Family Vacation Leg 3: St. George, Las Vegas and Flying

It was wonderful to arrive at Nate's parents' home. It's always so clean and quiet and restful there. We enjoyed some much-needed rest and relaxation there after all our traveling and adventuring.

We had the carousel almost totally to ourselves at 1:00 in the afternoon. It was almost like we were the only ones in the city crazy enough to be out in the heat!

The lazy river was closed for maintenance, but the kids had fun in the splash pad and the water by the library.

It was great to see Grandma and Grandpa, the Abbeys, and the Lindseys.

Nate's mom moved her schedule around so that she could help us avoid parking our car at the airport the whole time we'd be gone. She drove down to Vegas with us, visited with Nate's grandparents, stayed overnight, and then parked our car for us the next morning. Thanks for the free parking, Grandma and Grandpa! On the way back, Abbey and Devon drove down and delivered our car to the airport. Twelve bucks for a whole week of parking ain't bad, folks. Thanks to all those who went way out of your way to help us. We appreciate it!

The two hour drive from St. George to Vegas was hot. Like 115 degrees hot.

Dinner at Panda Express was a fiasco. Note to our future selves: none of our children like Panda Express, and rice is really, really messy.

We enjoyed our visit with Grandma and Grandpa, who were in the middle of a plumbing crisis. They are always positive, energetic and sunshiney. The kids really liked playing with their well-stocked toybox.

Before we left, Grandma wanted all the kids to line up and sing. It was somewhat underwhelming, and therefore hilarious. But it was cute, too.

They we went to the Silver Sevens hotel and casino to spend the night. Speaking of fiascos, it took forever for us to find our room. So we went back and forth through the smokey casino, luggage in tow, with all our little ones asking all sorts of loud and thoughtful questions about gambling. Then Leah fell partially down a very crowded escalator and we thanked our lucky stars that Grandma was there to save her life. Then our a/c wasn't working (once again, Grandma to the rescue), the kids needed a bath, we didn't have enough towels (again, Grandma saved the day) we were all exhausted, and Asa, Nate and I got like no sleep thatnight because of the worst diaper rash on the planet. Then we were up bright and early the next morning to catch a plane. Always an adventure!

At the airport watching the planes.

Flying to Detroit. The kids did well with all the flying. Takeoff was pretty scary for Bryn. She was afraid we were going to flip upside down.

We made it to Detroit and found some pizza. We had a four hour layover. We couldn't leave the D-gates without going back through security, so we opted to just hang out there. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see or do, and it was under construction, so the only bathrooms were at opposite ends of the wing, and the little playplace was in the middle. Each of the kids had to go potty about 15 times, and every time we turned around, Asa's diaper was filled with a messy surprise on his poor rashy bottom.

The playplace wasn't much, but we were grateful to have it! We spent lots of hours in there. Our kids are troopers.

 To make a long story short, because of weather and mechanical issues, our four hour layover turned into an eight hour one. We all just tried to make the best of it, and came out okay. We were even complimented on how strong our family seemed as a unit, which was flattering to the max. I feel like traveling brings out either the best or worst in people, especially when they're around kids. Everyone we were around was so kind and understanding. A real blessing.

Once we were finally on the plane to Atlanta, everybody except Addison crashed and slept for almost the whole flight. We were totally exhausted. My dad was a sight for sore eyes when we spotted him in the wee hours of the morning at the airport, and we were very glad to collapse into our comfy and quiet sleeping quarters when we finally made it home.