I need a vacation after my vacation!

We just spent a few days in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We left on Thursday morning and half way there, Kyler said his stomach was hurting. Whether it was from Grant's driving or his cereal not settling right, we'll never know. So, we pulled into a nice little gift shop/gas station in St. Regis, Montana and took a breather. We ate some free popcorn (why did we give Kyler some?) and used the facilities, then looked around at all the gifts in the gift shop. They have a big aquarium there with lots of big fish that the kids liked to look at. We were commenting on all the Western-type gifts and thought how nice it would be to have our names drawn for Christmas on the Orr side. We left (not before moving Kyler's chair up next to Zadyn in the middle of the van) and called Grant's sister and had her draw the names for Christmas, and decided to stop on our way back to get a few things. We made it just in time for lunch at the Olive Garden! After we ate, we checked into our Hotel there in Coeur d'Alene. We unloaded and then headed to Spokane to the mall to do some shopping.
I wanted to go to Cathrine's to get a new dress, so before we left, I checked the address online and so we went to the mall. Come to find out, it's not in the mall, it's a little ways down the road. So we loaded up in the van, again, and found the store. They had a great selection of skirts and shirts, but no dresses that I liked. After all my many discounts, (30% off when I signed up for their e-newsletter, $10 off by signing up for their mailed catalog, and getting tax free because of being from Montana), I'd say we made some pretty good deals.
We still had a little time to kill and wanted to let the kids run, so we went back to the mall. They had a great kids play area in the mall with a tree slide, a waterfall slide and some animals to climb on. The nice thing was there was only one other kid there, since school was still in session. We let the kids play for a while and then decided to go explore the mall.
We found a shop that sold Superhero things. Avery was in heaven. No kidding, everything in the store what Superheros. They had clothes, books, comics, games, you name it, it was Superhero. You know the game Guess Who? Where you put all the little tabs up and have to ask if your "person" has a hat, or blue eyes, etc. Well, they have this in, you guessed it, Superheros. So, we got that for Avery, but he has to wait until his birthday to have it. Good thing that his birthday is coming up soon! They also got some little Spiderman pins for their coats and shirts.
We continued on down the mall and found the Spokandy store. We got some yummy chocolates and the kids got a LARGE bag of taffy. (Although I think Grant and I ate most of it on the trip --shouldn't have left it in the front of the van!!!) We decided that we needed to get going to try and find our dinner location -- Chuck E. Cheese.

Boy, oh, boy. The boys were SO excited about Chuck E. Cheese. I got some Internet coupons that allowed us to get 180 tokens (each game is only ONE token -- we were there for a while). The boys loved it! We won 580 tickets (thanks to Grant figuring out one game and getting 25 tickets at a time and Kyler hitting the jackpot on another game and winning 35 tickets!) and were able to get some pretty cool prizes! Avery picked a pencil pouch with pencil, eraser, note pad, sharpener, and stickers, in, you got it, Spiderman. Kyler got a cool soft foam rocket launcher, complete with three rockets and a hand pump launcher (band aids not included!). Zadyn picked a pretty bracelet with a dangling heart on it. (Come to think of it, I haven't seen that since Friday, I hope it didn't get left at the Hotel.) We got back too late to swim at the Hotel, but the kids didn't seem to mind, they were tired!

Friday morning, after breakfast, we went and did a little more shopping. We wanted to check out a family fun center they have there in Coeur d'Alene. We found it and went inside to check it out. They have a water park, bumper cars, bumper boats, indoor and outdoor miniature golf and an arcade. We decided to play a quick round of mini-golf. The guy didn't charge us, I think because he didn't know how to ring it all up, but we ended up buying some popcorn and a soda afterwards anyway. The water park looked so fun that we decided to buy tickets to get in later that night (they were cheaper if you bought them during the day).
We went to Tomato Street for lunch. They have a great menu and it's very child friendly. They give the kids a package of play dough, some dry pasta and string to make necklaces, and they have butcher paper on the table with cans of crayons to color on. They kids loved it!! I loved the baked Lazoni that I got, it's a piece of lasagna baked in a calzone with sauce poured on it. It is delicious!!!
After lunch, we stopped at the Hotel so I could change my clothes and Grant and the kids dropped my off at the Temple in Spokane. He took the kids to a park and let them run around and get dirty. They had fun and I had a great time in the Temple. There were only 12 sisters and 9 brothers, so the session was a quick one.
We stopped at the Toys R Us and let the kids look around. We were in search of a play shopping cart for Zadyn for Christmas. We found one and Avery found a Spiderman transforming car that he bought with money he earned. We stopped at a Panda Express and got dinner to go for Grant and I and then drove through Wendy's for kids meals. We ate in the car on the way back to Coeur d'Alene. We stopped at the hotel and got towels and swim suits and headed back to the water park. Grant took the kids and they swam for a couple hours. I went and did a little shopping while they swam (thanks to an unwanted visitor that prevented me from getting in the water). I went back and watched the two younger kids in the zero depth pool while Grant took Avery down the big tube slides. Once we got those two boys to stop playing on the slides, we went back to the hotel for the night. Again, a late night, but a fun day.

Saturday morning, before the kids got up, Grant went to the temple. He said they had a pretty full session. The kids and I got breakfast from the breakfast room and brought it back to our hotel room so they could watch Disney Channel (a channel we don't get at home) all morning. They got to see some shows they haven't seen in a while! Once Grant got back, we loaded up the van and went to lunch. We went to Olive Garden, again, because we can't get enough of it, and Kyler wanted noodles for lunch. We stopped at Ross and found some GREAT things to put in our house. We went to the lake and the park by the lake so the kids could work off lunch. They had so much fun, but it was hot and we needed to get home, so we only stayed an hour.

We headed out (after a stop for gas and bathroom breaks) and made it to St. Regis to buy our Christmas presents (which I will not mention on here what they were). We ran into some people in our Stake on there way home from the temple. Grant knew them (he knows everyone in the stake it seems) and visited with them. We got our gifts and the kids got free popcorn again (who doesn't love free popcorn!). Once we got to Missoula, it was after 7, so we had to stop, again, for dinner. We ended up just going to Burger King and getting a quick bite. So, we got home pretty late, around 8:30 and had to get the kids in the tub in preparation for church today. They were pretty tired, but glad to be home. They had a great trip and enjoyed all the playing we did.

Avery, however, was not satisfied with the amount of time that we spent playing, as he complained last night upon getting home and having to take a shower. He said that he wanted to play with Dad, because he didn't get to play enough! WHAT? I never get that kid!

I would upload some pictures, because I remembered my camera this time, but I didn't take any pictures. Oh well, I have a few Chuck E. Cheese snapshots and ticket stubs to scrapbook anyway!