Our 2009 Family Vacation

We just got back from our family vacation....and we had a great time! Here's the rundown of what we did: we left for Las Vegas on Tuesday July 14th around 11pm. We drove through the night and made several stops along the way. We stopped in New Mexico at the Continental Divide - it's where the running waters in the US divide. From one point the water runs West into the Pacific ocean and the other water runs East into the Atlantic ocean....it was interesting to see. We stopped in Holbrook, Arizona for lunch - making our sandwiches and had a picnic. It was nice but as we were observing our surroundings we started feeling like the place was strangely familiar even though none of us had ever been there. We soon realized that the town looked like Radiator Springs from the Cars movie....it was uncanny the resemblence. They had a motel that the rooms were teepees resembling the road cones motel. There was a tire shop that had the little lift vehicle that was just like the movie. Then there was an Army recruiting office, a old building that resembled the gas station, and even a lot that resembled the car pound. It was really cool and of course, we had to take pictures. (I will post some later for you to see for yourself!) Finally we made it to Nevada and saw the Hoover Dam....it was amazing! Then on to Las Vegas.....which was totally cool! We stayed there on the strip for 3 nights and we saw as much as we could given the time we had....which I will say, we needed more time to see EVERYTHING! There was SOOOO much to see! We watched the shows at Treasure Island, Caesar's Palace, and the Bellagio. We went to the Shark's Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, the Adventure Dome at Circus Circus and the tiger exhibit (with NO TIGERS) at MGM Grand! We stayed at the Monte Carlo on the 21st floor which had an amazing view at night! We really liked Las Vegas and we didn't spend one red cent on gambling.....there was too much to do to waste our time or money on that!!! In fact, I would love to go back and plan on staying longer next time!!! The heat was WILD....it was 114 degrees in the day and around 108 at night!!! IT WAS HOT!!! But it's not the hot like here in Texas....you didn't really sweat....but it was still HOT!!! I'll keep the Texas heat ANYDAY!!! We left Las Vegas on Saturday July 18th for Anaheim, California....and going through the desert was WORSE!!!! The temperature gauge on my car registered 117 degrees and I would TOTALLY believe it!!! I was about ready to turn around and head for Texas!!! But we continued on and stayed in Comfort Inn which was about 3 miles from Disney Land. We went to California Adventure park on Sunday and stayed all day long!!! It was fun! Then Monday, we took the boys to Newport Beach, California which was on the same road as our hotel only about 30 minutes away! The beach was nice but the water was COLD!!! Yes, you heard me, it was cold!! We were there for about 3 hours and half way through that time Zane had to come wrap up in a towel and get warm because he was shivering so bad!! I only waded in up to my knees...I couldn't handle it! Tuesday found us at DisneyLand all day long. Riding rides, greeting characters, and having a character dinner....it was fun! However, we all decided that we totally like DisneyWorld in Florida the best!! Finally, after sleeping in for our first day on vacation, we left for Texas on Wednesday July 22nd around 11:30am. It took us almost 24 hours to get back home! Talking about a long drive - we were SOOOO ready to be home! Overall, we had a great vacation with some much needed time away for all of us!