Silent Sunday

{oceanfront water slides are the best to a five-year-old boy}

...and that's a wrap!

I've decided that since we're in Virginia Beach making new memories, I better wrap up our posts in regards to Las Vegas.  Only a couple of more days left, and then I can't wait to share some of our beach stories with you!  Let's just say that no one is afraid of the sand (or the waves) this time around:)

Wednesday

I think I mentioned that on our Vegas trip we spent the night next to the Grand Canyon - so when we woke up the next morning, we took a few more pictures, visited the guest shop, and then got back in the car to drive to the Hoover Dam.  We passed it on the way, and it helped to break up our ride on the way back to our original hotel.

I have to say, I wasn't that thrilled about visiting the Hoover Dam, but probably because I didn't know that much about it.  I figured I'd want to get out of the car, take a few pictures, and I'd be good to go - but I happened to be traveling with at least two passengers (Brad and his dad!) who love engineering marvels such as this one, so we found ourselves on a Power Plant tour.  And we actually enjoyed ourselves:)

We had a lot of fun, and when we were done sight-seeing in the high heat, we headed back to Vegas.  We had a low-key evening and took the kids to the rooftop pool that night.  I would say that Jack had the most fun, but Hannah seemed to enjoy herself too.  Mostly she hung out with Daddy in the hot tub for small bits, but she also spent a fair amount of time trying to be a "naked baby," which she loves to do:)

{Video: Hannah in the Hot Tub}

Thursday

We decided to do kid-friendly things on our last day in Vegas - the kids had done so well through-out the week with all that we'd gone to and seen, and I wanted them to have a really fun, last day before we had to fly home.

After stopping by ATM, the company from the show "Tanked," we decided to go to a children's museum and then planned to eat dinner at the Rainforest Cafe - one of my favorite restaurants, and it was our first time to take the kids.  They had so much fun at the museum - I wish we had one like it at home.  They also loved the Rainforest Cafe - while they got a little scared during the first "thunder storm," they were also really excited to see all of the moving animals:)

They were sleepy that night:)

Friday

We woke up early the next morning to fly home.  We are so lucky that our kids like to fly and didn't seem to be too affected by the change in air pressure.  For the most part, Jack watched movies on my iPad while Hannah slept.  Our travel went much smoother than we anticipated, and we also figured out that if we keep Hannah busy in the car and focused on things inside our vehicle, she is far less likely to get sick:)

It felt so good to be back home and to be with our sweet puppy dogs who missed us so much!  (Many thanks to Aunt Ryan, Uncle John, and Dylan for watching our sweet puppies for us!)

And a very special thank you goes to Grandma and Grandpa for inviting us along on this very special, once-in-a-lifetime trip to Las Vegas.  We had such a wonderful time, and it's a trip we'll never forget!  

Wordless Wednesday

{be. still. my little heart.}

isn't it grand?

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we headed out for a five-hour car ride to see the Grand Canyon.  We kept Hannah's tummy pretty empty, so she didn't make quite a mess in the car, but she still wasn't loving the travel.  Poor thing...

We stayed overnight at a hotel called El Tovar, directly on the South Rim of the canyon.  What a breath-taking view!

These pictures don't even remotely do it justice.  You have to see it for yourself.

what happens in vegas...

...is probably very different when two people who don't go out and don't drink travel with in-laws and two little lovelies.

Scratch that.  It isn't probably very different, it is different.

I can say that based on the tons of people-watching I did in a city that doesn't seem to sleep and where people walk the streets in all kinds of attire with alcoholic drinks in hand.  Las Vegas is a great place to people-watch.

We were so busy while we were there, that I literally didn't have time to blog after that first morning.  We went from one activity to the next, only to return to our hotel room late at night to get a little bit of sleep before waking up the littles and starting all over again the next day.  It was a jam-packed vacation, but we had so much family fun!

Our babies were troopers - they napped in the car and in the strollers, and slept (adorably together) as hard as rocks at night.  They did very well in a place that wasn't designed specifically for them, and I was thrilled with their behavior.  We have found that they both love to fly, thankgoodness.  We have also found that Hannah definitely gets car-sick, and it's something we hope she grows out of...we'll see.

Take a sneak peek at our comings and goings, day-by-day:

Sunday

The first thing we did was to head to Comic Con - the convention happened to be having its last day, and Brad wanted to take Jack to see the super heroes.  Comic Con was different than we expected - while we did see a few people in costumes, there weren't nearly as many as we'd hoped, and we didn't see any t-shirt vendors for Jack's favorite super heroes.

Small side story - while walking through the hotel to get to the Comic Con Convention, Jack announced, "I think I smell animal feces."  We thought this was rather hilarious, and also spot on because it definitely smelled like horse manure.  I think there was actually a barn exhibit going on as well...

This also prompted Jack to say, "We're looking for super heroes, not cowboys!"

After the convention, we grabbed a buffet lunch at the hotel, and then traveled to The Shark Reef exhibit at Mandalay Bay.  It was a beautiful aquarium, and we got lucky because it wasn't crowded at all.  Jack and Hannah loved the touch and feel manta ray tank the best, but I was too busy making sure nobody went swimming to take any pictures.  I did grab this picture of the jellies:

Sunday night we walked on the strip and got to see the Fountains at Bellagio.  Jack also had his picture taken with some show girls - he thought they were so pretty!

Monday

On Monday, we headed to The Venetian in the morning and then went to Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden exhibit at The Mirage that afternoon.  Those were probably my favorites from the trip - The Venetian is just amazing inside and the animals at the exhibit were beautiful (and awake and walking around, despite the heat)!

 {Hannah was mesmerized as our Gondola driver sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her, at our request}

{We were so close for the dolphin training exhibit}

Monday night, Grandma and Grandpa kept the littles at the hotel so Brad and I could go out for a little bit.  We went to see the Las Vegas sign, drove by ATM, the company from the show "Tanked," went to buy cowboy boots, and went to the pawn shop from "Pawn Stars."  We finally had dinner at The Bellagio before heading back to find the little lovelies all tucked in together:)

The next day, we traveled to the Grand Canyon, and that my friends, deserves its own post.