Saturday, December 22, 2012

In the morning we got up early and finished cleaning. We told the girls that if they got all of their chores done early then we would go out to breakfast and then run some errands. We took them to Kneaders for breakfast and then headed out on the road. We told them that we were headed to the outlet mall, we just didn't tell them that it was the Las Vegas Outlets that we were headed for. We got about an hour and a half away when Abi started complaining that this shopping trip was going to take too long. So we gave her some headphones and told her to shush.

After another hour she pulled out her camera that I had conveniently put into her backpack. And she again asked what was taking so long. We told her the outlets are far and we might stop and see where Grams bought her new house. Little did she know that Grams bought her new house in Arizona, about 10 miles north of Mesquite, Nevada.

As we were exiting onto our exit to get to our hotel in Las Vegas Haley looked up from her Kindle and asked, Are we in Las Vegas? Ha! It took them until the exit to realize where we were. I told her yes, and that we were surprising them with a trip to Las Vegas for the weekend since we were skipping Christmas. Well they were very happy to hear that. My kids love Las Vegas like it is, well, like it is Disneyland :)

So we stayed at the Hilton timeshare in a suite. Very big and very nice. It was only about 60 degrees but it was comfortable for us. We decided it take the kids and walk the strip since we have never done that with them before. Usually when we are in Vegas it is so hot that we don't take them anywhere outside.

We have our routine where we park at the south end and walk up to the Belliago and back down on the other side. This takes us first to The MGM. Here is Abi with the lion:

When we got to the fountain it was just beginning so we stayed to watch. I love this picture because Abi was so enthralled with the fountain that she didn't even know I was taking her picture.

Then we walked inside to see the flower room and the holiday decorations.

It was cooler outside on the walk back but the coolness was nice because it made the walk comfortable. Another nice thing was the guys with the porn didn't bother us once. I don't know if it was because of the kids, but as we walked by they would turn away and never once talked to us.

We stopped at the Coke store on the way back and decided to try Coke from around the world. It was interesting for sure. Adam would not taste any of them but the rest of us sipped on 16 flavors  Jason, Haley, and Abigail each chose their favorite and drank the whole glass. Lewis and I had to find water to rinse the sugar from our teeth. Too sweet!!!

We knew we were going to eat at The Rainforest Cafe inside the MGM.

We wanted to eat there for this tasty cake. It is a lava cake with ice cream. We all shared one and it was plenty large enough.

Abigail, of course, kept the sparkler that was on top.

We hit up the M&M store before heading back to the hotel. Lewis and I nipped out after the girls were in bed and walked to a casino. Perhaps the nastiest casino that I have ever been to, Circus, Circus. We got down and then in one hand became even again, so we walked out. We were in bed watching TV at 10:30 on a Saturday night in Vegas. Now that is a first for us!