Road Trip, pt. 2

After an awesome week, it was time to head home. By this point, we had been traveling for 8 days and it felt like eternity, at least to my 10 month old. Poor Eleanor was so out of sorts she reached the point were she just screamed most of the time. This made for a miserable car ride, but we pulled through.

Our first stop on the way home was Provo, UT to visit BYU. My little sister wants to go there next year so we went to take a tour and show her around. While I would NEVER want to LIVE in Utah permanently, in retrospect, I actually look back on my time in Provo with fondness and enjoy visiting there. (But not for too long...sorry, Utah.) We got to enjoy delicious Creamery ice cream and chocolate milk. The kids got new BYU shirts and we took a little golf cart tour of the campus. Jude loves BYU, as I've mentioned before. He doesn't quite understand, however, what BYU actually is. He recognizes the "Y" logo and whenever he saw it he would yell "IT'S A BYU!!!!" Made me laugh every time. Jude loves his BYU shirt and asks to wear it almost every day. (I need to get this kid a Gaucho shirt...)

The next morning we packed up again, after a night in what might be the shadiest motel I've ever seen, and headed off for one more stop: Las Vegas. Now, I'm sure people might be confused about what a big Mormon family could possibly do in Vegas, but let me tell you, Vegas is actually pretty fun (as long as you don't go out too late). There are actually a lot of family-friendly things to do and delicious foods to eat. Unfortunately, we pulled in pretty late after many hours of driving, so we didn't do much. But we did get to eat in a delicious buffet (always one of my favorite Vegas things to do) and walked all the way down the Strip to the Venetian to go to Carlo's Bakery. Did you know they have a location there?! It's awesome! We finally got to taste all those amazing looking desserts from TV (after an hour walk and 45 minutes line haha). But it was worth it! The cakes were great, but I'd say just like any other good wedding cake. What really blew me away was the pastries. We bought a little of everything and man, those were good. My favorite was the lobster tail--AMAZING. If ever get the chance, go try one! It's worth the wait!

Cotton candy at a buffet? Hooray!

Kids' pool/splash pad at the hotel

If you're ever in Vegas with kids, I highly recommend Polo Towers hotel. 

It's on the strip, but super family friendly, no casino or anything like that.

Finally, ten days after we started, we drove the final stretch back to TO. Jude was so excited to be back at Grandpa's house and see Jack the doggie (he'd been asking all week to go back)! Sadly, we couldn't stay long; we still had to get back to Danville! The last leg of the journey ended up being much better than I thought. I had to drive the 6 hours home by myself with the kids. After seeing how miserable Ellie was, I thought for sure it would be torture, but apparently she just didn't like grandpa's car. As soon as she got back into hers, she was totally fine. Actually, Eleanor was fantastic on the drive home; Jude was not so great, but we made it. We also stopped on the way at the SLO Children's Museum to break up the drive. If you're ever taking to kids to NorCal via the 101, it's definitely a great way to stretch your legs and get out wiggles!

Drumming at Grandma's

Driving the train with Ellie at the children's museum

Clock swing

And then, at long last, we reach Danville. We went inside...and I collapsed on the couch. I felt like I needed to sleep for the next week to regain my strength. But despite all the tiredness, screaming, brattiness, and long drives, it was really, really fun. I'm glad we got to go and that my kids had all those new experiences. I even look forward to the day when we get to take a trip like that as a family!