Family Vacation - Day 1

We just got back from our 2012 Family Vacation.  A cruise from Long Beach, CA, to the ports of Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.  We've been planning on it for a long time.  (So long, in fact, that when we originally planned on it Lacy wasn't dating Ben yet, and once they got engaged and then married, my Mom had to move rooms around.)  :-)  My baby brother, Cody, just got home from his mission last month, and he'll be off to college at the new year, so this was our window for a fun family vacation while we were all here.  So, Saturday morning, December 1st, we loaded up three vehicles with tons of luggage and lots of people, and headed for Vegas.  Since the trip had been planned for so long, well before we knew what the weather would be like, we'd opted to stop over in Vegas for the night, in case we had bad winter weather leaving Utah and it took longer than normal to get out of state.  Fortunately, the weather cooperated beautifully (something we can thankfully say about almost the entire trip), and so with our extra time to kill in Vegas we headed to Hoover Dam.  One of the things I love most about my family is how we have a blast going anywhere and seeing anything . . .

Annie and Uncle Cody racing up the ramp with Ellie and Uncle David close behind them.

 We walked across the big newer bridge first, to look down at the dam below . . . and of course, took a multitude of pictures of ourselves . . . .

 (This picture is Grandpa teaching Isaac to spit off the bridge.  Of course.  This is what Grandpa's are for.)

 My four kids with Uncle Cody, Aunt Star and me.

 Down by the actual dam, there was this statue . . . each of the kids wanted a turn hanging from the 'rope' -- and Annie shocked us all by proving to be ridiculously strong and doing a couple pull ups . . .

 Later that night we got to our hotel, where Greg and I and the kids crashed pretty early.  Even our late owls only stayed out 'til like 11PM.  The whole city just feels so sleezy to me now that I don't like to be there, let alone walking around with my kids, any longer than I have to.  The highlight of our hotel stay was that we were in some weird corner room -- which mean it was easily double the size of a regular hotel room.  I should've gotten pictures of it, but Isaac, Annie and Uncle Cody were doing cartwheels out in the big main open area of the room.  At bedtime, we just pulled Isaac's mattress all the way off the bed into the middle of the room so he could sleep closer to the floor (the child is perfectly incapable of staying on a bed -- and sure enough, in the middle of the night he was on the floor of the hotel room.)