Humanitarian Aid - Brazil 2010

Two of my kids (Cassie, 18 and Brandon, 16) had the opportunity of a lifetime this summer! They took part in a humanitarian aid project in Brazil for two and a half weeks. Back in April of this year, the state of Rio de Janeiro experienced terrible mudslides that left more then 15,000 people homeless. My kids and a group of 20 other youth went there to help rebuild homes that were affected in the mudslides. They were able to see where the major damage was done and they said that it looked as if no homes had ever been there. But, hundreds of homes were buried along with the people that were in them. It was very devastating!

While there, they worked about 10 hours every week day and the they were able to sightsee on the weekends. They visited Iguazu Falls and my daughter said if that was all they had done in Brazil it would have been worth going just to see it. She was in absolute awe of the falls. They toured Rio the second weekend. But they both admitted that they enjoyed serving the people the most. They grew to love those were serving so much.

When I met them at the airport they were so humbled and grateful for all they have. My son is already saving to go again next summer! They both absolutely loved every minute of their time there.

Fab Fridays - Hoover Dam, Discovery Museum and Dinner Show

I grew up 10 minutes from Hoover Dam and spent lots of time down there as a kid. I can't tell you how many school and church field trips I took there while growing up. Since 9/11 lots has changed at the dam and because it became sort of a hassle to go because of security and such I hadn't taken my kids there since then. Well, I decided it was time and plus I wanted to see how the construction of the new Hoover Dam bypass was coming along.

Well, lots had changed since the good old days. When I was a kid a full tour was about $7 and this included going into the dam. Now just to park is $7 and then another $8 a person just to go into the visitors center. If you want the full tour (which includes a movie) you're going to pay $30 a pop!!! We only did the visitors center, but if we go again we'll park on the Arizona side and walk across the dam and just take pictures. That's doesn't cost anything. Anyway, there's also a free dam movie at the Hotel near by but we didn't have time to stop to see that this particular day. I do plan on taking the kids to see that another day or we'll just find something on Netflix to watch :)

There were a few interactive activities in the new Hoover Dam visitors center.

This is part of the memorial for those who lost their lives building the dam.

We also went to the Lied Discovery Children's Museum with my sister and her 5 kids. It's mostly for younger kids but my kids had a great time anyway. There were still lots of things to keep them interested.

Christian spent a lot of time making bubbles... he loved this!

Christian had also just finished writing a report about tornados so this was fun for him too!

My sister, Jenny, and her two oldest kids at the Discovery Museum

Melanie in the 80 mph wind... too much fun!

The last thing we did this day was go to the Tournament of the Kings show at the Excalibur Hotel. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures... very disappointed about that, ARG!! But it was very fun. It's a dinner show and we were served chicken, vegetables, roll, and potato wedges and we you don't get any utensils, so we ate with our hands... pretty fun. The kids had a great time!

This is WAY more than we would typically do in one day but we were in Vegas and we tried to fit in more than usual.