2013 Vacation: Day 12 - Re-starting the vacation in Las Vegas

When I started planning our trip to Utah I was worried about the drive home.  I was really nervous about repeating last year's car-breakdown-during-new-year-vacation fiasco.  Sure we had a different vehicle this time, but I didn't want to tempt fate by travelling the exact same route during the exact same time of year.  

Brandon's twin brother Bryan wasn't going to make it up to Utah from Arizona for Christmas.  So I figured we could avoid bad road trip mojo by going to visit his family for New Year's and then travelling home to Texas via Arizona.     

The problem with driving to Arizona from Utah is that there isn't a direct route between the states.  A little thing called the Grand Canyon is in the way.  So what would probably be only a 10 hour drive turns into a 15 hour drive because you have to go around the Grand Canyon.  I had no intention of making the 15 hour drive to Mesa Arizona in one day.  The one time we did that I ended up feeling like I was just going to have to accept the fact that I was never getting out of the car and that I'd have to live in there forever.  So we decided to break the drive up over two days.  

At first we thought we'd go down via the route that goes near the Grand Canyon.  Neither of us has been to the Grand Canyon (go figure on that one) and so we thought it would be a good idea to finally see it.  But that route was just a little bit too out of the way for us.  Plus I didn't think the kids would appreciate looking at a giant hole in the ground.  

So we decided to go the other way which goes through Las Vegas.  I scored us a great deal on an off-strip hotel using Hotels.com for Sunday night.  I'm glad I booked that hotel, because I'm not sure we would have been able to pull ourselves away from my parents house if we didn't know we had reservations for that night.    

  

We packed up the car while the kids enjoyed the last few hours at their grandparents' house.  Charlotte and Lydia had a lot of fun playing with the manger scene that I played with as a kid.  

Derrick went through the top drawer of the desk for the hundredth time.

My mom sat with Veronica and said goodbye.  (Hum here's evidence that Veronica does in fact cry from time to time.)

Brandon loaded everything up in the car top carrier..  There were some patches of ice on the drive way that he carefully worked around.  As soon as he put the last things in place he slipped on the ice.  I think he was pretty done with Utah's winter weather after that.

Since it was Sunday we would have liked to go to church before travelling.  But none of the wards close by had Sacrament meeting early enough.  I also was a little worried about making our kids sit through 70 minutes of Sacrament meeting and then a 6 hour drive.  So we just decided to skip church for the day.  We had one last round of hugs and then started driving.

We'd put Charlotte and Lydia's seats right next to each other in order to make room for the giant box of Christmas presents that we were bringing home with us.  But soon it became apparent that those girls can't sit that close together for long periods of time.  We pulled over and re-arranged the seating assignments.  Soon we were on our way again and things were a lot more peaceful.  

We drove about 3 1/2 hours before Veronica woke up and needed to eat.  We happened to be passing a place called Silver Reef so we pulled off at that exit and went to check it out.

It turned out to be an old mining town from the only place where silver was discovered inside of sandstone.

There were lots of old walls from the buildings that used to be there.

I fed Veronica and we all ate some sandwiches and walked around to get our wiggles out.  I was so happy to be somewhere that didn't have snow!  I'd had my fill of trying to keep the kids warm.

Then it was back into the car for the rest of the drive to Las Vegas.  We stayed in a TravleLodge a few blocks away from the strip.  As soon as we walked into the room Charlotte said, "This is like when the jeep broke down and there were lots of trains!"

I watched TV with the kids while Brandon went out and bought some food at a nearby In and Out Burger.  It was a yummy dinner.

Then we put shoes and jackets back on the kids and took them to see the strip.  I remarked to Brandon, "I think that we've reached the point where our daily life with these kids is so crazy that we can't judge when we are doing something truly insane.'  Here we were, about to take our 4 kids age 3 and under out onto the Las Vegas Strip - and we weren't that worried.

We planned to park at the Bellagio, but we ended up turning too early and got diverted into the parking lot of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.  That wasn't a big deal because it was the casino next to the Bellagio, and like most hotel/casinos in Vegas it had free parking.

We put Veronica in the baby front pack and Derrick in the umbrella stroller.  I told Charlotte and Lydia that we were going to a very busy place and they MUST hold onto my hands the whole time.  I also told them not to touch ANYTHING.

The casino inside the Cosmopolitan was busy, and noisy, and crowded, and maze-like.  We found our way through that and out onto the strip which was also busy, and noisy, and crowded.  But soon we found ourselves next to the giant pool in front of the Bellagio.

The fountain erupts every 15 minutes so we didn't have to wait long before the music turned on and the fountain started dancing.

I wish this picture had turned out better, but if you look hard you can see all 6 of us watching the fountain.  Derrick is on Brandon's shoulders, Veronica is on my chest, and we are each holding a twin.  We were all enchanted by the fountain.

This was my third trip to Las Vegas.  Every time I come I am so amazed by the beauty and magnificence of this fountain.  Seeing it was the reason I was willing to take my little kids out on the strip. Las Vegas has it's vices of course, but it also has a lot of creativity that is just staggering.

We watched the Bellagio Fountain perform twice.  The first time we watched it from the side, and then we moved to one of the middle viewing porches.  I can't remember what time we were on the strip but it was either 7:30 or 8:30 when the second show ended.  That left us with half an hour to walk down to the Mirage so we could see the hourly eruption of the volcano down there.

We only had to walk past one casino, Caesars Palace, to get from the Bellagio to the Mirage.  On a map it doesn't look like much, but Caesars Palace takes up a giant city block.  It took us at least 15 minutes to walk to the Mirage.  When we got there we were able to get a good viewing spot right by the volcano.  

The kids had fun looking at the water and listening to the frog ambiance recording.  Derrick started licking the fence which normally wouldn't have worried us much, but this was Vegas so Brandon put him on his shoulders.

It was fun to just wait and look around for a few minutes.

There were lots of people all around, but we actually felt pretty safe.  There were other people there with little kids so we weren't the only crazy parents there (though as usual, we did have the most kids.)  Since we had minors with us the guys handing out hooker cards left us completely alone.   They wouldn't even make eye contact with us.

Soon the waterfalls on the volcano dried up in preparation for the show.  And then it started erupting.

Fire would shoot out of the water at certain parts of the show.

It was really close to us and super hot. When Brandon and I watched this show in 2009 we'd been across the street and could feel the heat.  Being right next to it was incredible.

The show only lasts about 6 minutes, but it is really cool.  When it was over Charlotte was crying.  The fire had scared her. Lydia on the other hand danced to the music and said, "I liked it!"  Derrick liked the show too.  Veronica had slept through the whole thing.

We waited for the crowd to move away and then we started back to where we had parked the car.  We stopped to admire some of the statues outside of Caesars Palace.

Then we watched the Bellagio Fountain one last time.  It was even better and higher than before.  The shows must get more incredible the later the evening gets.  

We made it back through the casino and to the parking lot.  Stop lights take FOREVER in Vegas so we were able to get a good look at some other parts of the strip while we waited in traffic.  

The kids were still awake when we got back to the motel.  I was a little worried about how we would fit all 6 of us with only two queen size beds.  But Lydia solved that problem by announcing that she wanted to sleep on the floor.  So we made her a bed with some blankets from the car and she went right to sleep.  Veronica also slept on the floor because I completely spaced asking for a roll in crib.  Brandon lay down next to Derrick on one bed and helped him fall asleep.  Charlotte lay next to me in the other bed until she fell asleep.  Then Brandon moved Charlotte into Derrick's bed and climbed into bed with me.  

We were so glad we'd wore the kids out by taking them on the strip.  It had been incredible.  We later remarked that we felt like this was when our vacation truly started.