Some would say I have a rather large family. There's my wife, 5 children (ages 7 through 13), our dog (who thinks she is the sixth child), and myself. That doesn't count the nieces and nephews that we get stuck with, I mean love to have over. So needless to say when it comes to making any plans for family fun, cost is an immediate issue for me. I mean we can't go to McDonalds without spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 bucks.

Now, we had known that I was going to be off work for 4 days due to the July 4th Holiday (the plant was shutdown on the 3rd, Friday was the Fourth of July Holiday, and of course I had Saturday and Sunday off). We had discused options of going on a real vacation, visiting friends in Chicago, or visiting friends in South Carolina, but it was just not within our budget or worth the hassles. So we decided to stay local and I was planning on getting some work done around the house, specifically the basement basement.

We hung out at Grandmas in the morning playing the Wii and decided to get China Buffet for lunch since there was one a block away. I like to eat and I love Buffets. I can eat once and be full for the whole day at a China Buffet. After we all stuffed ourselves and since we were already in Dayton, we figured it would be fun to go to a hotel, for the adults to relax (hot tub) and fun for kids (pool, wii, etc). We had the dog, whose name is Baby with us of course (incedentally it was her birthday, she turned one year old) so there was no pressing issues (except I was planning on working on our basement) at home. We found a hotel with a hot tub and a pool and spent the afternnoon and evening swimming, relaxing in a hot tub, and playing the Wii. Grandma joined us so me and the wife even got some kid-free alone time, ;-)! We went to a local market and bought snack-type foods for everyone to munch on.

Total Cost
Gas: $5.00
Snacks: $25.00
China Buffet $50.00 (lunch prices)
Hotel (two rooms with two beds each and fold out couches): $120.00
Alone time while grandma has the kids: Priceless

Another Great Day

I woke up at the hotel and started the day off like any should when waking up in a hotel, first coffee, then hot tub, then the pool. It's great to wake up and get down to the pool area before anyone else does. Next on the agenda wake everyone up and head straight for the free breakfast buffet. I really like the buffets and so does my wallet. Now the interesting thing about hotels is the checkout time is usually in the morning or right at noon, but that does not mean you have to leave. We checked out, loaded up the car and headed right to the pool area where we stayed for the majority of the afternoon. About 3 or 4 in the afternoon we figured we ought to get back home. We went home and unpacked. It was later than I thought and didn't really feel like working in the basement so it woulkd have to wait till tommorrow, my last day off. As the sun started to go down, we cooked out and had a roaring bonfire.

Again another great day

Cost:
Gas: $10.00
Food for Cookout: Already had at house but let's say $20.00
Setting close to someone you love by bonfire: Priceless

Finally, I'm going to get to work on the basement. NOT! I splept in a little and did some online stuff in the morning. Getting ready to start working on the basement and the wife says it would be a good day to take the kids and the rafts we bought to the nearby river and float down the river. "OK" , I said even though I was thinking "The basement's not gonna finish itself, it's my last day off, and I want to relax and just hang around the house too", so we loaded up the rafts and the kids, it was just our 5 plus one of the boy's neighborhood friends who had experience (we had never done it) floating down the river. So a 12 year old was our guide. I drove the truck to a park where we were going to be getting out of the water and the wife picked me up there. We then drove just about a mile up river where there was a place to park with an overpass on the road so we could walk down to the river. We inflated the rafts, which took a little longer than expected, of course we had a battery operated blower, but did you see everything she bought. About 45 minutes later we began our voyage floating down the river guided by a 12 year old. Remember it was only a mile we were floating. It took about two and half hours to lazily float the mile. It was a blast! The kids floated, swam, played along the shore on shallow spots, of course they had life jackets on. We leisurely floated along taking in the scenery that you could only see by floating down the river, there was no roads, no way to get where we were at except by floating down the river as we were.

Fun was had by all

Cost: (this was the expensive part since we bought the lifejackets and rafts, luckily it was all put on an interest free credit card).
Life Jackets: $10.00 x 4
Inflatable Cooler: $10.00
Drinks: $10.00
Two Person Inflatable Boat: $20.00 x 2
One Giant (5 people) Inflatable Ring: $30.00
One Super Huge Docking Island w/ two floating chairs: $60.00
Repeatable Fun for the whole Family: Priceless

Did we need all that stuff, no, but now we own it so we can do it whenever we like. :-)

Overall it was one of the best vacations, I mean staycations I had ever experienced. I know everyone had a lot of fun.

The total cost was $449.00. Less than 500.00 dollars for a family of 7 plus extras to have a great 4 day summer vacation and most of that was put on an interest free credit card, so there was very little out of pocket expense. It was a blast. My wife said she didn't want me to spend my days off working around the house as I usually do and that I needed some relaxing time off. She was right. I can always work on the basement next week-end, no wait, next weekend is the Eventide Prerelease, oh well, the basement's not going anywhere.