Almost home.....

And I think we are all SO ready to sleep in our own beds!! Last night we were in Vegas "baby!" I lived in Las Vegas from 1985 to 1992....can it possibly be 20 years already?!! And I am not a day over 30!! Okay when you are in Vegas you can cheat on your age a little!! We had a lot of things to do while in Vegas. First on Dad's list...Eat at "In and Out Burger"! The girls and I don't get his infatuation with the place, but we have to keep Daddy happy!

I also wanted to show the girls where I lived. WOW was that a surprise! The houses that were to the south of me are gone! They have moved the streets around somewhat to put in another on-ramp to the Expressway! I had to look at the houses a couple of times from different directions to recognize my old house. One thing I have been thinking about doing while in Vegas was to get some new Ink. The day before we left Calif. Mark and I started talking about it and then the neatest thing happened, it was like a sign. I started researching places in Vegas to get a Tattoo. I was thinking about Hart and Huntington. There used to be a show on TV about that place. Well after reading the reviews for that shop I decided it was not the place for me. So I searched on Google and found a place called Diversity Tattoo. They have great reviews and several places in Vegas. We were driving to look at my old house and as we drove past where I used to bank I saw that Diversity Tattoo was in that location!! I mean it was a sign to me that I was supposed to go there! They told me that the bank vault is still in the building and they use it to store things in. So Moses inked me! Now I will have Tessa and Linzi's names added to the tat and all my girls will be on me! Then the next thing...Mark had gotten ahold of my friend, Theresa, who lives in Vegas. We met in 1985 when I worked with her. We have kept in touch all these years! Since I really didn't know when we would be in Vegas for sure, I had not let Theresa know we were coming. However, my hubby made sure we would be there a certain time so we could meet up! He did have to let the cat out of the bag, but it all worked out. Theresa met with us at Claim Jumpers for supper and some catching up. It was great to see her...even if she hasn't aged a bit and I have!! It makes me want to get my bottom in gear and do something about it now!! Anyway...Theresa looks fabulous and it was so neat to see her. I love you my friend!!

Then another thing that my hubby did. He booked us in the Golden Nugget Downtown Vegas. When I lived in Vegas my Mom and I used to gamble downtown and my hubby thought it would bring back memories. It did, but the Golden Nugget is not the place to stay anymore :( We were certainly disappointed, but one never knows until they do something if it will work out or not. The girls were disappointed that we did not get to swim, but it was late. We did check out the pool this morning before we left. They have a slide that takes you through a salt water tank full of sharks!! Perfectly safe, because you are in the slide and the sharks are not, but alas, the girls are not old enough to be in that pool anyway.

We are now in a hotel in Rifle, Colorado. Tomorrow we hope to make it from here to home. Wish us luck!! Long day on the road=tired butt!!

~~Disneyland~~

We didn't get the extra early start that I had in mind, but we were rubbing elbows with the Disney crew before 10AM. B.E.A.U.T.F.U.L. Day for a trip through Walt's dream land! We started off in Fantasyland...with five girls...of course we would start there! Mark was sure that since it was May 21st and most kids shouldn't be out of school yet...the park shouldn't be too full. Well, someone forgot to tell the other 100,000 peeps who were there!! Oh well, since we have the most gorgeous girls there, it is not too hard to keep them straight!

The Toad's Wild Ride was a hit as was Alice in Wonderland. However, Alice broke down just before we were at the head of the line and many people bailed on waiting any longer. The girls and I decided to stay and less than 15 minutes later we were rewarded with a ride! Jordis and Kendalan rode the Astro Orbitor. We met up with Mark's half sister, Kari Lynn and her boyfriend, Robert. They took the girls to Mark's favorite area, Star Tours and Space Mountain. RaeAnne and I decided to do a little shopping and found some neat things to ponder.

Tomorrow my cousin, John will meet up with us. We hope to track down Minnie & Mickey for a photo op and maybe some of the Princess. Then ride the rides as many times as we can...then we should be done with Disneyland.

Oops!

For some reason my Grand Canyon post is below the Vacation 2012 post?????

Vacation 2012

As they say, Best laid plans....I was going to post an update each day while we are on the road. However, the last two nights our "free" Wifi has been AWFUL!! First day we were traveled through three states and that is not counting Kansas! Okay...so we were only in a couple for a brief period of time. We did have time to do our traditional stops at the Welcome to __________ insert state name here.

We spent the first night in Tucumcari, New Mexico. We ate at a diner on Route 66 that had an old time cowboy fortune teller machine. His name was Pappy and the girls didn't know whether to be scared of him or laugh!

We spent over an hour trying to get the girls to sleep the first night. I think they had too much happy juice or something! Maybe too much butt time in the car! Out on the road the next day early. We had lots of ground to cover and The Petrified Forest was waiting for us! It was a long haul to get there, but we finally arrived at the Park. I was in 3rd Grade the last time I was here. Mark thinks it was 3rd or 4th Grade when he was there. Now our girls have been here too! We didn't drive the whole loop which was going to be at least a 45 minute drive. It was already getting late and there was a loud chorus of "I'm hungry!" coming from the back seats.

We traveled on to Flagstaff, Arizona. This was the second night we stayed in a Super 8 Hotel and as far as we are concerned...THE LAST! First night the room was just okay...lacking in Wifi didn't make this Mama very happy, but I dealt with it. However...the Super 8 last night was a bust! Okay...we did get what we paid for...which wasn't much. BUT when you walk on the carpet and your feet turn black! Well, that is just no good! And then not to have internet access on top of that...well, let me tell you they just AREN'T too SUPER as far as I am concerned!! And if you wanted ice...Ha! The machine was at the front desk and we were lucky to get a half of a bucket. I guess the only nice thing about staying there last night.....it was a very short walk to the Galaxy Diner. This is a very cool Diner on Route 66 and very obviously popular place. Food was great and even though she told us she didn't want us to say anything...we told the waitress that it was ZoraLin's 10th birthday. She received a Chocolate Sundae complete with a candle and staff to sing Happy Birthday to her! The best part...or I would guess it was for her...was when we arrived back at our rooms. We surprised her with her birthday present. I think she was pretty happy!

Grand Canyon

Friday morning it was hard for us to get up. I think that the last couple of days were catching up with us. Since the Super 8 was so dirty, we decided that the breakfast bar may be too. So up, out the door and on the way to the Grand Canyon. After a quick stop at McD's for breakfast (and the internet fix for Mom) we were on the road.

It was a little really windy, but the sun was shining and a beautiful day for the Canyon! Not only was it the girls' first time to the Grand Canyon, this was mine too! What a view! Zora walked with her Dad while the other girls and I skipped ahead. I have to say that even though I am afraid of heights, I couldn't get close enough to the edge to look down! Beautiful! The girls did manage to scare the daylights out of me a few times when they were too close to the edge. Oh the photo ops!

After trekking around seeing the gorgeous scenery we also noticed the signs that we don't see everyday in our neck of the woods. I was sure keeping my eyes open because I would have loved to see either one!

God and Mother Nature have sure out done themselves!!

So worth the time and energy to travel through. In hindsight, should have take a couple of days to travel completely around the Grand Canyon. Will post more photos later!

Double Yippee!!

Snoopy Dancing in Kansas!! Not only did we receive four new photos of Linzi Rose MingShan and answers to our 10 quesitons we sent her. We also received our fingerprint invitation letters! We have been invited to come to the USCIS office in KC, Missouri to have our fingerprints "captured". Yeah!! The bad thing is that our appointment is May 31st. That date will not work for us :( Nicholas will be done with college for the summer and in the process of moving. I will be working and we will just have returned from our California trip. SO we are going to drive to KC tomorrow and see if they will let us walk in and get them done early. Please pray for us!! This has been okay at times and then other times families are turned away. I will beg, cry, plead and anything I need to do so we can have them done tomorrow. But all the prayers will certainly be welcome!!

Back to the Linzi photos. In one photo she is wearing one of the dresses that we sent to her through Ann at Red Thread China She is also holding the stuffed doll we sent. I can see the box with the other items in the background behind her. I hope she has time to look through the photos of us and get to know us. We are planning on buying one of the recordable books and read a book to her. And also send her a long haired doll...that is one of the kind of toys she likes. She also likes Barbies! It is really cute that she has all the hair pretties in her hair that we sent! She is just absolutely beautiful!! We can't wait to go get her home!!

Keeping busy.

We have been keeping busy at home as we are waiting for our paperwork to move along. We celebrated Kendalan's 7th birthday on April 24th. Then we have been busy everyday since her birthday. So today we finally had the chance to use the Ultimate Easy Bake Oven that she got for her birthday. She was just a little disappointed in the size of the baked product, but she had a great time rolling the chocolate chip cookies into balls and baking them. Of course, eating them was the best part of the day and she was kind enough to share with her sisters.

We haven't heard anything back from Ann at Red Thread China about the care package we sent to Linzi Rose. We are still holding on to hope that we may get some new photos of her. We really hope to get our fingerprint letters in the mail this next week before we take off on our vacation. Of course, her just receiving our package would be the greatest gift. Having photos of her family to be would make us very happy. Tessa has been loosing teeth right and left it seems. She has lost two more on the bottom this week. The poor Tooth Fairy will need to take out a loan soon if she continues this rate. The new teeth are huge! I can definitely see some kind of expander in her mouth to make room for all the new teeth.

The girls were being super silly Saturday afternoon while watching TV and playing on the computer. I especially liked Kendalan's sense of fashion. Our girls are such a treat!!