The Great Escape

We survived.

Early Saturday we left to stay at the Arizona Grand Resort for 2 days. It's really a great place- totally family friendly- huge resort with multiple pools in addition to a big water park with lazy river, wavepool, slides, splash area, etc.. I was happy to try a new place for our mini-staycation. Aaron and I have been to the Phoenician, The Scottsdale Princess, JW Marriott, Westin Kierland, Squaw Peak Hilton, The Boulders, the Wigwam, and now we can add Arizona Grand to our list. I LOVE that AZ has such AWESOME resorts right here in town. They really are amazing and you feel completely like you are on vacation..PLUS you can stay at these 4/5 star resorts for next to nothing in the summer since it's off season.

We had two adjoining suites with living areas and Grandma Ding stayed next door.

Neve dove right in and claimed her bed. So funny.

We attempted to get a pic of them together, but this sums up what we got. hahha. Nateman was NOT diggin pics this weekend and neve was wound up with excitement.

We hit the wavepool- they both love that. Nate gets crazy stimulated by the wave action- Aaron was definitely playing safety defense!

Where's Waldo? Can you find Aaron and Nate?

Then it was lazy river time..

Nate and Dad checkin out the slides...Dad DID go down, but the pic is on a different camera. Sorry!

Then it was chill time.

Sharing a lemonade. :)

My favorite guys!

For dinner we headed to Rustler's Rooste- this steakhouse type place on the bluffs. There is a cow out front, a slide inside, a band, and dancing. How can you go wrong?

They were awesome and were able to accommodate ALL of our crazy food allergy requests with a smile. yay!

 

Then I attempted to get more brother/sister pictures..and again, wasn't gonna happen.

 

Most of them were of Nate looking sideways and Neve pulling a "Lindsay Lohan" crotch shot. Niiice.

After dinner and bathtime, we finally got the kids to sleep..it was about 8pm which is 1.5 hrs LATER than usual bedtime. Grandma Ding watched the sleeping munchkins so Aaron and I could sneak out. We had Pina Coladas and cocktails and watched the dive-in movie at the pool. All was good.......UNTIL...

4:15am. Nate pees himself and wakes up Neve. They are both upset and NEVER get back to sleep. Ugh. We were dragging and pretty cranky...BUT we enjoyed the rest of the next day at the water park again and then headed home. This was the view in my living room by early evening..

So..was it worth it? I don't know. Nateman, as predicted, loves everything about parks and activities, etc...crowds are ok with him and loud noise isn't that bad...BUT it's just being off the schedule in general. He was scripting nonsense and was clearly confused. We hate to see him that way. We feel so helpless as nothing provides him security or relief. I mean, I DO think this trip was worth it..but if we were at Disney or anywhere for multiple days I don't know how we would recover from that and then just plug away again for another day at Disney or wherever. You can't do that day after day with no sleep.

Anyway- I suppose as time goes by here we will make a decision and just go with it- one way or another! I DO know we are going to book up another resort in town. Staycations are always a good way to stay busy this summer. :)