Mini-Vacation

So this weekend we took the kids on a mini get-a-way vacation.
Nothing fancy, just wanted to get out of the house and do something fun.
We are all getting a touch of cabin fever from our long winter.

So we surprised the kids.
Packed everyone up, didn't tell anyone where we were going and headed off !
We went to Peoria for the weekend. There is a lot of family things to do up there.

So we stayed at Embassy Suites.
I had a more eventful weekend planned, Zoo, museums, Kartville, shopping, spa, etc.
The weather of course did not work in my favor. And actually the kids just wanted to really hang out at the pool, go out to eat, and shop. So that what we did !

On Friday I took them to my favorite Italian place Avanti's!
So good ! Puts them all to shame - even Biaggi's.
If you haven't been, you need to go.
Then went back to the hotel and swam and spa'd it up !

On Saturday, everyone got up with no issues.
We all went down and had a great breakfast.
When we finished we went back up to the room to get ready for the day.
Then we were off to the mall. Yeah !

I refer to Berkeley, Abby & Elle as ( the little girls ) because Meg is hardly a little girl.
She is a young woman - who looks more like supermodel.

We went to Build-A-Bear first.
Berk built herself a bunny and named her Victoria, Abby built a bear and named him Snuggles, and Elle built herself a dog named Brownie.

The little girls INSISTED that we go to JUSTICE next.
Little girls are completely obsessed with this store !
I then explained to the little girls that they were done in the shopping dept.

Next I let Alec and Megan chose where they would like to go.
First we went to Aero. Both Meg & Alec found some really nice items.
We needed to get Alec some shirts so we headed to his favorite store AE.
We were actually lucky and hit sales at each store.

We we finished shopping we headed back to our hotel for some down time.
Relaxed and watched the Illini game in our room. Afterwards we took the kids to Joe's Crab Shack. THEY LOVED IT! We all enjoy seafood, and Joe's is great to take kids too because of the kids friendly atmosphere. They thought it was awesome.

Full and getting tired we headed back to the hotel for the night.
I took the little girls swimming, while Doug, Meg, and Alec headed for the office, to get online.
By the time the pool closed it was 11pm and the little girls were ready to sleep !

We all turned in and crashed.
The next day we grabbed some breakfast downstairs. Then Doug took the kids to the pool, while I headed upstairs to pack everyone up. We headed out around noon. On our way out of Peoria we had to stop at one of the coolest places before we left.
COLDSTONE CREAMERY.
Abby & Alec had never been to one.
They loved it !
Who doesn't ?!

It was a great weekend.
The kids had a blast.
So now I am thinking of where to go this Spring. . .
I am up for suggestions.

No need to suggest Chicago or St.Louis as we have all been there many times.
They are both awesome places! Just thinking about going other places to see what else is out there.