Vegas, Baby, Vegas!

We decided we needed to get away at least a little bit this summer, but with a new baby and a scaled down budget, our options were somewhat limited.  I thought back to how much I enjoyed staying at hotels and swimming in a hotel pool as a kid.  We did that a lot with my dad and it always was fun even if we were just at a simple hotel close to home.  Our kids were taking swim lessons this summer and we wanted as much pool time as possible in order to give them lots of practice.  Scott needed something to look forward to and a much well deserved break from work.  So, despite the heat in triple digits, the low cost of $50 a night at the Luxor lured us to the city that never sleeps.


We drove up on Sunday night and stayed at Uncle Brian's.  It was a sweet place!  in fact, Brian's place was so cool, we wondered why we had spent money on a hotel!  Joshie was so excited that there was a "potty for me to make pee pee and poo poo!" and when he saw the second toilet he just couldn't get over it.  (He had just finished potty training.)  We spent one night there and in the morning we woke up and were watching some Blue Planet in HD while I fed the baby.  We were all sitting together and Ben exclaimed, "We are all together as a family!  I LOVE Las Vegas!!!"  I love 5 year old kids--they are so easy to impress!


We had breakfast at a nearby IHOP and went back to Brian's to enjoy his awesome yet deserted pool.  It was sooo hot, but in the pool we were so happy!  I think the temperature peaked at a toasty 117 degrees while we were there.

We packed up and met Kristin at the Mandalay Bay and she got us a great deal for tickets to their Shark Reef Aquarium.  Joshie kept crying and did not want to go inside.  We finally figured out why.  He really thought that we were going into the water with the sharks.  Now that would have been quite the up close and personal experience!  

The boys were most impressed with the pirahnas, the green 

sea turtles, and the sharks.  They spent the next few days pouring over their guidebooks every time we were in the car.  It was great to see Kristin.  The boys adore Aunt Kristin!

For dinner we met poor Adam who was studying for finals at out favorite sandwich place in Vegas--Capriotti's.  I finally tried to turkey dinner sandwich and it did not disappoint!

Tuesday, we hit the Luxor pools.  All the pools were shallow and perfect for Ben.  He gained a lot of confidence in swimming this week.  His favorite move was throwing his googles and diving after them.

Tuesday we decided to take advantage of the meal plan at the Luxor--All you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole family for about $50 after the hotel credit we got when we booked our trip.  Not bad. The food was pretty good and we ate way too much this day.  A buffet with kids is just so convenient...everyone is happy.  I should have taken a picture of Ben's plate each time.  The only colors on his plate were brown or white...mashed potatoes, french fries, fried shrimp, etc.  Joshie got some more colors with lots of fruit and even broccoli.
We went swimming again and went straight from the pool to meet Scott's dad and new wife, Carol, for lunch.  I thought that Clark had picked up dessert for the whole table, but in fact, it was just for him.  Good work, Clark!
After lunch, we all took naps in preparation for a late night at the downtown Freemont experience.  We checked out the show times on what turned out to be a mistaken website and ended up two hours too early for the show.  In the meantime, we went to the MGM Grand only to find out that the lions went home at 7 pm and it was almost 8 pm by then.  We took the kids as promised to the M&M store.  It was M&M overload, but they had fun picking out their very own bag of M&M colors of their choice.
We hadn't eaten dinner yet and had to get back to the hotel by 10 to eat.  In hindsight, the meal plan was great but it did tie us to the Luxor so we should have made sure we had accurate information on things we wanted to see outside the hotel.  We'll have to take the boys to the Freemont Street experience another time.
The next morning we woke up and went to the pool again.  There just wasn't enough pool time!  We had hopes of sticking around Vegas to check a few more things out, but the boys were tuckered out and tired of walking around.
All in all, it was a fun getaway...very budget friendly, had some pool time, saw family, and got to spend time undistracted with our little family.  In Ben's words, "I LOVE Las Vegas!!!"

Our good little traveler.