list. His pride quickly turned to embarrassment when Mason insisted on getting a Shang barbie doll for his trip souvenir. The way I see it, when he grows tired of Mulan then Brynn will have a boy barbie doll to play with. 
• Did I mention swim in the hotel swimming pool? We went swimming multiple times a day.
• Found out firsthand the biggest downfall to having an amazing sleeper like Miles who we just lay down in his crib at home and he puts himself to sleep. He needs his room and his crib to go to sleep. He would not go to sleep in the pack n play, wound not lay next to us on the bed, and would not let us rock him to sleep. There weren't many naps or early bedtimes happening. 
• Walked around temple square and visited the Church History museum.

Overall our stay-cation was a huge success. We got all the fun parts of a vacation without the travel.