It's hard to believe that Christmas is over...we had so much fun and stayed super busy for 2 weeks straight. I apologize in advance for the length of this entry.
We began our trip on the day school let out. It was a mad dash to get through Oregon before a winter storm hit. It payed off, we had mostly dry roads the whole way to Utah. We stayed the weekend with our really great friends the Wilde family. It was so fun to see them and play games late into the night. Thanks guys for letting us come stay with you!
The next Monday we made the drive to Las Vegas. We were hoping for nice sunny weather, but instead the first several days were really rainy and chilly. At least our kids all did really well in the car. We spent lots of time making cookies for Santa, shopping for last minute gifts, and going to see Christmas lights. The men decided it would be fun to have marshmallow guns, so off to home depot they went to get the supplies needed to make 25 guns. We had several giant marshmallow gun fights. Claire really liked that. She enjoyed shooting her uncles especially.
One of the rainy nights we went out to the strip to see the sights. We went into the Bellagio and walked through the atrium that was decorated for Christmas. The fountain display is also a must, and this time we walked through the M&M world. It was 4 floors of M&M stuff. I never could have imagined that there was that much stuff with M&M's on it.
We took the kids to a place called Bounce U. It was a big building full of inflatable play structures. They had a blast and got lots of wiggles out. We also took them to see a Christmas display at another casino. It was about 15minutes of music and creepy fake animals with orange eyes moving around. Claire really liked it, but Grace was a little scared of the wolf and bear. I can't say that I blame her.
One of my favorite days was when we went out to Hoover Dam. It was gorgeous outside and warm enough to be in T-shirts. It was so nice to walk around in the sun! The new bridge was crazy high! We walked across the bridge and then went down to the dam to take the dam tour. The dam elevators went really fast, and with only 2 stops on the dam tour, it wasn't really worth it. They took us inside to see the dam turbine room and over one of the big pipes of water rushing through the dam. I really liked the dam stuff, and if you didn't guess, there were a lot of dam jokes. The whole time, the kids did really well, although they would have been happy to just walk across the dam..which is what we finally did in the end. Afterwards we drove to the Cactus Gardens to see a Christmas lights display. It was really pretty, and Claire ran around the whole time wanting her picture taken with everything. At least she isn't afraid of pictures anymore.
On Christmas Eve we had a BIG family dinner with all the yummy fixins and then the traditional family home evening. We sang carols, played bells, listened to cousins play guitar, read the Christmas story from the Bible, and even enjoyed a surprise visit from Santa. My kids weren't really sure what to think about that. Claire got into it eventually, but Grace didn't want anything to do with Santa. Even when he had a small gift for her, she wouldn't go near him to get it. It was kinda funny.
Christmas morning was the magical mayhem that it always is. There were people and presents everywhere, but somehow we managed to watch each other open all the gifts. Claire was sooo excited to see her unicorn pillow pet that she had asked Santa for. It was fun to see her reaction to getting the one thing that she really wanted. She's finally old enough to make Christmas fun for me again. Grace also got a pillow pet, although she didn't care as much about it. All the kids had tons and tons of gifts to keep them busy for the next week. We all got great stuff and had a fun day relaxing and playing games.
We began our trip on the day school let out. It was a mad dash to get through Oregon before a winter storm hit. It payed off, we had mostly dry roads the whole way to Utah. We stayed the weekend with our really great friends the Wilde family. It was so fun to see them and play games late into the night. Thanks guys for letting us come stay with you!
The next Monday we made the drive to Las Vegas. We were hoping for nice sunny weather, but instead the first several days were really rainy and chilly. At least our kids all did really well in the car. We spent lots of time making cookies for Santa, shopping for last minute gifts, and going to see Christmas lights. The men decided it would be fun to have marshmallow guns, so off to home depot they went to get the supplies needed to make 25 guns. We had several giant marshmallow gun fights. Claire really liked that. She enjoyed shooting her uncles especially.
One of the rainy nights we went out to the strip to see the sights. We went into the Bellagio and walked through the atrium that was decorated for Christmas. The fountain display is also a must, and this time we walked through the M&M world. It was 4 floors of M&M stuff. I never could have imagined that there was that much stuff with M&M's on it.
We took the kids to a place called Bounce U. It was a big building full of inflatable play structures. They had a blast and got lots of wiggles out. We also took them to see a Christmas display at another casino. It was about 15minutes of music and creepy fake animals with orange eyes moving around. Claire really liked it, but Grace was a little scared of the wolf and bear. I can't say that I blame her.
One of my favorite days was when we went out to Hoover Dam. It was gorgeous outside and warm enough to be in T-shirts. It was so nice to walk around in the sun! The new bridge was crazy high! We walked across the bridge and then went down to the dam to take the dam tour. The dam elevators went really fast, and with only 2 stops on the dam tour, it wasn't really worth it. They took us inside to see the dam turbine room and over one of the big pipes of water rushing through the dam. I really liked the dam stuff, and if you didn't guess, there were a lot of dam jokes. The whole time, the kids did really well, although they would have been happy to just walk across the dam..which is what we finally did in the end. Afterwards we drove to the Cactus Gardens to see a Christmas lights display. It was really pretty, and Claire ran around the whole time wanting her picture taken with everything. At least she isn't afraid of pictures anymore.
On Christmas Eve we had a BIG family dinner with all the yummy fixins and then the traditional family home evening. We sang carols, played bells, listened to cousins play guitar, read the Christmas story from the Bible, and even enjoyed a surprise visit from Santa. My kids weren't really sure what to think about that. Claire got into it eventually, but Grace didn't want anything to do with Santa. Even when he had a small gift for her, she wouldn't go near him to get it. It was kinda funny.
Christmas morning was the magical mayhem that it always is. There were people and presents everywhere, but somehow we managed to watch each other open all the gifts. Claire was sooo excited to see her unicorn pillow pet that she had asked Santa for. It was fun to see her reaction to getting the one thing that she really wanted. She's finally old enough to make Christmas fun for me again. Grace also got a pillow pet, although she didn't care as much about it. All the kids had tons and tons of gifts to keep them busy for the next week. We all got great stuff and had a fun day relaxing and playing games.
The next week was full of more activities. We went to Darrin and Sharon's house for dinner after taking family pictures. It was super yummy mexican food. Another sunny day we spent out in the desert shooting off rockets, 4-wheeling, and shooting guns. The girls really liked shooting the guns, but they were afraid to push the launch button for the rockets. Go figure. They also really liked riding around in the razor. There was a little drama...two of the people that were with us took their truck out for a joy ride on the dry lake bed. A few minutes later I watched them flip their truck, landing upside down. I called for help, and took off to go help them. As we got to them they were crawling out of the truck. Thankfully they had been wearing seatbelts and didn't get hurt. The truck, however, was seriously messed up. It took some time to get it flipped back over and in the process a tire came off. They had to call someone to come tow it out. It was a little scary.
On another nice day we took the kids to a mini grand prix where everyone could play. They had big cars for the adults, and even small ones for the kids to drive. There was also a roller coaster, slide, and airplane ride for the kids. We all had a blast! I think the girls liked the giant slide the best. We all went on it several times. Afterwards we played their arcade games and won tickets to buy the all important "prizes". It was a really fun day!
Our Christmas vacation was full of great food too. We went out to eat at Yoley's, Claim Jumper, Bachi Burger, Islands Burger, and Max Brenner Chocolate. If you ever find yourself in Las Vegas I highly recommend going to Max Brenner for dessert. They had a huge dessert menu full of amazing chocolate creations. It was so hard to choose! We had great food with the family too, and I'm sure we've gained a few pounds.
Overall, our vacation was a blast! Thank you Grandma for hosting a great Christmas gathering! We are still recovering from all the late nights playing games and chatting.
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