Vegas Vacation

This year we got to go on a little family vacation to Las Vegas. We headed out late Friday afternoon on our way to Raynie's house. Wade, Nanette, and Tanner happened to go visit Raynie the same weekend so we got to hang out with them all day Saturday! We woke up and headed to Boulder City where we ate at a really good restaurant for breakfast and ate our little hearts out. Then we got in our cars and headed to the Hoover Dam to check it out.

Denver and I went to Vegas through Flagstaff so we could drive by the dam on the bridge to see it at night...but you drive over the bridge for 5 seconds and the barrier is ten feet high (it seems like it) so we couldn't even see the dam. I was pretty devastated because we were planning on going through St. George when we went home so we wouldn't see the dam ever again...haha But luckily the whole family wanted to go check it out on Saturday so I was really excited!

We wanted to take a dam tour from a helicopter but we were too late....so we just took the express dam tour! This included a drive over the dam, professional family photos, and if you wanted to see the other side of the dam the chauffeur let you out on one end of the dam and picked you up on the other end.....hence, you had to RUN! Haha....Thanks Raynie for being our chauffeur! Denver was awesome! As soon as we got out of the car....Denver ran and snapped a couple of pictures, then we ran, then he took a couple more....then we caught up to Raynie! We were cracking up the whole time and people I'm sure thought we were crazy! Especially because it was probably 110 degrees.

The two little girls were asleep so this is a pic of everyone minus Daley and Paisley.

After the Dam tour....we went to the strip and checked out a hotel/casino (I can't remember the name of it). This is a pic of Daley and Denver in the mall part of the hotel.

After shopping around at the strip, we went to the infamous Pawn Stars shop. It was fun going inside and seeing it in real life. It's a lot smaller in real life than what they make it look like on T.V. We didn't see anyone famous but we saw a guy that sold a car on Pawn Stars. Our brother-in-law, Matt, had a conversation with him and had a cool story. It was the most expensive car they (Pawn Stars) have ever bought on the show. Watch the show and you might see the guy. The picture of him is down below.

After we went to the pawn shop we headed back to Raynie and Matt's (well we stopped at a furniture store and the mall on the way) where we had pizza and chilled until we all went to bed. Wade, Nanette, and Tanner had to head back home from the weekend when we woke up Sunday morning. We hung out with Raynie and Matt all Sunday morning before they went to church. Then we headed out to go check into our hotel.

So here is a funny story....when we got to the hotel/casino it was like being on the freeway. It was a one way and there were certain exits you had to take and it was CRAZY! I've never seen anything like it. The entrance where you park your car to check in was sooooo wide and there were a thousand people and their luggage walking around. Denver and I had to try a few times to figure out where we were suppose to go. We finally talked to a guy and he said, "you guys are actually at The Signature which if you follow the signs you will get there." Haha we had no idea... Two little small town kids....we were so relieved when we got to The Signature because it was smaller and less crazy!

We stayed at the MGM Grand....well it was actually called The Signature at the MGM Grand but they were just as nice or probably nicer....the reasons because: 1. It was non-smoking 2. You weren't in the middle of the hustle and bustle at the actual MGM 3. Our hotel had valet parking included 4. When we checked in, it was like a regular hotel...not crazy busy in the lobby 5. It had a really nice pool. I think the only bad part of the hotel was that it didn't have a continental breakfast....but luckily we had cereal on hand and some milk that we borrowed from Daley.

This is a pic of the towers we stayed in....we were in the middle one.

Here we are in the main lobby of the MGM....I wish I would have taken a picture of our lobby so you could see the difference.


We mainly stayed in the room and had fun swimming! Daley is a pro! She went underwater and would come up clapping...I have a video but it was the end of the day so she wasn't clapping much afterward.

Daley is telling us about how she loves to swim and go underwater here....

We loved this pool because there was a really shallow place where Daley could play around in. The MGM had a nice water park too but we went and checked it out and it was CRAZY BUSY. So we enjoyed hanging out in this pool...the pic above looks like it was always busy but most of the time everyone was in the hot tub and we had the pool to ourselves...it must have been happy hour when we took the pic.

Monday morning we woke up and headed out to check out the strip. Daley had a ton of fun in the m&m store.

She zonked after about an hour on the strip...Denver and I had fun going into expensive stores and checking out prices for clothes and such. It's crazy how much people would pay for stuff like that....It was getting really hot so we decided to head back to the room and go swimming for the day.

We were across the street from New York, New York.

Here are pics of us in the room chillin'. We went down to the food court that night and got some Haagen Daz before we went to bed and tried to see the lions.....they already went to bed too soooo we stayed at the MGM and didn't see the lions! Crazy I know.....

Daley was a crazy girl in the room and at night she would just crash because she was so tired!

We had fun playing on these escalator walkways. Denver told me stories about how evertime he came to Vegas he would run on these and so we did it and it was hilarious! Daley even did it in her stroller with us.

We were sad when our adventure had to end. We packed up Tuesday morning and headed home. There was a really whindy road in between Hurricane and St. George and Daley just happened to wake up when we got into the turns...she was bored so I handed her a book (not thinking) and just 7 miles out of St. George she threw up everywhere!!!!! Haha it was aweful, Denver and I almost threw up too when we smelled it. Haha I guess there is always a first...I haven't ever really thought about when our kids get car sick....it was always the brothers and sisters we were worried about.

Here is Daley all cleaned up eating and waiting for us to finish cleaning up the car.

We had such a fun and relaxing trip throw up and all!

Happy Birthday Daley!

Denver and I can't believe we have a little 1 year old running around the house! The year has completely flown by.....

We started having flashbacks of the day she was born on the 4th of July when we went to the airport to watch the fireworks....right after the show a medical plane landed and was parking near by and we thought it was crazy that a year ago we flew in a medical plane to pheonix because I went into premature labor with our little Daley.....

Now here we are celebrating her 1st birthday! Daley's friends Ryann and Carter came to her party and they had so much fun! Bri, Sonora, and Chad got to be there too! When everyone got there we had some hot dogs and let the girls play around.....then we sat around and opened presents and then had some cupcakes......

I think by this picture it looks like Chad was have a blast! hahaha...thanks Chad for being such a great sport! Daley loves you!

When we lived in Flagstaff I had a friend that was into decorating cakes....I never made one with her but she told me some tips on how to do it.....so I had fun decorating Daley's birthday cake! Don't look too close....it's definitely not perfect. Each cake I try I think of other tools that would make the cakes look better....I think what I need now are different sized smaller pans. This is my first time trying a two teer cake. The top layer is made out of rice crispy treats that I molded because I didn't have different sized pans and you cant find them here in good 'ol Kayenta. I thought it worked out pretty well.

Here are some stats on our sweet little Daley Girl.....

-she is 21 lbs. 6 oz. and 30 in. long

-she is walking everywhere

-finds a book and wants to sit on your lap so you can read it to her

-she loves to wave to everybody

-she is starting to jabber....A LOT, she says things like "go," "this," and "momma, & dadda!" It is the cutest little language I have ever heard. My parents said that I did the same thing and they called it Meganese.

-she will tell you "go" and rock the basket if you are taking too long in an isle in the store

-she loves to jabber on her toy cell phone.

-she loves to follow us around the house and help out...she is the best little helper! ;)

-she loves to hold her little dollies and push them around in a little stroller....we are teaching her how to burp them....it's cute when she tries

-she loves to play outside with Blue

-she loves to swim....when we take her to the pool sometimes she tries to get out of our arms to swim on her own...kinda scary! haha

-she makes kissy sounds

4th of July

This 4th of July was a small one this year because we couldn't spend it with any of the families this year. We still had a ton of fun celebrating with just our little family and our ward. It was a block party with a few families from the ward. They all lived in the clinic housing (I'm not sure if that's the real name.....they are all medical people) so all of the members that were there were all next door neighbors. Daley really enjoyed hangin out with her nursery friends out in the street.

It is a small world in Kayenta! There is a couple in the ward that got back from a mission and decided they werent ready to retire when they got home but they didn't want to deal with the hustle and bustle of a private practice like what they did before their mission. So they asked where it the hardest to keep dentists and it ended up being Kayenta! So it has been fun having them in the ward! Their youngest daughter and her husband came to celebrate the 4th with them and Denver and I had fun getting to know them. The husband is a grandson of a couple Denver use to home teach when he was young in Eagar. We really enjoyed making friends with them and hope they come back to Kayenta to visit!

We had a pot luck at the block party and later we met up with everyone at the airport to watch the fireworks. The fireworks were great! I didn't think any firework show could get as good as Eagar's, but Kayenta's was pretty good! Kayenta's show has 5 Grand Finales!!! haha That's a joke.....There would just be long pauses in between some of the fireworks and we thought it was a grand finale. You just had to be there.....

Daley has this new obsession with rocks....at the block party, Daley was busy running around looking for the biggest rock to either carry around or suck on. This is her and Max....Max was

deciding on whether or not sucking on rocks was as fun as Daley thought it was.

Finch Reunion

The weekend before the 4th of July we got to take a quick trip down to the ranch and go camping with the Finchs'!! Denver and I made our tent in the back of our car. It worked out great with Daley sleeping inbetween us. When she woke up the next morning and realized where she was she turned into a crazy girl! Haha....she was squealing and had a ball playing in the car. When we got up and got dressed we enjoyed our time we got to spend chatting and hanging out with the family and Daley really enjoyed running away from us and playing with all the kiddos! We really enjoyed our weekend and getting to see everyone again.

Daley found Jenny & Kayde's soda stash!

We had to leave late Saturday afternoon because we had to talk in church the next day. We were really sad to leave so early but if you have to talk in church........ you have to church. Well when we got to church the next day a couple of girls were asked to bare their testimonies

on their experiences of the Trek they had near Flagstaff. They were given 2-3 minutes. Well 2-3 minutes turned into 20 minutes each at least and Denver and I were asked to talk two weeks later! Hahaha! But it was all good....we really enjoyed hearing the girls testimonies and I was really impressed with them how they could bare their testimony for so long! Still to this day I couldn't take up that much time if I wanted to! Denver and I have really enjoyed going to church up here! It almost feels like home....

Summertime!

This summer what have been busier than ever! I honestly thought we would have a nice quiet summer with nothing to do...but I was very wrong! Haha I don't even know where to begin to tell you all about it.....it all happened so fast! Now that I am getting to blog about it, school is about to start here and that is CRAZY!

This is a pic of Daley just getting cleaned up from playing in the mud...She was having fun taking a photo shoot!

I'll start with all of our summer visitors! I had no idea that Kayenta would be such a popular place to spend some of your summer vacation! jk I will give a list of all of our visitors and I hope I get them all in! Bri and Sonora have spent the whole summer with us and we have had so much fun with them! Daley is going to be so sad when they leave! On the weeks that they go home she lets me know how boring I am!

Chad has also come up and spent a couple of weeks with us and he has become Daley's favorite! She would rather go to Chad than any of us that are here at the house!

Roger, Babbett, Jack, Evette, and Ricky came up to help us do some deep cleaning here at the restaurant and we had lots of fun considering we were doing some pretty hard work.

Blake, Martha, Riley, and Tess came up and spent a few days with us while they were evacuated for the Wallow Fire that hit near Eagar. We had tons of fun with them too! We just sat, relaxed, ate, and swam and to me....that's all I want in a vacation!

Mom, Dad, and Madi came too and spend a week with us while Dad worked at the mine to do some installs. It's really nice when they get to come up! We really miss them and we were so lucky to have them for a whole week! Daley loved hanging out with Aunt Madi even though Daley would bug her sometimes. We had a blast going to Monument Valley for the first time with them! I wish I had some pictures of that! It is seriously one of the most beautiful places in the world!

I feel bad I didn't do the best about taking any pictures while we had visitors but as you can see I do have a few here and there. We miss everyone a ton!

We loved all of our visitors this summer and hope they all come again! And this is a shout out to everyone else who wants to come visit! We would love to have you!

Some other things that have been going on this summer on our few boring days usually after work we all go out as a family and work on the yard.....Daley has her favorite spot where she likes to walk back and forth on the side walk and she reaches as far as possible under the fence to get a rock. She loves to suck on rocks! So usually Denver is working on the lawn and I am guarding the rocks to Daley doesn't get to them. So if Daley cant get to them, she likes to play in the mud and play with Blue!

Daley has also been learning how to drink out of cups and use a spoon or fork.....she definitely hasn't mastered it yet but we are working on it a little bit! One thing she does like to do though is find treasure in the trash! Denver was drinking a Mountain Dew and he wouldn't share it with her.....so when he was finished and he threw it away....she went right behind him and dug it out of the trash to get her share of it! Haha Denver and I were cracking up because she knew she was doing something naughty and she was looking at us like..."What are you going to do about it?"

Denver and I have found out that Daley knows what the work "no" means. Whenever she gets into something she is not suppose to Denver and I will tell her "no" and get up to take it away from her. When she sees us get up she just does it harder and faster or she runs away! Little stinker!