Is It Naptime Yet

Here’s where I start mostly listing off what we did, if I can remember correctly and the picture posts will get really long from all our picture taking.

Tuesday July 12, was our first full day in Yellowstone. It was nice blue sky when we woke up, but it got cloudy as we departed and started on our trip.

Our first stop was at the Fishing Bridge Visitor’s Center in the park. It was close to our camping site and it looked like it might rain, so we wanted some shelter. We looked around, visited the lake, got some information and started on our way.

We decided to drive the lower loop this day. Our first scenic stop was at Mud Volcano. My dad had mentioned how Yellowstone smelled like rotten eggs, so I expected the whole place to smell that way, but fortunately it was only around the volcanic activity that you really smelled the sulfur smell. The hardest part was getting caught in the steam that was leaving the earth. That was hot, moist and you got big ‘ole breaths of the sulfur in your lungs. Lilah like it, she said it smelled like boiled eggs, and in some cases it smelled more like boiled than rotten eggs, but it still wasn’t something you’d want to inhale.

There were a lot of little things at Mud Volcano, my favorite was Dragon’s Mouth, which we only got a video of because it sounded so cool. Some of this area is actually relatively new at the park, with some activity being there for a while, and others only surfacing in the 1960’s and then 1970’s after different earth quakes. It reminds you how every changing the park is, and how you are walking on an active Super Volcano just below the surface, that just hasn’t erupted in 40,000 years. With some of the activity we joked that it should have been called the “Bogs of Eternal Stench”, which is from a favorite childhood movie, Labyrinth.

Soon after Leaving Mud Volcano it started to rain, then it rained some more. It delayed some of our site seeing that included hiking, and kept us in the car. Mostly we’d just head to the next site and if it wasn’t rainy we’d get out. Fortunately, it did clear up so the rest of the day went smoothly.

My favorite stop of the day was Artists Paintpots. The colors there were amazing and it had mud pots that made the best sound of glopping, boiling mud. Jon and I both loved it, and the girls thought we were a little odd.

We continued to stop at different sites off the road. Gibbon Falls, Beryl Spring, Firehole Falls, plus some no name little things. Then since the day was slipping away quickly, we decided to skip some things and head straight to Old Faithful.

We must have arrived soon after one of the eruptions, because we had over an hour to wait till next one. We walked around looking at the different geysers and hot springs in the area. Lilah and I went to the visitor’s center while Eden and Jon saved our front row spots on a bench. The timing for Old Faithful is all approximate. They have the time for eruption, but then it’s + or – 10 minutes. So you’re waiting around for at least half an hour if it decides to erupt on the later part, which it did. For the eruption we saw, there were lots of premature little spouts of water, so the girls started to call the geyser, “Old Tease.”

How to guess when Old Faithful’s next eruption will be. You begin timing the length of the eruption after water as been continuously coming out for about 7 seconds, and time till only steam is coming out. If the eruptions is less than 2.5 minutes, the next eruption will happen around 60 minutes later, if the eruption is longer than 2.5 minutes it will happen around 93 minutes later. They repeatedly remind you that it’s hard to know exactly when the next eruption will happen for any geyser, but they are able to come up with estimated times for Old Faithful because of his steadiness.

Since it was late after the eruption, sometime around 7 pm, we ordered some food at a snack cafe and then headed towards camp. As we left we were able to see a coyote on the road, which was rather exciting, but the camera was on video, so we only got a video of him leaving.

It was exciting to see some of our first wild life this day. We had seen a young elk on our way in, but today we caught glimpse of our first bison, mule deer, and lots of ground squirrels. Bison by far are what we saw most in the park, but mostly in small herds and off by themselves. We also saw one swimming in a river, which was new since we didn’t know they could swim.

This night we built a small fire once back and enjoyed s’mores. Then we quickly cleaned up because it looked like rain, then it started to rain, then hail. Fortunately, the girls were ready for bed and we were able to get ready before it got too bad. I remember waking up in the night so I think it rained and stormed for at least half the night. We were able to stay dry and warm, so we had no worries, except for what the next day would look like, and if we’d get to go visit all the sites we wanted to.

To see the pictures that go with this post visit Family Vacation 2011 Pictures- Part 3.

Here are the pictures that go with the Family Vacation 2011- Part 2 post.

Our tired travel companions.
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Eden admiring the beauty around her. (Grand Teton NP, Lakeshore Trail near Colter Bay’s Visitor’s Center)
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This is what she was looking at. It was breath-taking.
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Capture the moment on film…I mean on a memory chip, and now a blog.
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A small field of flowers we went through on the hike.
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The obligatory picture in front of the sign.
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The second park of the day. (We spent 3 full days at Yellowstone though.)
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The view from our campsite at Bridge Bay inside of Yellowstone. That is Yellowstone Lake.
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Some pretty purple flowers by our camp site. (Picture taken by Eden)
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Give a little girl a camera and there will be at least one self portrait.

After we left Rawlin in Logan, Utah we started the long drive to Grand Teton National Park near Jackson, Wyoming. We were hoping to get a camp site for that night, but since you can’t make reservations, I was a little concerned that we’d be left sleeping in our car. (I had tried to convince Jon that we should book a hotel, but Jackson, WY is one of the most expensive towns to sleep in.)

It was overcast so I’m not sure when we finally reached Jackson on Sunday, July 10th. We drove past the mountain range and drove for what seemed liked miles and still could not find the turn out to head towards the campground Jon thought we should stay at. We decided to turn back and ask for directions at the Visitors Center, but daylight was fading, and it was getting later. I felt sure that we’d be sleeping in our car that night. We got directions and information that the camps had filled up at 8 pm the previous night. It was just a little after 7 pm, so we were pushing our luck. We got back on the road, and realized we had turned around only a few miles short of our turn off. We reached the ranger station and were given the last spot at Colter Bay Campground, it was a little before 8 pm. We set up camp with mosquitoes swarming. It was not fun, especially for this desert girl. We got things ready and settled down for the night. There were about 10 of us in the tent that night, four Blakes and at least 6 mosquitoes.

The morning was cold, but beautiful. We made pancakes for breakfast, and packed up camp to go exploring. The Colter Bay Visitors center had an interesting exhibit on some Indian artifacts that had been part of a private collection. We also took a hike on the Lakeshore trail around a bay of Jackson Lake. It was beautiful, especially as we hiked near the shore. I loved seeing the lake meet the mountains and forests on the other side, something I’d never seen in person.

After a quick lunch we started our drive towards Yellowstone. We wanted plenty of time to set up and get ready for camp that night.

We stopped for the traditional picture by the national park signs as we left Teton and as we entered Yellowstone. While taking the one at Yellowstone an Oriental couple who was leaving, from taking their own picture in front of the sign, pulled back in and offered to take a family picture so we could have everyone in it.

We had reservations for four nights at Yellowstone, July 11-15th. We were able to get an awesome site within our camp which allowed us some privacy, lots of space to explore and a view of Yellowstone lake. If there was a way to reserve a specific site, I’d stay at Bridge Bay Campground in spot F 266. Many of the sites have no shade and you’re just right next to everyone, but this area had forest, and in our case we had a creek with fallen logs to walk on and places to explore.

We set up camp and enjoyed a meal that night. After eating we cleaned everything and packed all our gear into our car. We made sure to have nothing in our tent that would attract a bear or any sort of wildlife, but especially a bear. So each night we’d get ready for bed and Jon would take our jackets and clothes to the car. Then in the morning he’d bring me my jacket and I’d get the clothes for the girls and I for the day. Fortunately, we never had a bear near our camp, which is exactly how I wanted it.

I think it was a little rainy this night so we went to bed early and prepared for the next day.

Visit Family Vacation 2011 Pictures- Part 2 to see the pictures that go with this post.

To read the long entry that goes along with these pictures visit this post.

You can click on all the pictures to see a larger version.
Many of the beautiful landscapes were just to beautiful to keep at the smaller image size that I usually post.

What we saw at the end of our little hike.
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The girls and I at the end of the hike.
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Our official picture by the sign for Zion National Park.
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Sunset on a mountain of Zion.
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Ice cream is meant to be worn as well as eaten.
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The classic cars at our hotel in Cedar.
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My Great Aunt Margaret’s grave. My mother was named after her, my grandmother’s sister.
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Lilah being silly.
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Apparently she gets it from her mom.
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The girls drawing pictures of Lake Utah, which was right by our hotel in Orem. They were also rolling down this hill a little earlier, don’t let their cute smiles fool you into thinking they’re always this sweet and demur.
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DeEtte’s youngest daughter, Drea. (Pronounced Dray-uh.) There’s just something about messy faces.
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Jonathan, Rawlin, Eden and Lilah.

Our trip began a little late on Friday, July 9th. Jon really wanted to see Zion National Park on our way through Utah, and we did, but with packing so much stuff, for a two week trip that had 6 days of camping within the first 8, it was hard to leave as early as we would have liked.

The day was humid as we got to Springdale, Utah and parked. We rode the city shuttle to Zion and then walked around a bit and finally decided to hike a short archaeological trail that was somewhere by the visitor’s center, we just couldn’t find it till a ranger kindly pointed us in the right direction. We did get a nice tour of the river and camping sites. After the trail we rode the shuttle around the park. It was an easy ride with a couple stops. Mostly we planned what might be fun to do on a longer trip to Zion, somewhere in the future. The girls seemed to enjoy sitting and looking around. It was an easy start to our long trip.

We drove to Cedar City, Utah that night and rested. There was some classic car club staying at our hotel the same night and Eden thought we should add classic cars to our slug bug game. Jon and I are are the only ones who actually “slug” each other, we mostly play for points, that we easily loose track of. Little did we know how many classic cars we would see on the trip.

On Saturday, July 10th, we headed to Monroe, Utah to attend a family reunion for my mother’s family. We got there a little late, and forgot to bring a side dish, but hey we were there. Monroe is where my mother’s parents lived when first married, so we drove around the town with my Uncle Bud as he told us about the different houses. One had been turned into a motel and was up for sale. (The owner had turned it into a bed and breakfast, just without the breakfast and for a lot more than what most would pay to stay in a small town like Monroe.) My cousin Harmony had started to talk with a care taker when she was taking some pictures of it, so we actually went on a tour of the house, which was greatly changed with the hotel renovations. We then visited the cemetery, which had some family buried in it, including the aunt my mother was named after. Eventually we said goodbye to what family was left and headed off into the sunset to Orem Utah, where we would stay that night.

Sunday, July 10th, we left bright and early, though not quite early enough. (I’m seeing a trend here, are you?) We decided to cram in a couple visits on our way to Wyoming, and so we visited Jon’s cousin DeEtte, and her family. They had called while we were out of town for Memorial Day, and Jon really wanted to see them. It was a very short visit, just an hour long, but it was so nice to see her and her family. The last time we saw them, we each had only one little girl. Now we have two and they have four! Sadly we only got a picture of the youngest, and it was because she was so dang cute with Nutella on her face from her delicious crepe.

We left DeEtte to go visit Rawlin and Shauntae in Logan, Utah. Sadly, Shauntae was sick, so we only saw Rawlin, but surprisingly, one of Jon’s cousins was there with his family visiting Rawlin when we showed up. Sean and his wife Shauna with 3 or 4 kids. (I don’t remember how many they have.) They left shortly after we got there and we visited for about an hour more. After our visit we hit the road yet again. This time our destination would be close to Jackson, Wyoming.

It was so exciting to be on the road visiting these new places and seeing our wonderful national parks. Seeing family along the way was just the beginning to our wonderful trip. The visits were far to short, so we discussed ways we might be able to see more of our extended family, since reunions no longer take place for Jonathan’s side of the family.

My heart ached to leave each love one after such a short visit so I hope to see them again soon.

To see the pictures that go with this blog post click on Family Vacation Pictures 2011- Part 1.

15 days, that’s how long our vacation was. The time flew and we did some amazing things, all of which I will blog about later, but I wanted to note 15 things I learned on our vacation to 4 national parks, with a national monument thrown in to mix it up.

1. I do not like “wild caves.” I knew I wouldn’t like squeezing into tight spaces, so I skipped the first one, but going into the dark abyss of the second cave was too much for me. I shed a few tears as I emerged to the surface alone, and my family continued on their journey into the unknown.

2. Wading through a stream in Montana, made from melting snowfall, is seriously cold and pebbles hurt your feet. Trying to make an eight year old go faster while crossing the fast current of a stream that leads to a lake just 20 feet away, makes your feet even colder.

3. Sleeping with the rain fly off so you can see the stars is fun.

4. Mosquitoes love people from the desert and little girl’s heads and faces.

5. Starting a fire is harder than you think.

6. Eight year olds are attracted to mud, or mud is attracted to eight year olds, not sure which.

7. Taking a hike and having it start to rain, then hail, is a great adventure for an eight year old. The girls especially liked getting hot chocolate afterwards.

8. Nearly six year olds love drawing pictures of lakes, and will say, “that’s so beautiful,” about nearly everything they see.

9. Husbands are great for setting up and taking down tents.

10. Eight year olds are great at fetching water.

11. Nearly six year olds are great at helping to rinse dishes.

12. If you give a little girl a camera, there will be at least one self portrait.

13. Oatmeal really is the easiest camping breakfast.

14. Ice cream cones are really expensive at national parks.

15. I am able to camp for 5 nights in a row and take only one shower and survive. It may not be pretty and a hat may be involved for most of the time.

So a long time ago I thought my computer screen was going out, I’m pretty sure it still is, but for now it works, but the brightness is still bright. I went on a photo posting hiatus because of my screen, and my sheer laziness to upload and edit photos, but I decided that I’d post some anyways, and would just crop them, so the brightness might be off, but at least there are photos!

The girls and me at the Zoo!
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Comparing ourselves to gorillas.

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He was looking right at the girls. I could have sat and watched him for much longer, but everyone else wanted to move one.

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Lots of standing and looking. This was Jon’s view of the Zoo.

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Open your eyes on three! I was trying to not get squinty eyes, I guess it worked, kinda.

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The awkward bighorn sheep. I totally thought it was a goat of some sort because it did not look like the bighorn sheep I know, or even like the one they had pictured.

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After the bird show with the bald eagle.

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The cool owl after the bird show.

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The mama and baby elephant!

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None of the other carousel pictures turned out, and you could argure neither did this one, but I love ladybugs so Jon took my picture with the ladybug carousel seat.

So Summer feels like it is finally over, hopefully. You never know with Las Vegas weather. We finally have some cooler weather, and we hope it stays that way. The rain clouds that at first just brought humidity finally cooled down this hot valley and hopefully it stays that way.

To end summer we went to Pine Valley with Sam, Britta, Matilda and Grandpa Gary over Labor Day weekend. Even though Jon had been gone the previous week and came home Friday night, he packed up Saturday morning and came along. He wasn’t sure he was going to go, but I think 3 more days of being alone was not appealing and he wanted to be with me and the girls, at least that’s the story I’m sticking to. Pine Valley was filled with 4 wheel rides, good food, talking, lots of time outdoors, and even some games. I hate to rub it in, but I played Yahtzee for the first time, and beat Sam both times. We then played a million games of Uno, and I’m pretty sure I would have won if we had been keeping score. 😉 It was beautiful weather and a fun time.

Just recently we went up to Utah for my cousin Amanda’s wedding reception, summer was technically over, though we came home to triple digits. The weather was perfect for her outdoor reception, but things were not going as planned. When do they ever for a wedding? Since we had time and were there, Jon and I helped decorate an arch that was over the cake. I’m pretty sure it pulled the whole scene together and was the cause for much celebration. I’m really happy for my cousin and it’s exciting to see her begin a new chapter in her life.

Since the reception was on a Friday night, we decided a trip to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake would be a perfect way to spend our Saturday, before coming home on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and the girls really enjoyed themselves. Eden’s favorite exhibit was the giraffes and the elephants. Lilah’s favorite part was the giraffe’s and the elephants, the gift shop, the monkeys, and the carousel, the train and the bird show. My favorite exhibit was the gorillas. They are so massive and it was just amazing to be separated from one with just a thick piece of glass.

We had Aunt Carolyn along on the trip, so she went shopping with me on Saturday night, and I found a nice black dress to wear for my choir class performances. Carolyn was kind enough to sit in the back seat and entertain the girls doing the night drive to Cedar City on Thursday. She entertained them at other times, but it was hard for them to entertain themselves when it was so dark in the car for our travels that night. We always love when Aunt Carolyn comes along on our trips.

We traveled more this summer than any previous one. I had a total of 8 trips while Lilah had 7 and Eden and Jon had 6. Usually we only have 2, maybe 3, trips, so this was one crazy summer for us. I really loved all the time we spent with family and friends, but I am so happy for summer to be over, and to enjoy the holidays.

So for the third year in a row we went camping with the Park family. I’m beginning to see a tradition take shape. We went and visited Andrea and her family in August for our yearly Ely trip. When we told them the date Andrea told us they were planning on camping that weekend and we were welcomed to join them, so we did! For this camping trip I finally got my wish for a tent that I could stand up in. I really didn’t like having to be hunch over to put pants on in our old tent, and since the girls needed their own sleeping bags and were too big to share one, we needed to get something bigger than the 4 man tent we have.

Jon put me in charge of buying the tent. I was tempted to get a huge ten man tent with two rooms that could fit at least 4 twin mattresses, but instead I bought a long six man tent, and I’m pretty confident we can fit 3 twin air mattresses in there, I’m just not sure Jon would have much room to sleep. 😉

We went camping just outside of Ely this time. It was mostly for the experience and the fun of camping out in the wilderness. We each made our own dinners but for dessert we tried cake in a mason jar, from Family Fun. Brien also brought some ice cream and it was delicious. I’m craving it as I type this, but that might also be because I’m hungry. They just used a boxed cake mix and cooked it for the recommended time. Since there was a meteor shower taking place we were able to watch the night sky and see a few arch across. It was beautiful. We actually traveled up to Lee Canyon the night before and saw some just outside of the Vegas lights with the girls.

It didn’t get too cold that night, and we woke up the next day and broke camp down before we went on a hike. We did the full 3 mile loop, but the Parks stopped a little early to go get some chores they needed to do done. Zarina was happy to be on the hike, but only if she was being carried. Our girls were happy to be on the hike as long as Jack, Andrea and Brien’s dog, was on the hike, so it was a little rough at times once the Parks left. Overall it was pretty fun and we enjoyed the cooler weather as we walked through the Juniper trees and along the trail.

After showering and getting cleaned up at the Park’s house we roasted hot dogs and then ate smores. They have a nice fire pit in their back yard, so it kept us warm as the night cooled. We then slept inside that night and went home Sunday morning.

I love our yearly trip to Ely to see Andrea, Brien and Zarina. I’m so grateful they open their home to us and allow us to invade for a short time each year. I’m so happy they live relatively close and that the girls get to see Zarina and be friends with their cousin. It’s funny because I hated that the only trips we took as a family was to visit family. I wanted to go to Disneyland or the Zoo, but I now understand why my parents made those trips. Hopefully we get to do both the family and “fun” trips with the girls and if we’re lucky we can have our family on our “fun” trips too, like we did earlier this year at Disneyland.

Thank you once again Parks, and we love you!

Lilah and I went to Sea World with the Girl Scouts. We decided to use her cookie money to pay for the trip and it would be the big event we got out of the cookie sales. When I signed us up I thought we’d be staying in a hotel for one night. It wasn’t until I went to the mandatory meeting that I realized we’d be camping out in Sea World, in their exhibits and I would not get to shower Saturday morning before I spent all day in the park with Lilah. When I told Lilah the plans she was rather excited to sleep in the exhibit, and we knew we’d be sleeping in the Wild Arctic Exhibit, the coldest one of all. I thought there was a wall of ice in it, but there was not, but they keep it a cool 50 degrees in there, which is very cold when you’re sleeping.

We rode on bus to San Diego on Saturday morning. I knew I would let Lilah make most of the decisions on the trip. This was my time with her, and I knew that I wanted her to have fun, and since I wasn’t having to referee two girls, I would just let her make most of the decisions, with some guidance since I didn’t want to be going to one end of the park and back again. Her first decision came in Barstow, where we stopped for lunch. She decided we should have In and Out for lunch, the busiest place there. There were several tour buses in the area and apparently lots of families making the stop to eat together. The line and food went rather quickly and Lilah got to enjoy her first In and Out hamburger. She loved it and I enjoyed letting her be in charge.

After lunch we continued onto Sea World and arrived early and waited to begin camp. The girls played games, and at times hung out on the bus. At 6pm the Sea World staff came out. They did a luggage check and we got ready to put our luggage into a shed till we needed it later that night. During this process Lilah noticed my luggage was making a noise, but I decided it was just the vibrations from the tanks behind us, since I couldn’t think of anything that would make noise in the suitcase. Once our luggage was safely locked up we entered the park.

We were split into smaller groups and given bright green t-shirts to wear. The shirts were to help the staff be able to keep an easier eye on us. We did a couple things, but they fed us right away. We then did different activities with the camp staff and visited different sites. It was kinda a whirl wind so I can’t remember all we did. I do remember after we visited the penguins the girls did a little relay race, where they dressed up with big penguin feet and wings and then had to walk and pass an egg to another girl. One girl was also dressed up as a polar bear as we learned about different things that help them survive. We saw the Shamu Rocks show that night, and my camera battery decided to die while we were watching it. It was an amazing show and I think Lilah really enjoyed it. At this point she was walking and hanging out without me so she did not sit with me during the show, but was with some of the other independent girls scouts her age. Sea World had a nice fireworks show shortly after the Shamu show, so we stayed in the stadium and watched from there. (The group we were in for the night was mostly all IGM’s and just one other troop and around Lilah’s age, which was nice. )

The final thing we did that night was feed the sting rays. That was so cool. The water is rather deep, so it was hard for Lilah to get her hand in there, especially since we had our jackets on under the bright green shirts they had given us and it was hard to roll up the sleeves. Lilah was too nervous to feed them her fish, so she gave it to me. I was also a little scared so I ended up dropping it in the water when one came up to get it. They said they just go over your hand and suck up the fish, but since I was not able to get my arm down all the way I was rather scared that I might get bitten. I worked up a little more courage and was able to feed one of the rays my fish. Lilah did work up the courage to pet the sting rays, and she really loved that. The sting rays were probably my favorite part of the trip.

We got settled into the Wild Arctic exhibit after the park had closed and as I opened my luggage I realized it was making a noise. My air mattress pump had gotten turned on and had been running for at least 5 hours. It was a little hot to the touch, and though it was on, it was not doing anything but making noise. I worried we’d have to sleep on the hard ground, but luckily one of the other leaders had an electric pump and let us borrow it to pump up our mattresses. Phew. I also felt really blessed that my pump had not caught fire, because the plastic had melted off of the batteries and they were really hot to the touch. That would have sucked had a trailer of girl scout stuff been caught on fire due to my negligence. (Hint: always take one battery out of your mattress pump when traveling.)

Lights out was round 11:30 pm and I slept very badly. It seemed like I was awake for most of the night due to someone snoring, or having to ignore my urge to go to the bathroom, or my face being really cold. It was not fun and the 6:15 am wake-up call came way too quickly. Lilah slept just fine, and was right by the manatee tank. She said she was awake during the wake up call, but she sure didn’t want to move or wake up when I tried to get her out of bed 5 minutes later. It was a very early morning for these two late sleepers.

We packed up, put our luggage on the buses and then headed to breakfast. I asked Lilah if she wanted to hang out with some of the other girls and their moms or if she wanted it to be just her and me for the day. She decided she just wanted it to be her and me for the day so after our final activity of feeding the flamingos we headed off to be by ourselves in the park.

We had about an hour before any of the rides started, so we hung out at different exhibits and planned what we wanted to do first. We did see one of the other girl scouts and her mom so we hung out with them for a time and I rode a water ride with the girls. The other mom hadn’t purchased a poncho yet, so I went on the ride with them three times, since there was no one else in line and they were having fun. We then went our separate ways but met up once more for the other water ride by accident once again.

Lilah and I rode most of the rides and saw three of the shows that day. I forgot the sunscreen in another bag so we got a little toasted. I now will spend whatever amount needed to buy sunscreen at amusement park to keep from getting sunburned and to protect my children’s skin.

Some highlights of the day where: Sitting in the splash zone during the Shamu Believe show and Lilah getting drenched because she decided she did not want to wear her poncho. Feeding some ducks and Lilah wishing Eden was there since she knew Eden would love feeding the ducks. Lilah pretty much thinking about Eden the whole day and saying how she would enjoy this or that. The third time on the rapids ride getting sprayed by bystanders, but not knowing at the time that’s what was happening until later where we noticed you could pay to spray people. Petting the stingrays during the day. I was petting one, and another one came on top of the one I was petting and tried to slurp a nonexistent fish from my hand. I squealed and Lilah laughed at me while the other bystanders thought I was crazy. Eating a cream cheese stuffed pretzel and cotton candy for lunch while we watched the Sea Lion show. Getting along with Lilah the whole day.

We loaded onto the bus at 6 pm and left a little later. We stopped in Barstow for a meal break at 9 pm and got back into Vegas around midnight. Jon and Eden had to get out of bed to come get us at the girl scout office. Luckily we don’t live that far.

It was lots of fun, and Lilah now thinks Eden and Daddy should go to Sea World together. I really can’t wait to go back and maybe in two years when Eden is old enough, we can do it again.