Viva Las Vegas

After saying good-bye to the Shipleys, Vegas became the next point of interest. Ryan, Emily and their two kids stayed with us, as well as Jen and her two kids, and my dad.

A day at the park

Braxamillion. You are too cute in those overalls.

There will now be an overload of pictures with Aiyana going down the slide, simply because Ryan snapped a ton in a row and I love the sequence:

I think it's safe to say she enjoys the slide. Oh, to be a child again!

All the little Rug-rats! (Who were completely over this group-slide-picture the moment we tried to put them together.) It was so funny having all these little baby/toddlers wandering around the house together, speaking their gibberish and playing/fighting together. 

On the Shipley's return from Utah to Arizona (a very sad, unfortunate family funeral required their attendance), they and my mom (who drove up with them) stopped for a night with all of us in Vegas. Never has my house been so full! It was really fun making room for everyone though, even if the visit was short and sweet.

The weekend after Memorial Weekend, everybody went back to their respective houses . . . except Jen and her kids! Since they were in the process of moving to Fallon, there was no point in them returning to Oklahoma and then making the painful 18 hour trip (without kids and stopping). So Jen waited anxiously for Rusty to join us. We tried to distract her from missing her husband as best we could!

Park and Splash Pad -- I forgot this park had a splash pad so we just put the kids in their diapers. Aiyana embraced every minute of it while Brax was not as thrilled about the shooting water. Lana seemed to enjoy it though.

I didn't think Aiyana would really do it, but this girl speed-crawled her way through the path of shooting water. It reminded me of Mission Impossible or one of those red-laser alarm systems -- except Aiyana charged through all of them and would have failed stealth-mode completely.

"Stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah - ah- ah -ah Stayin' alliiiiiveee . . ."

Having Jen hang out with me in Vegas for a week made me so excited to know this kind of thing can happen more than once or twice a year like we've been used to. Fallon is only a 5.5 hour drive if enyou don't stop, so even with stops it's not bad. I can't wait to actually spend holidays with her and Rusty again and not have to worry about plane-ticket expenses! Yay for Rusty's promotion to Facility Manager. He's going to do great.