A Perfect Start to the Holidays

Justin had a work Christmas party in Boise on December 22. We decided to head to Boise on Wednesday, December 21 and take the kids and stay in a hotel. We went to the Hampton Inn and Suites downtown Boise. We got just 1 suite the first night and had 2 suites the 2nd night. The kids loved the hotel. They really wanted to go swimming that first night we got there. It was 9:45 pm when we showed up and the pool closed at 10 pm. They were all pretty tired though and it didn't take long for them to fall asleep!
Mayci was SO excited to be in a hotel and had a harder time sleeping than the other kids. Madison was very excited to be reading her book, "Fablehaven". She is loving those books. The suite fit all of us pretty good but it was nice to have both rooms the 2nd night. The 4 older kids slept in the other room while Cooper and Mayci slept in the room with Justin and I.

This hotel had a very kid friendly pool! There was a kiddie pool that had water attractions that sprayed water all over. Mayci could have swam all day long. They also provided water noodles for the kids to play with. Braydon taught Mayci how to hold onto the noodle and swim all around the pool. I'm pretty sure we spent 1 1/2 hours in the pool on Thursday morning. We finally got out and got ready for the day.

Their excerise room wasn't too bad either! The 2 boys spend some time in there with me both mornings! Austin couldn't swim because of his ear and he was pretty bummed about that but managed to still have a good time.

We decided to go to Rockie's Diner in Boise for lunch. The reason for this diner- the boys watched Man vs. Food and watched the host eat this huge meal in under 30 minutes and get a guitar for it! The boys didn't think they could acutally do the challenge but they wanted to eat the food. When we got there though, we found that they only serve that from 6-9 pm. We chose something else for lunch and the kids were stuffed! We actually took food home. Their chili-cheese fries were pretty good. The fries, alone, were delicious!!!

The boys were just excited to be in the same place as the host from Man vs. Food was at! They thought they were pretty cool!!

After lunch, we took Madison, Kenzie and Braydon out to Kuna to go play with friends. We picked up one of Austin's friends and brought him back into Boise to hang out with Austin. Justin and I got to go to the Manheim Steamroller Christmas Concert for his work party! It was SO great! It brought back so many memories from my childhood Christmas's. We would always play Manheim cd's during the holidays. It was a great way to start the holiday weekend! Austin stayed at the hotel with Mayci and Cooper while we were at the concert. The kids enjoyed hanging out with friends and Justin and I enjoyed the party! Justin ended up winning a Kindle touch at the party.

Let me just tell you how GREAT the hotel breakfast was. We are big fans of breakfast in our family and this hotel is a hit with our family. They have a hot continental breakfast and we get our moneys worth. The kids love eating the waffles, cereal, bagels, yogurt, bacon, sausage, eggs, doughnuts, muffins, fruit and juice. A couple of the kids even managed to have 2 breakfasts on Friday morning. They got a good supply of hot chocolate into their bellies also!

Of course, we had to have one more dip into the pool before we left on Friday. Mayci was really hoping that we were going to find another swimming pool when we went to Grandma/pa Brower's house. She was pretty sad to find out that we wouldn't be going to a pool for awhile.