Maidename cousins

We had so much fun having the cousins hang out with us for the weekend. We had some fabulous dance parties. Call Me Maybe is a crowd favorite. We sort of pulled into the garage like this, music blaring, and hung out while the song finished. Husband came in quick confused :)

After hanging out at Big Sis's and swimming in her giant water slide bounce house thing, we had lots of wet swimsuits. All of them on the clothes line made me happy.

We had a fire and made smores. The kids hunted the yard for things to throw in the fire. While this looks like a sweet gesture from my son, he's really asking to burn it.

 They made a little fort out of our slide.

I will tell you that six kids is MUCH easier with two adults. Husband was so good at monitoring the fire and helping with the marshmallows.

Everyone liked the messy treat.

There are seriously the best behaved kids.

Las Vegas

Where did we leave off in the pictorial story of my life? Ah yes, we just visited the artsy town of Chloride. Next stop Las Vegas! I'm hazy on the actual chronology of it all, but here's some things that were worth remembering.

 The world's biggest salmon omelet. Omlet House is legit my friends. They also have thoughtful accommodations for children.

A pink statue person outside the Bellagio was really cute with the kids but still creepy enough both refused to take a picture with it. We tipped anyways.

The Bellagio fountains always impress, especially M.

I gave up photos in favor of video for this one.

The gardens inside are also lovely, but don't photograph well. Last time we went, J was a baby and Mormor came with.

We also went to Fremont street and J was channeling her inner rockstar.

M was tired and pretty overwhelmed.

The highlight of the trip was this little gem recommended my friend Brandy. It's called Container Park and is a complete shopping/restaurant/park all made out of shipping containers. They have a giant playground sculpture tree house and really cool features.  It had urban renewal grant written all over it. J liked dancing on the balcony board walk.

M enjoyed eating all the raw vegan food I ordered. Guys. I was trying my hand at crazy restrictive eating challenge and I assure you taking a roadtrip when you are only eating meat and vegetables is absolutely terrible. When everything on this hippie restaurant's menu fit the requirements, I sort of ordered the sample platter that included...everything. I was skeptical at jicama chili fries that had vegan cheese (ingredients involved dubious things like nutrition yeast and other items I tried to forget) until I tried a bite and couldn't restrain myself. Everything was AMAZING! You can also see zucchini avocado alfredo and zucchini spaghetti.

It looks very unappetizing because we were mid devouring.

Where was J during this feast? Taking a 5pm nap.

Simply Pure Las Vegas. Try it my hippie friends! And if you have to lure a significant other to come with you, there is artisanal locally made chocolates and some fancy schmancy ice cream shops downstairs, next to the best smelling BBQ I've ever had to resist.

The favorite part for M was the flames that periodically shot out of the antennae of this two story bug. After sunset they did a drum circle and the flames matched the beats.



We stayed at Circus Circus because we can handle ghetto hotels when they are $28/night. And I knew it would be free from people giving me and my kiddos the stink eye for the audacity of taking my kids on vacation. It was surprisingly nice. J walked into the lobby and said, "WOW! This hotel is amazing!"

They also have a McDonalds in house :)

We had some time to kill while Madre Dos was handling some Mormor hospital stuff so we went to the Midway with $30 to burn. You can ride several choo choo's when they are only $0.25

I would like to meet the person who designed this particular ride. Or maybe I really don't.

You can spend lots of money trying to win cheap stuffed animals. Fun fact: I remember playing this "launch the turkey in the pot" game when I came here as an 11 year old. $10 to spend and I came home with 22 stuffed animals. I still have the big monkey I won. The kids were happy with the prizes we managed to snag while wasting our money. (The rides in the dome would have wiped us out in one round on the carousel so I let them play all the arcade games they wanted)

The kids also liked the BMX act and the juggler

We had some excellent Indonesian food. M loved the taro ice cream.

Of course we loved being able to see their Olemor. She had moments of clarity, but mostly she just liked seeing these "angel children." Sometimes she knew who they were, sometimes not but she always thought they were beautiful.

Mostly I don't mind taking my kids to hospitals because everyone from patients to staff and visitors smile when they glimpse them. This time was a little harder though and resulted in fewer pictures because M wanted to touch every single button or cry prostrate on the floor trying to lick things. Still glad we decided make the trip and visit.

Chloride

So MorMor was in the hospital and Madre Dos had to head to Las Vegas to make arrangements for her new care situation. That sounded like a rough assignment, one that would be more fun with grandkids to distract, so I decided to take the kids on an impromptu road trip to come with. Madre Dos wasn't sure how many days she'd have to stay so I took my own car. I packed the kids stuff, mine, entertainment, snacks, showered and got the kids ready all in an hour and half. I'm rather proud of that. 

I'm also proud of how great the kids were on both drives. They had been a little starved for screen time so as long as a DVD was rolling, they were fabulous. A treat at every gas station and they were pretty much angels.

On the way up we met up with Madre Dos in a little ghost/mining town/ artist community called Chloride. Husband's aunt grew up there and her father painted these giant murals there in the 70's. He repainted them sort of recently 

J took this shot.

The little diner we ate at had this little rocking chair that M thought fit him perfectly.

He also was allowed to ride the stuffed horse.

Sure I paid for a salad that was straight from the cellophane bag, covered in Kraft Italian, and the kids ate exactly one bite of the $7 corndog plate, but it was a fun little place all the same.