So Joe and I got to go to Las Vegas for 5 days with Joe's family a couple weeks ago. It was a much needed getaway from Provo/school/work/cold. It was very relaxing. It is so interesting how different the word "vacation" annotates in my family as compared to the Chambers. On Woodbury vacations, every second of every day is planned, with prior research and contributions of each family member as to the selection of where we go and what we do. When we go somewhere, we have explored every part of there by the time we leave. I love it. But sometimes a vacation is needed once home from the vacation.
So before we got to Vegas, we stopped on a little side trip to Capitol Reef and went on an awesome rappel/hike led by Uncle Dave. Tom had driven up with me and Joe and then Jeniel, Sharla, and some friends of Dave came with us. A second group went the following day. Well the hike turned out to be a lot longer than we expected so we got a late start driving the rest of the way to Vegas, but it was an awesome experience-- it was my first time rock rappelling (besides at Brighton and at indoor climbing places) and still am finding random bruises.
We got to Vegas at about 11PM Friday night and chatted with the rest of the family who had arrived a few hours earlier before passing out to sleep. Joe's parents had rented out a house instead of a hotel because there were 16 of us in all including Rebecca's 5 kids (the oldest is 9). It was a big house and almost every couple/family got their own room. There was a pool table and a huge TV and a pool in the back yard. Unfortunately, the pool was akin to freezing, but on the hottest days, was kind of enjoyable. We had lots of fun just hanging out playing games, playing pool, watching some 80s movies, chasing kids around, and eating. There were also lots of naps taken. Lots. And lots. Anyway, Saturday morning we went to the natural history museum and got to see lots of 'Nemos' and sharks. We also toured the old Mormon fort, which was the beginning of Las Vegas. We went home for some lunch (and naps). Later that night, the adults, minus Grandma and Grandpa who stayed home to babysit the kids, went to the Blue Man show at the Venetian. That was my first experience walking through a casino. It was so fascinating to me. There were some very interestingly dressed individuals. And lots of cigarette smoke. Anyway, the show was awesome and I found myself thoroughly entertained. I highly recommend it to anyone, even kids. Though there are strobe lights and loud music. But really cool and interesting. After the show we walked around the strip for a while, since Joe had never been allowed to while on his mission. With all the lights, displays, noise, and people, it is like a PG-13 Disneyland, but stays open all night long. We got some really yummy gelato (pistachio for me), and the weather was perfect.
Sunday we got an early start to drive about half an hour to Green Valley, one of Joe's favorite wards. Even though it has been 6 years since Joe was there, there were still quite a few people there who knew him. The rest of the day we... slept. No seriously. I think Joe and my bodies were like dead from that rappel trip. I seriously had so many sore muscles I was popping Tylenol like Tic Tacs. Just kidding. Kind of.
Monday we drove to the Hoover Dam. We got an exclusive, inside tour because Rebecca knew a guy who worked there. He gave us like a 2 hour tour of everything. It was awesome: he took us down the elevators way inside the dam and then we got to walk out on it and I learned so much about it. They are constructing an arch bridge to help relieve the traffic over the dam and it was impressively huge and yet fragile-looking because it was so high up and suspended. It was the best dam tour I've ever been on. Sorry, had to throw one in there...
Later that day, Joe drove me around to see some apartments he had lived in and places he tracted. We also drove up to the temple, which was gorgeous, although it didn't stand out as much as some temples because it had a black roof. Keren and Nik and Rebecca and David and family left for home that night, so Brittany and Kenton and Joe and I watched the movie "Innerspace" which was like from the 80s and... not as awesome as we remembered. But enjoyable nonetheless.
Tuesday morning we packed up and Joe and I left an hour before the others so he could show me around Logandale, which is a town about an hour north from Vegas. It was the cutest little sleepy town I've ever seen. We also drove by the Valley of Fire which would have been awesome to see more in-depth if we would have had time.
We got home Tuesday night to a rainy, chilly Provo night, which actually felt really nice after the long ride home in an un-airconditioned car...
It was very relaxing. I think I would still like to go back though sometime and see some things that we didn't do. But lots of fun. Vegas is a very interesting place.
In other news, Kara graduated high school! it was fun to go to her seminary graduation, where she gave a very good talk. Her school graduation was at the Marriott center at BYU. We all went to Macaroni Grill afterwards for lunch.
It's so nice to live so near to family. I love getting to go to my parents house for dinner every other Sunday, and being able to go to Joe's parents' house every other Sunday. It's also been especially nice this week, as Dad has been able to help Joe with his nasty trigonometry homework.
My class is going really well still. I'm taking a print publishing class (for my editing minor) and our latest project was to create a personal history book. I decided to type up my journal from when I went to Europe with my family right after Tom got off his mission. It was really good to do because it was just in this old, spiral notebook in like, pink junior-high handwriting. It's a good 15 pages of text. Now I am just working in pictures. Its a really fun class because there are no tests. Just projects. And I have been able to learn how to use InDesign and Photoshop a little bit.
I have lots more to say, but it's late and I have at least relatively caught you up to what's been happening with us. Hope you are all doing well!
Love, Wren
