Vegas Baby!!

Like the beautiful flowers? Had to cover up the bum behind us. :)

We had a great trip to Las Vegas for spring break. We got to stay at the World Mark Las Vegas thanks to a Christmas present from my in-laws. We were scheduled to leave Sunday and drive down to my cousin Scott's to stay the night but I got anxious to leave with the weather less than pleasant in Victor. So we packed up and left Saturday and drove to Twin Falls and stayed in my parents house. I know, it isn't exactly on the way to Vegas but I was ready to be gone. We made it to Twin at about 9:30pm Saturday night, we stopped at the grocery store to buy milk and cereal for the next morning and then went to the house. Now just a little side note, when we were there last we had to listen to this annoying beeping sound everyone couple of minutes because the battery on the alarm system control panel was going dead. My parents have no idea how to work the system and were never given a security code to arm or un arm the system. When we walked into the house and I heard that annoying beeping I decided I would just take a look at the control panel and see what I could do. There was a button that said home on it so I pushed it. All of a sudden there was this beeping counting down from 20, I thought oh crap it's going to go off. Luckily it didn't but all of a sudden a red light turned on highlighting system armed. We all went to bed without thinking another thing about it .....until 8 am the next morning when I heard that beeping counting down again. Suddenly there was this terrible screeching sound going off as the alarm system decided that the house was in danger. It was TERRIBLE!!! I am calling my folks, 6am their time, asking them if they know how to turn the damn thing off and they don't. After about 5 minutes it shut off but the system was still armed so I am thinking there is no way we are going to get out of the house without the alarm going off again. My dad was very clear to me when he told me to do whatever it takes to shut the thing off so that he didn't have to have it go off the next time he tried to get into his own house. Justin messed with things and sent the system off again, imagine me standing on a chair on my tiptoes trying to press a pillow up against the panel that was sending out that terrible screeching noise. It was LOVELY!! Justin finally un wired the sound box as well as the control panel and it was over but what a great way to start our vacation!!

We drove down to Utah that afternoon and had a great visit with Scott, Camille and Deacon. Monday morning we were on our way to Vegas. The farther south we got the warmer the temperature, it was awesome. By the time we got to St. George it was close to 70 degrees. When we got to Vegas it was in the 70's. The kids, of course wanted to swim so we ate and then swam for a bit then headed down to the strip, I really wanted the kids to see the pirate ship at Treasure Island. Man has it changed since I was there, it's now called TI and instead of just male pirates they now have female pirate, scantily clad and making very suggestive movements. It was fun to see the ship sink and I can only hope that the boys will remember the boats and not the women. We got to see the volcano at the Mirage go off on our way back to the shuttle and Luke did not think that was cool. He stood, hiding, behind my legs the whole time.

The next day was my birthday and I really wanted to go see the conservatory and the Bellagio. We walked a ton and were very tired by the time we were done but I LOVED the conservatory, there were so many beautiful flowers and live butterflies, I told Justin, if we ever go back as a couple and can afford to stay at the Bellagio that is my hotel of choice. It was amazing. The weather was wonderful, so nice and warm but not too hot. We walked down to the MGM and saw the lions, which was okay but not that exciting. There was so much more to see but man you walk miles and miles and the kids were tired and wanted to swim. We made it back to the condo around 5pm and took the kids swimming. They were beat that night and fell right to sleep.

Wednesday we swam all day, it was the warmest day yet, above 80 degrees, and we spent hours in the pool and sunbathing. It was great!!

Thursday we were scheduled to leave and as we were packing our car it got robbed. We left it unlocked, like hillbillies do, while we went back to our room to get the rest of our stuff, it was maybe 10-15 minutes. When we got in the car to leave the dvd player, that I had bought justhis trip, was ripped out of the dash board. Luckily it wasn't too expensive but just the thought that someone would do that is sickening, and it was in a gated condo facility in a covered parking garage. Of course there are no cameras so we were out of luck. Kinda put a damper on our trip but we didn't let it ruin things. We drove up to Cedar City that day and spend the night with my Aunt Sheryl and cousin Katie, it was wonderful to see them and they were so kind to let us stay. One little side note, I lived with my Aunt Sheryl there in Cedar during my junior year of high school and haven't really been back since. It was fun to see the town and how much it has changed. The kids had a great time playing the Wii and even Luke got to where he could bowl all by himself. Aunt Sheryl was so kind to show me all her quilting stuff and us girls stayed up late just visiting, it was wonderful!!

We left Cedar Friday morning and decided to take the scenic route home. We had planned to stay with Meg on the way home but she ended up with Strep throat so we changed our plans. We drove up through Panguitch then up to Manti and Ephraim, it was beautiful. There are lots of little farming communities that I wouldn't mind living in. Manti seems like a great little community and the temple is so beautiful. We stopped in Ephraim for dinner and tried to decide what we wanted to do. We didn't really want to pay for a hotel and there was no way we would get any sleep in the car so we decided to drive all the way home. We finally arrived at about 3am safe and sound. It was a great trip and the kids did very well in the car even if they didn't get to watch any movies on the way ho