Vegas Vacation...and Utah:)

So it was our spring break last week and so we decided to go on a mini vacation (thanks to Nancy!!!!!!) and headed to Utah to help my little sis. re-do my Mom's front room before they get home (in about 6 more weeks....YEAH) and then to Vegas for a few days. Staci and I had fun picking out a color to paint Mom's walls and I'm not going to put up the pictures because I don't want to ruin the surprise for Mom and I'm not even going to tell you what color or some of the fun things we tried until after the reveal! But I'm excited about it and hope that Mom likes it!

Anyway, after painting and cleaning for 2 days we headed out to Vegas. Thanks to Nancy we had 2 free nights at the Rio. She came and checked us in and gave us our keys and sent us up to our rooms and guess what we found when we opened our door and started checking out our room?? I really shouldn't have been surprised because Nancy is about the most thoughtful person I know, but she had left and box full of snacks, drinks, chips and salsa, and a game for the kids! It was a lifesaver over the next 2 days!! What a wonderful lady!!

Our first night in Vegas we decided to go and catch the 51s play a game. They are Vegas's triple A baseball team. We got really good seats and Rhett was so excited to see the game and did pretty good most of the way through it. The rest of the kids were ready to go back to the hotel by the 3rd inning!:) And by the way...it was PERFECT weather for baseball. Not too hot, not too cold (although most everyone there was wearing a light jacket, but I'm assuming they are native vegasans) and no wind...we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather!Eli...don't think he caught more than 5 minutes of the game, but he didn't complain and enjoyed whatever it was he was doing!:)
After we decided to go to the game I asked Rhett if he wanted to go watch some baseball and he said "No, I want to play baseball game!" And he had to make sure he wore his baseball shirt he got for his birthday!

The guys enjoying some baseball and sunflower seeds!

The next day we decided to go down to the strip and see a few things. We first went to the MGM grand to see the lions which was pretty cool, but pretty packed. When we got there they were feeding them and they would come right up to the glass where we were and eat the meat right off of the glass. One time the trainer put the meat right on the glass and the lion came in so fast that he ran right into the glass...the boys thought that was pretty funny! After that we went to the M&M factory which was a disappointment to us. The show they usually have going was closed because they were remodeling or something like that so it was just a big M&M store with tons of mechandise that costs an arm and a leg!!
Here's the kids outside the MGM Grand

And here's Tony and the kids in front of the Statue of Liberty at New York, New York

And here's Caleb & Eli with Yoda who was just parked on a corner as we were walking down to see the Bellagio. Whenver they would say hi to Yoda he would lift his foot and wave back...they thought that was pretty cool!:)


Here's the kids at the Bellagio...we waited around for the fountains to start for about a half an hour and then found out that the fountains didn't start until 3:00 and it was about 12:30 at the time!!

So we went back to our Hotel and decided to take the kids swimming at the pool at the Rio. Tony wanted to relax for a minute, but the kids were dying to go swimming so I told him I'd just take them and he told me to just wait 10 minutes and he'd come and I told him we'd just head down and he could join us when he was ready and he said..."Can you handle all 4 kids by yourself?" I just looked at him like he was crazy..."Of course I can!!" So we headed off! I forgot to take my camera so I didn't get any pictures but we found where we wanted to swim and I had the kids take off their shoes and shirts and while I was getting Rhett and myself ready the boys took off around the corner where I couldn't see them. Then Rhett took off and I had to go after him and then I heard a whistle blow and saw the lifegaurd running. My stomach dropped!! I hurried and grabbed Rhett and took off. You guessed it! My boys had to be rescued! Apparently the ran to the deep side (it was 4 1/2 feet deep) and didn't realize it was that deep and just decided to JUMP IN!! Caleb was able to get to the side and yell for help and the lifegaurd came over and was able to grab Eli's hand and pull him to the side. They were fine, just a little scared and then Caleb's head started hurting to where he was in tears about 20 minutes later and so Tony ended up leaving back up to the hotel with Caleb and so the rest of the kids and I stayed and swam for another hour or so. When Tony arrived about 5 minutes after the "incident" I told him what had happened when I was so sure I had it covered!:)

After swimming we decided to head back to the strip because I really wanted to the kids to see the Bellagio! We went to the Mirage first to try to go and see the dophins and the white tiger but it was closed for some kind of party or something so we weren't able to do that, but we did catch the volcano...which Rhett DID NOT enjoy, but Eli later told us it was his favorite thing we did!
Here we are waiting for the eruption!!
Here's part of the eruption...not a very good picture...sorry!
Waiting for the Bellagio!
Eli enjoying the dancing fountains!
Rhett hanging on for dear life!!:)


This is how Rhett and Tony entertained themselves while waiting for the next fountain show to begin! What a crack-up!!



This is how Rhett handled the water fountains! What a brave boy!!!:)



We had such a good time...but like Tony said..."Next time we need to go without the kids!":)