HELLO!!!!
Why do I feel like it has been forever since I have been on this blog?!
Oh wait, because it HAS!
And as you can see, I am still not private.
But I was so happy that I have 9 people who actually read this blog!!
Haha. No really, that was way more than I thought.
Some of you I don't know, which makes me excited.
I love making new friends! So hi new friends that I don't know!
Please introduce yourself and how you found me:)
Don't you worry, I did have that baby!
Sorry to leave you hanging, lol!
A sweet, precious girl.
Della Stephanie.
She is a dream and life without her would be terrible.
After she was born my phone broke (thank you Lindi Lou).
My screen cracked and I could not get any pictures off of it.
Since I am so smart and amazing with technology (sarcasm), I never did get
an icloud account set up so no way to get pictures off of there, waaaaa.
Of course getting the screen replaced on my old phone just to be able to get the
800 pictures of off it is still on my never ending list of things to do.
But when I do I will make sure to fill you in on the 8 month gap of where I left off:)
Hence my hiatus, no pictures to post.
In the mean time, I am still on a huge high from the most incredible vacation I just took with
our little family. I need to document this before I forget all the details.
This is the first trip we have taken with just US.
4 siblings and 2 parents.
A time to bond together and make memories!
The past probably 15 years we have always gone to Oceanside for our Summer vacation.
My heaven on earth, as you all know.
For different reasons, the beach trip with my family got moved to October again this year.
It freed up the Summer to be able to do something else.
In February Casey and I took baby Della to my nephews blessing in UT.
It had been a long time since I had been to Utah. We crammed a lot into
our 3 day trip (hoping to blog about that soon).
The whole time we were there, we kept finding ourselves saying, oh the kids would love this!
Or, they need to come here and experience this....
A little thought was planted that maybe Utah would be a good place to go as our vacation spot
for Summer! a couple of things keeping me from jumping on board was the dreaded drive.
Our kids are OK travelers.
The farthest we have ever gone with them in a car is 6 hours to CA.
And by the time we get there, I am about toast with all the, are were there yet, questions.
Eesh.
And with an 8 month old who just learned to crawl, I was nervous.
A lot nervous.
Also, were they old enough to appreciate a trip like this?
Did they have the stamina to keep up and even care about the things to do in UT?
But one day I had the strongest impression that we needed to go.
Once we made the decision and I started to make plans, the good vibes
kept coming. I could hardly wait to leave and now that it is over,
I can tell you it was magical in every way!
It didn't go perfectly. We still had whining, melt downs, bumps and bruises.
But we sure played and we played HARD!
Every day was packed jammed, making sure to get it all in.
It was just what our little family needed and the memories will be our
favorites for a long time to come!
So let's get started on this journey!
DAY 1: the drive
We had the car packed and ready to go Thursday evening.
Our goal was to make it out the door by 5am.
The clock in the car said 5:01 while pulling out of the driveway!
Pat on the back to us:)
I made the kids wear their clothes to bed the night before so all we had to do
was throw them in the car and hope that they would stay asleep for a couple more hours.
It semi worked. I think they all dozed off and on,
but at least it was quiet and peaceful for the first leg!
I brought grapes and granola bars to curve our appetites
because we had a BIG brunch planned in
Las Vegas!
After 5 hours (and no stops, score!) we could see the Vegas skyline.
We were going to the brunch buffet at the Wynn.
It was at the end of the strip so we started at the other end and slowly made our way down.
I loved this vacation because it was all "firsts" for them.
I loved to see their excitement and wonder as we kept experiencing new things together.
Especially Lane as he is the oldest and has heard about these places.
It was fun describing all the different hotel themes.
Of course the boys wanted to hop out and do all the roller coasters.
We rolled down the windows and the smell of Vegas instantly hit me.
I sent this picture in a group text
to my family saying that I swear Las Vegas has a distinct smell to it.
Instantly Stephanie replied: the smell of regret and STD's.
HAHA!
I was going more towards cigarettes and hotel lobby incense.
But hers is more correct:/
We parked in the garage at the Wynn and of course the first thing you walk into is the CASINO!
I'm not sure what the kids thought of this.
I tried telling them that gambling is something we don't do.
People sit there and waste all of their money. You hardly win anything.
I think to them they thought they were games like what you would play at FatCats??
You never know what kids walk away with in their minds after you try explaining it to them!!
I tried telling them that gambling is something we don't do.
People sit there and waste all of their money. You hardly win anything.
I think to them they thought they were games like what you would play at FatCats??
You never know what kids walk away with in their minds after you try explaining it to them!!
Lane jumps up and down begging me to take pictures of him.
I kid, as you can see in this picture... he's not in it! Eye roll.
It actually reminded me how he is EXACTLY like me!
I hated pictures growing up.
So I couldn't get too mad at him since I was the same stinker like him.
It actually reminded me how he is EXACTLY like me!
I hated pictures growing up.
So I couldn't get too mad at him since I was the same stinker like him.
He slowly warmed up to the fact that I would be taking lots of pictures on this trip:)
In line waiting to get into the BEST BUFFET IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!
Can you tell I am passionate about this buffet?
We went to Vegas when I was pregnant with Lindi and I haven't stopped thinking about
it since! It is voted top buffet in Vegas, and I believe it!
Casey looked at me strangely when I told him that's where we were eating.
It's not the cheapest buffet, but I didn't care. YOLO.
The first thing you see when you walk in to eat.
It is GORGEOUS inside!
I think the Wynn is my favorite hotel. It doesn't scream sleaze.
All of the lobby's have the most breath taking floral arrangements.
We scored because we got there right at the end of brunch and the beginning of lunch!
So first round we loaded up on just about any breakfast item you could think of!
Lane was in heaven because he loves hot chocolate and he knows that they
are unlimited at buffets:)
Then we loaded up on lunch after they switched everything out.
A little background: they have 15 different food stations. They went on and on and on!
The dessert stations were unbelievable as well!
Here is just the gelato you could choose from.
One of my many plates.
Shrimp and grits, sushi bar, egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, fish and waffle chips, and the best street corn cob I ever had!
Rusty tried sushi for the first time!
I looked over and Della had grabbed this candied apple from the table!
She is at that fun age of swiping any food she can get a hold of!
I let her suck on it but it dyed her whole mouth red!!
We rolled ourselves out of the hotel and on to St. George we went!
It was the first of spotting many, MANY temples on this trip.
It was neat to see it clear as day from the highway then pull up and look at its beauty up close.
We decided to let Della free range it for a while on the grass.
We let them play, have races, wrestle ,and took selfies.
I had a "life is good moment" right there in that grass.
We needed to use the restrooms so we went inside the visitors center.
They liked playing this game where it tells you a temple and you have to
point to it's location on the map.
You get points for how accurate you are.
I did not do well at that game!
point to it's location on the map.
You get points for how accurate you are.
I did not do well at that game!
We also let the sister missionaries share a message with us by the Christus statue.
Then on we went for the last long jaunt of the road trip!
We made it to Provo by 6pm.
12 hours it took us, but it honestly didn't feel that long at all!
It really was a pleasant drive. No hysterical crying by anyone. I for sure thought half way through
I would be booking a flight home for me and the girls! I felt we truly were blessed to have such a smooth drive there.
We checked into our hotel, Springhill Suites. That hotel was strategic, I'll share later!
Then our buffet must have worn off because we were hungry, I don't know how!!
We went to the Creamery on Ninth.
This is where we learned what UT is made up of,
FRIES, FRY SAUCE, and ICE CREAM!!
It is in abundance and we were not complaining one bit!
We ordered our food first.
Super tasty and CHEAP!
Then we got back in line for our dessert, lol!!
There were too many flavors to choose from, I knew we would be back for more!
We need to watch Heavy Weights to motivate us to lose all the pounds we gained last week.
Oh, the other crazy thing about UT, the sun doesn't set until 9:30!
It totally throws you off. We had late nights the whole week but I loved it.
It extended our days to squeeze in more fun and goodness.
Just like that, our first day had ended.
I knew this week would fly by too fast.
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