Fall Break: Vegas

The big kids get a couple of days off of school for their fall break, too. We were so lucky that it happened to line up with Caroline's break, too. Yippee! So we whisked them away for a quick Vegas vacation.

Road Trip!

We stayed right off the Strip and walked down

to the Venitian that night.

Bad idea!

Don't go walking on the strip at night!

There are strippers who try to talk you into

taking pictures with them, homeless people

singing songs laced with f-bombs, and 

random people offering you drugs.

It's awful!

But the Venetian is so awesome!

I love it!

I may never make it to Venice,

but I can pretend I've been there.

I was so traumatized by the walk down there, 

that we found the monorail (which is not very convenient)

and rode that to get back to our hotel.

The next morning, we went to the Pinball Hall of Fame.

Oh my gosh, y'all.

I could've spent the whole day there.

Look at some of the random pinball machines:

tennis

shaq attaq

mario bros.

They had other fun video games, too.

In the afternoon, the girls and the guys split up.

The girls and I went to Circus Circus.

I love that place.

We were VERY disappointed to find out that 

there would be no circus performances that day, though.

Boo.

Care Bear killed it at Willy Wonka.

I love doing the carnival games.

Both girls won fairly quickly.

It took me a bunch of tries, but

I finally won a stuffed cow. Ha!

Look at our giant bag of loot!

I won't tell you how much we spent to win all that. :)

So cheezy, but also so fun.

We had to walk over a mile to catch 

the inconvenient monorail. :/

While we were gaming,

the guys were racing.

There are some really fast go-karts that

B loves to do. He is good!

They also had fun watching some fast cars zip

around the track.

We met back up that evening to head to the Bellagio,

another one of my favorites!

We got to watch the awesome fountain show.

Love the Chihuly glasswork in the entrance.

And the displays in the atrium are always amazing.

B and I were excited to get gelato with

the rest of the fam.

I love sitting outside and enjoying our treat.

It was a beautiful fall evening in Vegas.

The main reason for our visit to Vegas?

We wanted to watch our very first Cirque du Soleil show!

We watched "O" there in the Bellagio.

The ceiling of the theater.

A woman hangs on there at the beginning of the show!

The curtain itself actually has kind of a cool part in the show.

I got us good seats.

Not the super-premium ones, but maybe 10-12 rows from the front.

They cost a FORTUNE.

If I could do it again, I'd get seats that were higher up.

You'll still have a fabulous experience.

They don't allow pictures or videos during the show. And they are SUPER strict about it. They have ushers going around who will shine a light on you and yell at you to put your phone down. It was kind of intense. The show itself was SPECTACULAR. The athleticism of the performers is UNBELIEVABLE. "O" is a water-themed show and the stage can transform into a deep pool where people are jumping off high diving boards into it. But then it'll be solid and people are running on it. It was really cool to watch. But the storyline itself was confusing. I didn't understand most of it. And there was no dialogue. Left me scratching my head and wondering how I was supposed to be feeling....

Got to watch another fountain show on the way out.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and did activities off the strip.

First up was the art museum on UNLV campus.

Don't waste your time.

It's super small.

And very agenda-driven art.

I didn't enjoy it.

You were allowed to take a piece of candy

from this artwork...???

I liked the natural area outside the museum, though.

Next, we drove to Ethel M's chocolate factory

and cactus garden.

Loved walking around the desert gardens.

Also loved watching the chocolate being made.

I've always been fascinated with factories.

Everything is a climbing wall to B-train.

The chocolate was good!

Overpriced, but very tasty.

Next, we headed to the Container Park.

They have this giant praying mantis out front

It sometimes shoots fire out of its antennae,

but we didn't get to see that.

They have some cute little shops.

We made friends with one of the artsy

shop owners who was super friendly.

But most of our time was spent in their

open area. I had the kids do all their tricks for me.

I'm so impressed that Dubs can still do the splits!

Strong guy!

Andrew and I don't look nearly as impressive.

Ha ha ha!

Not sure where our kids get their flexibility and strength. :)

It was a HOT day and they were exhausted after

doing all those feats of strength and flexibility!

We found a yummy smoothie shop that hit the spot.

Our last stop of the day was at Red Rock Canyon,

just outside of Vegas.

It is GORGEOUS.

I totally wish we would've skipped that 

art museum and come here first thing in the morning.

Petroglyphs

We just did a couple little hikes.

Cute girls!

Oh, I just love3d the scenery around us.

And we got to see two new birds:

Gambel's quail and Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay.

Pretty rocks.

After those couple of fun whirlwind days, we had to drive Brandon and Whit back to St. George and drop them off to finish out their semester. Oh, I was so happy we could have some family time with them. I miss them! And when they live all the way across the country, we usually only get to see them at Christmas and the summer. This felt like such a fun bonus to see them in the fall. 

We made it back to Salt Lake late that night and then had to fly home on Saturday.

Grateful for a fun family-filled and nature-filled week!