LAS BEGAS

Last night we arrived totally exhausted from our wild family trip to Las Vegas. This is the first trip that all three of us have gone on in a long time, and it was very fun to be together. It was also extra fun to meet up with Heidi and Craig who were there for a conference.

We flew in on Monday and that night we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It is always a joy of mine to walk through the mall at Caesars and enjoy the sights of the expensive stores under the fake blue sky. I love it, and was totally blown away with the new H&M there--it was crazy cool and apparently the biggest H&M in the whole wide world. After dinner and a little H&M we went outside and walked to the Bellagio fountains. Stella loves dancing water shows and she was amazed with the fountain shows we saw that night.

Before we left for the trip I asked Stella if she wanted us to bring her crib or if she wanted to sleep in a big bed with pillows. She picked the pillows option and was very much thrilled with going to "Las Begas and sleeping in a bed with pillows." Each day we totally wore her out and she always fell asleep right away. It was totally cute. I loved snuggling with her and couldn't help but be a little nostalgic about how the last time I shared a bed with her was when she was a tiny baby on her first trip to Vegas, and now she is my big girl who is too big for a crib.

No pictures from our day of shopping, but we had a great time (except for finding the Kate Spade outlet closed, which was a real bummer). We also discovered the adorable Fashion Square shopping center that I have driven by tons of times without ever realizing that it was the coolest little town-like shopping area. Plus it had the most adorable playground that Stella loved and we returned to it several times. We also had a yummy dinner at a restaurant there with the Gummows that night.

The next day was supposed to be filled with more shopping, but after driving to a closed Nordstrom Rack we decided just to head back to the hotel to enjoy the pool. It was perfect for Stella with a small shallow pool for her to enjoy.

That night it was just the three of us. We went back to Fashion Square for dinner and playground fun (where Stella made lots of friends), and then back to the hotel for bowling. Our hotel had a bowling alley, we had coupons, and Stella had never bowled, so we went. She was pretty tired at the start and at first there were several meltdowns:

1. She didn't get to go first because her dad had entered our names in order of seniority.
2. When she did get to go, she missed all the pins.
3. She hurt her hand playing with the balls as they come up the thingy.
4. She ran past the foul line and slipped and totally fell back and hit her head.

All this would have been almost funny if we didn't have 19 frames of bowling left to deal with. But in the end she got the hang of it and decided to have some fun. She was so tired, but with a little help from Mom and Dad, some handy bumpers, and candy, she actually ended up beating us both.

Before the trip I was talking to Heidi about how I didn't know what we would do with the hours we had before our flight out that night. I joked about driving to Hoover Dam...then suddenly I realized that perhaps we should. I had never seen it, and why not? I certainly have a great love for dam jokes. (I was in hysterics visiting the website: "Purchase tickets to the dam tour;" "the power plant tour takes 30 mins, while the dam tour takes....;" "You cannot purchase dam tickets online;" "the DAM TOUR is NOT accessible;" "parking garage available for those visiting the dam site.") I mean, come on, the people writing that have gotta think that is funny--I know I did! Anyway, we decided to go. We didn't go on any dam tours (tee hee) because the one where we could actually take Stella scared the crap out of Brent. But we did walk around. It was smoking hot (110 degrees), but we survived. After walking around the dam, Stella and I hiked up to the new bridge that is crazy cool looking and got a great dam view. (Are you sick of it yet? I'm not.) Overall, we had a great dam day! (Okay, last one.)

And that was our trip to Vegas. We had a great time and are totally worn out from all of the fun.