Las Vegas for the 4th of July...

Merril was on a Japanese tour that wrapped up in Las Vegas.  We met him down in Vegas and spent a few days on vacation.  

We're getting silly while Merril checks us into the Monte Carlo.

And played on the sescalato

Then we went swimming at the pool!

Wearing our 4th of July colors!

My sister, Jessica, let us come crash her 4th of July.  Her neighbors set off a ton of aerial fireworks.

We moved back more than once because a firework came too close.  

Jess and I were sitting on the green blanket with Mark and Mikayla when an aerial firework came spiraling towards us!  I felt my leg burning and tried to back up and out of the way, totally leaving my defenseless young children.  Jess was scrambling too.  I heard her say, "The kids!"  She told me she turned back around in time to see the firework explode in the faces of my 2 young kids and all she could see were their silhouettes, still sitting on the blanket.  We run back to them and start checking them all over for burns!  They are both untouched.  Amazingly, I was the only one who was burned, just below the knee!!

Mikayla's shirt had a chemical-looking scorch but her skin was normal.  I thought for sure Mark and Mikayla would have face burns.  The blanket they were sitting on had a huge hole burned into it where the firework exploded.  They were feet away from the hole and escaped unharmed.  

I don't feel like we were just lucky.  I feel we were protected.  I am grateful to the concourses of angels that kept my little children safe that night.

The next day, the kids and I went to M&M World while Merril caught some extra Zzzzzzs.  His tour was long and tiring.

Mikayla wandered off at M&M World so I was paged to the bottom floor to retrieve my missing daughter.  She was hanging with a very nice, grandmotherly, security guard.  She assured me that Mikayla was very brave and didn't seem scared at all.  The tour company paid for a night in the Luxor pyramid.  The elevators moved diagonally instead of straight up and down.  It was a weird sensation that I never got used to.

We don't need an amusement park, just escalators.  

Our last stop before heading home was the Hollywood Car Museum.  

Poor Merril was tired and ready to head back home.  We need to remember not to schedule a family vacation right at the end of a week-long tour.