So this summer all our vacations are tagging along with Jeff to his conferences, conventions and speaking engagements. We hang out while Jeff's in meetings. Not so fun for Jeff but the kids have had fun. Jeff was invited to a top producers meeting in Arizona this week and so we packed up early on Wednesday to drive out to Arizona. We left about 7:00am and were there by 12:00 so it wasn't bad at all. We got to the Arizona Biltmore and were given boxed lunches and shown to our room and then Jeff was off to meetings. This trip we paid to be able to eat with Jeff. I've enjoyed hanging out with him but I have to admit some meals have been so exotic that my kids had a hard time finding anything they like to eat. I gave up after the first meal and allowed the boys their video games at dinner (so we could sit there longer than 10 minutes and talk)
Overall though it's been nice to hang out at the pools, enjoy the water slide (I owe Ashley and Jacob $2.00 each for being brave enough to try it) and relax. Once the kids discovered the water slide I could barely get them off of it. We are the only New York life family here. There are other wives but no other kids but we've met other families from Boston and even Belgium.
One effect of all this swimming, sun and heat has had on the kids it has made them sleepy. Yesterday we had to get up early to catch breakfast with Jeff after having a late night before. We were at the pool by 8:00 in the morning so they were tired out by lunch. After lunch we were back at the room and I told the kids before we went back out to the pool we would turn off the TV and video games and read for 1/2 hour (our goal during the summer). Well they turned off everything and all of them ended up taking a nap at the same time. They have never done this in their whole lives! They slept for a couple of hours but then I had to wake them up so the guy could clean our room. Before they had gone to sleep all they wanted to do was go back to the pool but when I woke them up they didn't want anything to do with swimming. They told me "Go SWIMMING?! We don't want to go swimming! We've been swimming 3 times in the past two days!!" OK never mind, I said...we'll just find somewhere to hang out so they can clean the room.
We went to the front desk and asked about the kids game room that I kept seeing all over the schedules. The concierge kept trying to talk up the kids corral (which was paid babysitting) and even suggested sitting in the lobby and waiting for our room to be cleaned but I said I would just hang out with them at the game room. When we got there I realized why he wasn't so enthused with it. For one thing there was NOBODY there. That should have given me a hint, there was 3 coloring books, two puzzles, some construction paper, a small box of baby toys and blocks, a TV with a VHS player that wouldn't turn on, an air hockey table with a cut cord (so no air), two nice ping pong tables but only one squished ping pong ball. The only thing that actually worked and you could play was the foozeball table. The kids were done with that quick. We played what we could trying to pass time. We discovered this kiddy foam floor puzzle could be used to enclose siblings in. After wasting as much time as possible the kids decided now that all they wanted to do was swim. Crazy kids!
So we went back to the hotel room to change into swim stuff and swim for about 45 minutes before it was time to get ready for dinner.
Tonight was bowling night. We rode over on the bus to a bowling alley where there was plenty of good food and plans to bowl. The kids decided they didn't want to bowl so instead they watched and then the boys ended up in the arcade (along with Jeff who I had to go hunt down every time it was his turn).
When we got back the kids were wide awake (because of their nap) and Jeff was exhausted. Jeff conked out before the boys did.
The last day we got Jeff to come to the pool and enjoy the waterslide with the kids and then it was time to pack up and go back home to sunny Riverside.
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