Las Vegas

My original plan was to stay in a regular hotel and not a casino but my brother suggested we stay somewhere more fun and he was right. Yesterday we arrived in Las Vegas around 3:30.  We booked in at Circus Circus.  I never thought of Las Vegas as being a good place to stay with kids but I was wrong.  Circus Circus has been great. We are staying on the 26th floor which was a little nerve wracking since I checked the window and it has no screen.  Someone could jump out of that thing.  Neither kid could open the window though so I managed to sleep.  I have to rave about this room for a minute. The mattresses are pillow top.  Somehow it is very quiet. I don't hear any guests above us or next to us or in the hall. I don't hear other toilets or water running.  I don't know why other hotels are so noisy when this one is so quiet.

 

When we checked in, there was a line so I thought we would be in for some crowds but we went to the adventuredome inside amusement park and there were no lines.  We went to watch the trapeeze artists twice. During the first show there were two falls, but at the 9:30 show the tricks went off flawlessly and the kids were amazed. They were both exhausted and went right to sleep.  This morning we ate at the buffet for breakfast. The food was amazing, lots of pastries, donuts, meat, you name it.  So now we are headed home. We have had a great trip. Thanks again Michael for suggesting Circus Circus, it was a great way to end the trip.

Last Day in Denver

We were supposed to go on a tour of the U.S. mint today but with a late start, construction in the area, and a lack of knowledge of where to park, we missed the start time.  We decided to go to the Children's Museum in Denver instead. They had some good displays and the kids enjoyed building, painting, making bubbles, doing a puppet show, and driving the fire truck. Erik really liked playing with the tools. Here Katie is with the train we built out of recycled materials.

After the museum, we went back to my brother's house and changed clothes and headed to the recreation center.  It is a gym and also has two pools, one lap pool and one shallow pool with a lazy river to float down. I wish they had something like this at my gym.

Butterflies

Today, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion near Denver where they have butterflies in a botanical garden setting.  They also have some sea life and insects.  I held a tarantula.  I will do anything to get a sticker.  The kids liked the butterflies for a while and then they started to freak out.  Too many flying bugs will freak out anyone after a while I suppose.  Some of those bugs were bigger than some birds I have seen.  I think Katie was looking for a net.

 Erik was a little disturbed.

Tonight, Erik made a duplo creation he was really proud of. It was a water and coffee dispenser. He wanted to pose by it.

 There was a trail outside with a lot of prairie dogs.  They were all pretty fat from eating leftover lunches from all the school field trips.

Scottsbluff

We are spending the weekend with my Aunt Pauline and Uncle Keith.  The kids have been having fun playing with their dog Oliver and playing games with them.

Today we visited Scottsbluff National Monument.  It is a big bluff on the Oregon trail.  It was named after a man who was hurt and left by his companions and he died on the mountain.  My aunt Pauline and Uncle Keith drove us up there.  These pictures are views from the top of the monument.

Saturday

Today we went to Mount Rushmore.  It has taken me longer to get to places than I had planned, so next time I will use google maps to plan and not just triptik from AAA.  The drive yesterday got too long and I wound up with grumpy kids when we finally arrived at my aunt's house at 8:00pm.  I did get some good pictures of the mountain. I think the historical significance of the carving was a little lost on Katie and Erik.  I will have to take them back here when they are older. We visited the visitor center where we watched a movie on the history of Mount Rushmore but the other welcome center where I wanted to go closed at 2 and we were not in time to see that movie.  I guess this is not the right time of year although we did beat some of the crowds.

They had flags of all the states with the year of statehood listed on the post. That was really neat.

South Dakota!

Driving here today reminded me of a West Wing episode where Donna gets sent to represent the white house in a meeting with people from North Dakota who want to change the name to Dakota.  They argue that they are losing tourism dollars to South Dakota.  They say they enjoy roughly the same climate as South Dakota but South Dakota has the word "south".  Donna says, "and Mount Rushmore".  Anyway....

The kids keep wanting to stand in the corn.

We went to De Smet, South Dakota today.  This is the town that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in These Happy Golden Years.  We were able to tour the museum, the surveyor's house, a replica of the Brewster school that she taught in and we drove by the site of Pa's store in town.  That completed our Laura Ingalls Tour. 

  Katie asked me what was that word for a flat area covered in grass? I said prairie, nooo valley...no.  She remembered a "plain" so thanks third grade history.  Then she said, " you told me to look out once in a while, I'm gonna watch my movie now k?"  Sure Katie, whatever it takes.  With Erik sleeping and her watching a movie we made it almost to our original destination.  For some reason, maybe my not taking the exact right roads, it is taking me longer to get places than I thought it would.  Plus we waited about an hour for the tour to start and then the tour itself was an hour so we didn't make it to our reserved hotel tonight.  Instead we will have an extra hour drive tomorrow.  However we are staying in a hotel with an indoor pool so the kids got to swim a little tonight. I am not sure I would call it a heated pool since it was pretty darn cold so mostly we splashed in the Jacuzzi.  Now I have two sleeping children and I am going to watch the season premiere of Grey's on my laptop with headphones.  Yay for the Internet.  We watched pretty much nothing but baseball at my grandma's house.  The Minnesota twins ended their losing streak yesterday. I know because first I listened to the game in the background while we played cards and then I watched it with my grandma. She needs someone to go to the stands and hold up a big sign so they will say hello to their number one fan.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Today we took a little side trip to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  Laura Ingalls lived here during the time period written about in her book On the Banks of Plum Creek.  We visited the dugout site that now is all caved in and only a depression in the land remains.  We also looked through the gift shop.  Katie and I have read the books as bedtime reading and now she will be reading one of them as a novel for school so since my grandma's house is only 45 minutes away I thought the field trip was a good idea. I have been there before a time or two.  We walked around the prairie and looked at the grasses and wild flowers.

They liked playing in the covered wagons.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I took the kids to mall of America.  It is the largest mall in America. It has four levels and an amusement park in the middle.  I shopped a little because I didn't bring enough pants for myself and old navy had sweatshirts on sale for 6.00. 

The kids had fun on the rides.

Tuesday night

This is the first time I really had a chance to post since there was no wifi where I was staying.

Tuesday night I went to my Aunt's house and was able to see my cousins and their kids.

Then we all went bowling.

My Uncle works at the bowling alley so we all bowled for free.  This is a picture of my cousin Chris holding Erik. They are both left handed so Chris helped Erik bowl every frame. It was really nice of him and Erik had a great time.  I got beat by a three year old.  Of course he had bumpers and I am not very good.

Minnesota

We made it here last night to my grandma's house.  My uncle, aunt, two cousins, and one second cousin (age 3) all live within two blocks of each other. 


There is a small zoo in the city park.  Erik, Eli, and Katie fed the deer some corn we had picked up in Nebraska that I thought was going to be a souvenir.  They also found some berries and acorns in the park and fed the deer that too.

Erik, Katie, and Eli on a wall in the park overlooking the river.  Erik and Eli are about two week apart in age. He belongs to my cousin Tim who lives here in the town my mom grew up in.

I am happy I found wifi at the McDonalds and Dairy Queen since the kids are happy to have a snack and I can check email.

Nebraska

We finally arrived in Nebraska last night. We are staying with my cousin Kurt, his wife Kelly and their kids Jaden (7) and Jett (1).  Katie last saw Jaden four years ago when they made a trip to CA.  She has been talking about wanting to come see him for a LONG time now and has been really happy to finally be reunited.  My cousin is a super Nebraska Huskers fan and their entire house in decorated with Nebraska gear.  Jaden has a clubhouse outside that you have to climb a big ladder to get to.  Last night Katie got to sleep in Jaden's room and they had a great time playing outside together on the swing set and in his clubhouse.

The kids all played outside on bikes outside today. A little mist couldn't keep us in the house.

Today is a game day so my aunt and uncle Keith and Ardis came to town and were tailgating.  We drove over to meet them and they got to see Katie again and meet Erik. 

Jaden went with his dad to the game so Kelly and I took the other three kids to the children's museum in Lincoln.

Zoo

Today my sister in law had the day off so we took all four kids to the Denver zoo.  They have a bunch of animals we don't have at our zoo like a lion, hyenas, rhino, hippo, cheetah, penguins and polar bears. The kids got to hold nectar and lorakeets came and drank from little cups they were holding.  I also was able to get a picture of all four kids together, looking relatively happy.