Emily had her first dance competition down in Las Vegas awhile back so we made a weekend out of it. My mom was kind enough to come along and we decided she needs to come everywhere with us. At least for the next few years. It's so nice to have another adult!
We left Friday morning. Drive down was pretty uneventful. As soon as we got there the kids wanted to go swimming.
After swimming my mom graciously offered to watch the kids so Robert and I could go out to dinner together. We went to a neighboring casino and had dinner then watched baseball at the sports book. :) When we returned, we found this!!
Emily lost her first tooth! She was so excited! And we found Chase like this. :)
Saturday was Emily's competition. Her very first one! It's a little weird to now be the mom taking my daughter to dance competitions and getting her ready and everything. For so many years it was my mom doing it and now it's my turn. Certainly makes me appreciate my mom though! It's so much work! Here she is ready to go.....
Handsome Chase
After she was done dancing we decided to go to the Strip. We have never taken our kids to Las Vegas and I can't say I'll be anxious to do it again anytime soon. Las Vegas is such an awful place. The Strip part anyway. I used to love going there. Not sure if it's because I have kids now or because it's changed but we HATED the Strip and couldn't wait to leave! All we did was go to M&M World and ate dinner at Rainforest Café and then we bee-lined it out of there! Such a gross and dirty place. We felt a little out of place too with a 5 year old, 3 year old, 1 year old, and me 8 months pregnant. We didn't exactly fit in. :) But Emily did love all the colored M&Ms!
And Chase loved the M&M Nascar car.
Too bad this picture is dark because I dare say it's the best family photo we've ever managed to get! Everyone is looking and smiling. That never happens!
You can see what I mean by the retake we attempted.
Instead of doing the other things on the Strip we had planned we just went back to the hotel and went swimming again. It started to get stormy and windy so it didn't last too long but the kids loved it. Robert found this gross book about snakes and lizards at Rainforest Café that he got for Chase. My mom was kind enough to read it to Chase over and over again for the rest of the night.
We left Sunday morning and stopped at the temple on our way out of town. Cleanse our palate from the gross Strip! Our kids LOVE seeing different temples so we always try to stop when we're somewhere that has one.
Emily loved envisioning the different spots where brides would take pictures. Chase was fascinated by all the grasshoppers on the grounds and Carly literally threw EVERYTHING into that fountain. Including the white tiger I'm holding, her sippy cup, her binky, and Chase's frog and snake he was carrying around. She is such a stinker!
All in all it was a fun and successful trip!
