Vegas!

Since Luke and I were celebrating our 5th anniversary this year we wanted to do something big and fun! However, having a young baby, living in the middle of the country where there's not much to do, and not having close family to watch our kids made this a little more challenging. In the end, we decided we would drive to Utah and drop Jacob off at Luke's sister's so that Jacob could spend a few days playing with his three cousins. Then Luke and I took Blake and continued our long drive the next day to Las Vegas, where we spent 3 days and 2 nights.
I was a little worried about the drive there since it's about 8 hours to Utah, and then another 6 hours to Vegas and it was our first roadtrip with both boys. Overall though, they did really well. Jacob kept himself entertained and still slept a lot, and even though Blake is not in love with his carseat he did sleep a lot too and we did stop about every 2 hours so I could feed him.


So we made it into Vegas on a Wednesday late afternoon, and checked into the Monte Carlo. Here was our view from our room.
We also had a view of the pool, and despite what the picture shows, it did get sun in the day and was always full with people. We were going to hit the pool immediately since it was soo hot driving down, but it got a little cloudy and so we decided to check out the strip that first evening.

We walked around checking out a few hotels. I thought the NY looked pretty cool- and we even had passes to ride the roller coaster but couldn't use them since we had the baby! :(
We saw the lion exhibit at the MGM which was really neat since you could walk under the bridge and see the lions above you too.
We also checked out the M&M and Coke stores. We also tried the "Around the World" where you sample different drinks from countries around the world. So that was pretty fun- and filling. It's amazing how much drinks can fill you up, we couldn't even finish them.

Here's us each with our favorite drinks- I liked the two juicy ones from South Africa the most.
After taking a quick break at the hotel we headed out again- it was easier to put Blake in the carrier at night since it wasn't so hot and it was much easier getting around without the stroller!
We checked out the strip a bit more but in the end, we decided to go back to our hotel to get dinner at one of the Italian restaurants downstairs- D Vino. It was a quiet, nice place to eat, and luckily Blake slept through dinner. Afterwords, we were already so tired from driving and walking around that we just headed upstairs and just relaxed at the room for the rest of the evening.
The next morning after getting a quick breakfast, and walking around the strip until we could find Luke a swimming suit- we went to the pool for the rest of the day! Somehow Blake slept most of the time too even though the music from the DJ was extremely loud. So we kept Blake in the shade while Luke and I laid out in the sun and tried soaking up a whole summer's tan in one day. And it was soo hot that we'd take turns taking a dip in the pool since one of us would have to stay back with Blake- that part did stink that we couldn't go in the pool just together.
After several hours though Blake finally woke up and seemed hot so we took him for a quick dip in the pool. I swear all eyes were on us when we brought Blake in- people don't see a lot of babies in Vegas, so he sure got a lot of attention!


Later that evening we walked around the strip again, checking out a few sites and interesting hotels.

I really liked this picture- I think it was in the Bellagio- made entirely of flowers!
After walking around a bit we finally decided to eat at Margaritaville. It was especially neat since we opted to eat on the patio on the third floor and so we had a great view of the strip at sundown, and it was just a beautiful night. And luckily Blake slept again through dinner, even though I still had to carry the weight of him in my carrier.

We walked down the strip for the last time that night seeing everything all lit, and my favorite was seeing the fountains at the Bellagio which was really neat with the music at night.

Friday was our last day, so after getting breakfast at a nice buffet at the hotel, we checked out and headed to Hoover Dam, which was surprisingly not that far.

We also did the tour of the plant and got to go underneath the dam and also saw the huge generators, so that was all neat. Luke especially enjoyed the video part of our tour and all the little details we learned, and he was excited to see the huge new bridge that was now finished.


Our last stop in Vegas was to check out the Las Vegas temple on our way out of the city. The last time we were in there we never found it, and so we were curious to see it this time. Also, even more than that, the temple is right outside the area that my brother Daniel is serving on his mission, so I was anxious to drive around his area. And although I was hopeful and kept my eyes out for him, we never did spot him. But after driving around the area awhile we were finally ready to just get back on the road and head back to Utah.

I actually missed Jacob a lot while we were gone and I often wondered how he was doing and hoped that he was having fun. It sounds like he did pretty well and had fun during the days, but had a hard time sleeping at night. But I admit, it was nice to be able to walk around and not have to worry about him for a few days. And although Luke and I really enjoyed our time, it's easy to say we probably could've had even more fun if we didn't have to have Blake with us too. One thing I was really sad about was that we were not able to go see a show since we would've had to buy Blake a ticket too, and we just weren't willing to have to do that. But we did have a fun trip, and we're already looking forward to next year when the boys are older, and we'll be able to get away on our own again!