On the Road Again!

We had a GREAT night last night!! We all slept through the night until around 8! :) YAY!!!

CJ woke up in a good mood, which for him means very active and rambunctious! In the picture below, he had just gotten done crawling out from inside the bedside table, which is why he looks so mischievous!

We left Flagstaff after breakfast, and the landscape transformed from grass and trees...

To sand and shrubs in a desert.

We are seriously gluttons for punishment, because even after our less than stellar Cracker Barrel experience yesterday, we decided to stop at one today. (What can we say, they have sweet tea and the prices are cheap!) But, we did wise up and brought our own fruit that we bought at the grocery store yesterday, and are keeping in our cooler!

Even though JT hasn't let me drive AT ALL the entire drive, he decided to let CJ earn his keep and drive a little! ;)

As we drove into Nevada, there was nowhere for us to pull over to take the picture with the sign, but proof that we are here:

We stopped at the Lake Mead Visitor's Center. The main thing we noticed as we got out of the car was how HOT HOT HOT it was!!! CJ had a great time terrorizing yet another National Park Visitor Center... (I love his mouth in this picture, it looks like his face is saying "aww man, is this the only thing I can get into right now?")

And then he took the basket of stuffed animals and dumped them all over the floor of the visitor's center. Thank goodness we were the only people in there right then!!
Then we arrived in Las Vegas!! We are staying at the Venetian Hotel and it is very nice! CJ and I scoped it out a bit while JT checked in for us. With the statue in the main lobby. (Note one shoe off and one shoe on as always!)
And doing his darndest to get that other shoe off!! "ooooo, I've almost got it!!"
I don't know who was more amazed by everything going on around us...CJ or me!! This is the first time in Vegas for all three of us.
Our room is nice and spacious! The only non-babyproof-able thing is that there are two steps leading down from the "Bedroom" into the "Living room".
This was our makeshift staircase blocker for daytime. (We tried two other barriers that were quickly conquered by the escape artist! I think the score was JT & Lacy-0, CJ-3)
At dinner, CJ ate a really good dinner, and he seems to really be wanting to feed himself now!! At what point do kids start to assert right vs left handed dominance? Just curious, because it seems that CJ always does a good bit of stuff with the left!

Look at our big boy eating spaghetti!!

We walked around our hotel and the attached shops a little bit. CJ enjoyed watching the gondolas go down the river.

Time to head to bed!!

Fingers crossed for another good night. We're looking forward to celebrating our Fourth of July here in Vegas tomorrow!!