Birch Family Stay-cation

As the Fourth of July weekend was approaching I knew I wanted to do something different.  Jeff has been working so many hours that he is completely worn out.  And I have been getting very little sleep because Mason has been suffering from chronic ear infections and hasn't been sleeping well at all.  It was no secret that we needed a break.  That week we were getting a 5th (and extra!) paycheck for the month and it was loaded with overtime.  I immediately started looking online for vacation packages to Southern California and Las Vegas.  I was ready to get far, far, away from the Utah/Idaho area.  The more I began to price out a vacation, the more uneasy I began to feel about spending that much money...especially with a new baby on the way (which means we are saving to buy a car with third row seating). So the solution?  A stay-cation!  I was not too excited about the idea, but it made sense to save our extra money. So why didn't we go to Idaho?  Its not exactly the most relaxing thing for us since we spend most of our time bouncing from house to house and making sure we see everyone.  What we needed was R & R.  Jeff's brother, Jason, works at the Hyatt in downtown Salt Lake and was able to get us an amazing rate. Thank you Jason! It definitely pays to have connections because it was $60 (per night) cheaper than the cheapest rate for that hotel that I could find online.

Friday afternoon I met Jeff at the hotel and after grabbing some dinner we decided to go relax at the hotel's pool.  Carson is a lot like me and loves to swim so we had a blast together!

We kept the rest of our weekend's activities to a minimum, only visiting the zoo and Discovery Gateway Children's Museum.  The goal for us was to kick back and relax together as a family.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed staying at a hotel and riding the train around downtown.

We ended our stay-cation by watching fireworks in Salt Lake with Jeff's family.  A perfect end to a fun weekend. Even though we didn't go far, it was still nice to get away from our normal routine for a few days and most importantly we spent time together!  Besides relaxing, sleeping in, and swimming with my guys, one of the best parts was being able to put a big chunk of cash away in savings and know I'm that much closer to a newer vehicle! We've decided not to borrow money anymore, so its definitely been a challenge for me to say no to some things that we really can afford and want, so I can put the extra money away for something that we need. Its hard...especially when all I want to do is go far away on a vacation, but I know if we make the sacrifices now, we will be a lot better off later on.