Warning: You're about to see more vacation photos than you ever wanted to see.
Everything was amazing...one of my personal favorite was all the water features. (It's a Pisces thing.)
Bellagio fountains...one of the first stops on our first day.
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| Check out the height of the water and the buildings in the background... |
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Water explosion...
Gabby wants to work here when she grows up so she can swim in the fountains. |
And of course we had to stop at the M & M factory...
Circus Circus was another favorite. We were crazy enough to think about walking there (in 106 degree heat) and by the time we realized how far away it was, we decided to just keep walking...
Right before Circus Circus was a McDonalds. Tim called out, "Ice cream for everyone!" He gets most popular dad points for that one.
The girls and Jeran got their faces painted while we were waiting for the circus show...
We passed around the camera, and everyone (but mostly Megan) got a chance to take pictures. It was interesting to see Vegas through everyone's eyes. Here's the "bright and colorful" Vegas through Gabby's eyes...
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| Waiting for something or watching something...we did a lot of both. |
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| Amazing gardens inside Bellagio |
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| Amazing |
There were street performers everywhere, and watching the kids try to decide whether or not to try to get this guy (below) to move was one of my favorite Vegas moments.
You are supposed to walk up, put money in his cup, and he'll move (and when he wasn't moving, he really did look like stone). Joie walked up and put money in the box, and he moved... Finished, right?
...But no. He then held up his hand for her to give him bones. She was hesitant to walk up there twice, but she did it, and each time she gave him bones, he'd do mechanical rotation movements and reach in his pocket and pull out a sucker...one for all the kids. Gabby sooooooo wanted to try, but didn't.
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| More bright and colorful... |
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| This was inside the Venetian...yes, INSIDE. We loved all the painted ceilings. |
And then there was Phantom...
Even now the girls are downstairs watching the DVD and singing along...Amazing!
Before we went to Vegas, a friend told me,
"Vegas is great in the daytime, but if you're there with kids, leave the strip when it gets dark." But Tim had kept talking about the cool pirate show at Treasure Island after dark, so we walked down after Phantom and waited
forty-five minutes for the show to start...
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| Gabby, not happy about waiting. |
No pictures except for the ones we took while waiting...
...Then that awkward moment when the show starts and you realized there was a really good reason this wasn't listed on the family attractions at Vegas...and that other awkward moment when you look around and realized you're the only family with children there...
Not our brightest parenting moment.
But we did get to see more great lights...
Then as we were leaving the strip, we walked past a cute little restaurant that my sister-in-law had mentioned in a facebook post the day before.
And yes, Joelle, the frozen hot chocolate was
fantastic and it was a great ending to a great day (minus the TI experience).
Other experiences worth noting...
- Swimming late at night...still so hot it felt good! (And any other time of day they could get in the pool.)
- Eating at Planet Hollywood before we left Vegas (restaurant was cool...food, meh...not as impressive)
- Electronic comas while driving in the car (I'm a huge fan of electronic comas while we're on the road.)
- Early morning trip to the Las Vegas temple with the oldest kids...what a contrast from life on the strip.
- The Bellagio buffet for Jeran's birthday meal (the day after his birthday because let's face it...Grand Canyon just doesn't offer anything as amazing as the Bellagio buffet).
- Numerous other free shows...love, love, love free shows.
- The discovery by our children that arcades are nothing more than casinos for children.
Things we didn't do:
- Gamble...even though the boys kept daring each other to walk up to slot machines and put a quarter in (just to see if they could get kicked out of a casino). Silly boys.
- Go to visit Pawn Stars pawn shop... We meant to do it, but ran out of time.
- Sleep...not nearly enough sleep.
- And many other things, I'm sure...probably most of which we're ok missing.
- The New York, New York roller coaster...Gabby really wanted to go back for that one but have you ever walked the strip? It takes forever...no time.
- Mandalay Bay shark reef aquarium...Again, it takes longer to walk the strip than you'd think. Poor planning on our part.
And on an unrelated sad note, on the way out of town we got a text from Joie's uncle, letting us know he and his wife had lost their baby. She was almost 7 months pregnant, and went in for an appointment to learn the baby had died.
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| Picture of their family taken in June when they were sealed in the temple. |
Our hearts wept with them all week as they went through this loss and buried their baby on Saturday. It's hard to imagine. Love and prayers to Spencer and Amy.
And work starts early tomorrow... (sigh).
