Vegas #2--Hoover Dam

This one should have been in the previous post, but I am too lazy to go back.  Mom wanted to go to the grocery store to get stuff to make spaghetti sauce for Keith.  This was how this car was parked in the lot.  Everyone was taking pics.  You can take the Bakers out of Memphis, but you can't get away from the ghetto idiots...

On our way to Hoover Dam we spotted this photo op.  We parked and noticed another car parked with the passenger door opened and a dog wandering around.  When we walked past the car, we could see legs sticking out, and a person wearing a tight, SHORT skirt.  Let's just say she would have been on the "Wardrobe Malfunction" list.  Anyway, we took our pics, got a different tourist to take a family one, and as we were going back to our car, the short skirt woman emerged asking for a jump because she had left her lights on.  Um, no.  Again, you can only get so far away from Memphis...

Hoover Dam!  This was on Jon's "bucket list" of things he wanted to see.  It was not really important to me, but it was free, so yes, let's take the kids.  It was really cool!  So glad he was there.  Can you see the perfect line at the bottom of the mountains? That is where the water has receded (we think).  

Apparently Jon is afraid of looking down from high points.  I did not know this.

Arizona time:  nah nah nah nah.  Can't touch this.

Jacob is in Nevada, Morgan in Arizona.

 And then we had to switch and take another pic because they fought over who got to be in each state.

Then we got them to stand like they did when we were in Gatlinburg earlier this year, with a foot in each state.  This kind of thing always makes me think of A Walk to Remember (that movie/book by Nicholas Sparks  where the girl is dying and one thing on her bucket list is to be in two places at once).

So we got Jon to at least stand by the Hoover Dam sign. 

Funny story.  There were these two "lookout towers" on the dam.  They were tall and narrow, and we could see people coming & going from them.  Jacob was dying to walk up one to look out.  In fact, he was quite disgusted that we told him we would work our way over to them, rather than just running straight there. Well, we never noticed that only women were coming & going from one of them, while men were coming and going from the other.  We walked right into this one, climbed the spiral staircase, commenting on how bad it smelled, and then reached a toilet.  Ok, so yea, duh moment for us, but why were they made so that people had to walk up a spiral staircase to pee???

   

Morgan pointing out the white line across the mountains.

Another duh moment for the Memphis folk.  We looked over and saw all these coins and took turns making fun of the people who couldn't throw past the the cliff and make it into the water.  Then Jon said, "Hey Jake, betcha I can make it into that little crevice in the corner."  Ahhhh

Jon finally looked over!!

Once we left the dam, I googled it and read info to the kids.  They actually were totally interested in how it was built, how long it took, how much money, etc.  Anyway, we read how there was basically nothing in the area at the time as far as businesses so they had to build places to train, house, & feed the workers.  Then we spotted this little store advertising "Hides, Horns, & Skulls" and decided to stop.  Mostly as a joke-but it was such a cool store!!  We really could have stayed for much longer than we did.  All the merchandise was supposedly authentic stuff made/found on reservations & Mexico.  AND it turned out to supposedly be the first building ever built in the town and was used as a training building for the people working on the dam!

A giant cane they wanted to buy Grammy ;)

Why yes that is a cow hoof flask, um canteen.  Duh.

Jacob said, "we have one of these in music class!"  

Morgie and I bought real supposedly authentic hand-beaded bracelets.

And Jacob bought a real-you get the idea-authentic arrow head necklace.

Driving into Las Vegas.

We had a sunroof.

I promise this was at a stoplight.

Things heard at Hoover Dam:
Jacob-"Can we slide down?"
Jacob & Morgan- "No, I want to be in Arizona!"
Jon-"DON'T LEAN OVER."
Jon-"DON'T LEAN OVER."
Jon-"DON'T LEAN OVER."
Jacob-"It would be cool to work here."

Happiness walk:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQeBoe0KFUM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

Vegas #1--Flying & Keith's house

At the Nashville Airport

Morgie looking glamorous in her free Memphis Grizzlies sunglasses given out at Sonic this past year :)

That's our plane!

Yes looking out the window was exciting for a few minutes, but c'mon, Spongebob is on and the window is making a glare!

Then we were above the clouds, and it became interesting again ;)

Changing planes in Denver.  I was seriously waiting for Jacob to fall.  The boy is not graceful...

Michael is just a little obsessed with some game on Morgan's iPad.

I thought this was so random.  The brand of makeup is sold at Sephora, and there was a vending machine for it in the Las Vegas Airport.

Mom didn't even make it out of the airport before she found a slot to play.

On the shuttle to the rental car.

Jacob bought a $10 watch on the cruise last year randomly.  And it was everyone's saving grace because we didn't really carry our phones with us all the time.  Then, of course it broke soon after we got home but by then he was addicted to having a watch.  So we got him another.  And he wouldn't settle for a kid's watch, no, it had to have all the gadgets like the one he bought on the cruise.  Anyway, it's huge and everyone teases him about it, but he does not care.  I picked out a similar one at Target the other day when they had that crazy free coupon, and he was just so excited that we have matching watches now ;)

We got to eat at In-N-Out Burger in Vegas near Keith and Terrin's house.  It was delicious.  Not sure if it was really that good, or that we were just starving at this point...

We got to Keith's house and mom was amazed at how organized Keith's garage was.  Especially since he was the one who organized it.  She made me take a picture.

As you can see, the kids are really shy when they are in new surroundings...

Every other house in the neighborhood had a normal looking palm tree growing in their yards.  Not Keith's.  He apparently is waiting for Spongebob to show up...

Keith's backyard

That fence was made by Keith.  Really clever actually.  They only needed it to go around a section of the pool because one of their dogs, Jellybean, who Terrin has had since she was 16 and has cataracts now, randomly will fall into the pool.  Because she can't see well.  But only on that side, because, "that's the side of the yard she likes."  Oh.

The hot tub.  That is Jellybean there.  Since the kids were there, she was thoroughly confused.  She kept barking, which Keith and Terrin said she never does, and she was wondering around on the side of the yard she never goes to.  And of course she fell into the hot tub.

On his way to work.  He is trying to join the Union and apparently there is sort of a probationary period so he couldn't ask off for specific days.

Again, that shyness.  We really need to do something about how introverted our kids are.

Here they are dancing:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJRj4JSJ2GI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

Things heard while at Keith's house:
Keith-"Jacob, why are you throwing your towel into the pool?"
Morgan-"Uncle Keith, why are you so tall?"
Jacob-"Check it out! Gold!"  Referring to a decorative bowl with gold shavings holding a candle.
Any one of us at any given moment-"Jacob stop, you're going to break it."  The house was not Jacob-proof.



Jacob, after we landed the first time- "I'm excited we didn't die."  (if you remember, he said something similar at the end of the cruise).