Getting away close to home

Well as many of my FB friends know I decided to make a break for it on Tuesday! Here in NH we have been experiencing quite an uncomfortable little heat wave. So I decided to take my younger boys, Chris & Levi to a hotel near by, to get a reprieve from the heat with some air conditioning and some swimming. I thought it would be nice to just step away from our lives and our home and make the most of their quickly fleeing youth. Levi jumped at the idea...Chris I took hostage, but it wasn't long after we arrived at the hotel that his resistance began to crumble and he started to succumb to Stockholm Syndrome.

We brought a couple of their friends along to make it a little more enjoyable for them...
this is Billy...a silly fun addition to our family!


...and this is Shannon...my surrogate daughter..
...being the only girl can be tough sometimes...so I brought along a little reinforcement! Good thing I did too....or I dread to think how I would have been able to do it?!


Also as many of you know I was supposed to be engaging in a summer challenge of free, memory making ideas to do with the kids. While this wasn't free and really was something we could not afford to do...we couldn't afford not to do it even more. However we did keep the costs down by finding some low cost fun.
First off...I bartered on the price of our room...which was originally going to be $149.00 + an extra $10 charge for a roll-away bed + the tax. I got them to offer me $107.00...which included the tax and the roll-away bed...a total savings of $66.31! Not bad for a group of 5...it breaks down to $21.40/ea, which included the room and 2 full days use of the pool. I made sure ahead of time, to check what the pool availability was before and after checkout times...I imagine not all hotels are as gracious...$21.40/ea for 2 days of fun!? It cost at least $30/ea for entrance into most any amusement/water park for the day.


We played in the pool...some Marco Polo & Sharks and Minnows...



































When the kids temporarily tired of the pool, we dried off and visited some nearby stores/locations. We popped into a pet store that was about 100 yards away from the hotel. We spent a good hour to an hour & half; holding, petting, playing, kissing & falling in love with the puppies and kittens.
Chris fell in love with little Lucy right away...sadly we had to leave her behind! She was a whopping $800! Yikes! We visited the pet store the next day too and spent another hour and a half exhausting the new puppies and kittens and filling our love tanks, while we dreamed of bringing them all home with us! It was much needed healing therapy and it was totally free!


After we had tired out the puppies and kittens, we headed across the street to a discount store (Building 19). I gave each of the kids the challenge to find something they liked for under $5. This made the browsing so much more fun for them. It got their focus off of what they "wanted" and onto the challenge. They had a blast doing this! I was really surprised by their motivation. It also caused them to stop and consider other items in the store they may not have originally even noticed. Levi and Billy found these curious George monkeys for $2.50/ea...Levi LOVES monkeys, so this could not have been a better find for him!Shannon found a cool t-shirt for $2.99...Chris got a hat for $3.99, and I found a cute little brown sweater/shirt for $2.99...Total cost...$15 for all 5 of us averaged out to $3/ea for over an hour of fun in AC and a souvenir to boot!



We also hit a local pool hall down the street. They charged $9/hr for the table. The kids had fun but lost interest after about 1/2 hour. I gave them $2/ea for arcade games or vending machines...total cost for our billiard/arcade trip...$12.50 for a party of 5...this breaks down to $2.50/ea.

Shannon & Levi also tried their hand at DDR...



We grabbed some favorite fast food and headed back to our room...Billy for some reason found the bathroom to be just the right place to store the extra Taco Bell hot sauce...
We could have gone much cheaper on the food. Had this not been a spontaneous trip I would have shopped for quick easy eats and packed a cooler. But all in all the fast food route did free us up time wise...thus allowing us to be more mobile and pack a lot more fun into our short time. We did keep the fast food costs down, by buying our soda at the store nearby, thanks to *Billy. And we ordered mostly off the dollar menu...our big splurge was a bucket of KFC, which we all shared and which lasted late into the night. This also freed me up to feel a little more carefree (not having to focus on meal prep or cleanup...a nice reprieve for me. Also healthy eating was not our priority here.)We spent roughly around $80 for fast food for 5 people for 2 days. (5 people x 4 meals...breaks down to $4 per person per meal.) *Billy brought $20 to contribute, so he purchased all the soda and some chips for late night snacking later.

Billy also found the bathroom sink to be the perfect place to keep the soda cold! Good thinking Billy!



...then it was on to a night of playing games, telling jokes and scaring each other...

I think the highlight of the kids' night was the anticipated arrival of the repair man who was coming to fix the TV. The kids came up with all sorts of ideas and schemes to pull a practical joke on him. Though they never really followed through. Well except for Chris coming out of the bathroom...with the sound of the toilet flushing & eating fried chicken...like it was the most common thing in the world to do.

So the total cost of our 2 day excursion was $204.50 for a party of 5...which breaks down to $40.90/ea. for 2 days or $20.45/ea per day...less than, a 1 day trip to the amusement or water park, once you add gas for the long car ride to and from...not to mention any foods you might purchase there. Of course you could always pack a cooler and lug it around the park with you or go back to your car to eat or get a drink, but still, even just an ice cream or fried dough at these parks can really jack up the cost!

Also many times at amusement parks families split up and go their separate ways to seek out the fun. All 5 of us shoved into a room all day and night meant we couldn't really branch out and go our separate ways...we stayed together and laughed and used our imaginations and entertained each other...what a priceless rejuvenating time! All in all it was a great time, filled with lots of laughter and silliness! I wish we could have stayed longer but it's always wise to end on a good note!