Bonding with the Fam!

Friday & Saturday we got to stay at my Aunt Carol & Uncle David's house. It was a lot of fun to spend some time with them! They were great to us. We had the opportunity to learn some history and insider information about the history of Las Vegas that was pretty fascinating! To start the family time off Tom & I went to the movie "Transformers" with Carol, David, & Crawford. It was very entertaining! Tom was way into it! It took him back to his childhood I think. He got to brag to Crawford about all the transformers he had when he was little!

We tried to call Tom's Aunt to arrange a time to go see her right before we went to the movie & they were in a movie. Surprise surprise she returned our call when we were in a movie. The funny coincidence was they went to the same movie as we did, just a little bit earlier. That night we went to their house & had a barbecue and a little dip in the pool. It was nice to get rid of some of the heat! It felt great!

Saturday morning we got up bright & early and headed out to Hoover Dam. They opened up the visitors center at 9:00, so we were out there a little before 9:00. We got there before most of the rush. The tour was very interesting. My favorite part was feeling the rushing water vibrate the floor under my feet. It was a cool feeling! Plus it was a beautiful view at the top! We also thought of going on a helicopter flight, until we read the fine print on the sign and learned it would cost us about $70 for both of us to go on a 2 freakin' minute flight! 2 minutes? Needless to say, we didn't do it.

That afternoon we went with Aunt Carol to see the temple & some of the casinos we missed that she really liked (Bellagio, Paris, & the Venetian). It was a lot of fun! The Bellagio was amazing. They had some great glass flowers on the ceiling. It was so cool! I loved how all three hotels had little mini towns hidden in the back with street restaurants.

Sunday we got to see Steven & spend some time with the family. It had been a long time since I had seen him and it was a great time! We had a fun lunch with everyone and had a lot of fun conversations! It was a blast! Viva Las Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas

We had an amazing 4 day weekend in Las Vegas! We've been doing our best to be smart with our money, so we wanted a fun place to go that wouldn't cost a lot. Some of you might think we're crazy to go to Las Vegas, but when you don't gamble it's very doable!

Being July, it of coarse was a little warm....okay it was HOT! But we stayed inside as much as we could during the day & enjoyed the evenings & the air conditioning. This is a new experience for me! I'm the girl that usually doesn't like a lot of air conditioning. It gets a little cold, but I actually enjoyed it in the heat of the Las Vegas Desert! Will miracles never cease!

We spent our first night at the Luxor Hotel on the strip. It was a blast! We actually stayed in the pyramid portion of the hotel, which was an interesting experience. For those of you that don't know anything about that hotel, the casino is in the bottom level of the pyramid & we stayed on the 3rd floor. Not far enough away once the TV is off. Occasionally I'd hear random cheering in the wee hours of the morning. Nutty people! I loved the motel, but next time I think I'll try the tower instead! I've always been fascinated with Egyptian stuff. It's very different than anything we have here and I love different cultures!

We spent that night wandering the strip and had a great dinner. As fun as it was to see all the interesting people and things, my favorite parts were of course the Bellagio fountains (of course) & an IMAX movie we went to about the Nile. It was really interesting! By the end of the night my feet were killing me! I'll admit it, I'm pretty woosey when it comes to being on my feet a lot. I work in an office in a chair all day....I have no stanima. Luckily Tom is very patient! One kind of funny thing happened at the Bellagio. Out in front of the fountains was a guy in a wheelchair with a megaphone and speakers preaching about hell & damnation! I agreed with.......some of what he said, but he wasn't getting much of a response (shocker shocker). But a part of me admires the devotion it must take to make a fool of yourself like that for what you believe in! (Yeah Blakey!)

Well, that's it for now. I'll make another post later about the great time we had with our family down there. This post is getting to long!