Vacation Memories

We are home! I have spent my day doing tons of laundry, grocery shopping and catching up on emails.

We had a great time. Noah was recovered enough to be in my sister’s wedding. He did a great job. The kids stole the show. I think my favorite part of the whole scene was watching Noah peek out from behind the best man’s legs and wave at us during the ceremony. He stayed up there the whole time though. I was quite proud.

And not to be out done, my daughters did a wonderful job being flower girls. They sprinkeled their white rose petals daintily on the floor, and when they were bored during the ceremony they realized there was some left and proceeded to create a nice big pile of left over rose petals at their feet!

There was a lot to do in Vegas. We visited lots of hotels along the strip and took in many of the freebies. We enjoyed the free street type shows at the Venetian with their jugglers and mimes. We liked the butterfly garden at the Bellagio. Kids loved the amusement park at Circus Circus. (OMG what a freakin ZOO!) I liked the pretzels at NY NY. I liked the breakfast buffet at the Paris. The kids enjoyed the Shark Reef at the Mandalay and the Lion Habitat at MGM. And we all felt like we were going to puke our guts at the motion ride at the Luxor. We got around! And we also enjoyed the Lazy River at the MGM and even got a little sun burned. But you will never hear a complaint out of this Sun-Starved-Seattlite!

Emma’s favorite thing was riding the mechanical bull at Gameworks.
Dinara’s favorite thing was making her own bag of M&M’s with her own hand picked colors.
Noah’s favorite thing was the Aquarium at Mandalay.

I was disappointed that MGM closed their theme park. And I was disappointed that they didn’t have childcare. But I was still able to win $250 at the nickel slots playing this really cool slot gamed called Flip-Flop. John and I would take turns watching the kids and go down and play after they went to bed.

So we had fun…. We didn’t go to any shows (Celine was on break!). I didn’t get to go to any spas (dammit). We didn’t eat at the really good restaurants I had hoped to enjoy (kids were always too cranky and tired by evening to take them anywhere where they’d have to sit still for 2 hours)… but we created wonderful memories with our kids. And let’s face it, that is more important then the other stuff.

Enjoy the pictures!

Emma riding the mechanical bull!! She did great!