Working for Marriott Has It's Perks!

SO- When we had the opporotunity to take this vacation with our family, we couldn't resist!

My brother-in law also works for Marriott, so we went with a ton of family. There were 17 of us total...


FIRST STOP: LAS VEGAS

We stayed at the JW Marriott, and it was beautiful! We went down to the Strip and walked through the major casinos, stopped at the M&M Store - the Movie there is so cute!

We had pizza at the New York - New York, saw the lions at MGM Grand, and got our Vegas bug squashed ;)




SECOND STOP: PALM SPRINGS

I had never been there, but had only booked it a million times through work, so it was really fun to finally see it! We stayed at the Marriott Timeshare Shadow Ridge. It was WONDERFUL~

It had the best pools for families, and was perfect weather, and so relaxing!

They had a splash park by the pool, and it was a lot of fun to play in! Here is Lance taking a dumping of water!






Next Stop...

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

We left Palm Springs after a few days and drove to Universal. It was about a 3 hour drive in all, not too bad. I had never been there either, so it was cool to see the park, but all in all, not planning on going back anytime soon....

Kenton really loved seeing Characters like SPONGEBOB and I know, not my favorite either, but he loves it, so what do you do!?

PARKS, PARKS, and more PARKS!

We stayed in Newport Coast, and the Marriott Timshares again, and they are about a 25 minutes drive to the one and only DISNEYLAND!!

We got a city pass so we had 3 days to play, but it was pretty crowded and it took a lot of time getting from ride to ride with 17 people!

IT'S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!!!

They reopened Small World... and it was sooo cute... You can see that we were able to always get a full cart where ever we went, so getting the front, back or where ever, was just a matter of fighting over it with our group ;) ( Space Mountain anyone?)

McKelle had been talking about going to "The Castle" for a month! She thought that from the moment we left our drive way, we were going to the castle. We had to tell her that the Excaliber was the castle in Vegas to appease her, then in Palm Springs, the pool helped, but at Universal, she had had it! She wanted "The Castle"

But cool enough, they opened the Castle up and you can walk through it and see SLEEPING BEAUTY!! McKelle was in Heaven!

This is inside the castle!

The new TOY STORY RIDE was SOOO fun, but we waited for 45 minutes to get on it!

NO FAST PASSES allowed :(

Mckelle's favorite ride was the TEA CUPS!







AND THEN, there was the waiting in line for PRINCESSES!! We did Tinkerbell and the Princess Cove where you meet 3. McKelle was overwhelmed at meeting "AURORA" as she nows calls her... She was stunned - it was so funny!



Kenton was buddy buddy was his older cousins! He wanted to ride everything with them... Here he is on Peter Pan with his cousin! We Love this ride- doesn't everyone ;)

CHEESE!!

Trying to get this shot was like pulling teeth!

Taking one of just me and Lance, so much easier!

FINAL PARK: SEAWORLD

Here are the little kids together!

I was so excited to see this show, last time I was at SEAWORLD, I was very little, like 5.

So I was like a kid in a candy store here...!

No luck with getting the perfect picture here... Can you see the whale in the background?

Here was the view from our room at Newport, I hate leaving this place!

I would move in a heart beat if I could!

We stopped at the beach on our way out for a couple of hours, the water was still a little cold,

but the kids had so much fun running in and out of the waves.

FINAL STOP: THE RITZ BABY!!

We stayed over at the Ritz Carlton in Henderson on Lake Mead, on our way back to break up the drive. We were puttin on the ritz baby! It was a gorgeous property! We had the best brunch and walked around down on an inlet of the lake. It was a great way to end the trip.

The Kids were exhausted which helped on the 6 hour drive home.

We couldn't have done it without my sister's dvd player! Thank you Thank you! It was the way we measured time in driving.. "We have 2 more movies tell we are there"

It was a way fun trip, we should have stayed at Palm Springs last, because we were exhausted when we got home from all those parks! But I am not complaining...

So I shouldn't complain every morning when I wake up that I have to work.. right? Still trying to conquer that ;)

Kenton's Birthday - DELAYED

Kenton was so excited to see Monster's vs Aliens, and so I told him for his birthday he could take some friends and go see the movie, if it came out in time.



Well he comes running downstairs

"Mommy, Mommy - monsters vs aliens comes out on March 7th, I just saw it on a commercial"



I was so excited because that was an easy out for me not having to have a birthday party, and was still able to let him do something with his friends...



Well then I see the preview and it is March 27th so now I am thinking, "Now what am I going to do!"



Well I had a little chat with Kenton to let him know that it was later, but he was still game for doing the movie with friends... So I was so relieved, until I realized that we would be out of town when it came out, and so he would have to wait until April to do his birthday party....



But again he suprised me and was ok with it... So come a month and a half after his birthday we got together with his friends, and it was so fun!

The kids were so cute in the 3D glasses! I think I saw about 1/2 the movie... I thought it would be less stressful than a party - but - it wasn't. ;) Between potty breaks, and "Mommy" I was still running around... But it was really fun and the kids had a good time.!

Easter Time!

One of my biggest memories as a child was going to the fabric store to pick out material and a pattern for a new Easter Dress. There were 4 girls, and we all got a new dress. I don't know how my mom ever did it!

This Easter was really fun because Kenton remembered what it was all about, and was so excited to have the Easter Bunny come!

This is him so excited telling me about what he got in his basket!

And this is my wild haired little girl who LOVES princesses!

This was my attempt to take a picture by my tulips but it was so cold with the wind, that they were not excited about it! So we went inside to take the rest of the pictures...

I loved the way their outfits turned out... No I didn't sew McKelle's! I wish....

I took these pictures before we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's. I thought they turned out so cute!

Finally the weather warmed up and we were able to take a picture outside! But Kenton was pictured out with Easter and our vacation. He wasn't going to come out!

I wish my tulips would bloom already! But at least some are out! Tulips to me are Easter, and the sign that spring has arrived!