Fabulous Las Vegas

I'm back from a wonderful weekend trip to Las Vegas. Kevin and I drove down on Thursday afternoon. We stopped in St. George to say hi to Grandma Northrup and Grandma Hardy. I decided to let my visit be a surprise, so they had no idea I'd be coming. Needless to say they were happy to see me. It was really fun to see them as well. We got to Overton, where Kevin is from, at about 11. We talked to his family for a little while and then went to bed.

On Friday, we went to Las Vegas. We walked around the Venician and ate lunch. Then we took the long walk down the stip until we got to Mandalay Bay. We didn't stop at any of the other casinos, but we saw the whole strip. It was really fun. Definitely a different environment than Provo though, that's for sure. At Mandalay Bay we went through the shark exhibit. It was so cool! We learned a lot of random facts about different animals. For example, did you know that a crocodile can live for over a year without eating? Yep! So if you are looking to kill a crocodile, starvation is not the way to go.

After the shark exhibit we walked back to the car. The strip is a lot longer than I thought. It probably took us a good 30 min or more to walk from one end to the other. It was really fun though. When we got back to the car we met up with a couple of Kevin's friends and went to a batting cage. I have never been very skilled when it comes to baseball, but I did pretty well. Granted, we were only hitting balls that were coming at 40 mph, but even still...

Once we each hit a couple rounds, we searched for a bowling alley. However, we never found one. Instead, we went back to Brad's apartment and waited for his wife to get home from work. Once she got home, we drove back to downtown and rode the New York New York rollercoaster. Not exactly the smoothest rollercoaster, but it was so much fun! I haven't been on a rollercoaster since at least high school. It was great!

Kevin's friends went home after the rollercoaster and then we went to the Bellagio (Breezy pretty much lives at the Bellagio, no big deal :). We walked through the casino and saw some incredible flowers, both real and fake. There were some really tall glass flowers by Dale Chihuly that were amazing! We explored inside for a little bit and then went outside for the light and water show. It is so cool! Who'd have thought that a few, or a lot, of fountains with lights and water could be so enchanting. It was incredible! I think I'll have to join Beezy and Kevin and say that the Bellagio is my favorite casino, not that I really have a lot of experience.

After watching the show at the Bellagio we drove back and went to bed. On Saturday morning, Kevin's dad took us shooting. We shot clay pigeons with a shot gun, which I was pretty good at surprisingly, and then we shot balloons with a 22 pistol. I thought I would have been a little better at the pistol since it was somewhat similar to air soft shooting, but I was actually better at the shot gun. It was really fun. Funny how shooting balloons and clay pigeons can be so entertaining. It was quite a shock when my shooting record was better than Kevin's dad. We figured though it was because he couldn't see. Next time he said he might bring his glasses. :)

After that we spent the day playing a variety of games: Mario Kart, Skip Bo, Dominoes, and Darts. We went out to dinner and then came back and watched "Becoming Jane". On Sunday we ate breakfast and went to church and then spent the rest of the day just talking and making dessert. We had Brownie Pudding, which is something like brownies floating in a chocolate syrup. It was really good, especially with a little bit of ice cream. After dessert and some more talking we went to bed and then woke up on Monday morning and drove home.

The trip was a lot of fun and very relaxing. After a couple stressful weeks it was really nice to have a break. But, now it's back to work!