Viva Las Vegas

 Spring Break has come to an end.  :(  Boo Hoo.  Seriously.  It wets our appetite for summer break and we'll be counting down the days.

On Thursday morning, we headed to Las Vegas.

Thankfully, my kids are fairly good travelers.  Actually, the award for best behaved in the car goes to the two year old.  She did the least complaining and required the least attention from mom and dad.  It's true.  Here she is entertaining herself with stickers:

When we got to the hotel, Daisy was introduced to her reflection:

 "Why hello there!  How do you do?" 

"Oh, I'm doing pretty good.  I've been tied down in a car for the last 6 hours and they forced chocolate cookies on me to keep me happy for the last hour, can you tell?"

That night, we made our first priority the pool, and then dinner and a drive down the Strip.

The next morning after breakfast at the hotel we went to M&M's World:

 Like a kid in a candy store.

We enjoyed choosing some m&ms and then watching the 3D movie:

I wanted to see the Bellagio fountain, so we paraded our kids up the Strip to the gawking of most:

 I always get a kick out of the reactions to our family of 5 kids (which is really nothing, I know, I came from a family of 12, after all).  One guy said, "How is this even possible!  They are all so little!  What, are they like, 6 months apart?!"  Or the lady who I could see counting my kids and then whispering to herself, "WOW!  Five kids!"  She just kept looking at my kids like she couldn't believe what her eyes were telling her.  Yep, we're a circus.

Anyway.  We paraded our kids up the Strip, and through about 2 dozen elevators, I swear, answering more uncomfortable questions than I would've liked and trying to shield their eyes more than once ("Mom, what are they wearing?" to the show girls or to the two scary guys dressed as KISS, wearing very tight speedos- seriously, my brain is a little scarred on that one).  We got to the Bellagio just to find out that the water shows don't start until 3 in the afternoon (and it was like, noon, at the time).  Stink!  Negative points for mom and dad for not checking times!  Oh well, we had a nice (ok, hot with tired and ornery kids) walk and got rewarded with m&ms at our destination:

We picked up lunch on the way back to our hotel and headed to the pool to cool off:

 Honey, you are awesome.  Especially with that glob of sunscreen on your chin.  This photo makes me want to kiss you, right here in front of everyone.  Ok, it's getting late and I'm starting to be silly.  Seriously though, I love this photo.

My girls were little fish and loved every minute of the pool time they got:

The little 'uns enjoyed it too, as long as they had mom or dad to cling to:

 Oh, look, a rare photo of the momma:

 We spent several hours in the pool that afternoon.  The weather was perfect.  The company was perfect.

That night we took tired kids to the Outlets and convinced them it would be fun by letting them pick out something there if they were good.  Actually, I don't think we needed to bribe them, they were so exhausted that they didn't have the energy to run around and be crazy.  They were happy with their treasures, though, of course.

We had dinner at Round Table Pizza that night, a family favorite:

I like that in the photo of Daisy, you can see Lainey doing who knows what?  Looking for ABC gum?

Kids were asleep that night about as soon as their heads touched the pillow (Daisy on the other hand, does not sleep well in her port-a-crib, the little stink).

On Saturday, the kids voted to have one last swim before check out time, and then we were on our way home.  We hit AWFUL traffic, which added another 2-3 hours to our travel time, but we made it, thanks to a little pit-stop at the park in St. George:

We were all happy to be in our own beds again.  A good time though.  Travelling with little kids is stressful and crazy, I'm not denying it, but it is well worth it to spend quality time with my family without distractions.  And, we only lost Lu a few times, and found her again every time.  :)

Oh, and this little gal is 9 months old today:

 Nine months in, nine months out.  And only 10 more baby pounds to lose.  She is a sweetheart and we adore her, even if she keeps us up all night when we take her to strange places.