We had the BEST vacation this summer! Kira and I were done with classes on Thursday, so we went home that day and packed all up. Friday night we left and went down to Ogden to leave Bear with Grandma.
Early Saturday morning, Mom and Dad rushed us out the door to drive the rest of the way to Vegas. When we got there, it was only like 3:30, but Mom and Dad were rushing us to get our stuff into the hotel, which we had no idea why. We still had the whole day to see the sights! But, being the obedient children we are, we did it anyway. In the hotel room, they made us turn around and hold out our hands behind our backs. Now I was super curious. They put a piece of paper in my hand, and when I looked at it, I couldn’t believe my eyes! They bought us all tickets to see The Lion King! And that’s why they were hurrying us so fast. It started in less than an hour and a half, and we still had to get there.
We had a little time before the show started, so we saw the MGM Grand. The show was absolutely amazing! So when that was done, we went around and saw some more sights. We went around to most of the hotels. There’s some pretty sweet ones! And they’re ginormous! We saw the water show at the Bellagio, and the volcano show.
They were both pretty sweet, but not nearly as cool as World of Color in Disneyland! Sunday morning we went to Sacrament meeting there at 9, then left to drive to Disneyland!!!!! Woot woot! The traffic was awful though. We got stuck with all the Californians who went to Vegas for the weekend. We spend about a half day in Disneyland on Sunday. We did the new Little Mermaid ride in California Adventure and saw World of Color. LOVE IT!!!!!
We spend 6 days in there, and left Friday afternoon. It was Lance’s birthday on Thursday, so we went to Rainforest Café. Muy delicioso!
We also went to the beach while we were there! I LOVE the beach!!! :)
We drove to Phoenix Friday night, and it’s HOT there! At 10:00 in the morning, it was already 110 degrees! Yuck. I wouldn’t want to live there. Much too hot for my likings! We drove over to El Paso, TX to see some of the people Kira served. We could see Juarez, Mexico from our hotel! That’s the most dangerous city in the world right now, but El Paso’s the 10th safest city in the US. Weird how that works out. But it was pretty cool.
We went to church in both the English and the Spanish wards. So 6 hours of church where I only understood 3. But it was kinda cool. Monday morning we went over to Carlsbad Caverns. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life! And while there, I decided to make a Bucket List. #1 is to do the guided tours where I have to crawl, climb ladders and ropes, and use a head lamp/helmet thingie. That was the coolest 3 hours of my life!
We then drove over to Albuquerque for 3 days to see the people she served over there. Our hotel was AWESOME! They gave us one room, but it smelled like smoke, so they changed us to a penthouse! There were 2 floors to it! But still only 3 beds. But it’s all good!
Thursday, we went to the Sandia Tram, which is the longest tram in the world. It took us up 4,000 feet to the top of the Sandia Mountains. Pretty sweet! Great view too.
Then we drove over to Cortez, Colorado, and stopped at the 4 Corners on the way.
Our hotel in Cortez was an adventure. We’re pretty sure it wasn’t structurally sound. And there was a sign in the bathroom warning us not to turn the bath water on all the way or we could get scalding water. Great! So our hotel room had the potential to kill us! It wasn’t level either. It scared me! But the cool thing there was Mesa Verde National Park! It’s a place not too far away that has ancient ruins all over the mountains! We spent 2 days there because it was so cool!
Then we drove back to Ogden, picked up Bear who was VERY excited to see us, and got home about 2:00 in the morning on Sunday. So yep. There’s our trip! Super fun, and super long! We clocked about 80 hours total in the car. Yuck!
It's never a good thing when my family gets loopy. And we were gone a long time and had plenty of time in the car to go crazy! We made a quote book while we were gone. It. Is. Awesome. Not gonna lie! It’s got things like… “I’m sorry.” “Hakuna Matata!” (It means no worries.) … “The caveman’s not very photogenic.” and much, much, much more. It was great!
