Long weekend

The kids had an even longer weekend than just Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Tuesday was staff development day. We couldn't let a 4 day weekend go by and not escape for a little while, could we? At first we thought that going to Big Bear for the weekend would be fun...until I couldn't find a cabin for under $280 a night. Then there's the fact that tubing prices in Big Bear are outrageous. We then came up with the idea of driving to Brain Head, Utah for a couple of nights and one night in Vegas on the way home. Even with 3 nights hotel cost and gas it was cheaper than Big Bear for 2 nights. Pathetic.
We had a great time. We left Saturday morning and arrived Cedar City at about 5:00, checked into our hotel, which the kids always love, and went to dinner. After, we went swimming in their indoor, heated pool. Fun times!

Sunday morning we headed to Brian Head for some fun times in the snow. After seeing how big the tubing hills were we decided it was best for Devin not to go. (that is Avery, Justin and Kirk going up the lift thing) We were lucky that there were some smaller hills right next to it and the guy working there said we could use their tubes and go on those hills since Avery, Justin and Kirk bought their passes already. Avery and Justin gave the big hills a try, but weren't fans. Can you see poor Avery's face as she just completed the hill? She looks so scared! Too intimidating, so they joined us on the small hills. We were there a good 2 or 3 hours and they had an absolute ball! Towards the end, after getting more comfortable with it, Justin and Avery decided to go back on the big hills a couple more times.That's them waiting to go back up.It was a fun day in the snow!
We then headed over to McDonald's for some lunch. That was the best McDonald's we've ever been to complete with air hockey, those basketball machine things, playland slides things and a couple of other fun items.


Later that evening we headed over to my cousin Linda's house for dinner and good company. Her son and his family live here in Temecula near us and we, I am ashamed to say, rarely see them. We seem to always catch up with them in other cities, or in this case...state. They were there to ski and snowboard for the week. The kids had a great time playing with each other and the adults had a good time visiting. I can't believe I didn't even get a picture of you, Linda. Shame on me! Thanks for having us. It was good to see you guys and finally see your home. Next time we're staying at the Liebhardt Inn! :-)

Monday morning we headed out to Vegas. When we arrived it was raining a bit, but we lucked out and never got caught in it during the day. We went to the MGM Grand to see the lions and then over to the M&M Factory, of course. We then checked into our hotel, The Excalibur. NEVER STAY THERE! Let's just say it's not nice and there is a reason our room was only $36. After laying on our bed for a minute and feeling like I was going to roll out we decided it was best to enjoy our evening in Vegas, but leave early and sleep in our own beds that night. We walked around Mandalay Bay and Luxor for a little bit. Kirk found a deal downtown for shrimp cocktail for only $1.99. Justin's favorite thing is shrimp, so we figured we head over there for dinner. Turns out downtown is NOT for kids. It was raining then and we parked in a garage not adjacent to the shrimp place, so we needed to walk a bit to get there. Once there we had to walk through the casino that had dancing ladies on the gambling tables. Later, Avery referred to them as Hawaiian dancers. Ha! Gotta love innocence. So, we headed (quickly) to the back only to find out it was a bar and the kids weren't allowed there and there was no where else to eat our shrimp. We got it to go and headed back out (by the Hawaiian dancers) and towards our car in the parking garage to eat there. It was raining and very cold. On our way to the car there was this one random table and 4 chairs in the middle of this parking garage. It was bizarre, but we thought it was better than sitting in the car, so we had shrimp in a parking garage in the cold while it was raining (although we were covered). We were a sight. Even a security guard came by to see what we were up to and had a good laugh at us. I do believe this is my favorite picture of our mini trip.

We ended up getting home at about 11:20 pm on Monday night and had a very nice sleep in our own bed. Ahhhh. And it was nice to have Tuesday to relax while it rained all day. :-)