We went on a little "Staycation" at the Omaha Holiday Inn last Thursday - Friday. Debra & Greg gave us tickets to CoCo Key Water Resort for Christmas and a gift certificate to the hotel, so we saved them until now. :) We checked into the hotel on Thursday evening after Doug got off work and then we drove to Chili's for supper. After supper we picked up some supplies at SuperTarget (doughnuts and milk for breakfast) and headed back to the hotel ready to go for a quick swim before bed time. The we all got our swimsuits on and I called to check on pool towels. That's when I learned that the pool was closed for "cleaning" for 4 days!!! Crazy!!! No one told Doug when he checked us in that we couldn't swim at the hotel pool or anything. It was pretty heartbreaking to the kids, who were jumping around the hotel chanting "swimming, swimming...." We broke the news to them and instant tears flowed from both of their eyes. :( After a bunch of "brainstorming" we decided to go on a walk around the hotel. We luckily found an indoor playground right next to the "closed" indoor pool!! It was the perfect size for both Samantha & Alden, so we let them run around and get rid of a bunch of energy! Then, we headed up to the room again and got ready for bed. We debated on where to put the kids for the night. We got a 2 room suite with a king size bed and pull out couch. Samantha & Alden told us they wanted to sleep together on the couch, so we thought we'd give it a try. We did the normal bedtime routine and then told them goodnight and shut our door. Amazingly.....they slept the whole night!! 10:30pm - 7am!! I kept waking up in the middle of the night wondering if they were still asleep, but no sounds, so I went back to sleep. Then, at 7am, our door opens and in pops Alden followed by Samantha. :) It was too cute! Samantha woke up and then told Alden to wake up too!
A little after 9:00, Debra met us at the hotel and we got ready to swim. Alden didn't need his ticket because he was under 2 years old, so we volunteered the ticket to Debra. We were outside the doors of CoCo Key Water Resort at 10:00am - right when it opened! We were the 2nd or 3rd family in the door! The kids ran to the kiddie pool and spent a lot time there with the fountains and other water features. They had to close the kiddie pool a little later for awhile because of something with the chlorine levels, so we moved over to the larger area. Samantha attempted to go down the slide, but after much debate she backed out. (She did go down the little yellow slide 2 times in her lifejacket though.) Alden went down the yellow slide and went right under water, but it didn't seem to bother him. Doug even went down the slide to show them it was fun. (see above picture). The kids liked spraying water at people from above the most. We also enjoyed the "lazy" river and completed many loops with the kids on our laps. There was also a pool with basketball hoops that Alden could play with when Doug lifted him up to shoot hoops. Doug was the only one who went down the "big" slides, but said they were fun. Debra enjoyed a few minutes in the hot tub, too. We had pizza hut for lunch and then returned to the water for a few more hours. We were all exhausted when we left about about 2pm that day. It was a great Christmas present - Thanks Debra & Greg!!
