A year ago, no one in their wildest dreams would have pinned my sister Naomi as a stay at home mama: folding laundry, picking toys up off her living room floor, washing dishes from the previous nights dinner...all while wearing her 3 month old sleeping baby on her chest in a baby carrier. It was somewhat surreal seeing her in this new role. She never expected it either and is still adjusting to it herself. A sweet and much needed change to her life and future began when she got pregnant with Chance. A miracle of sorts, for both her and Chance. Along with the surprise pregnancy and arrival of Chance, she is also step mama to her boyfriend Phil's almost 3 year old son Anthony. All living in Las Vegas.
I was so grateful that our road trip travels brought us there for a brief visit. We stayed in Las Vegas for 3 nights, savoring every moment I was able to spend with my sister. We got a hotel on the strip so the older ladies, Angelina and Teresa could get around the casinos easily (and because it was cheaper than off strip hotels). Armando spent most of his time driving everyone around, helping Angelina and Teresa find their way around the casinos, helping me with the kids, taking laundry to the laundry mat, and dropping me off and picking me up from Naomi's (who lived about 20-30 minutes away from the hotel). His long time friend Pedro lives in Las Vegas too (just around the block from Naomi's home) so he hung out with him a lot while I spent time with Naomi. Naomi and I spent most of our time together at her house, cooking and catching up on laundry (we had a ton of dirty laundry too from our travels). My kids and her kids loved each other! It was really fulfilling to be there with her, with our kids playing together while she and I cooked,cleaned and went grocery shopping like it was an every day thing we did together. I wish we lived closer.
We spent one evening out on the town with everyone. This was my first time in Vegas post babies. I don't consider Las Vegas a very kid friendly city, especially the strip part of Las Vegas so I was pretty skeptical about taking the kiddos out on the town. Aside from all the nude girly flyers that blanketed the sidewalks, it wasn't horrible. There were a lot of fun, free and kid appropriate things to do and see. We enjoyed a lot of entertainment just by walking through a few of the big hotels and watching some of the shows performed outside as well.
Here is a collection of some of the pictures I took from the entire visit there - not all in order
He was screaming his head off, inconsolable one evening. Finally, after Naomi and I tried everything to calm him, I walked down the dark hallway with him and within half a second he was out! Babies are so hard to figure out! And sleeping babies are soooo stinking adorable!
Anthony's mohawk is pretty cool!
Ezra loved him!
A favorite!
Staring into each others eyes
Kisses from Ezra
Phil and Chance
I think Ezra inherited his dads belly
Chance always has his hands clenched into fists near his face
Naomi and I both think he has Geneva's eyes. Armando said he recognized features of my biological dad in Chance based on pictures he's seen of my dad as a kid. Chance is one good lookin' babe thats for sure!
My amazing sister and nephew
These kids played for HOURS with each other. They had so much fun together.
Anthony loves Spiderman!
I'd say this is my favorite picture from our entire 2 week road trip! Everyone looks fantastic! Love!
On our drive to Vegas, I finished knitting a hat for Chance. I underestimated how big his head was. Stretched to it's max, it still slipped off his head. The color matches his eyes though, so I took the hat back with me and am re knitting it bigger for him. These two are so sweet!
Another great family photo
Ceasers Palace
I got several good family shots
Checking out the fish in the Aquarium
When in Las Vegas on the strip, you do a ton of walking. These ladies wouldn't have been able to see very much of Vegas without being wheeled around in these chairs, courtesy of the hotel. We were able to wheel them outside, into other hotels/casinos for as long as we liked with no charge. We even got them from a hotel we weren't staying at. Armando's friend Pedro was with us so he helped push too.
Esperanza was clearly excited to sit with Mini Mouse!
We sat to watch the pirate ship show outside Treasure Island. I was disappointed. Back in the day, the show was kid friendly and had much more excitement with fireworks and lights and action. Now, it's is very much an adult show with too much talking and dancing. Still fun to people watch though.
The Las Vegas strip is so much more crowded, crazy and obnoxious than it used to be! Maybe I'm just getting old, or needed a few drinks (or both) - it was just too much for me.
The kids that never sleep slept in the city that never sleeps. They spent a few hours with Armando walking around Circus Circus (the hotel we stayed at) this day while I got one on one with Naomi and Chance. Esperanza got her face painted with a unicorn, as you can see.
One of the mornings we were in Las Vegas, we decided to drive to Hoover Dam. Naomi had a rare opportunity to take a nap while Phil watched Chance, and our vehicle couldn't fit everyone anyways so it worked out. It was a quick, yet beautiful adventure! Hoover Dam is right on the border of Arizona (I thought this was my first time 'in' Arizona, but then later remembered our road trip many, many years ago to Lake Havasu, AZ in August - I think I deliberately blocked that out - It was miserably hot!). The weather this time to Arizona was just gorgeous and perfect! I don't think we could have picked a better day or time of year.
Teresa and Angelina. After we discovered that the casinos provided wheelchairs, we didn't hesitate to ask for one here too. Teresa can walk, she just tires easily and the chair helped her to enjoy herself so much more.
I didn't know Hoover Dam was named after President Hoover until I read this.
Why am I always the only one smiling?
Ezra lost it not even half way into our little visit
I think this bridge received much more focus and photographs from the people on the dam than the actual dam.
Dam
Lake Mead
I asked Armando to pull over to the side of the road so I could collect some pretty red desert rocks. Ezra took advantage of the pit stop to fill up on milk too.
Driving back from Hoover Dam
Lake Mead
Nap time on the way back
Sad day - leaving Vegas, Chance, my sister...
Another sad part of the day - we left Ezra's blanket in Las Vegas. I was the last one out of the hotel room and was responsible for checking to make sure we got everything. Thinking back, I know exactly where it was. His 'blankie' is his world! He chases me around with his when he wants to nurse saying "nigh-nigh", "nigh-nigh". Somehow nigh- nigh went from going to bed at night time, to nursing at any given time througout the day. So, when blankie went missing, he was lost. Thankfully, we had a spare blanky at home. He just had to wait another week.
Just outside of Vegas are these 3 huge towers and the ground below surrounding them was really shiny. We thought it looked pretty suspicious. After looking it up though, we discovered it was a big solar plant of some sort.
Headed back to into California - our journey home begins...
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