Carter needed to attend the Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas this year, and when we found screaming deals on the trip, I got to tag along! I want to give another HUGE thank you to my wonderful mom and step-dad for caring for our children so I could go. We had such a terrific time! We had not ever taken a "just the two of us" vacation before, but now I'm thinking we need to do that more often. Loved it!
Some of our favorite sites:
New York, New York is mind-blowing! It seriously recreates the NYC skyline, with a rollercoaster looping all around it. Inside it feels like you are walking through a downtown city neighborhood, or Sesame Street (sort of).
Classic Las Vegas.
I really liked this picture, showing the gorgeous Paris Casino and Eiffel Tower, until I realized I'd framed it so Carter is sprouting a hot air balloon out of the top of his head. Ooops!
I must have taken twenty pictures inside Cesar's Palace. The marble pillars and statues are breathtaking. Walking around in there is a great lesson in Greek Mythology. I tried to take pictures of lots of it, knowing Jayden is really into that, but I did have a hard time finding decently clad statues to show my 12 year old son. There was a cool animated statue show depicting the fall of Atlantis, with water and fire shooting all around.
Next I have to mention the conservatory in Belagio. It was an incredible botanical paradise in the midst of all the lights and smoke. We were there over Chinese New Year, so several casinos had really neat oriental-feeling themes. I walked several miles out of my way so I could come back here with my camera to get these pictures!
Everything in there was alive and growing, even the panda. I loved the water show in front of the Belagio, too, but didn't get any pictures.
This is just me being silly. I've always had a thing for Elvis. Carter is okay with it since he's dead. I saw a cool Elvis look-alike one day on the strip and was dying to take a picture with him until we realized they charge you money to pose for a picture. I didn't want it that bad. But then I found an Elvis M&M who posed with me for free. HeeHee.
Favorite memories of the trip:
* Carter took me to eat Korean food! We were the only non-native kimchi eaters there in this little restaurant down a semi-scary alley from the strip. That's always a good sign. The food was sooooo good!
*Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville... pirates on stilts, exploding volcanoes, a giant blender big enough to swim in (no, Carter, I didn't take any pictures of the girl who swam in it) and their "Save the Ta-Ta's campaign." Hmmm.
*Wandering around the casino in the Tropicana like two oafs from Idaho looking for a penny slot machine that took pennies. There weren't any, so we bagged the gambling idea.
*A very confused bartender holding two Shirley Temples...
*Stepping completely out of "Mommy mode" and coming back so refreshed.
*Being "wined and dined" by Hills Science Diet in the penthouse of Mandalay Bay... They have a very exclusive, extremely fancy appreciation party for a bunch of their biggest clients. That might not include us normally, but we KNOW people! A friend from vet school works for them now and got us invited. So we tried to act sophisticated as we perused tables of completely unrecognizable gourmet delicacies and marveled at how the other half live.
Here we are with Scott Carter and Zach and Lisa Bruneel, also great friends from vet school.
This is the view from at least 50 stories up, on the balcony at that party.
The conference presented Foreigner in concert! It was a good old fashioned classic rock, let your hair down and relive the eighties concert. We were a little more in our element here, and we had a great time!
The best memory of all was a having a four-day-long date with my husband and finding that we still have a really good time together. Love you, Carter!
