Vacation Wrap-Up

We had so much fun on our first family road trip!! We left about 4:00 on Wednesday afternoon and made it all the way to Tucumcari, NM. We taught Bennett how to pull his arm to get a truck to honk his horn at him along the way and he thought that was great.

Thursday morning, we hit the road early. Our goal was to make it to the Petrified National Forest and Painted Desert for a picnic lunch.

Bennett is very into Spider-Man right now so be prepared to see this pose quite frequently!

The kids did so great in the car. I was so proud of them. AND....my little Gracie made it all the way to Vegas and kept her pull-up completely dry!!! That is pretty impressive. Bennett was super-duper excited about crossing over the Hoover Dam...mainly because that is where Megatron is hidden.

We finally pulled into Vegas where we were super excited to reunite with our friends, the Rollers. We had pizza and called it a night.

We slept in a little Friday morning and then headed to the best Disney outlet ever! I was able to snag Gracie a SUPER cute Minnie Mouse bathing suit for $5.99. Then, it was off to Circus Circus. We had so much fun....and we got to be a part of Isaac riding his first ever ride!!

Yes, Eli looks super excited because his lion was broken. Bennett was very excited because he was riding the "dragon horse." Isaac was doing his happy dance because he LOVED it. We rode tons of rides and had a great time!!!

Friday afternoon, we went back to Kathy's house and swam....after we stopped and I had my first In-N-Out Burger. It was yummy!! Daddy was a great sport and swam with all the kids because I was super tired and I was visiting with Kathy. Then, Chris was a good sport and kept all the kids while all of the adults went on date night to The Cheesecake Factory. We were going to go to the movies or to the strip, but honestly....we were all too tired to do anything so we went home and went to bed!

Saturday morning started at the Strip again. We drove by the Fabulous Las Vegas sign. (I have never seen it!) We went to the lion habitat inside MGM studios. They had just fed the lions so they were very active. Then, we walked down past all the "characters" (and they were some scary ones...) to M&M World. We got to the 2nd floor and everyone was filling up their bags of candy when I looked at Craig. He was holding Gracie out at arms length and Kathy was trying not to laugh. Why? Because my darling little angel daughter was peeing all over the floor of M&M World! The employees were SO SO SO nice. I can't say enough nice things about them. We headed back to Kathy's house for more swimming. My kids are little fish so they were in hog heaven to be in the pool so much. The Roller's had to go to Eli's baptism so we hung at their house since we didn't take any nice clothes with us. We had dinner and then decided to take Bennett to see the strip at night. Wow....talk about some good people watching for me!! I was loving it!! We started at the fountains at the Bellagio. Then, we made our way down to the Mirage to see the Volcano erupt. Bennett loved it at first....but that quickly turned to sheer terror. He literally thought that the volcano was going to erupt all over us and freaked out!

Bennett and Eli before the volcano freak out!

Then, we walked back through the Forum shops at Cesar's Palace. We had promised the kids ice cream. We saw a little gelato stand. We went up and each ordered one. Our bill was FORTY DOLLARS!!!! FOR ICE CREAM!!!! $7.95 a piece for a small gelato? Hello?? Are you freaking kidding me?? I thought Craig was going to stroke out. (and those of you who know Craig know exactly was I am talking about!) Bennett and Eli didn't want to finish theirs and Craig looked at them like they were crazy. He looked at me and said, "Don't they realize that stuff is golden?" Bennett was so tired....this is what happened on the way home.

Sunday morning brought....you guessed it.....more swimming. Seriously, I think my kids are going to grow gills. They love to be in the water. We went to have mexican food for lunch at Chevy's - yummy. And, then Kathy and I enjoyed watching Gracie shop in her craft room. It was pretty hysterical. And, after being in Vegas for a couple of days...this is what my daughter turned into.....

Playboy bunny? All of this outfit is courtesy of Kathy's craft room.

Craig and I tossed around leaving on Sunday evening but we ultimately decided to stay and I am so happy that we did. All of the boys went and bought fireworks and we had a great little show out in the cul-de-sac. Bennett had a blast!!

And this is what Grace thought about the fireworks. She quickly went inside the house where she stayed by herself.

And what did Isaac think?

We left bright and early on Monday morning and headed for the Grand Canyon. I was so so so very excited about this because I have never been there!! Craig had originally thought that we wouldn't have enough time to go there, but it worked out!

No children were harmed in the filming of this video....although Bennett did almost give Craig a heart attack from sitting on the edge of that rock.

We had a nice picnic lunch in the Grand Canyon and made it all the way to Albuquerque to spend the night.

Tuesday was spent all day driving. We stopped for lunch at Cheddars in Amarillo. About 3 pm, I got hit with the stomach bug. No fun at all when you are on a road trip. We made it home about 7:15 and this is what we saw.

Two kids READY to get out of their car seats!!

Bennett woke up with the stomach bug on Wednesday. He woke me up at 6:30 by throwing up all over me. He then spent the morning with it coming out both ends. Grace spent Thursday morning in such a state of lethargy that I was on my way to the ER via orders from Dr. Thomas when she just all of a sudden snapped out of it. But, she finished out her night by....throwing up all over me. Nice. Welcome home.

But, the best part of our trip? Seeing these two beautiful, heart friends loving Yo Gabba Gabba together.