Out West Part 1- Las Vegas!

We have arrived in the Pacific Time Zone!  Yesterday we drove to Boston in the morning to catch an afternoon flight to Las Vegas.  Our first flight was obviously delayed and with only an hour layover in Detroit to start with, I was having flashbacks of being stranded there back in 2011.  Thanks to the flight arriving in the same terminal (albeit at opposite ends), our kids being troopers, and everyone sprinting while carrying luggage, we made it with 5 minutes to spare... we were definitely the last ones on the plane;)  More impressively, all three of our checked bags also made it onto the next plane!  All in all, strong work for what ended up being a 25 minute layover:)

We arrived in Las Vegas almost 30 minutes ahead of schedule, picked up our rental car and headed to Circus Circus.  To make a long story short, I waited in line for over 45 minutes just to check in! Needless to say, the kids were exhausted at this point (we all were really), but we held it together enough to make it up to the room and into bed by just after 10pm, which was really 1am our time.

Today was awesome and totally exhausting.  Everyone slept surprisingly well despite the time change.  In summary, when all was said and done, we walked just over 15 miles and logged 30,099 steps!  I guess that's the only way to see what you can see in one day.  We got up and explored the hotel this morning, ending up at Denny's for breakfast.  We spent the morning walking up and down the northern part of the strip.  We walked as far down as Cesear's Palace stopping at the Venetian, to see the gondolas, Caesars' Palace to see the Fall of Atlantis show, and the Bellagio for the fountain show.  We made it back to the hotel for a 10 minute rest then swimming in the pool, splash pad and water slides.

After swimming we got ourselves ready to head our again. We thought we would just take a taxi down and walk back, but, once again, we had too many people to fit in one taxi, so we drove and parked ourselves. We had tickets to Nathan Burton who performed an impressive comedy magic show.  Ben was chosen as a volunteer and got to participate in a multiplying bunny trick with another girl and got up on stage and levitated!  It was a super cool experience that he won't soon forget.  After the show we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe which was not unlike another show for the kids.  Thanks to our waiter's recommendations, we headed back over to the Bellagio to actually go in this time and see the Chuhully glass ceiling, the botanical garden as well as the world's tallest chocolate fountain.  It was all very impressive.  No Bellagio trip would be complete without another viewing of the fountains, or maybe two, they are really impressive!

April Miscellany

This month is flying by and we are getting ready to take a big trip out west, but wanted to make sure we didn't forget what happened before then:)  The kids got some Lego tape for Easter and have placed it in some interesting places making some wild creations.  Noah was chosen to be one of 4 representatives from his school for District 4 chorus.  This month Noah also decided that it was time to be done with long hair.  Once he made the decision he was in a hurry to be rid of it.  The whole experience of preparing to get it cut for wig donation through Wigs for Kids was good for him.  He got online and did his own research into companies to donate his hair to and what he needed to do to send it safely.  We knew his hair was thick, but we didn't realize how long it was! When all was said and done it made a huge pony tail to send and he was pretty proud of himself... and also glad to not have to comb his hair anymore... and his showers are WAY faster now.  We are really proud of him for almost 3 years of hard work!

Once he saw Noah's haircut, James decided he was done with long hair too. So, now we are back to 4 haircuts every 6 weeks or so... it was a nice break while it lasted;)  We have been learning about acids and bases in school and the kids are enjoying it much more than I thought, so we are just going to keep going with it.

Last weekend Gabe had a conference in Freeport so the kids and I crashed his night away.  While he was sitting in a conference room the kids and I "hiked" up Bradbury Mountain, swam in the pool, shopped around downtown Freeport, AND found a really good decorate your own donut shop... Sorry Gabe;) 

Easter 2018

We definitely did Easter right this year!  We had an egg hunt which makes up happy, but also a little sad that my Dad isn't still here with us because he just loved to hide eggs.  He would always have the best hiding spots and even though we all knew it was him he always staunchly denied that it wasn't him, but the Easter Bunny instead. The kids always think of him though and usually carry one or both of the flat Grandpas around with them. We are lucky he was here to hide the eggs for the kids the year before he died:)

After our egg hunt and chocolate for breakfast the kids sang at church.  From there we went over to Titcomb for another egg hunt, this time on skis!  It was definitely warm and it was a bit bizarre to be skiing at Titcomb this late in the year.  Finally we had a nice meal with friends complete with egg dyeing.  Happy Easter!