A few years ago, when the tradition of starting the summer with a Memorial Day weekend trip to Las Vegas with my sister and her kids to visit my parents ended (my parents moved!), we decided to spend Memorial Day weekend taking a fun little family trip somewhere.
Our junior year we went to Boise and it was a phenomenal time (my kids said it was one of their favorite family trips!).
Last year, we drove 10 hours each way and visited South Dakota, Badlands National Park, and Mount Rushmore. Extraordinary!
This year, knowing we were looking for something pretty laid back and relaxing, we settled on Sun Valley, Idaho. It’s about a 5 hour drive and out of season, prices are not as high as during peak ski or mountain bike season.
We had originally planned to leave on Friday after school and return home on Monday, but because there were some teenagers planning that weekend, we adjusted our trip to leave on Sunday and stay until Wednesday morning, which ended up working out fine.
After church on Sunday, we packed up the car and hit the road, arriving at the Limelight Hotel around 8 p.m
I had booked a 2 bedroom suite and called to request that one of the rooms had a king bed and the other had two queen beds, but when I reminded them of that at the front desk, they ended up bumping us to a 3 bedroom suite instead (I think this was my first upgrade!) and it was a great start to the trip!
When we walked into the suite, we were blown away by how big and beautiful it was and by the end of the trip, we all said, “I think this might be the best place we’ve ever stayed!”
We settled into our room, stocked the fridge for a few days (there’s a grocery store right across the street which was super convenient) and the girls soon settled in to play some games. Scrabble is definitely a travel game! Bart and I chatted and I started doing puzzles and everyone was happy to be there.
Day 2:
The hotel provided free breakfast and we told the girls they could come down whenever they wanted. When I woke up around 8, our youngest girl had already gone down for breakfast and was now back in her swimsuit, ready to hit the hotel pool.
Bart and I went to the gym which conveniently overlooked the pool and the girls swam while we worked out and then we joined them in the pool (due to minor surgery a few weeks before, I couldn’t get in the water, but I sat on the side and enjoyed putting my feet in the hot tub and then reading next to the pool for a while).
The breakfast was great – cold cereal, hot cereal, eggs, sausage, Greek yogurt bowls, fresh fruit, hash browns, juice, hot chocolate, and more – and some of my girls went for a second round before it closed in the morning.
After that, we went back to our room to shower, play games, and hang out until lunch. We buy lunch supplies at the grocery store so everyone prepares their own lunch.
Bart had arranged to play pickleball with my friend’s husband, so he went away for a few hours to play while the girls and I went back to the pool. I read almost the entire book until it got so windy that everyone was ready to end the day at the pool.
We went back to the hotel room and the girls got dressed again and we played some games until Bart came back.
We had heard that Sun Valley Resort was really cool, so we drove there for dinner and it was so beautiful – it was like entering a small village in the Alps! After a delicious dinner at Village Station (salmon piccata was the best dish of all we had), we wandered around a bit and then walked through the resort, taking in the photos of famous celebrities lining the walls.
When we got back, the girls were definitely ready for another night of swimming, so they put their swimsuits back on and we hit the pool for about an hour playing (this diving gem was the most popular on the trip!).
Back at the hotel everyone got ready for bed and after we tucked the 3 big girls in, Ella came into our room to watch the episode Castle with us (I swear we’ve been watching this show forever – I clearly remember watching an episode last year on our trip to Mount Rushmore!).
Day 3:
We started the day with sleep and then had a delicious breakfast, gym session, swimming and other games.
We bought a bottle of local chocolate milk at the Village Market across the street and I told the two little girls if they walked over and returned the glass bottle they could get their deposit. They were thrilled and came back beaming with $1.35 each!
My friend Rachel from 3 of 30 podcast lives nearby, so we arranged to meet up and she texted to say she was in the hotel lobby. I got off and we walked across the street and had lunch at Wrapcity and chatted for over an hour which was really fun. I walked him back to his car and then back to the hotel room.
After almost 48 hours of not leaving the hotel, we decided it was time to explore a bit, so we walked to Knit + Needle where Ani had the best time finding some knitting supplies she wanted and then we crossed the road to the local library.
Rachel told me it was a fun library but I was blown away by how cool it was – probably one of my favorite libraries I’ve ever visited! The girls and I found books to read and sat down at the many reading spots and Bart went out to walk the bike path.
After 30 or 45 minutes, some of my girls were ready to go, so we walked in the same direction Bart was going knowing we would see some horses. The girls were ALL on the horses and loved feeding them grass and dandelions and petting them.
Eventually Bart met back up with us and we made our way to dinner (with a bit of rain starting to fall as we were leaving!) at Ketchum Grill, which was delicious. The Idaho trout was delicious, as was the crunchy strawberry rhubarb. (The kids’ mac and cheese is also the best!).
We walked back to the hotel, stopping to look at the price tags in the windows of real estate agents’ offices, and then… . . .another trip to the pool.
The rain fell slowly which was fine for the people at the pool and less pleasant for people like me who can’t swim, so I went into the warm lobby and read my book for an hour by the fire until it was over.
We put the girls to bed, watched another episode of Castle, and went to bed.
Day 4:
We woke up around 8am, had breakfast at the hotel and did a quick workout in the gym (it was great to see teenage girls joining us!), then packed everything up and headed home.
We planned to stop for lunch but we had so much leftovers that we just ate in the car and got home with plenty of time to unpack and relax (or get work done in my case!) until dinner.
It was a very relaxing trip with no agenda and we all said we would definitely go back – we love Sun Valley and I can see why it’s so loved!
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