At the end of April we took a vacation down to Las Vegas, Nevada. My brother and my sister both live there. I drove down there alone with the kids and then Brad flew out later. We got started a little later than I'd hoped, but the kids were good and the drive started out well...that is until I got over an hour into our journey and realized I'd left the diaper bag at home. Because we were headed on vacation I had other diapers and wipes, but what I didn't have was my wallet or money. Oops! I was torn about what to do. I wanted to be an honest driver, but I just couldn't bear the extra 2 1/2 hours it would add to the trip to drive home. Brad was flying out the next evening, so I just called my mom and asked her if she could lend me some cash. She was kind enough to meet me half way back so my folly only lost us a half-hour.
The kids were SO GOOD for me the whole way. I had packed grapes, apple slices, crackers and cheese, lunchmeat and rolls in a cooler that I could hand back to the boys, so I only had to stop once in Fillmore to get gas and take each child into Carl's Jr. one at a time for a potty break/diaper change. I fed Liesel and then we continued on our way. We ended up being on our way again within a half hour. Wow!
Besides having some great books, my mom sent us with some surprises. She had several bags packed for each of the boys. In each one was something fun: stickers, Pez dispenser, magnetic scenes, coloring pages, Rubick's Cube and children's songs CD. I let them open a new one every couple of hours. My sister uses this idea while driving and it works great!
Jason had a little too much fun, ha, ha! You can't see well in the picture, but he put some of those stickers in his hair!
Anyway, thanks to Brad's new birthday gift of a GPS, I had no trouble meeting up with my sister Julie at the park. They were at Heidi's softball game. Here are Dylan, Jason, Alison and Parker watching the game from the fence.
Dylan is only four months younger than Jason, so these two have a lot of fun together.
There were plenty of treats after the game.
We had forgotten to give Dylan his birthday gifts when we'd last seen him, so we brought them down.
Dylan trying out his new guitar.
The next day we decided to brave The Strip for a little while to take the kids to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. We parked at Treasure Island and took the tram over.
We only had to go through part of one Casino, but of course it's a horrible environment. That said, I'm sure I haven't ever had so many compliments on Liesel. I guess babies are a bit of a novelty there, but I'm sure I had at least ten people tell me how adorable she is. The kids enjoyed seeing all of the cool cats at the Secret Garden, including this topiary cat.
We saw a white lion, leopards and white tigers, but this black panther was a favorite. (Ignore the fact that I'm blinking in this photo.) Most of the cats were sleeping, but the panther was awake walking around and eating grass- yes, you read that right. He was going to town chomping on the grass.
The other alert animal was this white tiger you can see behind us.
The Dophin Habitat was my favorite part. We asked the kids to hold someone's hand and Jason and Dylan grabbed each other. Aren't they cute?
There were some viewing areas where you could watch the dolphins under the water. The kids liked looking for their belly buttons.
On the way up from the viewing area, Jason chose to hold Liesel's hand.
You can see here how close we were to the dolphins. There were three males and three females. The females were a grandmother, mother and daughter. There were also two young dolphins in another pool. I learned that dolphins are born with fuzz above their lips, but it falls off within a few weeks. That's the end of their mammal hair.
Here are Ali, Dylan, Julie and Heidi with a dolphin.
By the time my kids finally sat down the dolphins had swam away.
Liesel and I got one with the dolphins. Dolphins are one of my favorite animals, so I'm glad we got to see them so closely.
That night my brother Pete went with me to pick up Brad from his nine o'clock flight. More of our adventures coming soon.
Parker was too nervous to hold the monkeys, but he wanted to pet them.
Parker and the McCaws.
When we first arrived the Capuchin jumped on the stroller and climbed all over trying to get a better view of the baby. Liesel didn't seem to mind at all.
Brad with the Capuchin.
When I served my mission in Bolivia, I would sometimes come across one of these sloths. The boys were fascinated.
I got to hold the cute baby Kinkajou.
Parker got a close-up view.
Dylan and Jason petting the Kinkajou.
Brad and the Toucan. You can let it jump on your shoulder, but apparently he likes to grab glasses.
My brother-in-law Scott with a Squirrel Monkey.
A monkey even jumped on Jason. I thought he might cry, but he was so brave!
Isn't that the coolest thing ever? I so recommend it!
