Act 5; Scene 4: Las Vegas Vacation--Pictures!

Tommy and I thought we might as well take advantage of Robert's accounting conference for an almost free vacation for us! And plus, St. George is on the way to Vegas, which gave us a lovely excuse to spend some more time with the Centers. 

And it just turned out that the Saturday of our departure was the Harvest Festival at Young Living Family Farm in tiny Mona, UT, about an hour into our drive down South. So we decided to be adventurous and check it out.

What a riot! We had a blast looking at all the animals, especially the giant black horses, taking a wagon ride and pony rides, watching a jousting tournament (of all things! A farm, and...a medieval jousting arena. weird.)

Robert axe-throwing at the medieval village

woohoo!

I even got a knife to stick!

The Knights

Black swan at the pond

Trying to paddle boat in the pond

After a lovely Saturday evening and Sunday morning/afternoon, we headed to our grand destination--The Luxor, Las Vegas.

We finally made it to a parking spot and after trekking about a mile to get checked in and into our room, we were ready for bed. And Thomas was having tons of fun playing with...the shower:

We put Thomas to bed and had lights out in our hotel room by...7:20 LV time. Robert and I spent a very quiet, slightly bored evening together until we hit the sack around 9:30. 

Monday morning Thomas and I headed out to see what there was to see. We walked through the Excalibur, and made friends with a big dragon with light-up eyes that would growl at passersby. We ended up spending a lot of time with that dragon on this trip. Then we made our way over to M&M World, and spent some time buying candy and looking around. 

Oh yeah, these guys were there when we got out of the elevator onto the street for the first time. I was excited to see them! Until they told me to give them money for talking to Thomas...I mentioned these guys in my earlier post: 

We kept walking all the way down to the Flamingo, where I had heard there was a mini aviary with some cool birds. It did take some guts for me to actually decide to enter the huge casino and walk around through all that...stuff...before we found the birds. But found them we did, and it was one of our favorite things!

This is a white swan, cleaning her feathers

sleeping pelicans!

Of course, the flamingos

Giant fish. They were 3 feet long!

He wanted a picture by the dirt...

More big fish! And waterfalls!

After the Flamingo we started the 2 mile trek back...and ended up getting lost going the wrong way. So we added about a half mile onto that, and then trekked back. Oh, PS--it was 100 degrees. Surrounded by hot pavement and big buildings. Yuck. By the time we made it back to the hotel, we were starving and so ready for that blast of AC. We walked into the room...and...sauna. Our AC wasn't on. After cranking it for an hour, it still was blowing warm air. So I called maintenance and we went swimming.

Thomas was the only kid in the pool, and man did he have a blast. I think the others had a good time watching him laughing and playing, too. As long as they didn't get splashed, which I tried really hard to prevent. I did notice that there was a very wide berth around us...haha...

And after swimming, came to the room, and...sauna. Yuck! So after showers and attempting to nap, I called again and they agreed to switch our rooms. Which meant I had to spend an hour packing up everything, and standing in line at the front desk to get a new key, (if you haven't been to one of these hotels, you should just know that the Luxor is HUGE. I mean, standing in line is like waiting for security at the airport.) and trying to figure out if we can move all of this stuff and still get to dinner on time. 

We decided to go get frozen yogurt before Robert got back for the big move. Partially out of hunger, partially out of heat, and partially out of stress. It was delicious.

Robert finally got home, we got our things moved to the OTHER SIDE OF THE HOTEL. I'm telling you, it's like a mile walk over there! And finally headed out around 6 to walk to the famous Hash House a Go Go for dinner. 

Poor Tommy pooped out in the stroller. Which we counted as fortunate, since the sights of Las Vegas are a bit different at night than they are in the mornings. Oh, did I mention it was a 2 mile walk to the restaurant, in 99 degree weather? Robert was NOT HAPPY. Plus the smell and the loud music and the confusing streets (and the lateness of dinner) were really piling up the unhappiness. 

We finally found the restaurant and came in sweaty, found a place to lay the stroller back so Thomas could continue sleeping, and thought there is no way this food is going to be worth this, no matter what people say.

Well...we were wrong. The food was the best part of this trip:

Tommy's stroller leaned back against the booth

So this sort of turned out to be a date! Since Tommy slept through most of it!

Sage fried chicken eggs benedict, ala Man vs. Food. Notice also the giant biscuits in the back, and the side of cheddar bacon mashed potatoes (my personal favorite). Soooo good!

Thomas woke up, ate some melon, then conked out again, this time lying down on the bench

On our way back we stopped by the Bellagio to see the fountain display. Pretty cool!

Our view on the way back to the Luxor through Excalibur

We made it back to the hotel and finally conked out around 10. Of course Tommy got his second wind and ran around the room and jumped on the bed for like an hour before he could settle down to sleep for the night. Sheesh!

Tuesday was a day of hanging out. Thomas begged to watch TV, so we just sat in the hotel room and watched Curious George for an hour or so, while lying on the bed. Relaxation!

Soon we both got restless, so we headed back to the candy stores and made it to M&M World in time for the free 3D movie. It was hysterical to watch Tommy view the little movie with his 3D glasses. At first he would try to reach out and touch everything, then when the "action" started he was pretty terrified--shaking on my lap. He now frequently points to his M&M souvenir toy and says "scary!"

Picked up smoothies for lunch--perfect for the hot weather--then met Robert to go to the Shark Reef Aquarium.

I think this dragon has the cutest face!

Looking for Dori

Sting rays and horseshoe crabs

Touching a sting ray!

Lion fish. These guys are awesome.

You can't see it in the picture, but this guy had rows of giant teeth!

It was really fun to see all the different sharks swimming all around us. We just parked it and watched them for a while. I love hearing Tommy yell out "Rark!!!"

After this we trekked to the car. Really, being in these casinos feels like being in one giant airport--there's airport food, airport moving walkways, different "wings" that are all connected (you can walk to almost all of the casino/hotels without going outside...just like an airport). We were so glad to get in the car and head back to peaceful St. George!

Wednesday morning we enjoyed some swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool, then leisurely packed our things and headed back home.

This was probably the longest post I've written...but I'm glad I have it down for our memories. Sorry if it was too long and boring for you!