We discovered that the ipod and tape adapter we brought along with us wouldn't work in Dad's tape player, so we almost turned around and brought some CD's. But Ryan had put about 6 CD's in the car, just for fun, so we decided we could listen to them. Ryan has a hard time driving if he doesn't have music on.
We stopped in Cedar City to have some dinner at Taco Bell, then went on to Las Vegas. We probably stopped more than that, but I don't remember. We turned on the portable DVD players (Dennis and Naomi let us borrow theirs) when it started getting dark. It really helped the girls (and us, of course. They are sucked into any movie, so it was nice to just let them relax).
When we got to Vegas, we met some of Ryan's family at a restaurant called "Macayo". You'd think these Mexicans would get tired of Mexican food, but that's what we always eat with his family. :)
Blanca, Chad, Bree, and Kensley Farrow. Len, Virginia, Cami, and Jacob Coronado. Ali, Denora, Kelsey, Taylor, and Jasmine Babbitt. These families joined us for dinner. It was a fun night. Len's family was sick, so I'm grateful they came to see us, even though they didn't feel well. We enjoyed visiting with them all, but it was time to go to the hotel and sleep. We were pretty tired.
We stayed at Palace Station. They upgraded us to a better room because we were only staying one night, and it was nice. Huge flat TV, large marble topped desk and dresser, clean, and well taken care of. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we left after breakfast in the morning.
We supposedly drove over the "new Hoover Bridge", but we couldn't even tell we were on a bridge except for the signs that said, "No stopping on bridge". We didn't see the Dam at all. That was disappointing.
The rest of the way to Arizona wasn't very eventful. I think we stopped at a store to look for toys at one point, and a sandwich in Mesa, Arizona, but that's all I remembered.
We got to Mike and Kristine's house at about midnight on Tuesday night, I think. Katie and Elayna were so tired. When I looked back at them, their eyes looked like they would close any second, but they managed to watch the movie until we got to the house. I picked Elayna up and brought her into the house, and I know she fell asleep in the 15 seconds it took me to get her in. They were so tired!! We all slept pretty well that night.
On Wednesday, Kylie went to school, and Katie went to Preschool with Zach. Katie had lots of fun with Zach's Preschool. They were working on the same letter Katie's preschool in Utah was working on, so it worked well. It was also nice to have Katie and Zach play together. Katie usually plays with Kylie, but Zach and Katie played really well together.
We went to the temple and the park one day. Here are some pictures from that. We didn't take one picture. We are awful about that. Thank goodness Kristine took some.
Temple with kids:
Closeup of Katie, Elayna, Kylie, and Zach at the temple:
Playing at the playground:
The weather was cool, so Ryan was happy, but the rest of us wore jackets most of the time.
We rode bikes to the cemetery that is near their house. Katie rode Zach's old bike, and we put Elayna and Blake in the double stroller. It was a fun walk/ride. Cement borders divide spaces into lots, and then there were gravel roads in between. I don't think that describes it well, but I'm not sure how else to explain it. The cemetery was very Catholic-themed. Lots of Virgin Mary statues, and stuff like that. I've never seen a cemetery like that, without grass. Some lots had gates, and bricked half-walls around them. Others were different colored rocks, and a headstone. Lots of variety.
Another day (I can't remember if it was Wed, Thurs, or Fri) we went to Discovery Park that is near their house. I guess they normally walk, but because it was cool, and the back gate to the Park wasn't open, we just drove.
The Park has some space-related displays that we were looking at:
They also had a really neat shuttle ride that we all got to ride on. You climb into this small "shuttle" and they shut the door. Then the thing moves around to the movie that plays. Kind of like Star Tours at Disneyland? It starts with us blasting off from Arizona, going into space, and visiting each planet in our Solar System. Katie remembers almost crashing into the sun. I actually don't remember most of what was said because I get motion sickness sometimes, and I was really fighting being sick. But the ride was a big hit with the kids especially.
Then outside, they have this huge tire that has cement in the bottom, so kids can stand in it. Katie wrote a story --about the tire and the kids that got to play in it--after we got home. I guess this is a tire from the mining tractors nearby:
We wandered around some more outside, and found a door that was unlocked, so we went in and looked around. It looked like they were planning a new display area, or a local school was keeping it's projects there or something. It had old pottery and jewelry that looked neat. Then we started thinking maybe we really weren't supposed to be in there, so we left.There used to be a train that drove around the campus of the Park, but it isn't in use now. This is the Platform to get on the train. You can see the engine and part of the train to the left of the picture.
Thursday night we grilled kabobs on the grill, then roasted marshmallows and Starbursts.
Roasting "mushmellows" (as my girls call them)
Kylie was sick Friday morning so we just hung around the house. While Elayna and Blake were down for naps, Mike and Kristine got out this cool wooden track thing. You make neat tracks for marbles to go on. Plus they had a music add-on for it, so the marbles would hit pieces of metal and make notes as it went down the track. After we (Mike and Ryan did most of it, while Katie and Zach "helped") played with it a bit, Mike went and laid down by Kylie on the couch, Kristine was on the phone, the kids must have been playing somewhere, and Ryan and I were on the other couch. I guess Kristine came out and Ryan, Me, Mike, and Kylie were all asleep. It was a nice impromptu nap.
Friday night we designated as movie night. We ordered Dominos pizza and watched "How to Train Your Dragon". The kids ate on a blanket in front of the TV, and the adults sat on the couch. It was a fun night.
Saturday morning we got all of our stuff together and headed out, after saying goodbyes:
Zach giving Elayna a big goodbye:
We stopped in Vegas again on the way back. We meant to meet up with relatives again, but it didn't work out. We got a room at Arizona Charlie's, so we decided that we would eat at their buffet. Not a good idea. It was very pricey, and didn't have a good selection or quality of food. The room was also more expensive than Palace Station (mostly because we stayed at Arizona Charlie's on the weekend), but not nearly as nice.
Ryan went Saturday night and bought some yogurt and breakfast stuff for us to eat in the morning. Then Sunday,we went to The Fiesta for a Breakfast Buffet with Ali, Denora, and Jasmine. The food was pretty good, and we really enjoyed talking with Ali and his family. When we woke up that morning, we had thought we might go back and see the Hoover Dam. But by the time we packed, and finished eating and talking, it seemed really late, and we wanted to just go home.
We got to our house at around 8 pm November 14 and went straight to sleep. We had such a wonderful time, and really appreciate everyone. My parents for letting us use their car; Dennis and Naomi for the DVD players; Mike, Kristine and their family for letting us stay with them, and eat their food; the Vegas families for taking time to eat and visit with us; etc.
Thank you!!!
