Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire

Being on vacation on a Sunday is really not my favorite. Over the past year or two we have been trying to make our Sunday worship more meaningful. Keeping the sabbath day holy while on vacation can be done with planning but it's hard at times. Marshall went to the store Saturday night and bought some food for lunch and dinner. We ate a good breakfast at the hotel before church. We found a church about a mile away from the hotel. Sacrament meeting was chaos. Kaden and Sienna forgot how to act and it was a minute to minute battle with each of them. It was rough but hopefully through it all my kids will see how important it is to go to church even when on vacation. I always say that going on vacation doesn't mean you take a vacation from your standards, religion, values, etc. Sunday is still Sunday no matter where you are.

We had some down time at the hotel for lunch and the first part of the afternoon. By 3:00 we all had cabin fever. We decided to go see the Hoover Dam. McKay is on James's team and his family stayed in our same hotel and we went to church together and then to Hoover Dam. My parent's stayed in Henderson and met us at Hoover Dam.

It was as big as I remembered it. My kids share my fear of heights so they were pretty freaked out. James struggles with anxiety so he was ready to leave after being there for a few minutes.

The Legacy Bridge is massive and amazing!

The border of Nevada and Arizona...

Monday we drove to the Valley of Fire on our way home. My parents and McKay's family came too. We did the White Domes hike. It was an easy one mile loop with some slot canyons and lots of rocks to play and climb around on.The varying colors of rock were so beautiful!

We felt like James had a guardian angel with him. He got so comfortable with climbing and jumping around that he wasn't paying close attention. At this spot he didn't see the ditch and as he jumped off a higher rock and then as it was too late saw that the ground was much farther down. He was headed for the bottom of the ditch with no chance to change course. Amazingly enough he didn't break any bones as he landed down at the bottom of the ditch. It's hard to tell in the picture but the ditch was as deep as his height. He climbed out and came running to me in shock. I truly believe he was being watched out for because for how far he jumped down surely he should have broken a leg.

Then we went to Atlatl Rock and saw petroglyphs.