Hey Baby, let's go to Vegas!!

Did you miss me?  Of course not, you have a life and you were off living yours while I was living mine...but I missed blogging just a touch (does that make me pathetic?).

What a great week!!!

For the past seven days my little clan and I have been in Sin City (although we tried to avoid the sin part as much as we could).  It has been fabulous.

We stayed at the Wyndham Grand Desert Resort (thanks to my parents who have a timeshare in a condo so we swapped for this place...good trade). 

We arrived on Friday, March 25, after a miraculously quiet 7 hour drive from Salt Lake.  We got all checked in and then poor Josh trucked to the nearest Walmart (thank you Walmart, we love you) to grocery shop for the week.  He called me about forty six and a half times with questions about my list (mom lingo), but he came home with all the essentials and we happily collapsed into bed.



The spare bedroom where we housed the four boys until constant wrestle
mania wore us out and we moved the older two out to the hide-a-bed and
moved Aubrey's calming influence into this room.



Amazing kitchen table that actually fit all eight of us thanks to
the bench...that was nice, something we don't usually get away
from home.



Our decadent master suite with huge jetted tub and gigantic shower...
and a lock on the door to keep out the hooligans (wink wink).



Pretty much anytime we stay anywhere we aim for a place with
a kitchen because feeding eight people at a restaurant over and
over gets SUPER expensive.  Almost every hotel chain offers
suites with full or partial kitchens.  They are great.

This is part of one of the pool areas.  We didn't go that first night,
but we spent time there other days.

 Saturday, Hoover Dam and Exploration Park

Saturday, we took to the streets like the tourists that we were.  We headed off to visit Hoover Dam which, as it turns out, is really crowded on a Saturday.  We didn't even get to walk the sky bridge (in the background of this first picture) because there was nowhere to park the car.  Aubrey was not sad to miss the bridge, she was literally in tears because she was sure her weight would break the thing and she would fall to her death.  I told her I'd hold her hand and we'd fall together.  That did not comfort her.

The fam at the dam (we had to explain over and over the difference
between "dam" and "damn" because I kept getting scolded for swearing).

Hoover Dam with some strangers...at least to us

 After our dam visit, we went home for lunch and then headed out to the park for an afternoon of fun.  This part was wonderful, even if it was a bit crowded.  There was also a hill behind the park with a little hike that was maybe a mile to the top.  It overlooked the valley and offered a great view of Vegas.  What a great way to spend the afternoon.

Gavin, Ellie and Aubrey having oodles of fun on the lawn

It's like Rescuers Down Under...those guys ride lizards too.

Gavin, snake charmer extraordinaire!



Bryce excited to reach the top of our hike, and impressed with the view of Vegas.

Sunday, Church and Temple
Sunday morning we got ready and headed off to church.  The ward we went to was called the Tropicana ward and it was a very friendly, very sweet group of people.  We thought for sure our eight members would be a big bump to the attendance....nope.  The chapel and overflow were filled, although there were not that many children so we probably added to the overall din of the meeting.  Still, the people were kind and wonderful.  Josh and I both met welcoming, patient people who were glad to share their meeting with us.  It was a nice morning.

That afternoon, we headed to the grounds of the Las Vegas LDS Temple.  It was really beautiful and peaceful...more peaceful before our crew got there, but still. 

Aubrey and Ellie at the doors of the temple.

Family picture compliments of a nearby cement post.

Logan, he can be so cute when he isn't causing trouble.

Yup, that's my kids trying to roll down the manicured slopes of the
temple grounds.  And what do I do, I reach for the camera.  There was
a time when I would have mentally tsked any parents who let that happen
at the house of God, especially on a Sunday.  Now I am more realistic.
No one was screaming and these poor kids had been really good at church and on the grounds. 
It is hard to be still all the time when you are small.  Besides, I bet God wants kids
to feel welcome in His house too (in a respectful way...we did ask them to be reverent, but we let this moment go).

Josh and I on the temple grounds.  We kissed the single life goodbye nearly twelve
years ago and we weren't sad to see it go.  So far, it has been a fabulous ride.

Well, enough for today.  I'll finish it up in a day or two.  This really was a wonderful trip.  We had a lot of fun, saw a lot of things (a few we didn't care to see, but I think you have to expect that in Vegas).  It is always great to head off for an adventure, but then it is equally wonderful to come back home as well.

Hope you all enjoy general conference this weekend.  I am excited to hear the words of living prophets.  What a great blessing.