After waking up and chilling in the room for a bit, we made it downstairs for our complimentary breakfast buffet.
Plenty of fruit for the kids. And it was nice that it wasn't in a giant fruit salad, but lots of individual bowls of fruit so the kids could get as much of their favorites as they wanted.
When Ian gets his own cereal, he mixes all 5 kinds together.
It's our first morning at the pool. Theresa had previously read about people lining up 30 minutes early for the 8am gate opening. That's not relaxing and not our style on this trip. We aren't that desperate for a chair by the water, so we found ourselves there around 9:30am.
Getting our wristbands so we're good for the day.
The kids have been talking all week about 2 things. The lazy river and the water slides. We knew there was a height requirement for the slide of 42". Alli makes that at Disneyland no problem. But I wasn't thinking that she's in shoes at Disneyland and she wouldn't be in shoes here.
Luckily for her, she's tall for her age and just made the 42" mark every time a new worker was at the top and checked her again.
Theresa and I went down with them a few times.
And we didn't need to worry about finding seats. There were a few chairs at the base of the slide and they even had shade. The kids must have gone on the slide for a solid 20 minutes. I timed Ian one time for how long it took him for an entire loop and it was ~70 seconds. So in that time, they must have taken 15 rides on the slide before they were ready to move on.
And we moved on to the lazy river that we've been looking forward to.
After a few laps of that, the kids were ready to move on to the regular pool and water features.
The Westin really knows how to keep us captive here with these resort credits. For lunch we'd enjoy a tasty meal at the Waltz and Weiser.
And the kids figured out that they love onion rings. It was another tasty meal here.
It's the middle of the day and it's really starting to warm up, but we promised the kids a visit to the hotel's playground.
The kids using 4 paddles to take me on in ping pong.
Chess is a little too much right now, but Ian and I used the pieces to play checkers. He loves games and this appealed to his competitive side. He even wanted to skip swimming later so we could play more games of checkers.
We're really pushing the relaxing side of this vacation, so in the middle of the day during the heat, the AC in our hotel room sounds really good.
I read a book, the kids played on their iPads, Theresa might have taken a 2 hour nap... It was good to slow down.
For dinner, T was really excited to find me a Chicago Style pizza place right here in Arizona. Chicago style is my favorite type of pizza and I haven't found a good place to get it near home. Lou Malnati's is a Chicago staple with restaurants all over the Chicago area and just one area outside Chicago, Phoenix Arizona.
That's what I've been missing. A nice thick crust, lots of cheese on the bottom, and sauce on the top.
Ian was excited to try such a famous pizza. And besides some pizza, the kids devoured this whole plate of fruit and veggies too.
It's cooled off so they're ready to go swimming again.
Back to the lazy river.
And wrapping up our night with some swimming lessons without the float vests. He's ready to learn, but perhaps a little too brave right now.
Tomorrow is going to be another fun day!
Now that's the way to relax...do whatever and whenever! The lazy river looks so fun and relaxing. Won't be long before Ian is swimming without any flotation gear (with Alli close behind!). Great to see individual bowls of fruit, instead of a mixed fruit salad...I tend to like certain fruits more than others and usually wished I could have more of just that one fruit without the others. There goes Ian with his "creative creations"...this time w/ various cereals :-) Mmmmmm...deep dish pizza! EOM
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