Cali/Nevada Day NINE - Good Byes, and heat!

We went out to breakfast with Auntie Steph and Grandpa one last time before we headed out.

Then we said our goodbyes.

 Lucas always has a hard time saying good bye to Grandpa. He loves him so much.

We left Colorado with 5 kids and came home with 6. Thanks Auntie Steph!

We started driving to Vegas around 9:30am.

The kids had been such troopers the entire trip, but something snapped in Juliet.

Nothing Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish can't fix.

 See, all better!

Nathan wanted to just get there and go. 

We were fortunate enough to really get the Nevada experience with the temperature...NOT!

This wasn't even the hottest it got. It was 122 at 4:45pm. UGH.

I love Vegas, I miss living there, but this was just unbearable.

We parked the van and headed into the CocaCola Store.

Hello Kitty was there to greet the girls.

 This was a wall of different Coke Labels.

These glasses were made of 100% recycled material!

The lips came from an unknown source.

Plastic Piggy Banks.

Purses and bags and other cool things made from Pop Tops.

So that's why Nathan's shoulders hurt the next day! LOL

We bought the kids the Around the World sampler.

Each soda was from a different part of the world.

So, we tried them.

 Everyone had a favorite. China's was a clear favorite.

Then we walked next door to the M&M store.

 We took the kids to see the 3D movie inside, which was awesome until cold winds blew in the room and freaked out Mason. He was so startled. 

 Here is the official M&Ms racecar. After I took the picture, I knocked a shelf and a mug hit the ground and broke. The manager came over and was so mad and rude about it. I even apologized and everything. 

Oh well.

Instead of buying the kids a $9 dollar bag of M&M's each, I told them I had another surprise for them.

So, we drove over to the Vegas Temple.

 I thought ahead and bought the kids their own bags of M&Ms to eat and enjoy at the temple. The best part? They had to eat them fast because it was so hot, they were starting to melt. The kids had NO problems scarfing down the candy.

 Scarlett kept asking us to have some pineapples. "Mom they are so good, please can we have one? Mom, I love pineapples can we try one?" I didn't know what she was talking about until I noticed these:

 They cut them like this on purpose. There are several of these on the property.

Scarlett was pretty disappointed, but then I distracted her with the echo circles:

If you stand in the center and humm you can hear the other person on the other end in the opposite circle.

We tried it and a few other things the temple workers told us when we went inside the temple.

What? We went inside the temple?

Yes. The visitor center was closed and we needed to use the restrooms so they let the children inside and they were able to get a "peek" at the beauty of the temple. Bridget was convinced that the pink interior of the temple was enough for her to want to get married in THIS temple. Haha.

Then it was time to stop at a very familiar place for our family:

 And it was time for dinner so we had Jack in the Box and then toured the strip.

 We jumped out of the van while Nathan put the younger two to sleep and walked to the Bellagio.

 Andrea Bochelli was playing so the kids danced.

 Then the fountain show started.

 There was a slight breeze for it being 117 at 9:30 at night.

 The kids were sprayed a little and it felt sooo good.

It was a great show. Full of oohs and ahhs.

We were going to take the kids to see more, but the traffic was horrendous. 

It was 10:45pm by the time we actually got back on the freeway.

The kids were out within 11 minutes.  Onward to Utah!