On The Way To Our UT Family Reunion

Greetings from gaudy Las Vegas!

Hello...I have returned!! Well, technically, I "returned" from vacation two weeks ago, but I have taken a short breather from blogging (and from other responsibilities), so that's why it's been so quiet around here. I have lots of vacation photos to share, though, so it's time to get started! As I write this, it's about an hour and a half away from July 2013, so I'm going to see if I can squeeze in one more June 2013 blog before diving in proper on vacation posts tomorrow.

After school ended, I had exactly one week to get ready for our vacation to Utah. We didn't do much during that time, other than have some friends over for dinner. These friends, the Thompsons, had been ward missionaries in our ward for years, with Nathan inheriting Shane's mantle just before they moved to the Washington, D.C. area. We were happy to share a final evening with them; we were not terribly close, but we really loved their company and were always impressed by the kindness and enthusiasm that they shared with everyone they met. We will miss them, as will many people in the ward.

"Look, kids, it's the (faux) Statue of Liberty!"

After a couple more days of packing and preparing for our long drive, we hit the road. We decided to break up the 12-hour drive by spending the night in Las Vegas, which is a pretty natural halfway point. I used to really enjoy staying in Las Vegas, but I am so over that now. When I was younger, Vegas was at least trying to be more family-friendly. Nowadays, though? Not even trying! Huge posters advertising topless shows/nightclubs/etc. glared down at my kids wherever we went...and we didn't even go to that many places in Vegas! We mostly stayed pretty close to our hotel.

But it was probably worth staying in Vegas this time, since I managed to book a room in Excalibur, the sword & sorcery-themed casino. As far as our girls were concerned, we had scored a night in a fabulous "princess castle"!

Hey, let them dream! They were overwhelmed at the "beautiful" castle's facade, and felt they'd emerged from the car into a magical fantasyland. Their giddiness made that one night worth it (and made it easier to ignore all the sad, lost souls wandering around the casinos).

Here was the view from our room!

The girls wanted to sleep with the curtains pulled back all night, so they could keep the castle in their sights. I finally had to close the curtains when sleep proved hard to come by. Luckily, we managed to grab enough winks to enjoy our breakfast at the casino buffet the next morning; yum!

...we also got in a little shopping, too.

Driving to Utah County that day proved surprisingly quick and easy. I'm so happy my girls are all becoming such patient travelers. They usually get along well in the car, playing quietly with small toys or (in Lorelai's case) reading books. We have a portable DVD player, but we only used it once the whole trip up! We tried something else new this time, too; we got a Mad Libs book and filled out several silly stories together. Lorelai especially loved that! It is fun finding out new things your kids can do. Lorelai claims to get "carsick" on long trips, but thankfully that hasn't been literally true yet. Overall, they did so well on our long driving days; I am very proud of them.

On Friday afternoon, June 7th, we finally arrived at the Carlin home--my sister Jocelyn, her husband Paul, and their four cute kids. They live in Saratoga Springs, a small town just outside of Lehi. The girls were overjoyed to see their cousins again (they'd visited Arizona last Thanksgiving, and the memories there were still fresh). It was time to play!

Here's Aurora pulling her cute little cousin Laura in her wagon. She always loves being the "big girl"!