Sight Seeing in Vegas

After spending a few days in Utah, we drove to Las Vegas. We stayed in the condo's my parents usually reserve, which had space to spread out, kitchen to cook in and a great view of the pool. Cannon loved leaning over the balcony and yelling at the ladies below. He'd usually yell, "My name's Cannon! What are you doing?" Then proceed to make small talk, sometimes offering to come swim with them. Aaaaand, he's four. Yes, we are in BIG, big trouble.

One afternoon we ventured out onto The Strip.  We started small at the Silverton Casino's aquarium. Kids loved seeing the sting rays, and the diver who was feeding the fish. 

 Of course it was attached to Bass Pro Shops. Cannon was SOOOO beyond ecstatic to see a bear. If we call Cannon a monkey, he always responds with "No, I'm a bear."

 We then went to the Bellagio. We first made our way outside to the opulent fountains, which were being repaired! Bummer. Brenna was still excited to see the Eiffle Tower!

 We then went in to see the flower gardens. My favorite place on The Strip, not in Las Vegas (which will be shown later) but on The Strip. The Bellagio had a very flagrant and beautiful display. Lots of tulips and wooden shoes, so I'm guessing Italy?? (wink)

 One of my favorite displays was this living art. It was not a painting done with a brush, but by an artistic flourist. I would say it was 4D, including the delicious smell. I could have looked at it all day, to see how they used living plants and flowers to create such a beautiful piece.

 These two pictures of Cannon crack me up. He looks like he should be on a Ronco Informercial. Is he a used car salesman? His dialogue should be in a thick Jersey accent saying, "Look at this one, look at that one. How 'bout this one, how 'bout that one?"

 We then hit up the next free attraction in Las Vegas, our only way to roll, the M&M Factory. It was a longer walk there, and Brenna had her first experience seeing the unspeakables on the street of the Strip. We quickly put us between her and those "newspaper stands", and said "Don't look." I don't think we even needed to tell her that!

And our final image, of course the golden calf! Ryan studying the Old Testament and that knowledge made this discovery in the middle of a contemporary Sodom all the more ironic. A literal golden calf! Too much.

UTAH

As you can tell, I didn't take hardly any pictures in Utah. We had a great time! We visited with a childhood friend, had a great time with my family, ate at In-n-Out Burger. It even snowed a little for us! My kids were excited! These pictures were taken at my childhood Church building. On Sunday, it was our Stake Conference, a twice a year meeting which involves more congregations than those that meet at our building. There were no classes for the kids, or singing time. So we found my old Primary room, which Ryan loved that it had a built mini-stage and podium. We turned the speakers on so we could hear the actual meetings, and watched our kids hold their own meeting. Brenna was definitely conducting the meeting, and lead the music. Cannon and Brooklyn both gave a few talks and prayers. It was fantastic to see my kids playing in my Primary room.

Road Trip Part 1

 We had been discussing going out to Utah and Las Vegas to see family for quite some time. Spring Break was coming up, I was off of work (at the pre-school) and Ryan had a week of teaching Seminary. We started to plan the trip.  Then, my gall bladder planned a mutiny! I finally gave in and got a HIDA scan which showed it was only functioning at 11%. My consultation with the surgeon was scheduled for Thursday, the day before we were planning to leave. We waited to get his medical approval to travel before we officially packed up the car! So I had less than half a day to get completely ready! But, we did it!

We decided to drive to Utah first. We loaded the kids, bags, toys, movies, food, practically the entire house. We stopped for dinner at a Taco Bell. While we were eating, a sweet lady came up and asked if she could give all 3 kids $.50! She said they were so well behaved and enjoyable to watch and listen to, that she wanted to treat them. She also mentioned how much she missed her grandkids who lived far away. It was a fantastic "positive reinforcement" moment for the kids, and at our next stop we bought them donuts with their money as a treat.

We drove as long as all of us could take (besides Ryan, he could drive forever!). Everyone was getting tired. Cannon especially. But he couldn't fall asleep with all of the distractions around him! So he covered himself in his blanket, and fell asleep like that!!!

 We finally stopped in Burlington, Colorado for the night. We found an older, but clean motel to stay at. The girls went to bed pretty easily in their bed.

 And Cannon barely woke up when we transferred him from the car to his sleeping bag. He was OUT!!

The next morning we got on the road pretty early, and arrived in Utah just in time for dinner. Ryan and I agree that this leg of the trip was the easiest road trip we've taken our kids on. They were relatively quiet, in good moods, and didn't repeatedly ask "Are we there yet?" And Ryan didn't get a speeding ticket! I felt like it was a confirmation of it being the right decision to make the trip.

Birthday Weekend!

 This weekend is Ryan and our nephew, Leif's birthdays! Ryan's parents offered to take us out for Ryan's birthday, and when they asked where he wanted to go, of course he said Gattitown. (Similar to Chuck E Cheese). Yes, my husband is a big kid! When that was his request, we knew we needed the cousins there to! Ryan has been wanting to bring the kids there for a while, but now we had the perfect reason to go party. First we loaded up on pizza, and cake!

 Birthday Boys!

 Brenna and her cousin, Lily. We hardly saw these two! They were off playing the whole time.

 Thankfully, the dining part of the place had several rooms to choose from. We chose the Library, because it was pretty much empty! It worked out perfectly. After we were done gorging ourselves, we went and played games. Once Cannon saw the race track, he did NOT stop begging to go on it. But it would use up half of the game card he had to spend, but he didn't care!

 He was so excited. And everytime they circled the track, and he passed the windows we were sitting by, he had a HUGE smile and waved at us.

 One challenge of the night was our runners! Brooklyn and Luke had no concept of safe distance, and much of the time was spent searching the gaming area for these two.

After all of the game cards were spent, and the tickets were collected, Brenna went shopping. She got one thing for all of her siblings! How thoughtful. And the choice for her, these silly teeth. What a looker, right? Cannon got a soccer ball, and Brooklyn got a little pillow. We had a fantastic time, and send a BIG thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for putting up with Ryan's request!

BEST Consignment Find

Every 6 months, there is a local consignment sale that is a must go. I usually load up on all of Cannon's wardrobe, and pick out a few things for the girls. This year though, the boys selection was minimal, but the girls had so much great stuff. On the last day (Saturday), they sell everything labeled "discount" at 50% off! Of course I made sure I went back to pick through the over-picked racks. Again, I was looking for clothes for Cannon, and came up nearly empty. Near the end of my browsing, I stumbled upon this fantastic find! This fun party dress, with a BIG 3 and the name "BROOKLYN" embroidered in! How perfect is that?!?! She turns 3 this year, and even the name is spelled correctly!!! Now for the icing on the cake, it was half off, so I got this "personalized" birthday dress for $2!!!! Love it. I couldn't believe my luck. Again, this consignment sale paid off!

Saying Goodbye

 The weekend before our good friends, the Brays, moved we got the kids together to play! And believe it or not, it was warm enough for the kids to play on a waterslide in the backyard! (Not the adults, I'm not crazy enough to play in water in that weather!) But, the water was hosed out from the nice warm tap water from inside. The kids had a GREAT time!

 Brooklyn didn't seem too interested in getting wet either!

 Cannon did succomb to the cold at some point! And no, he is not naked!!!

Brenna had some great last minute bonding time with her good friend Ava. She was probably her first friend when we moved here, when they were only one!  She had a sleepover with her, played all day at a friends, and danced around their empty living room. Brenna had a hard time saying goodbye, but maybe now she has a pen pal! Everyone needs a pen pal!

 My apologies for the bad iphone pictures, but I thought we had to take a few before they pulled out of town!  Gale was also one of the first people to invite us out for dinner dates, and gave this sweet young thing fresh out of college a chance! We instantly connected over history and politics, great books, and yummy food. I will miss her!

It had been a while since we had really gotten together with them, being so busy with packing and moving, and selling their house, etc. It was funny that we saw them more the last 2 weeks than we had the past 2 months. But it was worth the time!

Home School

With Brooklyn's recovery lasting a week and a half, then Cannon getting strep throat, we were hunkered down at home for too long! So I decided to put some use to our free time. Cannon practiced writing his letters, we had play dough time, painting time, and even a few "crafts".  Here they are making froot loop necklaces! 

Once back at work/school, my class was having a unit on "Nuts about Nutrition"! We talked about healthy food, painted with broccoli and carved potatoes, and tasted a lot of new "healthy" food. For Family Home Evening this past week, I decided to try it on my family. So FHE became "Family's Healthy Eating".

 Here was the spread!  And the menu is below.  Each person had a menu, and if they tried something, they received a star. If they tried everything, they would get a "healthy treat" (A fruit smoothie!) Even dad had to participate. So we had: steak, califlower, edamame, peppers, peanut butter and celery, and cottage cheese. I was trying to think of things that the kids hadn't really tried. It went .... ok! At least they branched out and tried some new things!