You may remember me mentioning a trip to NYC that Rob and I had planned. I got an amazing ticket price, babysitting was all set up, and we were anxiously awaiting for the time to arrive. So what was the problem??

Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m the first person ready to travel anywhere, anytime. But this time it just wasn’t sitting well with me. Something wasn’t right. I decided to take my feelings seriously when there was an issue with our airline tickets and I had to call to straighten it out. The whole time I was on the phone with the agent, I kept hoping she would say the tickets wouldn’t be valid so we couldn’t go. Then that night as I was reading the scriptures I felt, yet again, that it just wasn’t the right time for Rob and I to go. As soon as I made that choice and started thinking about taking the whole family to Disneyland and the beach instead, I felt SO MUCH BETTER.

Who knows if there was a “bigger” reason for us to change plans, but we had such a fun and memorable time all together!

On the first day of our drive we stopped for a picnic lunch and Easter egg hunt at Discovery Park in Cedar City. It’s a huge wooden playground with mazes and play structures and all sorts of good stuff. The kids had a great time.

Then I hid the eggs in a little woodsy patch close by and the kids searched. Caroline caught on pretty quickly. (In this picture, I cropped out a guy totally looking at my butt!)

                  

Nate searched enthusiastically.

Madeleine got discouraged. Haha.

Then the kids counted and ate their booty…

   

 

and watched a large kite being flown overhead.

 

It even swooped down and came within an inch of slamming into Rob.

After this, we drove on to Las Vegas. We stayed a few blocks off of the strip and the hotel had a shuttle to the Fashion Show Mall next to Treasure Island. We decided to eat in the food court and walked down to see the pirate show. Boy. I think I said this last time, but I’ll say it again and I mean it. We are never driving or walking around in Vegas again! It’s bad enough when you are an adult but I sure felt terrible exposing my innocent children to that filth. The pirate show is now a show full of nasty women, gross dancing, and sex jokes. We left after just a minute. We had to squeeze ourselves through the tight mass of people who had gathered to ogle. We walked around for a few minutes and further exposed my children to more filth. Then, as we were about to board an elevator to cross the street, Nate ran ahead and in a dark corner by the door, slipped and fell into a puddle of WHO KNOWS WHAT!  It could’ve been ANYTHING. Nate said some splashed on his face and he licked it and it wasn’t water. EEEK!!! Also, if you want to shoot a machine gun with “gorgeous” topless women, I saw a few huge ads for it there. Dumb…

Anyway, our hotel was really nice (Springhill Suites Convention Center) and we found out we are capable of all sleeping in the same room together. Good to know!