little things - a weekend getaway giveaway

We love Eau Claire, Wisconsin for the little things. My husband's birthday is on the 4th of July and for the past two years, we've gone to Eau Claire to celebrate.

On the night of the 4th, we wind up this hill alongside hundreds of others to reach the baseball park where Hank Aaron himself once played. We spread the blanket out on the middle of the baseball field and wait for the countdown to begin; 5,4,3,2... the sky instantly blackens and the fireworks start. Can you get any more Americana than that?

So when I attended BlogHer this summer and was handed a card for a weekend in Eau Claire sponsored by visiteauclaire.com, I thought that I was given the golden ticket.

Eau Claire is exactly what we are looking for in a weekend away when it's the little things that matter. So here's a little bit of the little things from our recent trip.

I was gifted $50 to spend at Action City. When I walked in the door, my first impression was 'this place is crazy expensive', but in 2 1/2 hours my family of four drove these really fun, fast race cars, played a game of laser tag, a round of miniature bowling, (Henry and my husband) climbed the rock wall and each one of us played a bunch of Chuck E. Cheese style games. It turned out to be a great deal, it was an afternoon filled with things out of the ordinary.

I was gifted a night's stay at The Metropolis Hotel, which is part of the Chaos Water Park Resort. The room was not your typical room; the decor was fun, the room had a microwave, a refrigerator, a tall table and bar stools and two sinks. The coolest feature was once you entered the room, you had to put your key card into this slot to activate the lights/heat (meaning when you pull the card out to leave, the lights and heat turned off automatically, eco-friendly stuff!).

Last, I was gifted passes to Chaos Water Park. This place is awesome. The kids area was one of the best we have ever seen; it had 4, count them four, little water slides that even my 2 year old could go down by himself since the toddler area's water depth was between 0" and 1 foot. I love that children 3 and under cost only $2 (which basically covers the cost of the swim diaper that they provide for you). They also have life jackets on hand for you to use for free and the lockers are 2 bucks and you get a key (meaning you can go in and out of the locker as much as you need and not push quarter after quarter in for a one time use, fabulous!).

It is the little things that count for us but I do like to think big so I asked visiteauclaire.com if they could give away another trip and well...

For one of my readers:
-A 1 night's stay at the GrandStay Eau Claire hotel (which rocks because you don't have to go to sleep when your kids do because it's a one bedroom suite)
-4 passes to Chaos Water Park
- A $20 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice (this is for those out of town readers that won't be able to make it to Eau Claire, WI because I love you guys too!) .

*Leave me a comment (FYI - you don't have to be a blogger, just add your email address in the comments and you are entered; no spam, nothing, promise)
*Follow me publicly and leave a comment that you follow me
*Twitter this giveaway, including a link to this post and leave a comment that you tweeted about it.

A big thanks again to visiteauclaire.com.

If you haven't checked, it may be closer than you think, it's only 1 1/2 hours away from the Twin Cities. You should visit Eau Claire too.

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Giveaway open until November 19th. Random.org will pick 1 winner for it all or if needed 2 (1 to win the restaurant gift certificate and 1 to win the hotel stay and water park passes).