Spring Break Day 1

After returning home from San Francisco, Caleb had only 1 week of work and then it was spring break!

We always try to fill spring break with something fun, whether it's a big vacation or a small one (more often than not it's a small one).

Last year we took the kids to Denver for a 2 night stay. We didn't want to go to Denver again, and with my pregnancy, we knew we couldn't go too far. So we looked at other in state options and came up with Colorado Springs.

Since we had just come back from a weekend getaway in San Francisco, and we knew that after spring break we had a mini vacation coming up in Breckenridge, we knew the budget would be tight. So, we looked for ways to have fun, but not spend a fortune.

I don't know if you have used Hotwire before, but it's my new best friend! We used Hotwire to book a hotel and ended up with this amazing hotel for just $55 per night. Score!

The hotel had everything we REALLY wanted, which first and foremost was a pool, a free, HOT breakfast (by the way, one of the best breakfasts I've ever had for free at a hotel), and a large public area where the kids could burn some energy if they were getting cabin fever in the hotel room.

I highly recommend using Hotwire if you're willing to take a gamble on which hotel you end up with. No matter the hotel, you always get the best bang for your buck.

Anyway, on Tuesday of spring break we packed up the car and told the kids we had  a surprise for them. We hadn't told them about any of our plans and we just drove straight to the hotel. It's so fun to surprise the kids with quick getaways like this.

Once we got to the hotel, we swam in the pool for a while and then headed to the room to change for dinner.

I had done some research before we left on family friendly restaurants in the area, and I kept coming back to this place called iT'Z. We'd never been there before but it looked like a good place so we checked it out.

Boy am I glad we did! IT'Z is an all you can eat, pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet place with many, many games and rides for kids of all ages. When I was explaining it to my sister Courtney, she said "Oh, so like a Chuck E Cheese?"

This was WAY cleaner and better than Chuck E Cheese! The food was better, the facility was much cleaner, and we were surprised by how many free rides and other fun stuff was available for the little ones. Here's the kicker, since we were there on a Tuesday night, dinner cost half as much as usual. Dinner for the 4 of us cost only $9.00! Ethan was free, but still. Crazy!

Also, there were 4 separate dining rooms each with their own theme. I don't remember all of the rooms, but I remember one was made to be look and feel like a drive-in. We ended up in the cartoon room where they had cartoons playing while we ate. I'm not usually a fan of eating and watching movies/TV, but it helped to entertain our squirmy 2 year old. 

After dinner, our kids had a blast sliding down slides, jumping in the jump castle, and riding the free rides.

I think we only spent maybe $5 on other games and rides but we could have easily not spent anything.

When it was time to leave, the kids did NOT want to go. It's a good thing we left when we did though because these two were TIRED! Once we got back to the hotel room, both kids were out within 10 minutes.