The Wells': Head west young man

8.16.13

On July 31st my dad retired from the DeKalb fire department. He spent 24 years serving the people of DeKalb. After 24 years of fires, car accidents, slips, falls, and much more how do you celebrate? You take the whole family to Las Vegas to celebrate and send time with my uncle's family and celebrate my grandmother's birthday. So that is what my dad did. He rented a very nice house and brought all of us to Vegas. My parents, brother, sister and Hurricane Wells all went west for a week in the desert.

Jacqueline, the babies, and I (Maggie didn't want to join us in the 110 degree heat) boarded a plane on Aug 2nd (my special bday gift for J - flying with toddlers). It was the first time the kids had been on a plane and the first time Jacqueline and I had flown with little ones. We checked three of the largest bags (four on the way home - thanks mom and dad) they allow, stuffed as much as we could into the carry-ons and headed for the security line. We passed with little trouble. There was a slight delay while they made sure the kids bottles were just milk. The first two hours of the flight were enough to make us wish we didn't have kids, or at least that we had spent the money to purchase seats for the them.

A note to those of you that may fly with children under 2....the airline will allow them as 'lap' kids until 2, but if they can crawl or walk they need their own seat. Emily wanted down the whole time and our kids don't sleep in our arms. This resulted in a tag team wrestling match between a 20 pound tired and cranky toddler and her parents. The result, a lot of screaming and crying. After the flight attendants informed me that my crying was causing a scene we were left with, only, the screams of a child that wanted down or to go to sleep. Eventually Emily gave into being held as long as she could eat. Jacqueline had packed plenty of snacks so we were good for the rest of the flight. The flight home went much better and overall it was a good first experience with flying.

The trip itself was great. A lot of family time and just hanging out at the house. The place my dad rented had everything - a TV in almost every room, outdoor kitchen (w/ TV), pool with swim up bar and a TV, fire pit, outdoor game area complete with water balloon sling shot and target, and was a home away from home. We enjoyed a ton of time at the house with family and got out to see the sites a few days. We took the babies to the shark reef at Mandalay Bay and had lunch afterwards. We also did a night at a casino buffet. Daddy showed the kids how you get some of your money back from the casino - just keep eating and they took the lesson well.

Here are some of the pictures from the trip.....