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Ben and Seth's Summer vacation 2008
in sunny Las Vegas, NV

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Check out the Tic-Tac-Toe game our Dad created: Click Here

Day 1: 26 July 08

Day of Arrival: We got off our plane from Spokane, WA. We were happy to see our Dad and our step-mom. We went over to baggage claim and got both of our bags. We drove down the Las Vegas strip to see the sights. We went home and had some lunch. Ben spotted a baby fish in Dad’s aquarium. We saw two get eaten by the bigger fish and we saved 10 babies. Then we went swimming. Grandpa Terry and Grandma Patti came by and brought pizza! Then me (Ben), Dad, Seth, Grandpa Terry went to PetSmart and bought a breeder net for the baby fish (so they wouldn’t get eaten). Then we walked out of PetSmart and 2 ladies came up to us and asked if we wanted a free snake. Dad (Ty) said “SURE!” And we bought a snake aquarium and one of the ladies helped pick it out. Then Grandpa Terry went home and the 3 Gubler men left went to pick up the snake. It is a Red Tailed Boa and his name is Kaa (Like the snake in the Jungle Book!). He is harmless, but he is 5 feet long and he eats rats. We brought him home and terrified our step-mom, Franky. We were going to take it to Dad’s office, but Franky said we could keep it in our room as long as we are here in Las Vegas (so long as the snake stays in there and NEVER gets out!). Then we had chicken for dinner, watched some TV, brushed our teeth and went to bed.

Day 2: 27 July 08

Our Dad woke us up so we could get ready for church. Everyone got ready and got in their nice church clothes. Our step-mom was sick so she decided to stay home and rest. So Ben, Seth and Dad went to church. In Primary we played a game and we got a piece of candy. I chose a little butterfinger. It was good. Then, after church, we had lunch. Then we went to Grandpa Terry’s house. We tried to look for his tortoises and his turtle but they were all hiding because it was too hot outside. So we went inside and watched some TV. Grandpa bought 22mm rifles for each one of his grandkids. He says that we can have them as soon as we finish our hunter safety courses. What a grandpa, right?!?! Me (Ben) and Seth went to a BBQ with Grandpa Terry and Grandma Patti at our 2nd cousin’s house, Bryan Hardy (he is the son of Terry’s nephew Mace). We had hamburgers and hotdogs and they made bacon to put on the burgers. It was good. We played a card game called Killer Bunnies. Grandpa Terry won. Then Grandpa and Grandma took us home. It was about 10pm. Then we had family prayer and brushed our teeth, like normal, and went to bed.

Day 3: 28 July 08

We woke up and had breakfast, then Dad took Ben to the grocery store. Ben, being a great big brother, picked out a really cool cookie for Seth. It looked like the Cookie Monster eating a little chocolate chip cookie. Seth really loved it, and ate the whole thing in about 4 minutes. He had blue frosting all over his face. Then, Franky and Ben made chocolate chip cookies for our Family Home Evening treat. After lunch, Dad took us to the swimming pool and we took the Splash Uno game with us. Dad played the card-Ferry and bounced around the pool tossing out the waterproof cards. We spent the next 30 minutes diving to the bottom to gather cards. Dad helped Seth to find about 70 cards, while Ben picked up about 36 on his own. This was fun, so we called on the Card-Ferry again. This time, Dad helped Ben a little more, so that he had the bigger stack of cards this time. After we came home and got cleaned up. We had a yummy dinner of Spaghetti that Franky made. Since Franky can’t eat wheat, the noodles were made from corn! Still really good though! Next, we had family home evening and learned about prayer. We ate our yummy chocolate chip cookies for dessert. For our FHE activity, Dad took us for a walk through the desert. We found 2 lizards, 2 Stink Bugs, a Silver-Fish (bug), a whole bunch of Bats and a colony of termites. We were having so much fun exploring that it got dark before we came back. Luckily, we had flashlights with us. It was time to get ready for bed when we got home, so we brushed our teeth, had family prayer and Dad tucked us into bed. It was a really fun day!

Day 4: 29 July 08

We woke up, had breakfast and went to the pool again. This time, Dad didn’t swim because he was sun-burned from the pool fun the day before. Ben and Seth showed off their swimming skills to Dad and Franky. Little brother (Seth) is getting to be quite the little swimmer. We did flips underwater, and practiced floating on our backs and the breast-stroke. Seth practiced breathing while swimming the breast-stroke. Later on, Grandpa Terry came to visit and stayed for dinner. Dad, Franky and Ben all helped to make really yummy homemade corn dogs for dinner. Then we gave Grandpa a ride home and went to the Drive-in movie theater to see Wall-E. The movie was really good, but we were so tired that we both fell asleep in the middle of it. Dad tried to give Ben a wake-up-pill (a peanut filled M&M) but that only kept him up for about 5 minutes before he was out like a light again. We got home late and went right to bed. We slept all the way home!

Day 5: 30 July 08

We woke up and had a delicious meal of cold cereal. We did chores and then had lunch. After lunch we all went to Sunset Park with Grandpa Terry. There were hundreds of pigeons that Grandpa called “rats with wings!” We walked around the playground and waited for Grandpa to get off work and come to the park. We played on the playground until he arrived. They had a cool rope/spider-web-like tower that we all climbed up on. Then we climbed up on top of a huge rock and took some pictures. Shortly afterwards, grandpa showed up and we took a walk around the lake. We saw lots of fish, ducks and one water turtle. Our dad told us a pretty funny joke: “a border patrol agent found a Mexican man who he was suspicious of. As it turned out, the man had no ID or Green Card, so the agent told the man that he would be deported unless he could pass a simple English test. The agent asked the man to properly use 4 words in a sentence. The words were Red, Green, Pink and Yellow. The Mexican man thought for a while, then said ‘I’m ready.’ Here is the sentence he recited: ‘Yesterday, I came home from work and Red my mail. Then, the phone went Green-Green-Green. I Pink it up and says Yellow! The agent laughed so hard and for so long, that our Mexican friend was able to make a clean getaway! On the way home, we made a pit-stop at the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign at the south end of the LV strip for a photo op. Then we went to M&M’s World where Seth picked up an M&M slot machine. He really loves it and pulls the handle constantly and then puts the M&Ms back in the machine so that he can keep on going with it. After we returned home, Franky made Taco soup for dinner, YUMMY!!! Since we were out of corn, Dad and Ben had to make a special run to the store to pick some up. We then watched Spiderwick Chronicles and had Root-Beer-Floats for desert. Seth made it to the end of the movie, but Ben fell asleep about half way through.

Day 6: 31 July 08

We woke up and had some breakfast. We hung out at the house in the morning and set up dominoes and knocked them down again and again. We made a couple of really cool ones. Later on, we went to Grandpa’s house and saw his tortoises and Dad caught a really cool Dragonfly for Seth. Then, we went to Las Vegas Grand Prix for some high-speed go-cart racing. It was Grandpa, Dad, Ben and Seth. Seth barely meet the height cut-off to drive by himself, but once he got behind the wheel, there was no stopping him. We bought enough tickets for all of us to ride 2 times and we had 2 extra tickets for the boys to go another round. Ben and Seth both wanted to drive on different tracks, so Seth went first since we were closer to his track, while the rest of us cheered him on. After we went inside, Ben decided to trade his last ticket for tokens instead of driving another round. So, we all worked together and won a total of 440 tickets! Seth got a hand fan, which was broken before we got home. Ben bought 432 little army men with the rest of the tickets. There are some major battles planned! We left the arcade and got home in time for dinner, the left over taco soup and French fries, YUMM!!! Then we went to the pool for an hour and made a football out of a water bottle that Ben found in the pool! Then we pretended we were evading Bin Laden by running back and forth from the hot tub to the pool. It was cold going from the hot water to the cold, but it was fun! Then it was bedtime by the time we got home. We brushed our teeth and went to bed.

Day 7: 01 August 08

Today, we got up at 8 and ate breakfast. Then, we went to the Las Vegas Zoo! We saw chickens, turtles, peacocks, lions, monkeys, snakes, fish, river otters, alligators. We actually got to see them feed the Lions, Lynx and a bear cat. We saw gila monsters, bearded lizards, parrots, flamingos, goats and fossas (some type of wild cat). The fossas had babies, but we couldn’t see them because one had a fever. Ben got a cool refrigerator magnet with a cougar on it and Seth got a flamingo grabber. Then, we went to Chili’s for lunch. Dad had a steak, Franky had a chicken salad, Ben had a pizza and corn-on-the-cob and Seth had a pizza and Mandarin oranges. Then we went to Game Stop and bought a cool new Gameboy game for Dad’s Gameboy. Then we went to the pet store and bought frozen mice for Kaa (the Boa!) Then we came home and fed the snake, it was really cool to watch him strike at and eat his lunch.

Day 8: 02 August 08

We woke up and ate breakfast. We decided to hang around the house in the morning until grandpa got off work. We ate lunch, then went downtown to Grandpa’s work and picked him up. Then we drove to Boulder city, NV and had root beer floats at A&W while grandpa had lunch. Then, we drove to Hoover Dam and went on the “dam tour!” It was really cool. We got to go over 500 feet down an elevator and it made our ears pop. Then, we were told all the interesting facts about how the dam was built and operates. We got to see the giant power generators, then we rode the elevator back to the top. We went to the gift shop and got some postcards and Seth got a cool “dam t-shirt.” On the way home, Ben saw a billboard sign that said there was a gun show going on the 2nd and 3rd. Ben and grandpa were so excited about the idea that Grandpa took Ben with him to go to the show when we dropped him back off at work. After dropping them off, grandpa took Ben up into his Semi-truck that he drives for work. Ben says that it was pretty cool! Then they left for the gun show. Unfortunately, the show was over at 5 PM and it was a little after 5 by the time they got there. Undeterred, they went to grandpas house for burgers and watched America’s Funniest Home Videos. They had a great time. Grandpa then drove Ben back home and promised that they could go to the gun show the next day, after church. We had our family scripture study, had family prayers and were off to bed.

Day 9: 03 August 08

Today, we got ready and went to church. It was fast Sunday, so Dad got up and bore his testimony in church. Ben and Seth were very reverent during sacrament and went to their classes afterwards. Seth learned how to let his light shine and Ben learned about the scriptures and how they are important to us. Their teachers were happy to have such well behaved boys in their classes! After church, we went home and had lunch. A little bit later, grandpa dropped by to get Ben for the gun show. They got some ammo and a really cool metal 22 target at the show. The target stand has 3 round metal targets that spin when hit. Ben told us how much fun they had at the gun show. Then we had burgers for dinner, Yum!

Day 10: 04 August 08

Today was an early and fun day. We left the house about 5AM so that we got to grandpa’s at about 5:30. We got ready for an exciting hike at Red Rock Canyon. Grandpa took us to a special place that is not well known. It was an awesome cave that had four gigantic rooms on 4 separate floors. When we got to the very bottom, we turned off our flashlights and it was such a penetrating darkness that we couldn’t see anything. There were stalagtites and stalagmites and it was about 70 degrees in the cave and over 100 outside! On the hike, we saw several lizards and a few birds. We saw some incredible rock formations and lots of road apples (horse poop!) We really enjoyed the hike, but were tired by the time we got back to the car. Grandpa had a doctors appointment at 1PM, so we had to take grandpa home so he could shower and make it to the doctor on time. We went home for lunch, then grandpa came by with a bunch of guns and ammo and took us shooting! We had a really good time and Ben got to shoot his new gun the grandpa bought him. We came home and a guy came by to adopt our snake, Kaa. We miss him, but it was really good to have him around for a while. We had some family time, then brushed our teeth and were off to bed.

Day 11: 05 August 08

Today was the preparation day for our camping trip. We had a yummy breakfast, then went shopping at Wal-Mart for camping gear. We got a fishing license for dad and food for the trip. We then came home and ate and went swimming. We got on dad’s back and went under water, then he jumped up and threw us across the pool. Now dad’s neck is sore, but it was really fun! We came back home and baked cookies for the camp out. We also made homemade trail mix and made a bag for everyone. Then we made tin foil dinners to cook on the camp fire tomorrow night! We cant wait to eat it!!! By the time we were done, it was bedtime, so we got ready and went to bed.

Day 12: 06 August 08

After lunch today, we packed up the car and drove to Mount Charleston. First we stopped at the gift shop on the mountain to get some postcards. Then we drove to the campground that we wanted to stay at, but it was full. So we drove to Lee Canyon on the mountain and the campground there was almost empty, so we stayed there. We found a site where we couldn’t even see any other campers. We set up our tents and it was beautiful there. We went out hunting for firewood and brought a bunch back to the campsite. Dad tried to build a fire, but the wood was all too wet because it had rained earlier that day. So, instead of cooking dinner on the file, we had to use a propane burner that Dad brought. We made tin foil dinners and they were yummy. For desert, we had smores made with chocolate chip cookies instead of gram crackers. Then, it started getting a little chilly, so we had hot chocolate and went to bed.

Day 13: 07 August 08

We woke up and ate breakfast. We had cold cereal! Then, we ate a few more chocolate chip cookies and had more hot chocolate. Then, we took down the tents and loaded up the car. Then, we went on a hiking trail which led to a cave, called Robber’s Roost, where horse thieves are believed to have hidden. Along the trail, we saw three lizards and a chipmunk. We had a great time. After the hike, we headed home. After we got there, we unloaded the car and took showers and ate lunch. After lunch, we got our fishing gear ready for the next morning. Then we had Sheppard’s pie for dinner, it was yummy! Then we watched TV for a while, brushed our teeth and went off to bed.

Day 14: 08 August 08

We got up at 7 for breakfast and left for fishing at 7:30. We got to the ponds at about 8:15 and fished until about 2PM. Dad caught the first fish, a small Green Sunfish. Later we found a red crawdad and Dad caught it and we took some pictures of it. Then, Seth caught the 2nd fish of the day. It was a 2 inch, Large Mouth Bass. Seth put his pinkie finger in its mouth for a unique photo opportunity. We hiked around the pond and found some really large bullfrogs. They were all a little too fast to catch, but we all had fun trying. We also saw baby geese, a baby water turtle, peacocks, pigeons, ducks and small fish all over the 4 different ponds in the park. We stopped for a bathroom break, and Ben and Seth spotted a big hawk on the lawn. We walked toward it and it flew and landed in a nearby tree. It was carrying a gopher that it had just caught. We took some pictures of the hawk and got to watch it eat its lunch in the tree. We went home and watched the Weird Al show that Dad got in the mail from Netflix. We laughed and stayed up late watching 3 of the 4 episodes. Ben fell asleep in the middle of the second, but dad and Seth stayed up until the end of the third.

Day 15: 09 August 08

We got up and ate breakfast. Dad was up early so watched the 2nd through the 4th episodes of the Weird Al show, so that Ben wouldn’t miss any episodes. Then, we went to the Las Vegas LDS Temple and took some pictures. After that, we went to Carl’s Jr. for lunch. Then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up Seth’s birthday present. When we got home, Ben and Dad wrapped it and Seth is really excited about it. Now, we are watching TV and updating this, our final Day in Vegas. Dad and Franky want us to come back next summer and we really want to also – they want us to stay longer next time.