Let Freedom Ring

We spent the 4th of July on a 'stay-cation'. It was the shortest drive to the most fun holiday! Mark's friend hooked us up with a ginormous suite.

With a JACUZZI in the middle of our hotel room. It was a very cool "sa-weet!"

The kids were SOOO excited to actually be "visitors" in our own city!

the man who makes these fun things happen! love him!

still trying to figure out the new camera...but here's the NY NY hotel inside!

and the Brooklyn bridge outside!

We walked across the street to eat on the 4th floor of Outback steak house...it was sooo yummy. I hadn't had the Bloomin' Onion in years!

Hee Hee, Maddox is always so sweet with his baby sister. So cute to watch him steal kisses from her.

The "strip'!!

We had fun walking up and down the strip. We even waited for fireworks!

Exploring the new City Center. I have never set foot down there until Independence Day! Ha!

Inside the mall there was a very cool art-interactive display of whirl-pool cylinders.

The kids were entertained for long while!

So here we are. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more.    Oh, for fireworks, that is.

Ya, they never came. So we headed back to our hotel room and crashed like rock stars!

Refreshed legs for more walking!

We headed over to the MGM lion habitat.

the kids loved seeing them so close!

walking through all the craziness. I personally do not like walking through the casinos (for many reasons, but the #1 reason is breathing in the second hand smoke. so I walk like I'm in a race or something, no one likes to walk that fast though!)

Into the forum shops and out of the smokiness....

the new addition to the Forum Shops was quite impressive...it looked very roman-ish.

as parents, i guess we will never get sick of taking pictures of our kids. even if she sits in the same stroller every day...she has the sweetest expressions all the time!

We walked through a bit of heat to get to this place. BUT, I thought it was worth it. AND I would probably do it again. Serendipity 3 has THE BEST frrrrrozen hot chocolate ever. And they have these massive doughnuts that the kids shared.

And licked the wrapper clean. Yup. My kids love sugar!

And Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate!

Happy Independence Day!

This year there were no fireworks, but that doesn't mean we didn't celebrate with a bang!!