What Happened in Vegas, Pt. 1

The last vacation Kristen's family took together was the summer before we got married. Pretty much every year since then, her parents have talked about taking another trip with everyone, but it has never materialized. All manner of excuses have been presented, from having babies to not having enough money to just not being able to get everyone's schedules to align. I just figured it must be me since they stopped taking them as soon as I joined the family.

Six years later, I guess they finally figured I'm not going anywhere so they might as well start having family vacations again. It was decided that we would all spend a few days together in Las Vegas. We arrived in town late Tuesday afternoon. We didn't do too much the first night other than getting checked in to our condo, driving around in circles searching for some dinner, and taking a dip in the pool.

Wednesday we set out to find the Lied Discovery Children's Museum. After driving in a few more circles, we finally arrived at our destination. The museum featured plenty of hands-on exhibits, and the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves. The adults managed to have a little fun too.

Eddie spent the majority of his time at this exhibit. You place the ball in the tube, it gets sucked upward, then it rolls back down a series of chutes and ramps. Perhaps we need to install something like this at home because I'm pretty sure it could entertain him for hours.

Next we headed to The Strip to check out M&M's World. I was a little disappointed that it turned out to just be a giant store and nothing more, but it did offer us a welcome refuge from the Las Vegas heat.

As we were leaving, in one of those moments that parents would never go for without grandparental encouragement/funding, Eddie and his cousins posed together in an M&M's photo booth. For the low price of $5 we ended up with a washed out print of the kids looking at the booth curtain instead of the camera (but with an M&M's-themed background!). Totally worth it, right Grandma Andrews?

Since it was right next door to M&M's World, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. The food itself was good, but the visit wasn't made complete until I spotted The Edge's "Mr. The Edge" muscle shirt from U2's PopMart tour on the wall across the restaurant.

The fountains at the Bellagio provided a fitting capper for our first full day, even if they weren't weren't nearly as impressive as what I remember from the end of Ocean's Eleven.

To be continued...