Vegas, Baby!

Ahhh, Vegas – Dave and I really love Vegas, not for exactly the same reasons. Dave is a gambler and enjoys that. I like gambling for my first $100. After that, it becomes too much to lose. If I win, I’m much happier, but I still have a hard time gambling away money. So, I tend to play a little and then want to do something else. But, I love the way that Vegas is so over-the-top. Everything there is elaborate and showy. And, there is so much to do. We had so much fun that we had to stay an extra day because we still had things to do.

Right out of the car, we headed to New York, New York to ride the roller coaster. All the boys were too short, which caused some tears, but Rachel and I rode it while the boys played in the arcade. Alex and Zack got to ride in one of those virtual machines that moves you around while it shows you a movie. It was a pretty elaborate one that flipped them upside down and all around. It was Zack’s first upside down ride, and he was pretty excited about it. The night, we went to see the Blue Man Group. We got great seats in the 3rd row. We had to wear ponchos in case we got splashed. That made me nervous, but the kids were disappointed that we ended up not getting wet or dirty. The show was much better than I had expected and a perfect fit for our kids. They were cracking up at them.

Afterwards, Dave wanted to take the kids to see the show at Treasure Island, which was across the street. The show didn’t start until 10:00, so we grabbed some ice cream and waited. The show was different that we remembered and probably not worth the wait. Then, we had to walk back to our hotel and get in bed after 11. We did get to see part of the Bellagio fountain show.

 I can remember being there last time commenting on who would bring their kids to Vegas and why they would have them up so late. And, here I was, one of those parents. Oh well.

The next day ended up being a relaxing day. We had a nice buffet for lunch because we slept in past breakfast. The kids swam in the pool while I caught up on blogging. Then, in the evening we headed to Margaritaville for dinner. This is a fun place, especially in Vegas. They have a volcano that “erupts” every so often with a girl that slides down into a blender. They have people on stilts walking around making balloon hats for the “kids”. Our boys all got one. Rachel was too mature for that, but the lady made her a balloon corsage.


Finally, the piece de resistance. Dave had told the kids about the rides on top of the Stratosphere. The Big Shot is one of his favorite rides. The building is 900 ft in the air and the Big Shot shoots you up another 200 feet and lets you fall back down. It is pretty scary, but it is cool to see Vegas at night. So, we had to do it after dark. Dave took Alex and Rachel because Zack was too small. I had gel inserts for him to use to make him definitively over the 48” mark, but they required him to take his shoes off. He was none too happy and could not really get over his frustration that he could not do it. Zack, Matthew and I stood outside on the viewing area atop the Stratosphere for a few minutes, but it was windy and scaring Matthew. So, we headed back inside to the arcade. There, we waited until almost 11 o’clock for the others to finish all their rides. They did the Big Shot, a ride that spins over the side of the building, and a little coaster that hangs you over the edge as well. The kids loved it.

I was trying to take pictures outside with 2 upset children and too little knowledge of how to work my camera.  I wanted to play with it, but the kids were not happy outside in the wind.  So, I downloaded some off the internet, so you can appreciate it.






We made it back to the hotel around 11:40. By the time the kids got ready for bed, it was almost midnight, so Alex made it up until his birthday came around. We had a mini-celebration before we all fell into bed exhausted. This was the night that Rachel slept-walked out of the room. I think that the rides plus the late night contributed. She had never done this before and hopefully will not again. Dave didn’t gamble this night since we had decided to stay another night. I think he was glad for the chance to get some sleep.

The next day we headed to Circus Circus casino. They have an indoor amusement park. Here, Zack had no problem reaching the 48” limit and rode his first real upside-down ride. He was pretty nervous but ended up loving it. They had quite a few good rides, including a couple 4-D shows that we could all enjoy. We spent quite a long time there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Rachel - too big to go on the "baby" ride





I like this picture because Rachel was fixing her hair on the ride.



We stayed too late to enjoy a nice birthday dinner, so we opted for Wendy’s with frostys for dessert.

The kids watched the original Tron (a last minute present I had snagged at Wal-Mart earlier in the day) before heading to bed. Dave headed out to gamble and came back $100 richer. All in all, a great day!

We headed out of Vegas on Mother’s Day. A stop at IHOP and church got us going pretty late, but with no schedule to keep, we were fine with that.