Sharks!!! Way too much FUN.

We woke up to blue skies.

The Golden Nugget pool and shark tank. It's slow so they're letting in outside hotel guest for $30 each.  They offered us a day bed for four for $55 total.  That was a fun deal.

Serious holiday vibes here!  

They brought us a menu that included decent (for Vegas) prices and frozen virgin drinks.  Score!  

This was seriously cool.  The sharks have the option to swim low or high away from people but they stay at people level. They have eye contact and swim beside you! We could see all the tows of teeth.  I know nothing about sharks.  We don't know what the giant fish in the tank were.  We didn't ask.  For today it was just fun to have an interactive experience with sharks! Plus lunch and a swim and some sun.  

Honestly you would think we'd have made a better effort to get decent shark pics. 

We did the Freemont Street experience.  Party scene. Music was great.  The big girls briefly toyed with the idea of the zip line.  Jia toyed with the idea of a temp tattoo.  In the end all of it paled to a day bed in the sun with sharks.  We did finally eat at a Chik-Fil-A. It didn't disappoint.  We ubered back to our hotel.  

If you zoom there is a bare butt across the street. Jia's reaction was hillarious.

We have booked a Grand Canyon excursion for tomorrow.  Pick up is 7:30am and the tour is 14 hours.  Will be a LONG day.  Hopefully we pull it together with four cameras and get some pictures.  We're going to the south rim where you can see 1/4 of the canyon. Very exciting.

We're not sure what we're doing tonight yet.

This was Jia last night.  She found a balloon in our room. I question how house keeping can miss a balloon. Jia had a riot batting it around the room as we were getting into bed. Hillarious and annoying ;) The main goal was to hit my head of course.

Las Vegas!

Hotel breakfasts were back!  

Mother's day balloon palooza at Dollartree. We stopped for plane snacks.

Bellis Fair Mall.

Hot Topic. Jia's new favorite store. I'm a horrible parent who wouldn't buy it ALL.

Bellingham airport. I love how small and user friendly it is. Girls are underwhelmed.

Traveling is exhausting.

The eternal quest for power.

The Las Vegas airport was rebuilt since we've been here.  It's massive. Impressive. Aside from the slot machines it feels like LAX. I didn't take pics. Too focused on finding the uber spot.

Then once at Bally's we checked into our room at a kiosk!! Put in driver's license and Visa. It spit out a receipt and key cards. Even offered us upgrades that we declined. Wild.

The room is great. Especially for $30.  

I've always wanted to try Johnny Rockets. It's in our hotel. Lili and Fei ate it. They liked it ok. Jia and I had soul food at Nathan's. Buzzers let you know when your order is ready.

Lili and Fei gifted me a chocolate shake from Johnny Rockets. Yum.

In the automated realm, we found a cake machine!  We didn't try it but it was tempting.

Hotel Paris is connected to Bally's so we wondered around there. Very beautiful. We were all sufficiently impressed. Jia is surprised at how well folks are dressed here.

Country bumpkins.

It feels like a resort.

Tomorrow's plan is to attempt swimming at the Gden Nugget with/near the sharks.

Girl Trip!!

Obligatory ferry shot.

Mothers day gift and cards from the boys this morning. Eric bought the bowl.  

Eric also made us chocolate cake for last night and a little one with frosting in the middle for our road trip today.  So fun.  Then I made a vegan cake for my Mommy last night since I was so pleased with mine.  

Eric also got me this. Seriously too cute. I'm pretty easy to please. I had asked for no gifts since I bought myself a pricey camping couch already.

Next is the border crossing then finding our hotel in Bellingham.  We didn't 'need' to come over today since we don't fly until tomorrow at 4 but there have been so many ferry cancelations that we opted to just go early and enjoy an extra night away.

Update: The border crossing was a breeze. Maybe 20 cars ahead of us. The hotel was easy to find. Hot wired and got a La Quinta Inn.  It's pretty nice. Fred Meyers is right next door.  We checked it out and got room snacks and drinks. Also 24 cans of my beloved original Nalley's chilli to take home. We can't find it in Canada anymore. Fred Meyers is HUGE.  We loved it. The girls were all going in different directions. We checked into the hotel and got the news that hotel breakfasts are finally back!  So waffles tomorrow 😋 Then we used uber eats for dinner. Taco Bell for Fei and I, Panda Express for Lili and Jia.  We're so predictable. It's early, we're all on our phones enjoying some lazy down time.

Packed

Jia and I are packed.  It takes BIG effort to get her involved. I enlisted Eric.  Then she had to try everything on before it was approved for the back pack.  Now I'm chasing her around to get her showered.  

Packed for me means, my desk is cleared off.  I've double checked all travel documents. Cleaned my purse. Printed out what we need. Made sure everything for the pets and boys is stocked up. Left notes for Eric.  He gets to pretty the boys up for a school class picture day.  Laundry is all sorted and put away. All errands looming have been run.  I've just hit the couch at 4:30 for a wee rest.  Finn is grateful.

Covid is all around us now.  We're all feeling fine. Eric and I are optimistically hoping we can avoid it and will be able to pass the antigen test for our Alaska cruise. In an effort to get ready I got it in my head that rather than pack boots for excursions and shoes for on the ship we could order waterproof/non slip ankle boots that would do both.  Eric found his at Mark's.  

I took to the internet and found the boots I wanted from China. They had the letters BJ on them.  I just couldn't do it.  Then found the same boots on Amazon with GO on them.  The girls are laughing with me, it's silly but I paid $18 more to have better letters.  Haha. 

We arrive Sunday, there for 5 nights.  Not quite the hot weather we were looking for.  

Yay Fei!

Congratulations Fei!  She successfully finished her first year of nursing!!  It's a tough course and not all made it.  These girls took a wee trip to Vancouver to celebrate.  

They had fun.  

Our pretty lady.

We have house guests while their family is away.  

Brothers bonding :)  They're being so sweet together.  Finn brings Thelonious kibble.

Thelonious has attachment issues.  He typically just likes his Mama.  I'm finally winning him over.  

Our guests usually chase the cats.  So this was a really surprising moment.  

More ducks.  Can't wait for our cruise.  25 days away. 

Lili did a thing today.  It looks so cute on her.  

Luk saw his Pediatrician Tues and then his Neurologist today. The Neurologist is helping get his urology surgeries here in Victoria and his Pediatrician is helping us get his tube care done in the Victoria hospital.  I'm doubtful this will happen.  I suspect they'll end up deferring to Children's but it's worth a try. We're also being set up with a trauma care nurse to learn how to deal with the emergency if his chait tube comes out.  

Eric picked up the boys from school then came to see me. I was with all the pups and he muted the TV. I said "oh no, what now?". He said "it's never good when the teacher comes out".  So, Luk was dropped off late because of his neuro appt. so he missed snack time. Kai ate most of his lunch at snack time. When he saw that Luk had more food than him at lunch time he got mad and hit Luk. Their desks have been separated now.  I would argue they should have been separated from day 1.  Separate issue.  Anyways.  I'll admit that this did strike me as some what funny.  And I laughed.  I mean really, it's Kai, at any point something more serious could happen.  I was relieved he didn't hit another child in the class. We did have a stern talk with him.  He admitted he hit Luk because apparently Luk wouldn't give him his yogurt. Kai didn't cry during the talk/lecture which sort of tells us he still thinks Luk should have given him the yogurt. We also had to go over his rules again that snack time is ONE thing from his kit, not all of it.  Sounds to me like Luk normally reminds him.  It's in his iep that an ea is supposed to monitor this.  Sigh.  

It's definitely busier here with the big girls home. A lot more cooking and a ton more laundry. Eric emptied the hampers today. I threw a kitchen towel in the hamper and he looked completely crushed.  I know this one. Just when you think laundry is done. He just hung his head and continued folding.  Girl trip starts Saturday. Tomorrow is pedicures, lashes, brows, banking and any other last minute things.