CES trip

Christopher needed to go to the CES conference in Las Vegas last week, and so we headed down as a family. To be honest, I was ready to be done traveling already, but I love seeing my three brothers that live there and all of their kids, and my Dad was in town to go to the same conference. So off we drove.

Our first order of business turned out to be a tourist visit.

I don't know if any of you watch Pawn Stars on the History channel, but we love it. It is like Antiques Roadshow a little- people are bringing in stuff they want to sell or pawn, and the experts tell them what it is worth. But the guys who run the place are hilarious- true Vegas characters. So we shopped around for a while, and Christopher bought a T-shirt he is now very proud of.

Most of my days were quiet while Christopher was at the conference. But somehow one of the highlights of my trip was just talking with my sister in law- of all the moms I have ever known, she is one I really look up to, and she is so amazing that she even teaches parenting classes. We talked for hours about my kids and how I am doing, and I felt like I had taken a weight off by the end of the trip. I really needed a re-focus on what really matters!

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. Friday night was a big family dinner. I love catching all of the millions of things that are going on! These two girls are cousins the same age, and they had a very elaborate dance going to demo music on the keyboard.


There was a pool game for the boys- my two older brothers are really good!

Grandpa was so cute playing with Kaitlyn here. She loved telling him about each little object she found in that bin.

Since my family has a January birthday . . . problem (7 of my mom's 13 Grandkids were born in January), we had birthday cupcakes to blow out. Kaitlyn had been crying about wanting one since they were baked the day before. No amount of moving them or covering them with tin foil would let her forget. And of course she couldn't understand that I really was going to give her one eventually. Poor thing.

Finally. Yum.

Gary led these guys in a rousing jumping jack routine, which was hilarious.

Nicholas borrowed my camera to take a self portrait.

And here it is- the Kaitlyn patented death glare. She started this when we first arrived in Ohio. My little brother Dan told her "don't touch" when she got too close to the Villiage, and she gave him this glare for 3-5 minutes before breaking into tears. She now gives any family member she doesn't know this glare, and leaves them all cowering. I swear, it is scarier in person.

But Grandpa isn't scared.

We spent a good portion of the weekend playing the Super Mario Brothers game on Wii. It is awesome! I loved how interactive it is- four people can play at a time, and you are talking to each other nearly the whole time.

The next morning we went to Chuck E Cheese for some cousin birthday parties. Tyler sure does love slides.

This was the funniest game I have seen in a while. It was like a big giant hampster wheel! The faster you ran, the more tickets you got.

Kaitlyn loved this horse, even if she didn't know how to steer when I put a token in to start the game.

Tyler liked watching his cousins play.

And then everybody else had plans that afternoon, and it was a beautiful day. So we went to the nearest park. Because that always makes sense a week after snowmobiling.

They were so excited to run around! It was a real treat to play in a park in the middle of winter.

Peek a boo!

Kaitlyn's hair is so light, she started this poof-ball after one trip down a slide.

And then, because playing in a park in January isn't creepy enough, an ICE CREAM TRUCK showed up. I was laughing all the way home.

That night we went to Gary's house for dinner. Maya was so cute- she sat with my kids at the little table and helped them eat. And Kaitlyn is always happy to have a coloring buddy.

And of course, we had to play more Mario Brothers. Gary is so competitive that even though everyone is on the same team, he would throw people who were slowing him down into the water.

And poor Tyler just crashed. Between Chuck E Cheese and the park that afternoon, he was exhausted. I was impressed Grandpa could still try and play with a sleeping toddler on his shoulders.

We had to leave the next day, but we took one more trip to the park before, and my family came along too. There were kicking a soccer ball around and blowing bubbles, and my kids were having a blast.

And then we headed back up to the land of snow again! It was a great trip.