The Smiths' "RAM" Page

Well the rest of our vacation was wonderful too! The rest of our time in St. George we did some golfing (real golf for Tyson & Wayne, driving range for the rest of us), played lots of Mexican Dominoes (my new favorite game), played some tennis, rode ATVs (see below), did some swimming (even though it didn't get that warm...but we had to take advantage of the great pools) and we did some relaxing. After St. George we headed back to Vegas for a night. We ran around as a family trying to see some fun stuff while were had time. We saw the fountain at the Bellagio and some canals with gondolas at the Venetian, and a "less clothes than expected" show outside of Treasure Island...not at all like last time I was there! The next morning Troy and Kari had to fly out early and the rest of us had to be out of the room by noon. We took a quick swim in the pool which was awesome. The place where we stayed was wonderful and had three different pools. We chose the lazy river to hang in for a while. Kai floated in his tube with all of us floating around him...the center of attention yet again, he was in heaven. We got Kai a quick nap before heading out for the rest of the day. We walked around The Strip again and Tyson and I got to go on the roller coaster at New York New York. That had to be the best highlight for me. I LOVE roller coasters and this was the FIRST time we have gone on one together...sad but true. I guess we don't have many roller coasters handy here in Oregon but still! Anyway after that everyone else headed to the airport and we went back to the resort. We no longer had a room but it seemed a better place to hang than the casinos. It ended up being a good choice and we had a semi-relaxing afternoon/evening before heading to the airport for our 9pm flight. Question: has anyone ever taken a baby in a taxi? Is it normal to not use a car seat and just hold your child on your lap? This is what our driver told us to do, acting as if it was weird that I wanted to strap in his car seat. We made it safely and it was only a 5 minute drive but it was a little weird. Kai did pretty well on the flight. I stood in the back of the plane bouncing him to sleep forever only to finally get him to sleep (a miracle in itself) and find the drink cart just past our isle. So, I continued bouncing until it got back to me. I finally made it back to my seat only to settle in and immediately have Kai start thrashing like a wild animal in his sleep. It was a full flight so we had a lady right next to me...a lady who had no children...but she was relieved to find she was very sweet and understanding. After all, she did have a naughty cat at home! He did go back to sleep and slept the rest of the way home. This was really such a wonderful vacation for so many reasons. It was so fun for us to spend a whole week with Tyson's family. It is always a blessing to me to for Kai (and us of course) get to be with family since we don't have any close. It was wonderful for us to spend a full week together without the coming and going of our day to day life. It was truly quality time! And in general, we stayed at amazing places and saw amazing things. I will post a few pictures below. I don't have any of Vegas because after seeing the beauty of Zion the lights of Vegas just didn't compare:)

Telling Daddy a story about his rocks

Yes, he is now running!

In the pool with Daddy

This is on the shuttle in Zion. Kai was literally hanging from the ceiling. He was getting pretty restless and Tyson was trying to entertain him. Not the safest way to keep your kid happy but Tyson was pretty proud Kai was strong enough to hang on his own.