The Grand Canyon

On our way home from Las Vegas we took the long route around and went to the Grand Canyon. Matt had been there before with his parents on his way home from his mission but for Kaiya and myself it was our first time. It was way more beautiful than the pictures could ever show, they just don't do it justice.

My sister Tara was deathly afraid that she might fall into the Canyon and wouldn't get anywhere near the edge. I think the closest she got was like 20 feet away.

Matt and Kaiya, it was a gorgeous day that day.

I had to get a picture sitting on the very edge and prove to Tara that it was ok and I wouldn't fall in.

Kaiya wasn't too happy here but we were able to pose long enough to get a photo.

Vegas Vacation (Smith Style)

So as you can see we went to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, its taken me forever to get pics up but here they are. Probably the best part of the whole week was when we went to the show Mystere done by Cirque Du Soleil, we took Kaiya and my younger sister Tara and they loved the show too. It was really amazing and I would totally suggest it to anyone.
We stayed at the stratosphere while we were in Vegas, so we were able to go to the top to see the view as much as we wanted without paying. We went up five times during the day and night. It was really pretty from the top.

We also rode the rides that were on the top of the Stratosphere. My sister Tara went with us to watch Kaiya for us went we weren't able to take her with us. We both screamed like little girls on all the rides but at least we had the guts to get on them. Matt made me sit in the front on the one that looks like a teeter totter that dips you off the edge of the tower 1100 ft in the air at 60 miles an our, and I almost peed my pants.

We went to the wax museum one day and that was really fun.

More pics of the wax museum

These are just a few pics of the strip, we had fun just walking around and looking at things.

Pics of the strip at night and the fountains at the Bellagio, the fountain show was cool.

We also went on the roller coaster at New York New York, it was also very fun. The picture of me with the paper hat was when we went to a restaurant called Dick's Last Resort where the waiters are as rude as possible on purpose, that was kinda fun.

We went to the M&M factory where they have anything you can think of M&M. They had these really cool purses and picture frames made out of M&M wrappers that I had to take a picture of.

Kaiya had kind of a rough week. She was just getting over being sick and still had diarrhea. On our way into town she was just crying relentlessly and so we finally stopped unable to calm her down. Luckily we did stop because she had the worst blow out I've ever seen. Matt got her out of the car seconds before she exploded all over his shirt, we almost had diarrhea all over the car but luckily we used the changing pad. Poor Kaiya! She was really cute in the hotel though she had to have all of her stuffed animals with her to fall asleep, she loves those things.

At the Bellagio they have these really gorgeous gardens that we went and looked at.

Matt and I went to dinner at the top of the Stratosphere, that is the most money I will ever pay for dinner but it was a fun experience, the restaurant revolved all the way around to see a 360 degree view of Las Vegas. Before we went to dinner we also went and saw a Criss Angel show, he is the mind freak guy who is an illusionist. It was really good.

At the Coca-Cola factory we did taste testing of different flavors of coke from around the world. As you can probably tell some were good and some not so good.

The aquarium was one of the best parts. It was cool to watch the sharks and turtles swim over head.

They would let you touch the sting rays in the tank, they were really slimy.

Blessings and Lessons Learned

So today Kaiya said Dada for the first time. It was very cute! Ironically she said it for the first time after Matt had had a very hard day that tested his patience with her. Everyday we receive blessings and reminders in our lives to let us know how much we have to be thankful for. We love our Kaiya so much and after a long day of doing all we can to figure out why she is crying and she looks at us and smiles or says Dada for the first time we are just reminded what a blessing she is and how much we love her.
We also had to get Kaiya's blood taken and tested this week because when she was two weeks old one of her blood tests had come back saying she had an unknown hematacrit variant, which could mean a lot of things. They told us that we would have to get her blood tested when she was 6 months old to make sure she wasn't anemic because of an abnormality of her red blood cells. The Dr. told us that if the test came back with any problems that we would have to get an appointment at Primary Children's, so it was a little scary. Rest assured though the blood work came back completely normal and we are thankful to have a healthy baby. I've learned a lot since becoming a mom though and one of the most important things is to not worry until there is something to worry about. Kaiya was a little trooper too she didn't even cry when they poked her toe to take her blood, she just chewed on her shoe the whole time.