Vegas weekend

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!

Can we get a normal picture?

All the kids climbed in Carly's crib and Robert tried to get a picture. Obviously it didn't turn out so well!

 As good as it's going to get! Love these kids!

Easter

Fun Day! Unfortunately our entire family had the stomach flu the day before so we didn't get to fully enjoy the day and no one got to wear their new Easter clothes. :( But we still had a fun time with Robert's family.

Daddy Week

Every year at the end of March, Robert is basically forced to take 5 consecutive days off work. This year we wanted to go somewhere. But we only wanted to go for a day or two and not spend a ton of money. So we decided Vernal!

 

We left on Sunday morning. As we were at the stop light in front of the hotel, our car died. Luckily we were able to start it again and get it into the parking lot. Our friends Lars and Kate recently moved to Vernal so we called them to see where the nearest car repair place was. Lars is pretty much Mr. Fix-it and can fix anything. He came over and instantly knew the problem. There was an auto parts store across the parking lot so they went to get the part and we all headed to their house so the men could fix it. Lars and Kate were so kind to feed us dinner and entertain us for ya know, like 5 or 6 hours! We had planned to go to their house that night for dinner anyway but we certainly didn't anticipate taking up their Sunday with car repairs. We're so grateful for awesome friends! Anyway, they were able to fix it, saving us hundreds of dollars in the process, and we were back to our little getaway.  

 

 

The kids were rockstars and everyone slept without a peep. Here they are watching cartoons at the hotel.

 The next morning we went to the dinosaur museum. It has an official name but I can't remember. The kids loved it and it was fun. Except for Carly screaming through the 10 minute movie they show.

Chase likes to pretend he's a dinosaur.

Virtually impossible to get a picture with all three of them looking.

Cute little t-rexes!

I think their favorite thing were the goldfish in the pond outside. Go figure.

Bright sun.

Lots of time in the car

Vernal Temple

Robert thought the location of the temple's mailbox was a little odd.

After the museum we started to drive home. There was apparently a gigantic car accident and the on and off ramps were closed at the mouth of Parley's Canyon. So we thought hey, let's stop at the zoo!

We have multiple family photos next to the rhino and I think I'm pregnant in just about every one.

Chase has developed a recent love of snakes. I dislike this very much.

Emily loved the baby whatever that is. Lion?

We did other fun stuff on Tuesday and Wednesday but obviously didn't take any pictures of it. :) Thursday morning Emily had an Easter egg hunt and party at Wheeler Farm for preschool. The night before Carly started throwing up so Robert took Chase and Emily.

The next day the rest of us started throwing up. So that was the end of Daddy Week!