This year we got to go on a little family vacation to Las Vegas. We headed out late Friday afternoon on our way to Raynie's house. Wade, Nanette, and Tanner happened to go visit Raynie the same weekend so we got to hang out with them all day Saturday! We woke up and headed to Boulder City where we ate at a really good restaurant for breakfast and ate our little hearts out. Then we got in our cars and headed to the Hoover Dam to check it out.
Denver and I went to Vegas through Flagstaff so we could drive by the dam on the bridge to see it at night...but you drive over the bridge for 5 seconds and the barrier is ten feet high (it seems like it) so we couldn't even see the dam. I was pretty devastated because we were planning on going through St. George when we went home so we wouldn't see the dam ever again...haha But luckily the whole family wanted to go check it out on Saturday so I was really excited!
We wanted to take a dam tour from a helicopter but we were too late....so we just took the express dam tour! This included a drive over the dam, professional family photos, and if you wanted to see the other side of the dam the chauffeur let you out on one end of the dam and picked you up on the other end.....hence, you had to RUN! Haha....Thanks Raynie for being our chauffeur! Denver was awesome! As soon as we got out of the car....Denver ran and snapped a couple of pictures, then we ran, then he took a couple more....then we caught up to Raynie! We were cracking up the whole time and people I'm sure thought we were crazy! Especially because it was probably 110 degrees.
The two little girls were asleep so this is a pic of everyone minus Daley and Paisley.
After the Dam tour....we went to the strip and checked out a hotel/casino (I can't remember the name of it). This is a pic of Daley and Denver in the mall part of the hotel.
After shopping around at the strip, we went to the infamous Pawn Stars shop. It was fun going inside and seeing it in real life. It's a lot smaller in real life than what they make it look like on T.V. We didn't see anyone famous but we saw a guy that sold a car on Pawn Stars. Our brother-in-law, Matt, had a conversation with him and had a cool story. It was the most expensive car they (Pawn Stars) have ever bought on the show. Watch the show and you might see the guy. The picture of him is down below.
After we went to the pawn shop we headed back to Raynie and Matt's (well we stopped at a furniture store and the mall on the way) where we had pizza and chilled until we all went to bed. Wade, Nanette, and Tanner had to head back home from the weekend when we woke up Sunday morning. We hung out with Raynie and Matt all Sunday morning before they went to church. Then we headed out to go check into our hotel.
So here is a funny story....when we got to the hotel/casino it was like being on the freeway. It was a one way and there were certain exits you had to take and it was CRAZY! I've never seen anything like it. The entrance where you park your car to check in was sooooo wide and there were a thousand people and their luggage walking around. Denver and I had to try a few times to figure out where we were suppose to go. We finally talked to a guy and he said, "you guys are actually at The Signature which if you follow the signs you will get there." Haha we had no idea... Two little small town kids....we were so relieved when we got to The Signature because it was smaller and less crazy!
We stayed at the MGM Grand....well it was actually called The Signature at the MGM Grand but they were just as nice or probably nicer....the reasons because: 1. It was non-smoking 2. You weren't in the middle of the hustle and bustle at the actual MGM 3. Our hotel had valet parking included 4. When we checked in, it was like a regular hotel...not crazy busy in the lobby 5. It had a really nice pool. I think the only bad part of the hotel was that it didn't have a continental breakfast....but luckily we had cereal on hand and some milk that we borrowed from Daley.
This is a pic of the towers we stayed in....we were in the middle one.
Here we are in the main lobby of the MGM....I wish I would have taken a picture of our lobby so you could see the difference.
We mainly stayed in the room and had fun swimming! Daley is a pro! She went underwater and would come up clapping...I have a video but it was the end of the day so she wasn't clapping much afterward.
Daley is telling us about how she loves to swim and go underwater here....
We loved this pool because there was a really shallow place where Daley could play around in. The MGM had a nice water park too but we went and checked it out and it was CRAZY BUSY. So we enjoyed hanging out in this pool...the pic above looks like it was always busy but most of the time everyone was in the hot tub and we had the pool to ourselves...it must have been happy hour when we took the pic.
Monday morning we woke up and headed out to check out the strip. Daley had a ton of fun in the m&m store.
She zonked after about an hour on the strip...Denver and I had fun going into expensive stores and checking out prices for clothes and such. It's crazy how much people would pay for stuff like that....It was getting really hot so we decided to head back to the room and go swimming for the day.
We were across the street from New York, New York.
Here are pics of us in the room chillin'. We went down to the food court that night and got some Haagen Daz before we went to bed and tried to see the lions.....they already went to bed too soooo we stayed at the MGM and didn't see the lions! Crazy I know.....
Daley was a crazy girl in the room and at night she would just crash because she was so tired!
We had fun playing on these escalator walkways. Denver told me stories about how evertime he came to Vegas he would run on these and so we did it and it was hilarious! Daley even did it in her stroller with us.
We were sad when our adventure had to end. We packed up Tuesday morning and headed home. There was a really whindy road in between Hurricane and St. George and Daley just happened to wake up when we got into the turns...she was bored so I handed her a book (not thinking) and just 7 miles out of St. George she threw up everywhere!!!!! Haha it was aweful, Denver and I almost threw up too when we smelled it. Haha I guess there is always a first...I haven't ever really thought about when our kids get car sick....it was always the brothers and sisters we were worried about.
Here is Daley all cleaned up eating and waiting for us to finish cleaning up the car.
We had such a fun and relaxing trip throw up and all!
