Vegas

At the very beginning of this month, from October 1st until the 10th, we drove to Utah for General Conference, stayed in Salt Lake for the weekend, left Sunday and drove all the way down to VEGAS!  It was a fabulously good time and we CRAMMED as many sights as possible into the four days we were there.

Grant was very well behaved on the drive down, although by the end of the first day when we checked into a hotel in Idaho Falls, he was ready to get out of the carseat!  Fortunately he was able to sleep at the hotel in his Pack 'N Play in spite of sleeping most of the day in the car.

Here he is in the hotel room in Idaho:

Then, here we are going to the Saturday Afternoon Session of General Conference!  The great couple we were staying with, Eli and April Jones, who Trevor knows from his mission in France, offered to take care of Grant so that we could attend our session!

Here is a view of the Salt Lake temple:

We made a stop in St. George to take some pictures of the beautiful St. George temple on our way to Vegas:

Finally....

VEGAS!!!!

We arrived Sunday night, and Monday we hit up the Luxor, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay, as well as shopping at Town Square, where we bought Grant's halloween costume at Old Navy.

If you've ever seen Criss Angel, he has a show at the Luxor, and we've seen the episode where he's casually out among the crowd at the hotel, has a random girl sign this card as her own, then he throws the entire deck at the door and the autographed card gets stuck between the two pieces of glass that make up the door.  This is still a mystery to us how he did it, and Grant actually got very upset that he couldn't touch the card from either side!

At the Excalibur, Trevor got to meet his favorite cartoon (after He-Man, of course)

Here is a view of the inside of Excalibur

And here we are at Mandalay Bay.  We shot a funny video of me throwing Grant up in the air and catching him, which you can watch in High Def here.

Tuesday we spent most of the day in a timeshare presentation, waiting to get our free meal vouchers and tickets to Shark Reef and the Bodies exhibit.  Then we headed over the far north end of the Strip and had lunch in the Stratosphere!

After that, I needed to relax by my aunt and uncle's pool.  We stayed at their house for the week and it was great!  They fed us VERY well and we loved their company.  We need to visit again soon!

And, of course, they got to meet Grant!  Here is Uncle Mark hanging out with Grant at breakfast.

Wednesday we spent all day going to the Hoover Dam.  It was amazing, and at least as impressive is the huge bridge they are building way up high above the dam.  It's incredible.

Thursday was our last day there!  We wanted to fit in as much as possible.  We went to the Bellagio, where they have a great indoor atrium, extremely elaborate check-in desk, and beautiful casino.

Quick drive-by of Paris:

Quick stop in Rome for me:

And Grant:

Amazing French cafe in Caesars Palace, where we ate a Croque-Monsieur (yum!):

The pool view of Caesars Palace!  We weren't actually supposed to be out there, but we didn't know where the doors we were going out of led...

Finally, after many hours of searching, found Elvis!  He was shopping in the mall at Caesars Palace.

Thursday continued:  Shark Reef!

Trevor petting a sting ray

Lionfish:

Great pictures that I took of the jelly fish.  See now why we bought the camera?  Once I took these pictures, I realized it was worth every penny.

Thursday evening, we went to the buffet at the MGM Grand with Megan, Mark, and their houseguest Mike, and ate ALL we could.  It was very good.  Then Trevor, Grant and I raced off to see the Bodies exhibit back at the Luxor.  I LOVED it.  We couldn't take pictures, but it was absolutely fascinating, and extremely well done and respectful, as the lighting was done just right, there was nothing flashy, and I'm sure that everyone who leaves that exhibit can't help but marvel at the wonder of the human body!

Hopefully we'll be back before too long!

Thanks again Meg and Mark!  We miss you already!