Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Vacation part II ( Viva Las Vegas)

We headed out early from Idaho Falls, and we were off to Las Vegas baby!! Kyle had a work meeting to attend there. I tried to keep everyone happy with lots of snacks.
We made several stops along the way to let the kids stretch their legs, one of our stops was at the golden arches!
They had such a great play area there too. It was really cute.
As soon as we pulled into Las Vegas, I all of the sudden started feeling the chills and had body aches, and a sore throat. Weird timing. I felt fine, until Kyle went to check in to our hotel. I was hoping it was just because I was tired from the long drive. We did have a great view from our room of one of the pretty swimming pools. The kids were thrilled about that!The next morning, I felt even worse, and I saw ugly white spots on the back of my throat. I took a picture of it, but I won't show the picture and gross anyone out.=0) I am so thankful to the person who called me in some antibiotics that morning (thank you!!!). There was no way I was going to let this ruin my trip. After picking up my prescription, we were off to Circus Circus. Our kiddos LOVED the buffet! I hadn't and still haven't seen them eat that much in a very long time. There was even a lady sitting next to us that came over and told us how well behaved she thought our kids were. That doesn't happen too often, and we were so proud of them and tried to thank them and praise them for their great behavior.
Lexi was in heaven with her strawberry mousse=0)
Then we had to play some games..........
and win some prizes too! Kylie hadn't won hers yet, so she was a little frustrated in this picture since her brother and sister had.
Carson just HAD to ride this hot air balloon ferris wheel. There was no way we could leave without letting him either. I tried to talk him out of it due to the outrageous cost, but hey that is what a vacation is all about, right? So he and his sisters and Kyle all rode it together.
We wanted to also check out the water show at the Bellagio. The inside of the hotel was beautiful! Flowers everywhere.
Funny how you can get a feel for a lot of different areas in the world, all on one street. What a gorgeous day that was!
The Bellagio water show was really cool. We were all very impressed by it.
Kyle had a work dinner to attend one night, so I took the kids swimming.......alone. Thankfully there were lifeguards on duty to help me out=0) We had an interesting time. I got the three of them dressed in their suits and made sure they used the bathroom. Then we had to walk a ways to get our towels, as soon as we got their floaties on, and started to get into the pool (which took me a while with my fever.....it felt pretty cold), Carson had to use the bathroom again. ha.ha. I think the lifeguard was pretty entertained by us to say the least. So then we got in the pool again, and had a lot of fun. We were really loving the beautiful Vegas weather=0) I did tell the kids that we had to leave the next time we had to take a potty break. It was a lot of work to get them all out, and dried off,and then walk a ways to the bathroom. There were about 4 swimming pools in the area, and one of them was a lazy river. That is where we were. Pretty cool! When Kyle came back that night, we were all in our jammies. I was so glad that he had the idea to drag us out to the car and look at all the pretty lights at night. Our drive also put all three of our munch-kins and myself to sleep! ha.ha
The next morning Kyle had his convention to attend the entire day......so the kids and I explored the strip. We had him drop us off a few hotels away from where he was, and we checked out all the fun stuff as we made our way to where his meeting was. We started off at the Rain forest cafe in the MGM grand. I remember when he dropped us off, I was not feeling to hot at all. I had the chills and my throat hurt like a word that I won't say! Thanks to Tylenol, ibuprofen, my prescription, and a large coke.........I was able to take on the strip! The kids loved the Rain forest cafe, and we also saw another cool feature that was at that Hotel................
Lions!!! We were so captivated by these men that walked around inside the Lions' cage and hand fed them. I am a huge animal lover, but I don't think I could ever stick my hand next to a Lion's mouth. Crazy!! They also played ball with them, scratched their heads, and sat right next to them.
The castle was one of Kylie, Carson and Alexis' favorites to look at. I am glad I could get a picture of them with it. They also liked playing at the carnival type games that were inside. They won some cool prizes too.
We ended up at the hotel where Kyle was at, and they had a new shark reef aquarium right next to the conference center where he was.........so it worked perfectly. It was very neat. I use to think that I would like to be a marine biologist when I was younger. That would have been a little hard to do in Idaho.he.he. Anyways, I still think that the ocean and all the creatures in it are so fascinating and it is fun to learn about them.
The kids loved it as much as I did.......
Carson was even brave enough to pet a sting Rey, Kylie and I were a little nervous to touch them (some biologist I would have been. ha.ha) I was o.k. with them, until I heard about the crocodile hunter and his experience with them.
jelly fish........these were the most interesting to me. I could have stared at them all day. They are so unusual. Also I had to take this picture, so that Lexi would know that she went with us, since she slept through the entire thing.
Shark......creepy. When we were toward the end of the aquarium, there is an area that makes you feel like you were in a sunken ship. There were sharks above, below, and on the sides of us. I was planning out an emergency exit as we were looking at them. I am such a worry wart. ha.ha
Next stop: Disneyland......woo hoo!!!!

Vacation-part I ( Idaho Falls)

We started our trip a little early when we found out that our niece was going to get baptized a few days before we planned to leave. We were so happy that they didn't do it while we were gone, so that we could be there for it. I noticed while I was looking at all the pictures that I took, that this is the only picture I got of her! The cousins were SO busy playing and having fun, that I barely even saw any of them.ha.ha. She looked beautiful, and we were so proud of her.
I thought this picture was so funny. Our youngest nephew Joseph was having a blast eating chips....the look on his face tells it all. What a cutie!
Here is Kylie with her aunt Emily. Emily let Kylie borrow some clothes, so that she could go outside and play with everyone. What a great Aunt!!
And this is why we didn't see the kids too much. They were outside playing with the dog, and just having a great time together!
Later that night grandma and grandpa (Kyle's parents) watched our kids, so that we could have a night out with hiss brothers and their wives. We went to dinner, bowling, and then out for ice cream. We had so much fun and laughed a lot.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

family fun

We had some monkey bread for breakfast over the weekend. My mom used to make this for me when I was little and I loved it. My kids felt the same about it. Good stuff=0)Kylie got to go to the zoo with a friend the other day, and Carson was able to have a friend over to play. It seems he is always surrounded by girls. At preschool there is only one other boy, and church there is only one other boy in his class. I was so happy to see him having some boy time........and what do boys do when they get together?? They dig in the mud for worms. If Kylie was home, and Alexis was awake, they both would have been helping them.....I am sure.
Here they are with their digging tools and very muddy shoes! At one point I heard his friend say" this is the best play date ever!" His friend also wanted to bring home a jar full of the worms. His mom was a great sport and agreed to it.
Lexi loves to do the same things that Kylie and Carson do. Kylie likes to dress up, and she dresses up Lexi too. Here are the Snow and Whites brushing their teeth. I don't think it gets much cuter than this!
Except for maybe this.........we had a movie night, and the girls gathered several animals/babies to snuggle with.
And for St. Patrick's day we had green pancakes for breakfast.
Their facial expressions here are too funny!! I must have been in a hurry getting this picture. ha.ha. We also went to my parents house for some corned beef and cabbage........delicious!! Kyle is not a fan of the cabbage, so my mom had some substitutes made up, just for him.