Trip to Las Vegas

From Wednesday, February 23, 2011 to Monday, February 28, 2011, Chad and I took a last, no kids trip, to Las Vegas, before Boy #3 (his official name) is born mid-May. My mom and grandma came up from Phoenix for the trip to watch the boys. Sadly her time with the boys wasn't near as enjoyable and fun as my trip with Chad. When we left Grant had been sick with coughs and fever for a couple of days. I thought he was on the mend but he was actually pretty sick for about three more days. He had to skip most of the activities he usually does each day and stay home to rest. Cole was on his way into the sickness so he was tired and less than energetic. He did a lot of sleeping. My boys also got my 80+ year old grandma sick. Not good. To top it all off, it snowed on Sunday unexpectedly, preventing them from going to church where my mom planned to see some old friends. I think she was very ready for us to get home Monday evening.
My and Chad's trip, on the other hand, was perfect. We had to do a little less than originally planned because in the sledding outing I mentioned in my last post, I may or may not have fallen and started having contractions the next day. I had to go to the hospital the afternoon following the fall to be monitored and get a shot to stop the contractions. They did that successfully and thankfully said I could still go on the trip.
We left for Las Vegas Wednesday after Chad got home from work and thanks to the new bridge at Hoover Dam, made it to our friends' house in just over four hours. I love that new bridge. We stayed the night with our friends, the Wadleys, and got caught up with them. With the exception of two visits, every time we see each other, one or both of us either pregnant or just had a baby. This was not exception. We found out that they are expecting their fourth and I'm pregnant so maybe sometime in the future we will get together without babies and pregnancies.
Thursday, Chad and I checked into our room at the Paris Hotel. I love that hotel. Our room, called the Red Room, was amazing and beautiful. The hotel is also a very nice, fairly new hotel. Over the next several days, we did a lot of sleeping, relaxing and eating. We did some gambling on the BlackJack machines. I never made it to the Sahara to play the $1 tables. Chad put $20 on the BYU basketball game and made us $18. At the end of the trip, I was only down $20 and I won't say how much Chad was down. BYU game aside, his weekend wasn't near as successful as mine in the gambling department.
We were also able to the see The Lion King at Mandalay Bay. Chad still has his student ID from UA so we were able to purchase $115 tickets for $27. We had amazing seats, just a couple of rows back on the balcony, my favorite place to sit for musicals. You can see the entire stage without straining the neck. It was a beautiful production. The costumes were so ingenius and I have always loved the music to that show.
We enjoyed a fabulous breakfast buffet at the Paris. It has all of the yummy, French breakfast food I love. We also went to our favorite seafood buffet at the Rio. All you can eat seafood, including crab legs and lobster for $50. They also have a gelato bar with at leat 20 different choices and a dessert bar that makes you wish you had two stomachs. This trip I pretty much ate my weight (that's saying a lot right now too) in crab legs. Sadly, I couldn't enjoy the sushi on the bar.
On Friday evening, we went out with Mike and KaySea to dinner. We went to the Hard Rock and had the Gambler's Special. It is a special that is not on the menu. You get a small steak, three shrimp and mashed potatoes for $7.99. The steak wasn't bad either. After dinner, we drove over to the new hotel, The Cosmopolitan, to check it out. Mike and KaySea had been there before so they showed us around. It's a very hip hotel, almost too hip. I felt like I would never be cool enough or dressed cool enough to actually fit in there but it was pretty. KaySea and I spent some time relaxing in a small lounge, watching people while Chad and Mike went off doing who knows what. The pregnant ladies didn't have the energy for it.
We were also able to see two movies, a miracle in itself, with kids. We saw The Fighter and Black Swan. Both were fantastic, although Black swan weirded me out a bit.
On our way home from Vegas on Monday, Chad's dream of taking a tour of the Hoover Dam finally came true. Chad and I have been together for about 12 years now and in all that time he has wanted to take a tour of the Dam. It has never worked out due to time constraints or having the kids with us. You have to be at least eight years old to take the tour. It finally happened on this trip. We did the powerplant tour with those who had paid just for that then were taken off for the additional part of the tour with 15-18 others who had paid for that time slot as well. We walked through tunnels that take you deep into the middle of the dam. We learned a lot about the dam, how it works and its history. We were also able to walk up to one of the few vents right smack in the middle of the dam, hold the camera out the vent and take a picture of the dam looking up. It's a great picture. It's on Chad's phone though so I will have to edit this post to add in the picture. It also happens to be the only picture we took on the entire trip. We have been to Las Vegas so many times that there really wasn't anything picture worthy on this trip.