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I’ve always wished that I were able to travel more with my family. But the reality is, traveling with 7 people is pretty expensive. We’ve only taken 3 really big trips in our time being married. Once to Hawaii and South Dakota, and twice to California. Most of our other trips have been pretty close to home, visiting family and friends. I used to feel really guilty about this. I felt like the only time our family could really have a lot of fun was to go somewhere else. But the older I’m getting, the more I’m realizing that TIME is what my kids need. They don’t need DESTINATIONS. So we’ve become really good at planning “Staycations”.

And lucky for you . . . my blogger friends and I are hosting a Staycation Giveaway to one lucky winner! Learn how to enter at the end of the post! We are giving away a 1 night stay at any Weekender Travel Club hotel, a $50 gas card, and a dinner for two!

I’m going to help you learn how to plan a staycation with your family this fall break so you don’t break the bank!

1. Find a local mom blogger and follow her. It’s highly likely that if she writes about your area, that she’s written about fun things to do with the family in your area. We really like that kind of thing! She can help you decide what’s worth doing and if the activity if family friendly or not. If you live in Utah, you’ll like to read Utah Valley Mom’s. These girls share all sorts of activities in the valley.
2. Head to the National Parks web site and find out where you can take the kids to experience nature. Hiking, fishing, biking, climbing, geocaching, rope swinging . . . these are all activities that will build strong family bonds.
3. Check out Groupon.com or CityDeals.com and see what kind of deals you can get there. Taking the kids to the trampoline park or the zoo can be really expensive. Usually you can get some great deals at local restaurants too!
4. Order take out for dinner every night. How fun will your kids think this is? Get a stack of take out menus and let the kids pick one each night. This is supposed to be a vacation for mom too, right? Then eat your dinner by candle light outside on the porch, wrapped in blankets if you live in the mountains.
5. Camp in the backyard, or if it’s too cold overnight, just leave the tent set up outside for the kids to play in. They could have a movie night in the tent. Pop some popcorn and get out there with a million pillows and blankets and laugh with your kids. And you can get 20% off your local deals through Groupon HERE.
6. Have a spa day with the kids. Massage their feet and they massage yours. The boys love having manicures! Just try it!
7. Turn your house into a hotel. Buy some cheap terry cloth robes for the family and hang them over the bathroom door so they feel like they are at a hotel. Take away all the regular soaps and put in the small hotel soaps. Buy some individually wrapped chocolate and put it on their pillow every night. Make a “Continental Breakfast” every morning.
8. Find a beautiful drive you can take to enjoy the fall leaves with the family. Then halfway through your trip, stop and get some ice cream or buy some cheese from a farm.

One thing your family MUST do is turn off all electronic personal devices. This is about family time. Set an “out of office” reply on your email and really focus on the family. You might hear a few complaints at first, but once you get going your kids won’t even notice they are missing their phones.

Now on to the amazing GIVEAWAY!  You can win a 1 night stay at any Weekender Travel Club hotels, a $50 gas card, and a dinner for two!

We stayed in a Home2Suites recently for our anniversary and loved everything about our room. These rooms are perfect for families. You can get joining rooms and each room has a kitchen that is socked with everything you need but the food. So if you are planning a staycation but would like to stay in a hotel to make it that much more fun for the family, enter to win below!

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And if you are planning a trip in the near future to Disneyland or Universal Studios, you need to check out the amazing deals and layaway plans you can get at Getaway Today! And if you use my code TFATM at checkout you can save $10 off a Southern California Package. This is the cheapest way to visit Disneyland and Universal Studios with your family. So if you live in California, this could be a part of your staycation!

What is your family’s favorite staycation activity?