Las Vegas to Elk Grove or BUST!

We are back from Las Vegas. The trip itself was a lot of fun. We got there Friday, checked into our hotel (which was awesome, not baby friendly of course.), got things ready for the next day, and then headed to the Las Vegas STRIP.



This is the Hotel Lobby

It was a little bit of a challenge walking the Strip with a toddler, teenager, and my anti-social husband. None of us are huge fans of crowds. So walking the strip is right up our alley. NOT!! It was a total fail. But we did manage to see a couple of cool things. The water show at the Bellagio, The Paris Hotel, Cesar's Palace, and the Venetian. They were all pretty neat. Averie loved the lights on the Paris Hotel, and the water show at the Bellagio. She stayed up until 12am. Huge mistake looking back, she has been on a funky schedule ever since, and now I have to try and get her back on her routine. That was the only trip to the strip we made all weekend. It is just not our thing. Maybe it would be better for us to go during the day. I am not sure that would make a difference either, and I have no plans to return anytime soon, or at all. We will have the memories and that should be good enough.

Here is all of us, in front of the Bellagio

Next, Softball....

The team over all did pretty well. Anessa had an okay day on Saturday, and a great day on Sunday. She defensively played alright, nothing to write home to the grandparents about, but her offense was fantastic. She hit a bomb to center field for a triple. It would have been a home run if the field had fences.  I mean she had to have hit it 298 feet. The heat was intense on Saturday, we kept hydrated with lots of water, and kept cool with ice cold wash cloths. I am not exaggerating the HEAT was intense, and I think we all got through Saturday with no sunburn as well. Sunday was easier because the games were early. No drastic measures to stay cool were needed. After both games we packed up and headed to..... get Anessa's belly button pierced. For a girl that hates needles, I was shocked that she wanted it done. Surprisingly she did pretty well. I think I might have been more nervous than she was. Now there is a hole in my 16 year old's navel. The plan was for me to get my nose pierced at the same time, but something told me that I should wait to do it in Sacramento. What if it gets irritated. How was driving 9 hours going to make me feel? I think I made the right decision.

The Drive home was upon us, 9 hours of desert, and being cooped up in a car with the Kaylor's, oh my! We decided to grab something to eat at Wendy's before hitting the road. There was not much at Wendy's for a toddler to eat. I managed to pull some chicken out of my sandwich and she had a couple of french fries. After lunch we were were bound for the highway. Brian found an alternate route on his phone, and we decided to try that for the trip home. It claimed to take us through Yosemite. Brian, Anessa, and Averie had never been through Yosemite, we thought it might be kind of neat to drive through and see the sites via car window. The new route did not disappoint Twenty dollars later (that was the entrance fee to get into Yosemite.) we were driving through Yosemite. The sights were breath taking, but since we were just passing through, bitterness quickly settled in about the 20 bucks it cost to get in. Did we really need a 7 day pass just to drive through. Part of me wanted to break out the blankets and camp, just to make it worth while. Of course we didn't, we kept driving through. Hours passed of sleeping, not sleeping, eating, feeding, changing diapers, playing games, sleeping some more, singing way too loud, and flipping through the radio stations to find the one with the least amout of static, we finally made it home at about 10pm. Everyone was ready to get out of the cramped rental car, and go to bed. Including Miss Averie. I think she went to sleep at around 9pm. Slowly getting her back to her normal bedtime. It was a long, tumultuous trip, but it was spent with my crazy family so it was worth it to me. We were no worse for wear.

                     

Yosemite

Our view for most of the driving.