Play Date in....VEGAS!

Wednesday, Day 1

Deborah, Bryant, Kanyon and I packed our bags and we headed to Vegas! Our good friends and neighbors, the Morgans, moved to Vegas 2 years ago and we wanted to visit them. --plus, it was a good excuse for a ROAD TRIP!! and who doesn't love Las Vegas??

Our first stop was to pick up our rental car from the airport. As you can see, the kids waited patiently for us to do that...

Here she is, a Hyundai Sonata...Deborah thought the name "Betty" would suit her well. She was a great travel companion.

The car was jammed packed with stuff for the kids to do. We had crayons, books, DVD's, Legos, & even lap desks and chicken nuggets. All of it helped the kids act like angels on our 10 hour trip.

(It doesn't take a normal person 10 hrs to drive to Vegas from SLC, but we had a couple stops to make and a wrong turn to correct--never thought I would ever say I DROVE past New York New York in Vegas, but I've now done it!) 

Thursday, Day 2, am

The kids were really excited to wake up and play! Our friend Katie built them an awesome train track to play with!

 

After breakfast we got our swim suits on and headed to the pool! It was awesome to be swimming in the middle of October. The weather was absolutely perfect! 

Kanyon did so good swimming with her floaties and a noodle. She even got confident enough to kick and move around on her own without clinging on to me for dear life!

Parker & Katie enjoyed the water too! 

Thursday, Day 2, pm

After swimming we put the kids down for a nap, and when they woke up, we loaded them in the car and drove to Mandalay Bay to see the Shark Reef Exhibit. It was fabulous! These pictures can't begin to describe it. I would recommend visiting this attraction.

Kanyon was a little nervous seeing all these huge animals. Here is a huge gator.

Kanyon sees her first shark.

Believe it or not, when Katie posed for this pic, she had NO idea that there was a shark coming directly at her! 

Here's a story... Octopus vs. Starfish 

In the same tank, they had an octopus & starfish. Now, Kanyon knows what an octopus is. At least I thought she did. She didn't recognize the octopus because it was all balled up in the top corner of the tank. I kept showing it to her and she kept telling me that it wasn't an octopus. She thought the starfish was the  octopus. I guess they both have many arms, and when you come from land-locked Utah, how are you supposed to know the difference?? :)

Real Picture

Fake Picture

While driving home from the Mandalay Bay, we were waiting to make a left turn. Deborah and I were following Katie. The car in front of Katie honked at another driver to go when the arrow turned green....

The guy that was "honked at" jumped out of the car and started threatening the other driver (very foul language and threatening gestures)... it was crazy!! I really thought the guy was going to pull out a gun or smash the other driver's window! Luckily the cops (three of them) arrived on the scene and helped to sort things out. We had a great view of the whole scene. Of course, Deborah did the "touristy" thing and started to take pictures...That's the cop talking to Katie. We learned that night to not honk in Vegas. 

 Friday, Day 3, am

We took the kids to a place called "Pump It Up". It was 2 huge rooms full of just bounce houses that the kids could play on. It was a great way to spend the morning.

There was a huge bounce house that made you go through a little obstacle course before getting to the slide. I followed Kanyon on it several times.
First you climb up this wall and throw yourself over the other side...

Then you have to sqeeeze through this hole...

Then you run through this bounce towers and through a little bridge...

Then you get to this tall ladder to take you to the top of the slide. Kanyon couldn't reach to get on the first step of the ladder, so each time she went in this house, I had to follow her to help her out. I realized that I really am over 30...bounce houses just aren't made for me...lol

The down the slide! Weeeeeeee!

Even the parents had fun too!!

Friday, Day 3, lunch

IN-N-OUT BURGER!!!!

I have seen these places pop up all around us here in Utah now, but I've never had a chance to eat at one. It seems like everyone who eats there loves it! So, we pull up to order and your choices are narrowed down to three. You can either get a double burger, a cheeseburger or a hamburger. I had heard that the menu was limited, but only 3 choices of burgers shocked me. However, they were DELICIOUS! I've heard that you can ask for your burgers "Animal Style". That's not on the menu, and I have no idea what it means, but I can't wait to go back and try it!!!

Friday, Day 3, pm

We ventured out to The Strip and took the kids to M&M World!

This was made entirely from M&Ms 

While we were there, we were just in time to catch the 3D showing of their movie! 

We had sooo much fun! We couldn't wait to get home and eat some M&Ms!

That night for dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory and had the BEST guacamole ever- accompanied with the WORST service ever. Word to the wise: Don't invite Neil to come to dinner. It was only a rumor that he brought the bad luck to restaurants until I witnessed it myself.

Saturday, Day 4, Last Day of Play

On Saturday morning we all drove out to this place called Bonnie Springs. Its just a little outside of Vegas, near the Red Rock Canyon. As we were driving, we saw this sign. We looked at each other and said "Did that really say 'Watch Out For The Burro'??"

Um....yeah. It did.  

 That crazy Burro came right up to our car. We thought it liked our air conditioning.  

Bonnie Springs is like this old western frontier town.  

We had to ride a little train to get to the petting zoo.

Parker & Kanyon

The funny thing about this picture is that I told Kanyon to hold Parkers hand, and she folded her arms instead.  

This deer really liked Kanyon's dress. This was the second time this stupid animal tried eating it.  

Kanyon kept yelling "Wake Up" to this fat, lazy pig.  

Our Cowboys (and Cowgirl) 

We stopped to have a picnic on the way home. Complete with Oreo's, fruit snacks, and peanut butter crackers.  

All that excitement tired those kids right out.  

We actually were able to unbuckle the carseats from the truck and move them into our respective cars with out any of them waking up!

Kid #1- Kanyon 

Kid #2- Parker 

Kid #3- Bryant 

Then that evening was our last one with the Morgan Family, so we just stayed in and let the kids play.  

Neil & Katie- Thank you so much for everything you did for us. We had a fabulous trip.