Las Vegas

Doug and I have some good friend, Nick and Sarah Tanner, who are going to dental school in Buffalo NY. We decided to meet them in Las Vegas over Pioneer Day weekend since we haven't seen them for several years. Las Vegas hardly seems like middle ground, right? Well, it's not, but that's not the point. The point is they were going to be there so we decided that we wanted to be there too. We also decided that we were very poor students, so I looked up everything free to do in Vegas. Turns out there was a lot you could see for free, if you were willing to walk there. You can park at any of the casinos for free, but the strip is big and driving is a nightmare, so once you are parked you stay parked. We got a cheap hotel off the strip, ate cheap food except for one buffet, sweated a LOT (it was above 103 both days), and walked walked walked. It was quite an adventure. Between the two families we had five kids: Julia 4, Evelynn 3, Nicole 2, Eloise 18 months and Derek 10 months. They kids were AMAZING troopers, even Derek who had to be nursed still. What great kids we have!

First stop was a botanical cactus garden that was attached to a small chocolate factory. This was not on the strip, but since we arrived before Nick and Sarah we decided to check it out. The chocolate was not in production that day, which was sad, but we got to see the machinery and small museum, and they still have free samples at the end so it was worth it. A chocolate fact we learned was that M&M's were originally created for the US military. Cool huh? This picture is of poor Eloise who does not like long car rides. She wanted to get OUT and do something, so we let her push the stroller, but we had to stop her since the paths weren't roped off and she was steering very close to cacti.

Century plant. We saw an episode of Survivor Man where he bit off the very tip of this plant and the thorn came off with threads on the end, just like a needle and thread. This plant was also taller than Evelynn by about a foot and larger than her across as well. Pretty cool!

Evelynn dubbed this the Mater and Lightning McQueen cactus since they are present in the movie Cars. She told me all about how Lightning falls down and gets stuck in these and they make him go "Ow ow ow!"

All the girls at Circus Circus waiting for the balancing acrobats act to start. I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of that because it was incredible! The casino has a free circus act that goes on every half hour or so, and it's free. They rotate acts every time as well, so it's always something different.

After a LONG walk from Circus Circus we finally made it to Planet Hollywood for our buffet dinner. This was not free, unfortunately, but very good. All the kids got to eat free, which was another bonus. The cuisine was a world fare, so there were stations for Mexican, Asian, American, Mid-Eastern, Italian, Seafood, Salads etc. And of course dessert. One of the better buffets on the strip. This gold man was in front of Planet Hollywood, and he was nice enough to move in order for the girls to take a picture with him. Evelynn was a bit unsure, but thought he was the coolest thing she has seen that day.

Day two started off with breakfast at the hotel and a dip in the hotel pool where all four girls charmed the socks off all the grandma's staying at the hotel. They were so impressed with how much all the girls loved the water and how well they could swim. Eloise stood at the side of the pool and jumped/walked off the side for a good 1/2 hour. She would do her little squatting jumps and then walk off the edge, go under the water, come up laughing and spitting. After check out we went to this hotel called the Silverton. It was south of the strip, past the airport. Thank goodness for GPS! This hotel had a huge fish tank in it that was full of tropical fish, sting rays, and sharks. We got there in time for their feeding show, where this guy with a face mask with a microphone talked to us as he fed the fish. These pictures turned out blurry because using the flash made a huge reflection. Doug is pointing at one of the rays in the tank, but it wasn't even close to the biggest one in the tank.

Doug swimming with the fishes!

The man feeding the rays. It was so weird to watch them eat! He had to put the food in their mouth or else the other fish would get it.

Attached to this hotel was a Bass Pro Shop with lots of taxidermy animal displays. The girls loved them, especially Eloise who made roaring noises for the entire time we were in there. It's the only animal sound she knows how to make. :)

We drove back to the strip to take in a few more sights and parked near the Flamingo hotel. In the middle/outside of this hotel they have a bird habitat with flamingos among other things. It was very pretty little oasis in the middle of Vegas. Evelynn had never seen a live flamingo so she was pretty excited.

This waterfall display was in the middle of the habitat.

Jacobson Family 2009

After this we hiked over to Caesar's Palace and walked around in their huge mall connected to it. We saw a fountain show about the fall of Atlantis that was pretty intense for little kids. I moved the little kids right to the front and sat on the ground to watch the show, which turned out to have lots of noise, lights, water, and fire. There were life-size electronic people telling the story (imagine Chucky Cheese but really nice, and Greek) and the voice of Zeus came down and destroyed Atlantis with fire and water. It turned out that we sat right by the dominantly fire side, so it the girls could feel the heat of the fire and the ground shaking. It was just too much and I ended up holding three crying scared girls instead of taking pictures. But the mall was nice to walk in. It had so many stores I had never even heard of that were all REALLY expensive. The stores I did recognize were Gucci, Victoria Secret, and Tiffany's.... gives you an idea of the price range of these stores. There was also an F.A.O. Schwartz that we wandered around in. The entrance was a huge Trojan horse made of solid wood (I kicked it to see, and it was very solid). You can see little Julia at the bottom to give you and idea of the size. We got the girls treats, mainly suckers, which they highly enjoyed.

After a long long day, we took a break for dinner inside Caesars Palace and then said goodbye to Nick and Sarah who made a 16 hr drive to Dallas that night. We only had a 5 1/2 hour drive back to Provo, but that still put us in at 2:00 am Sunday morning. It was a wonderful trip all in all. Going to Vegas for the second time (Doug and I went there for our honeymoon) made us much more comfortable with the layout of Vegas and then things we can do there. Doug and I decided that we could go there again, but without children it would definitely be more fun. In fact, we are meeting Nick and Sarah there again in 2024 for a real vacation to do all the expensive stuff, like see shows and go on rides, get massages, etc. See you guys in 15 years in Vegas baby!