4 Day Turkey Vaca Fun

For the Thanksgiving weekend we set out to Fabulous Las Vegas! Jeremy's family was having a reunion/Thanksgiving Dinner. We woke up Thursday morning packed up the car and set on our way. Aaron followed us there. I must Say, the drive to Vegas from Arizona was the best drive ever! It's ever scenic and pretty fast. We were on the back end of the Grand Canyon and some of the rock formations on the way were awesome. Plus we got to drive over the Hoover Dam. Something we have never done. The Dam was amazing.

We stopped at the top for a quick potty break and Aaron took a picture of us.

It's incredible to know the story and history behind it. Jer had lots information on it. The scene was awesome.

Did you know the middle of the bridge is the Arizona Nevada border?

Notice the time difference. Arizona has it's own time. We are the only state not to change time for Day Light Savings.

This was so cool. They are building a new bridge so that you don't have to cross the dam. The suspension bridge was huge and to think of the men that build it. It's insane! Definitely not a job I would want Jer to do!

We arrived in Vegas at about 2:30 -3pm Thursday. We all relaxed and checked in to the hotel. WE got ready and went to the dinner at the hotel. It was turkey and prime rib buffet. It was yummy. They had the best carrots. I am not a huge carrot fan but the flavor was awesome!

There were so many Aunties and Uncles and cousins. There were 2 boys about Diesel's age there and he had so much fun with is cousin Owen!

Rye, Taylor, Diesel, Easton, Owen and Johnny

This is Jer's part of the family. That would be Jer's Grandpa and Grandma and their kids and grandkids etc... This is only about 1/4 of them. There were about 55 people there in all and we were the smallest group.

It all starts with the core. They are Jer's grandpa and his brothers and sisters. Here they are with their spouses. They all have a ton of kids who all had a ton of kids! In all there are over 200.

Grandma and Grandpa with their Great Grandkids. Aren't they just the cutest! We just adore them!

Friday we were able to hang out and relax. My cousin Nicole lives in Vegas. We had planned to meet for brunch but that didn't work so we meet for Dinner instead. Nicole and her son Jason joined us at our hotel for an all you can eat seafood buffet! Poor Jason wasn't to happy but he finally gave Nicole a chance to eat.

Jason and Diesel

All the kids

Nicole and Jason

Saturday we meet the family again for a deli lunch buffet. It was short and sweet. Since we were done early we decided to take the kids to the strip.

We visited The Secret Garden at The Mirage. It's Sigfried and Roy's attraction with the Lions and dolphins.

Don't you want to just go cuddle with the lion. He looks like a giant stuffed animal.

We didn't get to cuddle them but the kids got to ride one.

We didn't get to see the dolphins real well but here we are in front of one of the ponds.

After the Gardens we were hungry and decided to hit McDonalds. Diesel is such a ham!

Saturday night we went to bed early. We had a drive ahead of us on Sunday.

Of course anything Daddy does Diesel has to do too. He sleeps in his own bed and in his own room so having his porta crib and all of us in the room was an experience.

Ofcousre you can't take a picture of Diesel with out the girls wanting their own Photo shoot.

So we didn't leave as easily as we wanted to but we decided to take a tour of the Hoover Dam on the way back. Not they Vegas wasn't fun but the best part of out 4 days was the tour of the dam.

These angles represent all the lives lost in building the dam. Rumor has it over 100 people lost their lives. Back then when they built it there was no record of the workers and people came and went. Also say that some of the people fell into the concrete pour and are buried in the dam walls.

We took a 90 second elevator ride down to the bottom. We were over 500 below the dam and over 400 feet below the water. They took us into a room where they had pipes with water running though them. We stood on top and you could feel the water vibrations from the massive force is the flowing water. The pipes were used to detour the water when they were building the dam.

Here we are in the generator room. we only saw the top 3 stories of the generators. They good about 7 stories down from where we were. Did you know that Cali gets about 65% of the electricity produced at the dam. We thought that was funny that the 2 states that are part of it get less. Vegas only gets about 15%

The dam tunnels aren't made of concrete. They are the moutian/rock it's self. You could see the spots where they would drill to insert the dynamite.

At the end of the tour we went up to the observation deck.

You could see everything there. It was such a beautiful view.

On our walk back to the car. Diesel wanted his daddy. He sure loves him. This was just such a sweet picture I couldn't resist.

We got home late Sunday night and in all had a good time. To everyone in the Keefe family I think we should have a reunion too! I will help plan it. Who's in?