Are we there yet? Raise your hand if you love spending your vacation answering this question!! …Me neither!! That’s why I want to tell you about how we spent our vacation time a few weeks ago! Because I didn’t hear this question a single time AND we had an awesome time together as a family!!!!
So how did we have vacation without hearing one, Are we there yet? We had a Staycation!!! We have 3 kids 6 and under and I am convinced that a Staycation is the best kind of vacation you can have when you have small children! And today I am giving you 5 reasons why your next vacation should be a Staycation!
#1- No packing!!!! kids require so much stuff when you travel. Of course there are the usuals like clothes, pjs, and shoes, but on top of that you have sippy cups, pack n plays, diapers, clothes in case someone has an accident (hello potty training!), white noise machines, bottles, books and activities to do while you travel, and the list could go on and on. There is a lot of extra stuff!! When you take a staycation, there is little to no packing! You have everything you need right where it always is when you come home each night!!
#2- You don’t have to spend hours in a car or plane. Have you spent hours in a plane or car with 3 kids, 6 years old and younger? Let me tell you a little about what you may experience during your travel time. Approximately 2 minutes after you drive by a rest area, a child will insist that they suddenly need to go to the bathroom. You will read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish 42 times in a row. You will sing every children’s song you know to your 1 year old when he starts screaming because he is tired of being strapped in. It’s all enough to make you feel frazzled fast!! With a staycation, you cut out all the stresses of spend time in a car or plane with little kids and just go straight to the fun!
#3- Your whole family doesn’t have to sleep in one room!! When we go out of town we typically need to stay in a hotel room. The hardest part of a hotel with small kids is getting everyone to sleep in the same room. The youngest doesn’t want to sleep if anyone else is up in the room. So you all go to sleep when they do, and just when you think they are asleep, one of your other kids will pop out of bed and wakes the youngest up. Not to mention when you do finally get everyone to sleep, you really have no choice but to go to sleep too. You can’t turn the light on and risk waking everyone else, so you lie in bed too….even if it’s only 8pm.
(Hudson and daddy at Library Storytime.)
#4- You get the opportunity to explore local places that you have always talked about but never made time for. Or you can go places as a family that maybe only one parent usually gets to do. For our staycation, we started it with a trip to our local library. Typically I take our kids to the library for story time during the week, but our 1st grader and my husband don’t usually get to come with us. Getting the chance to go together was really fun. It gave my hubby a chance to see what story time was, and for our kids to share their favorite story time songs with them! And what seems like such a simple thing to us, was so fun for them.
(Noelle at Bounce U)
We also had fun at Bounce U, which is a bounce facility that has lots of different inflatable bounce houses, slides, etc. We have been to Bounce U before, they they don’t have open bounce times on the weekend so we haven’t been their in about a year and a half. My big girl has been asking to go for the last 6 months, and our staycation was the perfect time to finally make it there again!!
#5- It is so much cheaper! One of the biggest reasons we did a Staycation this year is we just didn’t have the money to go anywhere else! When you sleep at your own house at night, you don’t have to pay for a hotel room, you don’t have to pay for plane tickets or gas to drive somewhere. You can eat meals at home if you want. You can really make a Staycation as frugal as you want to. If you want to find all free fun things to do. Go for it! If you want to spend a minimal amount of money, there are tons of local options you can explore.
Sound interesting, but need more ideas? Here are a few things we either did or have been keeping in our back pocket for another time!
(The girls getting ready to swim at the hotel)
- Spend one night in a hotel with a swimming pool. I know, I know. I just said you don’t have to stay in a hotel! It’s true, you don’t have to, but our kids find sleeping in a hotel so amazing. Something about everyone sleeping in the same room is so exciting for them. We spent one night in a hotel and enjoyed the swimming pool at night and then again before we left in the morning. My kids also find breakfast at a hotel exciting.
Even our little guy got into breakfast. (Don’t worry it’s really just milk!)
- Go to the zoo. Pack a lunch and make a day out of it!
- Hit up your local children’s museum. My kids love our children’s museum, but usually we go during the day when dad is working, so to get to go as a whole family is a special treat!
- If it’s summer or you live in a warm climate, go to the pool or find a splash pad.
- If you are close to a holiday, you can incorporate any fun holiday traditions. We painted our Halloween pumpkins as part of our Staycation. You could find your family Christmas tree, go watch Firework at the 4th, or make homemade Valentines in February!
- Family Game Night- Have a marathon game day! Let each child take turns picking out their favorite game to play together!
- Bake something together. Make a family pie or cake to decorate together. Make a family favorite or let them pick out something new that may or may not turn out great!
- Go Camping! I am not a huge outdoors person, but in the pursuit of making memories with my family, I am willing to spend a night sleeping on the ground!
- Go to the Movies. We actually went to the dollar theater during our Staycation, but you could also search your area for outdoor movies for a fun memorable experience!
- Go to a Children’s Theater production. We have several venues in our town that put on stage productions geared from children. They can be a little more pricey, but you could also check out your local high schools and go to their musical or drama productions as a family.
Whatever activities you chose to do, I would suggest you have a plan ahead of time! One of the things that made our Staycation so great was that we got to say yes to all these great fun activities. We cleared our schedules and we planed 2 to 3 fun activities per a day, and we didn’t tell our kids what they were beforehand. So each day was filled with surprises and fun family time! So much of our lives during the school year is taken up with homework and chores and work, it was really special to get to spend a few days to just enjoy each other and have fun!
What about you? Have you taken your own staycation? What fun family activities did you plan for that time? Let me know in the comments! We can always use some extra ideas!
