Vegas 2012

I took several hundred pictures this vacation, and even after narrowing it down to those I am going to edit I am still looking at about a hundred.  Because of this, I am splitting the vacation post into two- Vegas and California.

Our trip to Vegas was fun, interesting, exhausting, and eye-opening.  Most people would never take their children to Vegas, but we kinda didn't have a choice.  When we made the decision to drive to California, we figured a nice place to stop on the way was Vegas since I have never been.  I googled "kid-friendly things to do in Vegas" and came up with enough stuff to do that we thought, what the heck.  First thing was to find a good hotel for Kathryn.  We decided to go with Circus Circus because they have the Adventuredome, circus acts (which we never ended up seeing), and it was super cheap.  Lets be honest, the main reason we stayed there was because it was cheap.  We were spending so much at the resort in California that we wanted to go as cheap as possible in Vegas.  The west wing was renovated, and the pictures were nice enough that we decided to stay in that part.  Once we arrived, lets just say Circus Circus was a circus.  I knew we would have to wait in line, and sure enough we did for about half an hour.  We were able to get into our room before normal check in, so that was nice.  After James and Kathryn took a nap, we hit the town.  We made it there in record time so had the entire afternoon and evening to explore.  First was the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef, which was sadly too dark to get good pictures.  Kathryn was given the opportunity to pick a toy at the end, and chose a cute orange fish that looks like Nemo from Finding Nemo.  James asked her what she wanted to name it, and she defiantly stated, "25."  Yes, you read that correctly, she named her fish 25.  I don't know whether to type it as a number, or word, but that is what she named her fish.  She cracks me up every day.  We then walked through New York New York, passed Excalibur, MGM, Aria, and walked through some of the malls.  We ate at Cabo Wabo for dinner, which is an extremely yummy Mexican food restaurant with a loud, fun environment.  After that, we walked towards our hotel (which is at the other end of the strip).  We were able to catch the pirate show outside of Treasure Island, and see a little of the Bellagio fountain show.  By the time we got to our hotel it was definitely bed time.  It felt like we had walked 5 miles!

New York New York

Bridge view of New York New York, MGM, and Excalibur

Side view of Excalibur

Inside New York New York

Outside New York New York, looking at the Strip

On the bridge outside of New York New York

New York New York sign

On the strip- Ross and Hard Rock Cafe (coolest Ross I have ever seen)

View of the Aria Resort buildings- incredibly awesome

The next morning we had breakfast at the Wynn.  Their buffet is fantastic, which reflects in the price.  Hey, it's vacation right?  To me a buffet in the morning would just have breakfast food, but not at the Wynn.  They had every food imaginable for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including a huge dessert bar.  Kathryn enjoyed a chocolate covered sprinkle marshmallow, while I chowed down on the raspberry cheesecake.  Hubs enjoyed a rocky-road cheesecake, and they were all amazing!  Afterwards, we hit the town, trying to step foot in every hotel we could.  We did a lot of expensive window shopping, and stopped by the Coca Cola and M&M stores.  Later we went to Seigfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat.  We observed the dolphins and white tigers, and Kathryn took home her own little white tiger.  Afterwards we walked through some more hotels, and decided to head home.  Circus Circus houses one of the best steakhouses in Vegas (crazy, right?) and it is appropriately named THE Steakhouse.  As convenient as that was we couldn't pass it up.  So after getting cleaned up, we headed down to dinner.  After dinner we walked to Advernturedome, where Mini had a caricature drawn up of her.  We walked around the dome, which is basically like a Six Flags inside.  Kathryn was in awe of all the rides and screaming kids.

Hubs inside the Wynn

Mini and Hubs inside the Wynn

Mini and I inside the Wynn

Outside one of the shopping malls

At Seigfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

Our short Vegas trip was lots of fun, but at the end of it we were ready to hit the road for California.  Hubs and I would like to go back someday, but I have a feeling it will be sans Kathryn.  ;)