Birthday & Easter

Every once in awhile my birthday falls on Easter. I think this is the first year that I can remember that Eric has had to work on Easter. It was kind of sad. I just did not want to do the whole Easter thing without him. Neither did the kids. They were excited for the treats the Easter Bunny left for them. They each got a shirt, a pair of shoes, a puzzle workbook, & badmitten. Of course, lots and lots of candy. Who can resist candy? Maisie can save hers and eat only a piece or two a day. Parker can not. He would sit down and eat it all if I would let him. We have to keep his on top of the fridge and Maisie has to hide her's real well or he will go and sneak it into his room. He's pretty sneaky. 

Later that day we went over to my parents for dinner. Then my mom had an easter egg hunt for the kids. 

Vacation Day 8 - Driving Home

It is hard to believe that our vacation ended so quickly. We had such a great time. I wore my pedometer the whole time and we walked 35 miles in 6 days. The kids were amazing. We were exhausted and ready for a vacation from our vacation.

We had high hopes of getting up early to head home, but we slept in. We didn't leave Vegas until almost 9:00 Vegas time. It was hard going from semi-warm weather to freezing cold weather again. The first time we stopped for gas, we had to put our jackets on. 

We got home about 5:00 p.m. Then it was unpacking and doing laundry time. 

Vacation Day 7 - Monster Jam

We ate breakfast at Denny's again and then headed to Sam Boyd Stadium for another day of getting autographs and seeing trucks. Saturday is open to the public and we were expecting it to be a lot more crowded, but it actually wasn't bad. Friday we had gotten tickets to get Dennis Anderson's (Grave Digger driver) autograph. He is the most popular one to get and they handed out tickets. If you don't get a ticket early, you won't get his autograph. 

We were there pretty much the whole day. We took a little break in the parking lot by the car and ate some snacks before heading in for the big show. Eric and Parker were in 7th heaven. They couldn't ask for a better time. Every jump, every flip, every move, is just the best thing ever. Eric has big dreams of owning one one day. 

The show didn't get over until about 10:30 and we sat in the parking lot until all the cars had thinned out. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was about midnight. We were exhausted.

Vacation Day 6 - Monster Jam

This is the day that Parker (and the rest of us) have been waiting for. In Parker's eyes, Vegas is Monster Jam. He doesn't not realize that there is a whole nother meaning to the word "VEGAS". Kind of funny and innocent. We ate breakfast at Denny's. The Wild Wild West Days Inn offers free breakfast at Denny's for their guests. After breakfast, we headed to Sam Boyd Stadium for a day of getting autographs and seeing the trucks. Once we got parked and starting walking to get into line, I realized I had left my camera in the car. I told Eric and the kids to go stand in line and I would find them. Well they found Eric's aunt Tammy and cousin Jessica towards the beginning the line and by the time I answered the phone I was clear at the end of the line and they were heading in the gates. I thought it would take forever to get into the gates, but thankfully the line moved really fast and they weren't checking tickets or bags. We had bought the double down tickets ($150 each), so that we could have two days of meeting drivers and getting autographs and two shows. It was fun to go to, but not sure I would do it every year. Every couple years, I think would be fine. 

I just loved seeing the excitement in Eric and Parker's eyes. Even Maisie loves it, but if it wasn't for the boys, us girls wouldn't be into monster trucks. Parker really wanted to spend his money. We walked around the booths and we were beginning to think that they didn't have any monster trucks to buy. The poor kid was just about in tears. "But mom I saved all my money to buy monster trucks." I was almost in tears myself. But then we found them and oh my goodness, his excitement was worth it. We told him he had enough money to buy 4 trucks ($10 each). It took him a while to pick his four favorite, but he finally did. We also bought last years world finals truck and this years. I think if we go back each year we will buy the World Finals truck. 

The Young Guns Shoot Out started at 6:30. The Young Guns are the trucks that didn't qualify to be in the world finals. They compete for the one slot to compete in the world finals the next night.

On the drive back to the hotel, we were talking about what we wanted to do. Originally I had wanted to take the kids to the top of the Stratosphere. We asked the kids what they wanted to do. Maisie didn't really care and Parker just wanted to go back to the hotel so he could play with his new monster trucks. Then we talked about getting up in the morning and driving to Hoover Dam before going to the monster trucks, but by the time we got to the hotel (only a 20 minute drive), we decided we were to tired and just wanted to sleep in. And it sure felt good.

Vacation Day 5 - Universal Studios

We got up kind of early and packed, then ate breakfast at the hotel. We wanted to make it to Universal Studios about the time it was opening, which was 10:00. I think we arrived just as it was opening. The traffic wasn't too bad leaving Anaheim. 

We stayed at the park until it closed at 6:00 and then ate dinner just outside the main gates at Saddle Ranch Chop. It was really good. 

We were than on our way to Vegas. We came across our first wreck in California, so it took us a little while to get out of Los Angeles. Once we got out of the heart of LA, it was too bad. It was a long drive though and we were all tired. We didn't get to Vegas until just after midnight. Once we got there to check into our hotel, it was kind of pain since I didn't have my driver's license. I had to call the vegas.com place were I booked the hotel and have them add Eric's name to the reservation, so that we could check into the hotel under his name. Thankfully that is all we had to do. Who goes to Vegas without a driver's license. Good thing we didn't plan on gambling. 

Vacation Day 4 - California Adventure

With our southern California passes we bought we were allowed one early day pass and could arrive one hour prior to regular hours. Well by the time we got going we were about 1/2 hour early, but it didn't do us a whole lot of good. We waited quite a while just to get in the gate. And then realized that everyone was running to get in the line for the fast pass for Radiator Springs. It was a joke. They didn't start handing out fast passes until the park actually opened. So we stood in that line for probably 20 minutes and then the line started to move, but took another 20 minutes just to get the fast pass. Then our time to return to the ride was four hours later. When we finally got to go on the ride, it was pretty cook and amazing what they did to create the ride, but I am not sure it would have been worth waiting 2 hours to go on. If you didn't end up getting a fast pass, which I believe they ran out of within a couple of hours, you had to wait in line for at least a few hours. Very crazy. 

We loved the Tower of Terror, California Screamin', and Radiator Springs. When we went on Mickey's Fun Wheel (a big ferris wheel), we were in one of the carts that would swing back and forth as it went around. It was so funny because Parker couldn't touch the ground and the first time the cart swung he fell on the floor and couldn't get back up. He was very mad and all we could do was laugh at him. He was not going on that ride again. 

We left the park for a little while and walked down the downtown disney shopping area. We ate dinner at Rainforest Cafe. It was kind of a fun place. Looked like you were in the middle of a rainforest. We then went back to the park for a little while.

Eric and Maisie really wanted to go on California Screamin' again and Parker was tired so we sat down and watch the parade while Eric and Maisie went on the ride a couple more times. We didn't think there was as much to do at California Adventure and by the end of the day we were tired. We left at about 7:30 and went back to the hotel and the kids got to swim for awhile. 

One of my favorite pictures. They really do love each other.

Notice the Big Ferris Wheel. Parker's favorite ride. LOL.