Vacation Part 2, Pick Up, More Dam Jokes

Since we weren't able to do too much the first evening we were in Vegas we had to try and make up for it the next day.  I thought we would be able to sleep in a bit since it was vacation after all.  Haha silly me I was really wrong about that one.  Our kids were still on Utah time which was an hour ahead.  Our hotel room was a suite that had two bedrooms and two bathrooms which was nice.  Sarah and Noah took the two twin beds in the bedroom.  That way they could go to bed and not be bothered if the rest of us stayed up a bit later.  The next morning, however, I was woken up at 6 am by intense screaming coming from Sarah and Noah's bedroom.  So much for sleeping in.  Since we were in a hotel I jumped out of bed to see what the problem was and to try and stop the screaming because I am sure our neighbors didn't appreciate being woken up at 6 am even less than I did.  When I got to the their room I had found that my little monkey boy, Noah, thought it was a good idea to try and jump from his bed to Sarah's bed for fun.  However, he didn't make it and ended up smashing his face into Sarah's bed frame giving him a nice bloody nose and skinned lip.  Awesome. As I was giving him loves, I just had the line, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" keep running through my mind, the little stinker!  After getting his nose to stop bleeding the rest of us were wide awake thanks to the very loud screaming.  We had a quick breakfast and got dressed in our swimming suits to go swimming in the pool that opened at 8 am.  The hotel we stayed at had a really nice and big pool with multiple hot tubs and tube slides you could play on.  However, Vegas was having a cold snap and when we got to the pool at 8 am it was only 72 degrees and very windy.  The pool was not heated either.  Brrrrrr.  We weren't in the pool very long before Noah started asking/begging to go back to the bathtub (aka the hot tub) because he was freezing or freesing as Noah says it.  We only stayed there for about an hour before we were too cold to swim anymore.  We then decided to get dressed and take our chances walking down the Strip--hopefully we wouldn't run into any banana hammock guys in the morning hours versus the evening like we had the previous evening.  The ironic thing was we got in the car to head over to the Strip about 9:30 am and all the kids fell fast asleep by the time we reached the Strip 15 minutes later.  Really?!  What's all this waking up at 6 am business if they were all going to go back to sleep by 9:30?!  Oh well good thing we still love them!  They did this both mornings, too!  Trust me Daniel's in the very back seat very much passed out, too.

Our first stop was the Coke store.  They had a fun 'Tastes Around the World' menu item.  We decided to try it out.  It was 16 mini cups full of different soda flavors from different countries.  It was fun to have everyone sample it and then talk about if they liked it or not.  Ready or not here we go:

Before tasting each one we read the country it came from, what the name of it was in that country and then taste it.

There was one called the Beverly from Italy.  It was really gross.  I tasted it first and then had everyone else taste it after while I recorded their reactions.  It was really funny.

On our way out we got our picture taken with the Coke Bear.

We then went over to the Hershey Store that had a nice view of the Strip.

The kids were pretty impressed with the huge chocolate replica of the Statue of Liberty the New York New York Hotel.  The whole place smelled like chocolate, too--yum.  Noah tried to do his best impression of the Statue of Liberty holding her torch.

We stopped by the M&M store, too. More chocolate yum!

They had quite a few flavors and colors of M&Ms you could choose from.  We got to sample some birthday cake flavored M&Ms and they were interesting.

We went around the Strip and when everyone was about walked out we went back to the hotel and went swimming again.  Here's a few pictures of the pool at the hotel.  It was really nice:

We swam for the rest of the afternoon and evening before we tired ourselves out.  The next morning we decided to use our ASTC museum pass we got for our Texas trip last year and get into the Las Vegas Museum of Natural History to see what they had to see.  They had quite a few hands on exhibits the kids got to try out.  Here they are digging to find dinosaur eggs:

They had a King Tut exhibit with different things to look at.  They had a water yoke you could try out to see how heavy it was to carry/balance water buckets across your shoulders.  Try not to notice how Noah was passing his time by having his hands down his pants.  Jeez, really?!  I am just hoping he had a really bad wedgie.....

 More dino stuff:

They had a water exhibit, too with a tank full of sting rays and sharks.  You could just look, but not touch them though.

More water:

They had an actual mummy you could see.  They had MRI and CT scan images you could look at of different parts of his body.  It was really interesting.

After we were done we drove by the famous Pawn Stars show Pawn Shop.  It was really crowded with people, though so we didn't actually stop to get out and look.  Here's our drive by picture:

After that we decided to stop by the Bellagio hotel and watch the fountain show.  It was really impressive!
Here we are waiting for it to start.  It was really hot and the kids sat in the only shade we could find that was close by:

Here's a clip of the show:

We were such tourists.  Haha!

After that we went back to the hotel where we spent the rest of the evening swimming to wear the kids out and it worked.  Wahoo!  After putting all the kids to bed Aaron and I snuck down to the hot tub to get a small break from the kids.  We ordered some non alcoholic pina coladas and drank them while hot tubbing.  It was awesome!!  The next morning we checked out of the hotel.  On our way home we stopped by the Hoover Dam.  On the way there Aaron went crazy with all his 'Dam' jokes.  The kids all thought it was hilarious.  He had to stop with the dam jokes, though, when the kids started trying to make up their own dam jokes, but they weren't coming out quite right if you know what I mean.....Anyway, when we got there the Dam was HUGE!  I didn't realize how big it really was!

It made me so nervous to have the kids look over the edge.  Sarah, Noah and Daniel were too short to see over the edge by themselves so Aaron had to lift them up on top of the edge so they could see how far down the dam went. I just couldn't watch because it made me so nervous.  I don't like heights and after seeing down over the edge Daniel decided he didn't like heights either.  We did walk along the dam and back.

While we were there we noticed a huge Arched Bridge right next to the Dam and we decided we wanted to drive across it.  However, it was a little disappointing because the sides of the bridge are so tall you can't see over them as you drive across it, but we did drive across this bridge which it's proper name was Mike O'Callaghan Memorial Bridge:

On the way home we stopped by the Las Vegas Temple.  It really is a pretty temple.  I love the palm trees!

Here's proof we stopped by even if you can't quite see the temple through the trees, it is there, trust me:

Aaron set all the kids up with their tech gear to make the 7 hour drive a little more fun for them.

Despite the long drive they all traveled really well.  We made it home at 10:30 pm and had no trouble putting everyone to bed including Aaron and me.  We were done.  Too bad Aaron had to go back to work the next morning at 6 am.  I don't know why, but you always need a vacation from your vacation just to recover before going back to reality.  We did have a fun trip, though.

The next morning it was time to pick up Matthew from Camp K.  He had so much fun.  Here he is with his counselor:

He insisted on taking a picture with me, too.  I don't know why, but we posed anyway.  He had so much fun and was sad to leave his new friends.

Luckily, he got to go back for another week the following Monday.  He couldn't wait.

I forgot to put in Noah's present to Aaron for Father's Day.  This is what I had my sunbeam class make for their dads for Father's day.  They all had fun doing their hand prints even if some of them were quite smudged.  Hopefully the dads all liked them.

Banana Hammock Guy, Father's Day, Anniversary, Camp K, Impromptu Vacation Day #1

It seems that Noah is very afraid of the automatic flush toilets.  He had a traumatic experience with one flushing while he was still going potty and it seems to have scarred him--poor guy.  He is so afraid that he would rather be in pain from holding his pee in than use an automatic flush potty.  Well we were at the park the other day and of course Noah had to potty.  As soon as I took him in the bathroom and he saw it was an automatic flush he ran out of the bathroom screaming and half way across the park before I could catch up to him.  I can only imagine what people were thinking.....Anyway, I knew he really had to go potty quite badly so I grabbed him and walked back to the bathroom.  He was not happy about it.  After much convincing I told him I would hold some toilet paper against the sensor so it would not flush until he was completely done.  He finally decided he had to go that bad and decided to take the risk.  Thankfully it worked out for him.  I didn't take the TP off the sensor until he was completely out of the stall just in case he had flashbacks to the original traumatic experience which, thankfully, he didn't seem to.  Of course I had just finished drinking a Route 44 Sonic drink and had to use the potty myself.  I sat down and was going when Noah rushed over with a handful of toilet paper and pushed it up against the sensor so it wouldn't flush while I was still using the potty.  He just smiled at me because he was so glad he could return the favor.  Thanks buddy!  What a funny boy!

A few weeks ago when the kids were going to spend a night at G&G T's house I had them help me pack.  Since G&G T are getting ready to move they have gotten rid of some of their beds which means one or two of the kids were going to have to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor.  In preparation for the sleepover I asked Josh to grab a sleeping bag for him and Daniel which he replied, "I'm NOT going to sleep in that sleeping bag."  I asked him why because he usually is the adventurous type and wouldn't shy away from something like that.  He told me that Matthew had been using that particular sleeping bag as a towel to dry off every time he got out of the shower.  Um YUCK!!  Alrighty then... I was out of time to wash the sleeping bag so it was quickly decided that Matthew would be the one to sleep in the sleeping bag since it already had his germs on it.  I don't understand why he was using it either, because there were plenty of towels downstairs for the boys to use.  Who knows?  All I know is that sleeping bag has since been washed and sanitized and put away so it can't be used as a towel....bleh!

I was finally able to watch one of Daniel's baseball games this season.  Aaron is team coaching Daniel's team and they both love it.

 Two weekends ago was Aaron and my 14th anniversary.  I am still amazed that we are old enough to be married let alone old enough to have 5 kids!!  I love my hubby and am thankful for him every day.  I couldn't have married a better guy.  Here's to eternity!  Wow, Aaron sure looked different 14 years ago:

 All I can say is 5 kids really adds that gray in your hair ;).

Sarah spiked another fever last week and it was a doozy.  We had spent all afternoon at the park and she was just fine, but as soon as we got home her fever spiked to 103.6.  Not knowing, but suspecting a urinary tract infection as well as a kidney infection because she was having back pain, I made an appointment to see the doctor.  Noah has seen us feel Sarah's head so often that he started feeling her forehead for us to let us know if she was hot or not.

When we got to our 9 pm appointment Sarah gave a urine sample and we waited.  The doctor came in the room and said that Sarah looked bad not only from a physical point of view, but from a clinical point of view as well.  Her face was swollen, she had high blood pressure, her urine looked awful and her back really hurt.  They also drew blood work on her which added fuel to the fire.

The lab lady was trying to get Sarah to smile so she made her a cute bow to put on her bandage.

The doctor was about to admit her to the hospital for IV antibiotics.  She ended up calling Sarah's pediatrician on call which thankfully ended up being her regular pediatrician and he said since I was a nurse he was comfortable with just giving her a big antibiotic shot in her hip and sending her home as long as we followed up with him in the morning.  We got home at 1 am just to return to see the doctor the next morning.  He was borderline wanting to admit her to the hospital as well, but since I was not wanting to do that because our flex spending account is almost gone for the year, he sent her home with a 10 day dose of oral antibiotics.  Sarah was pretty pathetic and lethargic throughout Thursday and Friday, but finally perked up around Saturday morning.  Phew!!  I was starting to get really worried.  By Sunday she was back to her spunky self.  Hopefully we don't have anymore issues with that because it was not fun for anyone involved especially not Sarah!

 Saturday we celebrated Father's Day by having a yummy BBQ at my sister Johanna's house.  G&G T just got a new phone so they were trying to learn how to use it.  That's how we got these funny pics:

 It was a fun afternoon visiting with everyone and cousins playing together.  I am thankful I have a wonderful father that taught me about hard work.  I am also grateful to have a wonderful husband who really loves his family and being with us. He is a great example to our kids!

Sunday morning we celebrated Father's day by giving Aaron breakfast in bed.  Of course, there was lots of extras so everyone could have breakfast in mom and dad's bed.

All the meetings were cancelled that day except for the 3 hour block meeting which was awesome!  Hopefully, Aaron got a nice restful day.

The next morning bright and early it was time to drop Matthew off at Camp Kostopolous which is a residential camp for kids with special needs just like Matthew.  A few weeks ago we received a packing list of what Matthew should bring.  We were debating on whether or not he would need a towel since he was already packing his sleeping bag [see paragraph 2]--haha just joking of course.  Anyway, the list was just a general list for all the campers male and female.  Matthew studied that list every night to make sure he got every item on that list packed. However, on the list it mentioned feminine hygiene products.  Well Matthew insisted that he needed those, but eventually we were able to convince him that he would be ok without bring such items.  Haha.  After checking in they showed him to his cabin:

 When it was time for us to leave, Matthew didn't even look back he was so excited to be there.  I finally had to call him back to give him a goodbye hug.  It was an understatement when I said he was so excited to be there.  He was bouncing off the walls with excitement.  We wished the counselors luck and left.

 While Matthew was having fun at Camp K we decided to take an impromptu road trip to Las Vegas.  On our way down we stopped by Cove Fort and took a tour.  I have always wanted to stop and see it so we finally got a chance to.  Cove Fort was built in 1867 to offer protection and refreshment to the pioneers travelling through the area.  It has recently been restored to what it looked like back then and we got to take a tour of it.

 It is made with lava rock found from an old lava flow from a nearby extinct volcano.

 It was an interesting tour.

 It was really windy and a bit chilly which was surprising for a June, summer day.

We finally hit Vegas that evening at about 6 pm.  We stayed at a resort with a really nice pool, however, it was so windy that night the pool was closed so we had to find something else for entertainment.  In doing research for our quick trip I had come across some info that one of the casinos had a shark tank you could see for free, however, it was in the old part of the Vegas Strip.  We decided to take a chance and go.  After much grief we found a parking spot and walked around to the entrance of the casino where we were stopped by a big beefy security guard.  That's where we found out that the shark tank was not open to non hotel guests until after 8 pm.  After looking around and seeing we weren't in the best part of town we decided we didn't want to wait around for it to open and started walking back to our car.  It must have been a full moon because there were some pretty interesting people milling about.  On our way back to the car Aaron and I spotted Banana Hammock guy.  It was some guy walking around in speedo that was three sizes too small and also it was shoved up his bum crack so there was no question of what was where--Double YUCK!!  He was walking around posing for anyone to take pictures with or of him for a fee.  Hmmmm we couldn't get out of there fast enough.  When we got back to the car Aaron and I started talking about our newly nicknamed 'Banana Hammock Guy' and thankfully none of the kids saw him.  How they missed him I don't know because he was pretty much in the middle of the way we needed to walk.  Talk about small blessings.  That's one image I would rather not have burned into my brain, but I was not as lucky as the kids....