Hampton Hotels

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to vacation. Not only during the summer, but year round. If you haven't started planning a family summer getaway, then now is the time to start! This is an especially good time as it gets closer to the start of school and the crowds start to diminish. As a Mom, I know how hard it can be to plan a family getaway, especially when all your family and friends are begging you to come and visit. This summer, Hampton Hotels is making it easier than ever to connect with your friends and family with their Chain of Friends Sweepstakes. One grand prize winner will win an entire hotel for a weekend! (100 rooms for two nights) How cool is that!! 100 other lucky folks will win a free weekend stay for them and three friends. Visit hampton.com/friends for more details and your chance to enter!

If you're ready to make your travel plans now, then you should know that Hampton Hotels is launching The Great Getaway Advance Purchase promotion so you can maximize your stay and play. They're offering guests 20% off the best available rate at participating hotels when you book at least seven days in advance for stays until July 15Th - so hurry and visit www.hampton.com to take advantage of this great offer!!

**Disclosure: I received no compensation for this feature. This is part of a campaign through Mom Select. I have been entered to win a one night certificate for participating in this campaign. Plus, I love a good deal when vacationing!!

Camp KOA

Our family wanted to do something over the Memorial Weekend, something that would allow us to spend more time together as a family. We thought what better way than to go camping! No TV, video games, computers....take us away from the things that seperate us on a daily basis. After searching the internet trying to find a good camping site, somewhere also that was not too far away from home, I found Camp KOA. After looking over the web site, and seeing what they had to offer I knew right away that this was the campground for us!

Camp KOA offered so much for the family for such a great price. What I loved about the campground is that they had so many family activites that were included in the price. We also had the option of staying in a tent, or renting a cabin.

We arrived late Friday night, since we waited for the kids to get out of school. We did not run into much traffic at all, so arrived there in about three hours. We set up our tent, got settled in, and explored the campground a bit. Each campsite has bbq's, and at your request, they will bring out a fire pit to your campsite - which was an added bonus! Saturday morning they started the day with family activites such as a water balloon toss, ring toss and a scavanger hunt. We then let the kids play at the pool for a bit, which as a mom - I LOVED the pool. Half the pool was three feet deep and the other half was only four feet deep!!! My two younger kids are still learning how to swim - so this was a big plus!!! They were able to get in the water by themselves and I did not have to worry about them going into the deep end! Later that day the camp had an ice cream social - the cost was $3 and you got two scoops of ice cream and all you want toppings!! Sunday morning they had an all you can eat pancake breakfast for a small cost of $4 and $1 extra for sausage. In the afternoon they had a basketball challenge that the boys loved. Then Sunday night they showed the movie Bolt outside under the stars.

We had a great time, and there was so much to do to keep the little one involved! I highly recommend Camp KOA - they have campgrounds all across the USA! We can't wait to go back!!

http://www.koa.com/