Our Version of a Vegas Vacation

So, so much to catch up on. That's a little warning about how long this post is. Seriously it's long, but I'm so glad I've finally finished it. I started back on the 4th while I was still at my mom's. Yeah for getting it done and published! Here's each day of vacation at a glance.

Tues

Our plane was supposed to leave at 5:55 pm. We were there early with Happy Meals to snack on while we waited to board the plane. I fed Reed and he was ready for a nap the whole way. It was aproaching 5:45 (when they told us we would start to board) and I quickly ran the kids to the bathroom so we would all be good to go for the 2 1/2 hour plane ride. It got later and later and no mention of why we weren't boarding. And from the crowd you could tell the plane was booked so they couldn't be selling more tickets (one of their sneaky tricks). Finally they came clean, there was a light bulb out and it would have to be changed and then the entire plane checked again before it would be cleared to fly again. Ugh! Now the kids were getting hungry again, including Reed, and at the little airport we were at, no restaurants. So I spend a bunch of money on pretzels, $2 waters, tic tacs, cookies and gum. We finally got on board after 8 pm!! We didn't land in Vegas until 10:45 pm. The kids were so tired but I do have to give them credit. They manage to keep it together the entire time. The only time I was about to lose it was when I kept hearing...'Are all of these yours?'....'Wow, you are one brave mom.'....and the very rudest, 'You're crazy!'. I was starting to stare back hoping I was letting them know I wasn't amused with their stupid comments.

{Kat helping out with Reed}

We were so happy to hear Grandma's voice around the corner. She was able to get a gate pass and meet us right there at the gate. And we needed her that time of night! The whole time we were flying I kept thinking how awful it was that I was going to have to turn around and do it again on Sun. Thankfully that faded away with each day and by Sunday, no worries. The kids crashed into bed at midnight and once I unwound (2:30!) I slept like a rock too. A huge thanks to mom's friend Kelli, she let us borrow her van so we could drag the crew around!

Wed

We woke up and went to Walmart for a few essentials (it's closer to my mom's house than Target and it was a quick jaunt before lunch. otherwise you know which one I'd choose) and bought the kids a slip n slide. Hands down the best $8 we spent on the trip. They have gone out there every day since and haven't ever cared about the heat.

{outside the car window while we were waiting in crazy traffic}

The news reported that starting on Thurs there would be an extra 150,000 people arriving daily for the holiday weekend and to expect crowds everywhere around town. All of this kept comfirming to me that I hate crowds. Especially with kids! Oh and temps well over 100^. We decided that if we were going to take the kids to see the lights of the strip and the fountains at the Belagio we should do it that night. Oh man, it was so crazy. I felt panic at least twice taking three walking kids and a stroller through thousands and thousands of people. The kids did have fun and were in complete awe. (I was too, at all the near naked people but that's a whole different post in itself!)

The kids and Grandma at the Belagio. Tons of flowers, plants and this year little trains. Nathan wanted to follow them as they went around the entire room (not too easy to do dragging that stroller around, I'm sure we annoyed more than a few people).

A massive chocolate fountain at the Belagio. Amazing. You can see in the last photo how high above your head it really is.

(click to enlarge photo & read about this one of a kind fountain)

All sorts of people were leaning up against the glass, taking what seemed like MySpace photos. I even have one of the girl in the red dress looking at me that isn't half bad, ha!

The funniest part of that night cannot be truly appreciated written down but I just can't forget it. It was late due to waiting to see the lights until dark and the kids were tired. Honestly I'm so driven by bedtime that they were living wild staying up past 11pm two nights in a row. Anyway, we stopped at McDonald's and got the kids an ice cream cone. They took forever, messed up our order (we let them know in stereo...read, both mom and I getting louder at the same time about how can they mess up ice cream cones, ha) and our nerves were shot with the heat and the walking and the kids. We were almost home when this HUGE cricket runs across the dashboard towards my mom and I let out a blood curdling scream. I hate (HATE!) crickets. They are so gross, they run too fast and they are all over down there. Anyway, I sucessfully freak out the whole car with my scream and instead of slowing down, my mom speeds up to just get us home. Then the cricket runs down onto her leg, she screams, the baby is screaming now and of course Nathan decides to join in. Oh my!! In the middle of the cricket commotion, my mom passes 4 motorcycle cops and without even waiting for their lights, she pulls right over. The funniest part of that is when we left for downtown, she mentioned that this particular road was a speed trap and now we were right in the middle of it! The cop was so annoying. He could hear both Reed and Nathan crying (Reed screaming) and he was SO slow. Going back and forth to his motorcycle, looking at papers, whatever he did he took his sweet time. No matter that is was late and all the tears. In fact, he was so slow, he told me I could get out and comfort my baby. This pretty much sent me over the edge. I told him no that I needed to get home and nurse him and then said (I can't believe I said it!) it would be helpful if he would hurry up so that we could get home and I could feed him. Who tells a cop to hurry up? Even with that, he didn't give my mom a ticket (she was proud of that) and we finally made it back to the house. But Nathan didn't come away from it scarred, for the rest of the week, he wouldn't let his feet touch the floor of the van while we were driving around. Now he is totally freaked out about crickets. Why do we do this to our kids? It did provide much entertainment for the rest of the week so I guess you could say it was worth it?

Thurs

Granny DeeAnn's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom, it was great to spend it with you and 4 of your crazy grandkids. In the morning I did her hair (it was way overdue) and the kids were content to sit and veg in front of TV watching Boomerang (they love the classic cartoons on that station). Her friend brought her our favorite cake from Las Vegas, a Nothing Bundt Cake in chocolate chocolate chip. It was delish!

For dinner we brought home take out from Pei Wei (the sister bistro of PF Chang's, Yum!) and one of my best friends came over for dinner. So fun to see you Meg! Finally we had a day where they kids came close to their actual bedtime and were dead asleep by 8:30. Success!

Fri, July 4th


One more venture downtown. We ate lunch at The Rainforest Cafe which is inside the MGM Grand. The kids had a good time and they were only mildly concerned when the 'storm' blew through every 20 minutes.

I've decided all these pictures of Kat with her extreme gummy mouth are going to be so funny once she actually gets her teeth. She is missing 4 on top and 2 on bottom (not sure if there's room for that many) and at this point we hope they grow in sometime this year. Still such a cute girl with grandma.

I only have a couple photos showing proof that I was even on this Vegas Vacation. Most days I did my hair but if we were planning on spending much time out in the heat I opted out of makeup. It would just sweat off anyway!

One of our main goals in going down to the strip again was to get some yellow and green M&M's for Milo's desk at his new job. It was absolutely nuts at M&M World and these ended up being a pretty penny but won't they look great on a desk of someone working at John Deere? Milo has been given strict instructions to not eat the yellow and green M&M's, they are only for people visiting his desk, ha! He can eat the yucky old brown and orange ones out of a drawer.

We did try the mall but dang it, all those people got off early because of the holiday. We came home, let the kids do a few sparklers and

Sat

We drove out to the temple in the morning. It was so, so hot out there (all the way across the valley from my mom's house). And it looked so different to me. The trees and plants are huge and I guess being there for almost 20 years (dedicated in 1989) I shouldn't be surprised but it's hard to see the temple all at once now and forget seeing the city.

I wanted to take some cute photos of the kids, possibly frame worthy, but this is about all I got. It was just too dang hot and they let me know they weren't in the mood.

We went inside the temple for a potty break and the kids got to look around in the foyer area. I have fond memories of that temple since that's where I grew up and the one I went to as a youth. It's so pretty. I love seeing something that looks exactly like my memories. My mom took this sweet picture of Reed while we were inside.

This baby boy was an angel the entire trip! I could not believe how well he did. On the plane, in the heat and sleeping in a different bed. And room for that matter. Here at home he is still with us since we are in need of more square footage. He did great on his own. I am loving his age right now, he is so much fun.

We really had fun, I'm so grateful for the gift that enabled the kids to go to my mom's house. I'm sure they'll be talking about it for weeks. Now we're just getting back into the daily business of running a family. So far, so good. They have slept in the past two days and I'll never turn away a gift like that!