... or how to test the patience of four mothers in 26 hours.
we had the grand idea to take advantage of the free rooms out at buffalo bills (at stateline). our trip went something like this...
tuesday at 2:00, we left jodie's house in two cars. in my car, the loud car, we had jennifer, max, grace, mason and madi. in jodie's car, the not-so-loud car, was jacob, kenzie, quincy and beckam. we stopped at sonic for a drink and snack. we couldn't get to stateline fast enough. the kids were a little excited. we parked, got the kids and luggage out and went inside to wait in the long line for check-in. it took, at least, a half hour. we were able to get rooms close together, on the fifth floor.
we took our stuff up to the room and broke the beds in a little bit.

then we loaded back up into the cars and drove over to the outlet stores. it's not easy to do much with 8 kids. so we tried to separate a bit in the stores. i think we only went in three. and i bought one shirt from gap. that was it. when we got back to our hotel, michelle d and her three kiddos had just arrived. we went inside and i jumped in line with max to get the player's club cards. we had to get those to get the deals. like the 2 for 1 breakfast, lunch and dinner, 2 free all day attraction passes and $55 in slot play. jennifer took the rest of the kids up to the room and jodie helped michelle out. it took over an hour to get to the front of this line. everyone came back down just before it was our turn.
and when we were done with that line... we went and waited in another (at least 30 minutes). for the dinner buffet.

we would have gone to another restaurant, but they were all closed. the food was not all that great. the kids did like the ice-cream. and my diet pepsi tasted good. we finished eating around 9 and we were all so ready to go to our rooms. me and my kids went for a little walk to the vending machine for another diet pepsi and then back again for some ice. and mackenzie got her wish that night. to have a bed all to herself. max ended up at the foot of me and madi's bed. only falling off once in the middle of the night.
on wednesday: i was up at 6:30 to get ready. when everyone else was ready we headed down for breakfast wearing our swimsuits and cover-ups. jennifer jumped in the line to get her player's club card. she was the only one in line when we got there. there was no way we were going to stand in line for the buffet this morning, so we walked over to the mcdonalds. the pancakes were yummy. probably much better than the buffet would have been.
we got out to the pool around 9:30. it didn't really open until 10:00 (no lifeguard) so the kids hung out in the spa. when it was time to get in the big pool, they didn't last very long. it was way too cold and pretty windy out. so they ran around in the grass for a bit...
and then we went upstairs to change.
we all met back up and went to check out the rides. another long line. we decided to eat lunch instead. and while we ate the kids begged and begged to ride the rides. so when jacob went to check out the line and saw that nobody was in it, we took our free passes and traded them in for wristbands. for all the little kids. we didn't consider the fact that maybe they would need an adult to ride with them. jennifer ended up asking some guy if she could have his other pass and it worked out perfect.
first, the kids went on the little frog hopper thing a few times. max was all excited, until the ride started going. his grip got a little tighter and the look on his face grew a bit more worried. he took a break and decided later that it wasn't that bad and went a couple more times.
before his first ride: after his first ride:
the kids and aunt jen rode the log ride. and someone paid to squirt them towards the end of the ride. it wasn't us. i promise. in between the log rides and frog hopping, we got some ice-cream, from mcdonalds, and did a little gambling. i had $55 in slot play to start out with. i came away with $57 after playing some video poker. it's been a long time since i've played that.
we had all had enough of the whole primm thing, and decided it was time to pack up and head home. but first we did a little more bed jumping and made a stop at the starbucks over at the gas station.
and in less than an hour... we were home. and we all vowed to never again go to a "free" night's stay at any casino with 8+ kids.