Celebrating Our 4th Wedding Anniversary at Hotel Valley Ho

Today, I'm sharing ALL of the details from our anniversary staycation--and a special thanks to Hotel Valley Ho, for providing us with all of these luxurious and complimentary accommodations!

Once we finished last-minute packing (like we usually do), Adam and I took a cab down to Scottsdale and checked into Hotel Valley Ho. Right after we checked in with the friendly front desk, we dropped our bags upstairs in our suite and headed back downstairs to ZuZu's, the restaurant inside Hotel Valley Ho, for some breakfast. Adam ordered Bananas Foster and continued to make audible "mmmm" and "ooooh" sounds while he enjoyed his breakfast, and I had the best Eggs Benedict of my life. 

Our breakfast was lovely! Probably my favorite things from breakfast were the retro songs playing over the restaurant radio like "Wipeout" and "The Twist", and how kind and attentive the staff was. I loved the rock wall and all of the decor, too! The rock wall reminded me of something I might see in an episode of "The Brady Bunch." 

With happy tummies, we headed back up to our suite to unpack. When we got back upstairs, we dropped our iced coffees in our personal refrigerator and gave ourselves a self-tour of our home for the next few days. We were just so stunned with how incredibly chic our suite was. All weekend, if felt like we discovered new and amazing amenities that we hadn't realized were there (it took us an entire 2 days to realize that we had a washer and dryer unit in our suite, too! 

Isn't this suite spectacular?! 

Our bathroom area basically felt bigger than our entire apartment. It was EPIC! For the first time, Adam and I each got to have his & hers sinks--which was amazing for me, since I always feel like I have to be cautious and clean up after myself at the sink whenever I brush my hair or put my makeup on. The shower and in-bathroom appliances were very luxurious. I loved getting ready in our big bathroom at Hotel Valley Ho, and I probably spent 3x longer doing my hair and makeup than I normally do! Hah!

Once we were ready to go, we headed down to the lobby and walked down to the trolley station. I loved that the city of Scottsdale provides a free trolley! It was just a 3 minutes walk to the nearest trolley stop from the front desk at Hotel Valley Ho. Adam and I explored all around Old Town Scottsdale through the afternoon, and then headed back onto the trolley when we wanted to head home (I loved not having to take a cab!)

When we got back to our suite, we decided to take a nap so we could explore later on at night. But to our surprise when we woke up from our nap, the entire valley had a storm so we decided to stay close to the hotel. Our lunch was delicious--my burger was great! For those of you who are already following us on Instagram, you already knew that! ;-)

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After more lounging and cooling off in our suite, we had a lovely dinner at ZuZu's that night! When we came back to our room we discovered that the front desk had sent us a surprise gift for our wedding anniversary!

They gave us a handwritten note, champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and a goody bag!

We went to bed feeling so blessed and incredibly entertained. We spent a good chunk of our night playing Scrabble inside our hotel room (yes, Hotel Valley Ho is just THAT awesome that they have Scrabble and other board games in the room), and then afterwards we cuddled up on the couch and lit some candles. I loved that our hotel was quiet all through the night, too. We had a great night's sleep!

The next morning, we had breakfast at ZuZu's downstairs. Adam had the Eggs Benedict (he was feeling jealous that mine was so good the day before that he had to order it for himself), and I enjoyed a fried egg sandwich. When we were nearly finished with breakfast, our waiter came by with a large plate of fresh fruit--he told us that the front desk wanted to send us some fruit to help us kick off our anniversary! It was another lovely surprise, and just goes to show how thoughtful and considerate the Hotel Valley Ho staff is! 

After breakfast, we spent a little bit of time enjoying the pools and hot tub! Seriously, these pools are stunning and it felt like paradise. And I loved staying in the middle of the week, because it felt like we had the pool all to ourselves! We learned that there are actually two pools so we ended up taking a dip at the back pool, too!

After spending some time at the pool, Adam and I went our separate ways for a few hours. He sadly had a few work-related things to attend to, so I treated myself to getting my hair and makeup done. When we both met up for lunch, I was all dolled up and ready for our anniversary dinner that night.

And we took some silly selfies before we got dressed up and headed downstairs!

Needless to say, our dinner downstairs at ZuZu's was utterly perfect! 

After we had ordered some drinks, salad, and lettuce wraps for appetizers, the manager came over to our table to congratulate us on our anniversary and brought us a plate of Giant Shrimp Cocktail. As most of you know, Adam and I grew up in Massachusetts so we absolutely LOVE seafood! The shrimp was fresh and delicious--and really big! Once we finished off our shrimp and appetizers, our waiter brought each of us a plate of Filet Mignon. The steak was incredibly lean, but also very rich and savory. It was seriously one of the best filets I've ever had in my entire life!

We sat and laughed through our dinner, and at some point we started talking about when we first started dating; we reminisced in our awkward high school years, when we both acted like we didn't like each other but that we were just friends. We agreed that we were glad we were just really good friends in high school and nothing more--and at one point we had tears running down our faces from cracking up at our awkward memories from when we were in school together. Our waiter came to our table and gave us a huge smile--I could tell we were probably being a little loud since we were just having a blast.

Just minutes later, the manager returned to our table and greeted us! He asked us how we enjoyed our meal, and we were raving about how awesome it was. Then he asked, "how about some room for dessert?" And we both just laughed and laughed. We were so full! Not even a minute later, one of the waiters brought over a dessert plate for us; my eyes quickly informed my stomach of the news, and then I instantly felt like I had room for the incredible-looking desserts that sat before me.

And boy oh boy--that dessert was AMAZING! My favorite was their Peanut Butter Crunch Bar, and how well it paired with the banana ice cream. I think I'm going to have to try and make my very own crunch bar at home! After we finished our incredible dinner which left me feeling like I needed someone to wheel me out of there since I felt like I was in a food coma, we returned to our suite. I was surprised to see that my mom even sent us a care package to our room! After I thanked my mom for our anniversary gift, Adam and I curled up on the couch in our suite and stayed in for the rest of the night.

Adam ended up giving me a wedding anniversary gift and I was beside myself (even though we actually agreed on no gifts this year!) Last year, I lost the earrings that I wore on our wedding day. It was absolutely devastating! Well, Adam bought me the same pair of earrings for our anniversary this year!! He is so incredibly thoughtful that way ;-)

You know, I could just sit and relax in my suite all day and night and be totally happy! All of the in-room amenities made it feel so comfortable and livable. I loved having a full kitchen while we had our staycation (and the kitchen smelled like lemons and clean laundry--which was heaven to me); although Adam and I decided to splurge and go out to eat every day while we stayed at Hotel Valley Ho, I could have certainly cooked every meal in our suite if I wanted to; the full-sized fridge was perfect since Adam and I kept a gallon of water with us, as was the freezer where I could quickly cool a bottle of water. In the mornings, I was even able to use the in-room teakettle and stove to make a hot cup of tea.

The next morning was sadly our last morning for our vacation. We slept in, brewed some coffee in our suite, and then cuddled on the sofa in our pajamas and watched some television together. I loved having the option for a late check-out, so we could choose to stay in our suite and put in a little bit of work before we left.

Adam had some emails to dig through, and I knew I wanted to start uploading my pictures from our vacation and start writing this blog post. I also had a chance to sit out on our patio and enjoy the view! It was gorgeous! Once it was after lunch time, we headed downstairs and had a smooth check out.

Everything was fantastic--and we had a great anniversary staycation! The hotel was beautiful and fun enough that we didn't have to even leave the hotel to have a great vacation. Our room was luxurious--but more importantly, it was also comfortable and very functional.

When we were finally settled back at home, we went through our pictures and couldn't believe how perfect our vacation felt. That night, we made dinner at home and had an unplugged date night ('unplugged' refers to not using any technology).

I baked us some cupcakes, and we lit up some of our leftover sparklers from the 4th of July. Adam wanted to make an exception to our unplugged night--so he could take this picture, and we could save it to help remember how wonderful our anniversary vacation was this year!

Do you have any plans to visit Scottsdale in the near future?

Thank you again to Hotel Valley Ho (and their hotel restaurant, ZuZu's) for having us! It was one of our best vacations to-date, and we're very grateful that we had the opportunity to enjoy these accommodations in exchange for writing this unbiased, and completely honest blog post.