Backyard Camping

Friday night we had to uphold the promise that we made to Hayden before we left for Vegas. We promised him that if he behaved while we were away that we would go camping and have a campfire.

Hayden was beyond excited and loved the whole thing!! He loved the hotdogs we grilled for dinner, the cold cold swim we took after the sun went down, the smores, and even sleeping in the tent!

Addyson wasn't as excited about the smores as she was the chocolate on the smores. We would prepare everything for the smores before going to toast the marshmellows. When we came back with the marshmellows the chocolate would be gone. It made me think at first, but didn't take us long to figure out our daughter was stealing all the chocoalte.

Hayden didn't want toasted marshmellows on his smores but he did want to burn mine! :)

He struggled to find a way to get it all in his mouth and the same time. Addyson didn't want it all together. She liked hers in pieces.

Grant worked hard keeping the fire going.

The kids try so hard to be like their Dad. They are both trying to break small limbs to fit in the fire.

We enjoyed some great company around the campfire. The Acree's walked down to visit for awhile. The kids really enjoyed having someone to play with.

You can see whose Tapper's favorite person of the night was. She always had some type of food in her hands.

The boys made it through the night in the tent. Addyson and I retreated to the house for more comfortable accomodations.

Grand Canyon!!

Friday morning we rushed to MGM to eat breakfast and back to our hotel to meet the Hummer at 7:30. It was soooo early for a Las Vegas morning.

We drove with one other couple from Canada the hour and a half to two hours to the Grand Canyon. I rode in the front with the tour guide Richard. He was very outgoing and a little creepy.

We started out at the Eagle Point on the West ridge of the Grand Canyon. He did advise us not to take the skywalk and save ourselves close to a hundred bucks. If you look the the left of me you will see the eagle formation. We were very lucky that Richard takes good pictures.

He dared us at the beginning on the morning to put our legs over the edge of the Grand Canyon. Part of me thought he was kidding but he wasn't. This is the closest I could come to the edge without being totally terrified. This was probably the scariest picture we took all day.

We did get a picture of the sky walk behind us. The rock on the right of Grant is where we stood to see the same thing as those on the skywalk. Not sure but a hundred dollars is worth it if you are scared of heights.

Next we moved on the the next point on the West Ridge. Here you can see our tour guide falling off the side of the canyon.

I am not proud of this picture but it is funny.

All day Richard was asking us to lift our leg or jump in the air near the edge. Here I felt safe enough to stand on one foot.

Grant loved being up so high. He didn't seem to be scared at all.

We did have the chance ourselves to fall off the canyon. It was hilarious to watch other people climbing the canyon to see us off the side. They were worried for a split second but no one seemed to want to help.

By the time I made it up I thought about saving Grant. I even tried to pull him up BUT...

I decided to kick him off instead. :)

This is my all time favorite photo. You can see so much of the canyon and the Colorodo River. That rock really was on the edge. But by this time I was use to being so close to edge it didn't really scare me as much any more.

While the other couple was taking some picture I decided to sit down and rest. I just didn't realize there was a sharp rock behind me. Luckily my wonderful husband was there with our camera to capture part of my pain. I still have a bruise from that rock.

Okay...You have to look really close for this one. If you can see my tongue, I am pretending to stick it in the Indian's mouth. Hopefully you can see his nose and eye. We had a really good tour guide who knew where to take all the cool pictures.

Did you know that I could rock climb?

I am good enough that I went first and then had to help Grant. :) NOT! We staged this to look like Grant needed help. I was on top of the rock and Grant ran down to look like he was climbing up. I then ran down to pretend that I could actually climb that rock.

After the Grand Canyon we stopped at a Ranch for lunch. We had the choice between BBQ chicken or ribs. As you can see I chose the safe option, chicken. Grant had the ribs. They sure smelled good. After lunch we were entertained by a magician. He was very good. I could figure out a single thing he did.

At the ranch I had the option of hanging Grant. This was my second time in the same day I had the chance to off Grant. He is lucky that I love him so much!! :)

This is the building where we ate!!

After lunch we headed back to Vegas. Our tour guide pulled over so we could take a picture of the beautiful landscape. We were in the middle of the Joshua Forest.

The Joshua trees are pretty cool but very sticky.

This was our ride for the day! I was excited to ride in the Hummer until I realized on the way back that the AC was not working. It was hot!!

Our last stop for the day was the Hoover Dam. I really think the tour guide was suppose to drive us across and take us on a tour but it was hot and we were already running late.

It was around 107 degrees at the Hoover Dam. The weird thing it didn't feel that hot until we started climbing the three hundred or so steps to get to the top of the bridge. :)

This is a day we will not forget anytime soon. I had so much fun and did so many things that I didn't think I could or would ever do.

Las Vegas

Grant and I left after Vacation Bible School last Wednesday night for Nashville. Although we stayed the night with Jo we never saw her since we came in so late and had to leave so early. We caught our 6:30 flight to Vegas.

We arrived with a very The only part of the trip I was worried about was the cab ride. This is mainly because of my inexperience with them. Do you talk to the driver? How much do you tip? How do you know they are taking you the fastest way possible? Anyway, we had a very nice driver and everything went fine. He dropped us off at our hotel New York, New York.

We were really hungry and really didn't no what to do first. We headed over to Luxor for a breakfast at Nathan's. It was good but expensive. I thought that would be my last meal of the day, but it was still so early.

The word of day one is SORE FEET!! We walked all the way down to the Venetian. This is where we ended up spending most of our time in the evenings. I thought the actors below did an amazing job. Grant just thought it was weird for people to be singing out in the middle of no where.

I really didn't carry my camera around as much as I wanted but it was so heavy. The pictures below are the only one that I got of the two of us at night. At night we were so tired that we were more concerned about getting to our room than making pictures.

Reel 'em In is Grant's favorite Casino game of all times. He sat and played this game for hours.

One of the things he liked about it was that the three other people playing with him could possibly help him. He also like the fact that he could play for a long time without losing money. Actually he won money at this game but lost with regular slots.

We were able to see some pretty great shows while we were in Vegas. The first night we saw the Blue Man Group. All I wanted to do was take the drum sticks and hit the drums. They wouldn't let me.

Grant wanted to be one of them. He was just the wrong color. They were a little prejudice. :)

Friday we went to the Grand Canyon so we caught a late show, David Copperfield. He was so amazing to watch. He made a car appear out of nowhere. I wish I could figure out how he did that.

Saturday night we dressed up and went to watch the Phantom. Grant is not a fan of musicals but he found parts of the show that he enjoyed. I really enjoyed it and was one of my favorite shows.

After Phantom we went and ate at Wofgang Puck's restaurant. We had eaten at his express restaurant at Disney and knew it would be delicious. We had a chip with blue cheese appitizer with bread. We both ate spaghetti but Grant had his with meat balls. It was soooo good.

We had a free buffet everyday. There were several on the strip that we could choose from but the closest was the MGM Grand Buffet. We ate here each morning for brunch. I enjoyed it so much. We enjoyed the omlets and pasteries the most.

Grand Canyon picutres are coming next!!

Addyson Cuteness...And Hayden too!

Addyson had a wonderful birthday weekend. She hasn't felt quite herself the whole weekend but she has enjoyed it none the less. She has loved playing with her new table and chairs. She will rearrange the chairs like she did below. She wanted me to take her picture with her holding her baby.

Hayden wanted to get in on the fun! The majority of the time they play really well together.

Addyson and Hayden enjoyed breakfast at their table yesterday. They had their two favorites, scrambled eggs and toast.

Addyson wore her cupcake outfit to church yesterday morning. I thought it was very appropriate for a birthday morning. :) Don't you just love her new shoes Abby and Aunt Karen picked out for her.

We have been working on potty training this summer. She has been doing extremely well until she got this stomach bug. She even seems to enjoy going to the bathroom. She wants to be just like Hayden.