We drove into Las Vegas on the afternoon of July 28th. Our hotel was teh Excalibur and it looks like a castle. The kids were very excited and I was too. The last time I had been to Las Vegas was over 12 years ago when Kevin was on a business trip and I tagged along to do my own thing while he was in meetings. What were we thinking??? Las Vegas is a living illustration of FILTH. I wanted to put blinders on the kids almost constantly. Combine that with the fact that I wanted to hold my breath because of smoke most of the time and you have a good recipe for MOM STRESS!!! There were some good things about our time in Vegas. Caesar's Palace was fun and very impressive. Kaylee thought it was really cool, except for all the "giant naked statues". I think Tori, Kimber and Tavin were still oblivious. The Treasure Island show was comepletely disturbing - basically porn masquerading as sirens set to music with us trapped in a gigantic crowd. The water show outside of the Belagio was wonderful and worth the time. Walking through the casinos was disturbing - though not as disturbing as the Treasure Island show. That was all night one. I was exhausted from trying to shield my children from images, smells and sounds. This doesn't even mention all of the things they didn't notice - THANK GOODNESS!!! OK, it's time to mention some redeeming things about this portion of the trip.
Caesar's Palace
Caesar's Palace
This is the pool at our hotel and it was WONDERFUL!!! The pool was the most fun part of this city (OK - maybe Phantom was more fun for Kaylee, Tori and Kevin.)
We loved every minute we spent playing in the pool and going down the water slide. Go Tori!
Go Kimber!
The kids and I had a blast here! Did I mention that already?!?!
The Excalibur did look really cool. It's a little kid's dream to spend the night in a castle.
This is the view from our hotel room. We could see the roller coaster at New York New York, but we ran out of time to go ride it.
This shows the back of our hotel (right) and the New York New York on the left.
One of our main reasons for going to Las Vegas was to see Phantom. I sent Kevin to see it with Kaylee and Tori. They loved it and said it was a fantastic show. Kimber, Tavin and I went to Circus Circus while they were at the show and I became convinved that we had taken a wrong turn and ended up in HELL - and I'm not even exaggerating.
Back to redeeming things about Vegas - The M&M Store. WE LOVED IT!!! We loved it so much that we bought our yearly Christmas decorations there and everyone felt like they were in paradise. So, in the end, I learned a few things. Las Vegas next to Zion's National Park was a stark illustration of pure evil compared with the beauties of our Heavenly Father's creations. I felt peace and happiness in the Narrows and nervous unrest during most of the Las Vegas trip. It's telling that me favorite part Las Vegas was the pool. We could have been swimming in Temecula. We didn't need to be in Las Vegas, but even there, in the glitzy entertainment kingdom, we found our greatest happiness enjoying simple pleasures as a family. Moral of the story: We will NEVER visit Las Vegas with children again!
The last time we drove to visit you in CA, it was snowing in Zion's so we decided to stop in LV instead. I had many of the same feelings you had--only my kids were 17 and 14. The nice thing was that they also felt out of place and we were able to have a good discussion as we finished the drive to Temecula. I guess there is a reason they call it "sin city".
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