North Conway Hampton Inn and Suites Trip January 2020

My mom and stepdad did phenomenal it when it came to Christmas gifts this year. For Jamie and I, a one time whole house cleaning by a professional. It was incredible. My shower has never been this clean. It has been so much easier to maintain the whole house now that we have been gifted a fresh start.

The kids received a trip overnight to one of our favorite spots to go as a family, North Conway. The gift included the money not only to spend one night in a hotel, but also go out to dinner. This was accompanied with a fun little box to unwrap that included snacks, a coloring book and something to color with for each of the kids. Her plan was for them to use this on the drive up and in the hotel room.

We decided to stay at the Hampton Inn and Suites. This is one of our favorite places to stay in North Conway in the winter time. They have a small indoor water park area and it’s the perfect size for kids our ages. It’s includes a kiddie area with two little slides, mushroom sprinkler and few of those jets that come out of the ground. It also includes two larger slides for kids over 42 inches tall. One open and one tube slide. The room prices can be steep, but there are certain times of year when they drop drastically and we take advantage of it.

We headed up to North Conway in the morning (Tweak too since this hotel is pet friendly) and made it there by lunchtime. We had lunch and then looked around a couple of stores.

At this point since we were right across from our hotel so we decided to see if an early check in was possible. The room wasn’t ready yet, but they were super friendly and offered up use of the water park area while we waited.

We changed in the bathroom area and the kids went right for the water. We’ve been here multiple times in the past and this by far was the most fun we’ve had with them. Anika, who is risk adverse, has been a bit scared of the water slides, even the kiddie ones. Not this year. She totally went for it. After one slide down on my lap she was good to go. Jake followed his sister’s lead and went down on my lap a few times. After some encouragement from Jamie, he went down by himself with me catching him at the bottom. A few more slides down and he told me not to catch him anymore.

After a couple of hours playing it was time to check into our hotel room. They had free yummy chocolate chip cookies.

We brought our stuff to our room, settled in and then headed back out to dinner. We decided to check out a Mexican place we had been curious about, Luchador’s Tacos. The kids loved the cheese quesadilla, but Jamie and I were not super impressed with the burritos and the place was pricey.

We made a quick trip to Dairy Queen for dessert and then headed back to the hotel room. The kids played for a bit before going to bed.

The next morning we got up and went down to breakfast. This Hampton Inn and Suites offers a free hot breakfast. It was great. We had mini western omelettes, french toast sticks and sausages. The kids were a big fan of the dry cereal selection.

After we ate, we headed back up to our hotel room to get changed into bathing suits and returned to the water park. This time the big slides were open. Anika was hesitant at first but after I went down as slow as possible with a big smile on my face waving to her, she was up for giving it a go. I walked her up the first time and after one trip down she was hooked. She loved it and went over and over. She even gave the tunnel slide a try but decided that one wasn’t for her quite yet. Jamie enjoyed going down the slides with her too. She made multiple little friends quickly which was nice. After a couple of hours we left, headed back to the hotel room to shower and pack up and then we checked out and headed home.

This was a quick but wonderful trip and such a great example of how gifting an experience over a physical item can provide much more long term joy and value to a child. Thinking ahead in ten years I’m pretty sure our kids will not remember what they receive for Christmas gifts this particular year, but I do think there is a chance Anika will remember the time she felt brave and bold enough to give the big slide at the water park a try and loved it. What a confidence booster for her. What an opportunity of growth for her. I don’t think there is any better gift then that.