Las Vegas!

I have been absent from my blog for a few days because my family went on a short trip to sunny Las Vegas or as Bailee and Joshua call it "Las Begas"! Jared had to go to a training for work so we decided to tag along. We left later Monday morning and got to Las Vegas that evening. We stayed at a place called Suncoast Hotel & Casino and it was more on the outskirts of Las Vegas. It looks like the type of place that the older people go to get their gambling in without messing with the main strip. It was a nice room with a distant view of downtown Vegas and the kids were so excited to be out of the car and actually in Vegas that they celebrated with a jump on the beds. They weren't my beds so I just let them keep on jumping (they were in the car a long time). That night we decided to walk the strip of downtown Vegas and see a few of the different things that are located at the casinos. We parked at MGM and saw the lion habitat and then hit the M&M factory, which as Sage pointed out should actually have a factory not just stores (4 levels of stores). M&M was rather disappointing so we continued on to the Bellagio for the water show. We got there at about 8pm and a rather spectacular production of water and music entertained the kids. Next, we hit the mall in Caesar's Palace. We thought it would be fun to visit FAO Schwarz and Sage, Bailee and Joshua liked making music on the huge piano (like in the movie BIG) and we left there with a couple of toys and treats. Sage pulled a yucky face at the statue of "David" and said something about a hot dog in a bun so I told her to stop looking at it. We watched the fish in the big aquarium before deciding it was getting late and we still needed to walk back to the car. When Jared and I had been to Vegas before we thought there was a monorail at the Bellagio but everyone told us it was at Bally's across the street. That was fine. We went through the maze at Bally's and finally found the monorail but it was going to cost $20 to ride it back to the car. I thought it was worth the money since it seemed like we had been walking forever but we sucked it up and decided to walk back to the car. We had to find our way out of Bally's first. Ughh! All of the kids did great. Sage and Joshua were troopers and Joshua only had an occasional ride on Jared's back. Bailee zonked out in the stroller before we got back to the car (thank goodness for the stroller). We finally got back to the hotel at midnight and we were exhausted.

Tuesday was more laid back, we woke up and the kids and I went to the grocery store for some food supplies and flotation equipment for the swimming pool. After eating some lunch we went swimming. We actually didn't swim for very long because luck would have it that the wind was really bad. It was fine if you were sunbathing but I don't know of many 2 and 4 year old that willingly lay down and sunbath. The wind made it too cold if you were in the water so after the pool and hot tub we decided to go back to the room and wait for Jared's class (remember, he was on a work trip) to get over. That night we decided to eat at The Cheesecake Factory since none of us had been there before and after we ate the main food we took our cheesecake to go and drove over to the airport to watch the airplanes land (one of Jared's favorite things to do). After Sept 11 they closed the observation parking at the SLC airport but it is still open in Las Vegas so you are a couple of yards from the planes landing and taking off. It was still very windy so some of them had rough, wobbly landings and a couple even started to land and went back up to line up and try again. That night we got home earlier and the kids were still pretty tired so they fell asleep quickly, except Joshua. He was full of conversation, here is a sample: Joshua: "Can we move here?" (meaning the hotel room)
Bridget: "Why?"
Joshua:"The carpet is more comfortable here."
Bridget: "Do you like sleeping in the same bed as your sisters?" Joshua: "Yes." "This place has three phones. One in the bathroom and two in here." , Now I understood. Joshua was truly in love with living in a hotel.

Wednesday we woke up and had our breakfast and then packed to come home. That morning and every morning Joshua would hug me and say "It's a beautiful day Mom." I had to agree with him. Every day was 90+ degrees and aside from the wind, which was still warm if you weren't in the pool, it was really nice to be in the warm weather. The kids and I checked out and had to wait about 1 hour before Jared's last class was done so we decided to go dangle our feet in the pool, which was virtually wind free, and Sage was able to witness a very old lady sun herself topless, chest up. I guess Sage can skip the anatomy class at school because she was given a lesson while in Las Vegas. Jared's class ended and we made one stop at the Disney outlet before heading home to 30 degree cooler weather and snow!

All in all we had a fun time. Sage thought the main strip was fun, so many different lights and people. Joshua was in love with the hotel and would get excited everytime we came back to it, he would just start grinning ear to ear. He also got very good at going up and down escalators by himself (he used to be afraid of them). I think Bailee enjoyed hitting the elevator buttons every time we had to use one. I loved the weather but I was glad to get back to Utah and it's smoke free buildings. You take little things like that for granted until every building you walk in, including your hotel, makes you smell like smoke. Too often I find justification for not taking such a short trip - we will spend too much eating out, it is such a hassle, such a long drive, instead of finding the justification for going on such a short trip - the kids will be exposed to new experiences, we will make some memories, it really is such a long drive especially if the cartoon of Alvin and the Chipmunks is replayed over, and over, and over again but you also get to hear your 4 year old belly laugh over, and over, and over again.