Viva Las Vegas

Our family recently attended a family reunion in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Will’s father has cousins and family that live in Western states like Colorado, Wyoming,  and California and we are all in Texas, so it made sense to pick Las Vegas as sort of a central place to meet up for a long weekend.  It was such a fun trip.  The focus on this trip was definitely all about kids and family.  I did play one dollar in the slot machines just for grins, and promptly lost!

This was Jacob’s third plane trip and Bella’s second. They did great. Thank goodness  for portable DVD players, plus they had backpacks full of activities.

Do you see this smile Will is doing? He has this little grin he makes just for pictures…

First off we picked up our rental cars. We had a huge land yacht – um, like a Buick or something, I’ll have to ask Will. The trunk was HUGE.  We laughed the whole time because that car was huge and we felt about 95 driving around in it.  The trunk was more than big enough for two children!

  

It was sooooo hot there. Here you can see the temperature was 108. This was in the shade inside the parking garage. I saw that thing go up to 110. Craziness. But it was dry, totally no humidity. My hair looked great but all of us had really chapped lips by the end of the trip.

Our first night there Will and his brother and my sister in law and I all went out to dinner at Tom Calicchio’s restaurant Craftsteak. If any readers watch the show Top Chef, Tom Calicchio is the head judge on the show. This was our big splurge item on this trip, oh my goodness it was the most incredible meal I have ever had. I will never forget how awesome it was. We had cocktails, steak, roasted corn, mushroom risotto, hen of the woods mushrooms, a couple different salads,  a plate of heirloom tomatoes, bottle of wine – all of it was wonderful. I know my mother in law took pictures of the four of us all dressed up to go on her camera.  I took pictures of the food but it was so dark in the restaurant that they aren’t great pictures. Just trust me, if you are ever in Vegas… you have got to try this restaurant!

  

On Friday we spent the day down on the strip – first stop was the Paris hotel. There we met up with all of the family and had lunch and visited. I didn’t take pictures except this one of the Eiffel Tower. Jacob wasn’t impressed, having seen the real one in France but I think it’s fun.

Next we drove over to Mandalay Bay resort to take the kids to the aquarium. Here are the sights we saw on the way -

The Luxor (Pyramid and Sphinx. Bella calls the Sphinx “The Great Stinks” which I find utterly hilarious. We try to get her to say it over and over.) Sorry about the glare, this was through the car window.

Bella also loved the castle turrets at the Excalibur. 

More than anything Jacob wanted to ride the roller coaster at New York New York. But he is a few inches too short.

We arrived at Mandalay Bay resort to go to the Aquarium. This is a big big resort. We had to walk a long way to get back where the aquarium part is, on the way we saw the pool;  there are slides and a wave pool, it is like a beach and looked REALLY fun.

Here is everyone taking a much needed rest from all that walking:

Jacob by the Shark Reef sign.

  

This was a really neat interactive image projected onto the wall, when you touch the wall the image ripples like real water – very cool.

At the aquarium, they had those audio tour phone things. Will and I are both the kind of people who love to actually read the  kiosks and hear all the facts about what we are seeing but I was surprised that both our little kids were really into listening as well. Aren’t they cute listening all about the aquarium animals?

 

There were a lot of really cool things at the aquarium but it was a hard place to take a lot of pictures because of being dark and all the glass. In the center of the exhibit is a section where you can pet stingrays. Jacob really enjoyed that part, Bella, normally my adventurous one, wanted nothing to do with it.

 

The best part for me? Sharks!

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we went to Circus Circus. (Can you tell this was a LONG day????)  Circus Circus has a huge pink tent that contains a children’s amusement park. There are all kinds of family rides, booths and activities. Sadly Jacob was still ONE INCH too short to ride the roller coaster. But he found plenty else to do.

 

The next day, was Saturday. On this day we spent the morning exploring a nearby canyon called Red Rocks Canyon and then returned to the rented vacation house for the big family reunion part of the trip. More to come!