CAL-NEVA Part 1!!

Oh, where to begin with our fabulous trip across the country to the West! :)

Between the laundry and the TONS of pictures I took that I am having to sort and crop, I would much rather be back!!

We counted down the days and Saturday finally made it to us and we were SO excited! There will be several parts of our trip because we may have only been gone a couple of days....but we packed in the fun! :)

We kicked off the morning with Alexis' football game against Piedmont! The girls did SO awesome, Nan and Pawpaw came and watched Alexis cheer, they got a big WIN and then we booked it to Birmingham to the airport to head to VEGAS baby! :)

We flew in to Vegas and then from Vegas to Reno, Nevada. We made it to Reno and our hotel just in time to rest up...get settled, watch some TV to unwind and hit the bed!

The first full day we conquered Reno and enjoyed the Italian festival! It was really cool to see all the Italians and smell ALL the amazing Italian food! OH my goodness, that smell was amazing! We enjoyed yummy breakfast at CAL-NEVA Casino and it was delicious before heading out to enjoy the festival. We got there early so we enjoyed not having the crowd but goodness the crowd hit and it was packed! There were so many vendors and food and music and people watching! :) :) We also went to 'Circus Circus' Casino and let the girls play some arcade games and watch the miniature circus shows! We watched two cute ones. The first was this man acting like he was a dog catcher and he had all of these very cute and talented dogs doing tricks with him! Then the next show was a Chinese acrobat lady that did amazing flips and tricks as she hung in the air and flew in the air! The girls were amazed!! It was a beautiful day and a great way to kick off our vacation!

After we finished up the festival, we rested for a little while {i.e. we took a nice long nap to work off the jet lag!} :) :) And then we decided to hit the road to take a little road trip a little town called Truckee for an awesome dinner at a very cool 'old timey' diner and then a stop at a taffy/candy shop! Then we headed to see the Milky Way and to see the 'Donner family' memorial at 'Donner's Pass' It was so cool to hear the history and story behind the Donner family surviving the unexpected winter snow storm to make it across the mountains. They actually had to eat their dead family members to survive. It was really cool to hear the history!

We headed back to Harrah's {our hotel} for a good night's rest and to get ready for our second big day! Stay tuned for Part 2!

Alexis was so 'cool' during the trip into the airport! She carried her on luggage and just looked so grown! :)

This picture cracks me up....because THIS is what Lily carried!....well, for a little while til she said it was 'too heavy to hold anymore!' :)

Lily's first time to fly!! {technically Alexis' first because she was really young on her first} They both did SO good and LOVED to fly! They begged to sit by Gran on every flight so I never to got see their faces...but I could hear their laughs and squeals! :) {And yes, Lily has a mouth full of cheese crackers...and just smiling away!}

We made it to Vegas!...and time for food!

Vegas baby! This is all the view we got of Vegas, but I'll take it! ha!

Our hotel! Harrah's!

Bright and early at the Italian Festival! There were streets and streets full of every different kind of vendor you could think of! Also, look at the tall building in the back with the huge rock wall! That thing was awesome and Tyler and I wanted to do it so bad...especially at night with all the lights...but they wanted a crazy price to do it and all of this training... :(

Loved the little vendor tents! The sweet lady doing the tent behind them gave them these little pumpkins for free! They are now proudly sitting on our front porch! :)

My cute little Nevada family! :)

RENO!...The biggest little city in the world! These two were having so much fun dancing to the Italian music! They were cracking me up!!

THIS is what Lily did pretty much all the way down the street! Dancing like this the entire time! OH me, this child of mine! :)

And....if she wasnt acting like above...she was doing this face and had Daddy and Gran WRAPPED around her little fingers! {She was either being carried on Daddy's back or Gran holding her because her 'legs' were tired!} :)

This was SO cool! The vendors were all set up and getting their sauce ready! They were stirring away!

Alexis is SO strong! :)

This picture cracks me up because Lily and Ben both were amazed at the 'tall' people! :)

This sort of creeped me out some! I didnt like these people so much. The girls were so intrigued watching them and how they acted as they walked!

And then they got masks and acted like them! :)

OH, I could do a WHOLE post on 'Tyler's foods' throughout the trip! This, plus a huge breakfast burrito {that I will show a picture later} :) ...a nice prime rib and a 22 ounce steak.....yeah, he ate really good on this trip! :)
You talk about an Italian sub! Right up Tyler's alley!!

 Games galore! The girls had fun! It cracked me up!...Tyler lost every time!...to kids! :)

Oh, this little town of Truckee! I loved it! It was so beautiful and quaint and nice!

This was the coolest little diner! Little did we know when we walked it that it was featured on the TV show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives hosted by Guy Fieri! SO COOL!! We love that show and it was so neat to be in a place that was featured!

So cool inside! There was this little old lady and her husband that were eating in there. She kept coming up every now and then to our table and would just stand and smile at the girls. Then when they would look at her she would do some silly dance moves! She said she was a school teacher! She was so sweet. I think she had a little bit of dementia and she melted my heart.

We tried to get Lily to hold the menu up so we could show that it says the diner was featured on the show...she was being so silly doing it!
This is where Tyler had a 22 ounce...yes, 22 ounce steak! OH wow! :)

We walked around and shopped in some stores that were still open and went into a cute candy shop that had the BEST homemade caramel EVER!! I hate this picture is blurry because it is soooo cute of us!

Then we went to 'Donner's Pass' and saw a TON of stars...and the Milky Way! I have never experienced anything like it! It was amazing!

We wrapped up our first full day with a trip to the 'Donner Memorial' We didnt get to go into the museum because it was closed, but we saw the huge statue and walked around. It was so neat!
We had an awesome first day! Stay tuned for MORE! :)