Another Quick Trip to Vegas, pt 2

Picking up...

 We headed back to our room then and just sat around hanging out and drinking a little.  Saturday we slept in and headed over to the Town Square, an outdoor shopping area.  We went to eat lunch first over at California Pizza Kitchen and we had a big moment there.  Wes drank from a straw for the first time!  He did so well that he drank a kid's cup and a half of apple juice before we left the restaurant.  Casey and I went to the discount ticket kiosk and got tickets Zumanity, which I have wanted to see since we lived in Vegas over seven years ago.  We headed back to the room, got gussied up for a night out on the town and then headed out to eat with my sisters and parents.  The plan was to head back to the hotel, which had a shuttle over to the Mandalay Bay and then take the tram over to the Luxor and walk over to the New York New York where the show was, but I didn't take into consideration that we would need to be there early for the pre-show and that I picked Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner on a football game night.  We ended up eating at Chipotle, my sisters took Wes back to the hotel room in my Element, my brothers-in-law drove us to the New York New York in my sister's car and my parents went back to the hotel to watch Wesley for the evening.
 Zumanity was a really good show, I am really glad that we got to see it.  Like always with Cirque du Soliel the pre-show was very entertaining.  I love when they wander into the crowd and get up in people's faces (literally in this case)!  It is a show that I would recommend for sure.  We left the show and went out to meet my sisters and their husbands and Casey got on his phone to call someone.  As he pulled out his phone he saw that he had a text message from my youngest sister, showing a cash-out ticket for $200 dollars!  We finally met up with my sisters and found out that my middle sister also won pretty big, $100 for her!  We found their husbands and headed out of the casino.  We began by making our way north and we decided to head into the Coke store.  We found a little Coke cup with a lid and straw that would be perfect for Wes!  Next we headed into the ABC store, where we got some booze for me and then headed back to south to the Excalibur.  My middle sister and I headed to the penny slots while the guys went to play table games.  My youngest sister stopped drinking by this time and was getting tired so she and her husband headed back to the hotel, by way of Mandalay Bay and the  hotel shuttle.   About a half hour later we decided to head back as well only to find out the tram from Excalibur to Mandalay had stopped running.  So the four of us got to walk back through the three casinos and then we got to wait about a half hour for the shuttle to come pick us up.
 Sunday morning we slept in, but my middle sister and her husband had to fly out that afternoon so my youngest sister, her husband, Casey, the baby and I went to my favorite Greek place over in the Galleria mall for lunch.  After an awesome lunch of gyros we walked around the mall for a couple of hours then headed back to the hotel to figure out dinner plans.  We decided to head back to Town Square to go over to the Claim Jumper for dinner.  It seems like we were all craving a large, meaty dinner and that is what we got!  I swear my brother-in-law's plate looked like a dish you would find on the Flintstones.  We walked around and found a fro-yo place, the one thing my sister was craving the whole time we were down there and then decided to head back to the hotel.  We kind of vegged out for a while and then headed to bed.
We got up early Monday morning and got packed up to leave.  We needed to make it to Cedar City, where we planned to meet Casey's sister and her kids at his parent's house.  Luckily we were able to get out of Vegas pretty much on time, made it into Cedar and got to have lunch with Casey's family so that was really nice.  We were expecting to drive home in a little bit of a snow storm but were lucky enough to miss it.
 It was nice to get away for a few days and to also be able to spend it with my family.  Here are some of the pictures from the weekend:

Another Quick Trip to Vegas, pt 1

Last week, just for the heck of it, my whole immediate family went down to Las Vegas for the extended weekend.  We headed out for after Casey got off of work on Wednesday evening and got stuck in Utah county behind horrible drivers.  I don't know what it is but it seems like the largest concentration of idiot drivers just happen to live in Utah county and believe me, the construction does not help matters in any way.
 After spending the night with Casey's parents we headed out Thursday morning with plans to be in Vegas before noon thirty to pick up one of my sisters and her husband, who flew in from Salt Lake that morning.  Since we had the time, we decided to skip I-15 and go around the gorge, taking the scenic route.  It really was a more interesting drive and I saw a vulture getting it's grub on!  Wes does really well on this drive and we timed it perfectly so it was time for his post-breakfast nap.  This is the third time Wes has been to Vegas, and all before he is even one year old, but he's a champ and travels really well.
 We picked up my sister and her husband and met up with my other sister and her husband at our hotel.  We relaxed for a little bit while Wes had his late-afternoon nap and then headed out to meet my parents for dinner. PF Chang's on Flamingo and Paradise is where we headed and I didn't expect it to be so busy but I was very happy that I called ahead for a reservation because CES (an electronics convention) was just down the street at the convention center and the place was packed with people heading out of there.  Wes apparently likes Chinese food, but then again, Wes loves just about everything we've fed him so not totally surprised.  My sisters, their husbands and my parents headed to the Strip to walk around the new-ish City Center but we headed back to our room; Wes had a hard time the previous night and I didn't sleep well and felt ready to crash.
 Friday morning we ate breakfast and then drove out to the Hoover Dam.  Since the new bridge had been built my parents and sisters hadn't been out there while Casey, Wes and I had gone out last May.  This time, unlike our trip in May, I decided to walk onto the bridge.  I have in the last five years developed a fear of falling from heights so I wasn't too excited to do this but I wanted some pictures.
 After we left the dam, I wanted to go into Boulder City to go to this diner that I saw on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" called the Coffee Cup.  We got there and ordered and had a great lunch and then walked around some of the shops for a little bit.  At a little antique store my dad showed Wes a Mike and Sully plush toy from "Monsters Inc" and he loved it so we had to get it for him!
 We decided to head over to the Mob Experience inside the Tropicana Hotel.  My sister really wanted to go to it and I remember reading about it when it opened up and was excited to go.  The interactive part of the tour was closed for some upgrades so we walked around the actual museum part only but it was really kind of cool.  They had personal artifacts from a bunch of the Mob guys who made Vegas what it is today, they had video and audio presentations and Casey and I swear that we saw Kevin Pollack!  It's kinda cool since he was in the movie "Casino" and looking at exhibits about the guys that the movie was based on.  Casey is pretty sure that when he walked by him that he was talking to his companion about the movie.
 We headed back to the hotel to get a quick nap in for Wes and then met up with my sisters and parents for dinner at a Red Lobster.  Dinner was good, and Wes was kind of punchy.  His quick nap at the hotel never happened so we left for dinner and he was up and then down and then up and then down.  He played around with the drink coasters, ate all of his snacks and a lot of his mashed potatoes and I knew that he would be asleep soon.  However, my dad and my youngest sister and her husband wanted to ride the zip line down on Fremont Street and I wanted to try and go if possible.  After dinner we headed downtown and pretty much as soon as he was in the car, Wes was out.
 We got to Fremont Street and put him in his stroller and he never woke up during the transfer at all.  I forgot to grab a blanket for him when we left the hotel so we headed over to Walgreen's and bought one to tuck around him and my sister loaned us one out of her car to cover up the front of his stroller so all the lights wouldn't wake him.  Surprisingly he slept almost the whole time we were there.  We caught two of the light shows, the Doors and Queen and the loud music did not wake him up at all.  The only thing that seemed to wake him up was the screechy saxophone guy.
 My dad, sister and brother-in-law all went on the zip line while we walked around.  They were in line to pay for about a half hour, then in line to ride the zip line for about another half hour but the enjoyed it when they finally did get on.  They only wish that it was longer but as I understand, they will be making it longer pretty soon.
  I forget how many weirdos there are and Fremont street seems to draw them in.  It seems that if you are willing to make an ass of yourself and are willing to dress up, either sexy (by a very loose definition) or weird and creepy or as a "celebrity", Fremont street is your place.  There was Mario and Luigi, a Smurf, a bronze John Wayne (I think) statue, Brett Michaels, Stevie Wonder, an older, saggier Cupid (diaper and all), some pirates and pirate wenches (with her massive breasts perched atop a straining corset, her nips covered with sparkly pasties), um, Buzz and Woody, and I'm pretty sure two girls in their sexy Halloween cop outfits.  All of them working it, trying to get people to take pictures with them and give them tips.

Day trip to the museum

Today, the Utah Museum of Natural History had a free admission day, the first of four planned for this year.  Casey had the day off so all three of us headed off to the U of U campus a little before noon, our appointed time.
The museum's new building is beautiful!  Although I don't remember where it was I do remember going when I was a kid; my dad had taken me and my sisters.  Today there were tons of people there, apparently taking advantage of the free admission just like we were.  We got to the ticket counter and went to check-in, giving our last name to pick up our tickets.  When I told the clerk "Eggett" she asked if we knew someone named Such-and-Such Eggett.  She had been roommates with her at school and I asked if she went to BYU-Idaho and it turns out it was one of Casey's cousins!  It's so funny, but this is actually the second time a completely random person has known one of Casey's relatives but they all have been out of state.
 Anyway, we headed into the museum and started in the kids area on the first floor, the first of five.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera because we were in a splash area, but as Wes stood on a stool, he played with a fish in the little stream and had a blast!  He kept trying to kiss/eat it and I was having fun watching him.  Unfortunately, there were many other little monsters, er, kids there and the noise and crowds were getting to Casey so we quickly packed up and headed into the dinosaur section.

 Looking at a display about how high Bonneville Lake was in comparison to the valley at the time.  Wes loved to hold onto the plexi-glass and stomp his feet!

 This display allowed you to change the direction of the wind to see how sand dunes were made and altered;  Wes just wanted to crawl all over it.

 There was a wall full of different sized skulls from all the different cave "men" throughout time and this size was the closest to Wes' head right now, but he wasn't too happy about it.  Again, he tried to kiss/bite the skull!

 We sat in a little learning room and played with animal puppets for about fifteen minutes!  Skunk, cat, grasshopper, butterfly and frogs were available and all he liked was the grasshopper.

  While playing with the puppets, we noticed someone yawning and rubbing his eyes- and it wasn't Casey!  We wrapped it up pretty quickly after that, only staying for about an hour and fifteen minutes.  Next time we come, I think we'll pay and hopefully it won't be so busy and allow Wes to get into the more interactive exhibits.  We also will probably wait until he is a little older so he can play a little more on his own and be more interested in what is going on around him.  Casey and I did enjoy the museum but would liked to have been able to actually look at the exhibits instead of just glance at them as we dodged empty strollers, their stray kids and their clueless parents.  Next time!

Tub time!