Vegas Vacation

Kaycee and I have been wanting to make a trip to visit our Grandparents for some time now and we finally made it happen. After, the first few days of my kids melting down from lack of sleep we adjusted to the 3 hour time change, and had a blast. Vegas is not a place one would normal take kiddos, and I am not endorsing taking a family vacation by any means.  But, I'm extremely thankful that we were able to find many kid friendly activities. The hotels alone are beyond amazing. Very telling that gaming is rigged in favor of the hotels. We got to enjoy all the amazing amenities, and beside food and hotel costs we didn't leave a penny in Vegas.

We stayed at the MGM Grand, because it had a fun pool area and the ever popular lion cubs.

The majority of our time was spent enjoying the sites at the Mirage. They not only had an amazing volcano show that happened ever hour,

But also a wildlife exhibit inhabited with all kids of exotic animals. Caleb just happens to love all meat eating BIG CATS.

The girls really enjoyed the dolphins,

and all of them were very excited 

to get fun new animals from Soho.

The Mirage offered a number of photo friendly backdrops, so with a little bribing we got the kids to take a number of pictures.

With my Grandparents living in Vegas for over 40 years I've made a few trips to "Sin City". I remember a time when they were trying to make it more family friend and created a lot of shows entertaining for a younger audience. Those days and rightly so, are over. We took the kids to TI for the pirate show and they loved it. 

However, the ladies were very scantily dressed. We decide that we would not be returning after over hearing Attie Jo quoting lines for the play, "My name is Cimmamem (Cinnamon), but you can call me Cim (Sin) for short."

We went to the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur, which was actually a little scary. Thankfully, the kids were not phased by the evil dragon.

They were too awestruck by the horses, sword fighting, fireworks and being allowed to yell while eating dinner with their fingers.

We also went to the shark aquarium at Mandalay Bay, which the kids really enjoyed. However, my favorite part of the trip was watching the children interact with their Great Grandparents. 

Caleb and Attie spent sometime with Grandma Connee when they were really young but haven't seen her for a number of years, and Makaylee had never meet her. The way they warmed up to her you would think they spent time with her on a regular basis. It made it into a treasured memory. 

It brings tears to my eyes knowing that my sweet little ones will have joyful memories of their Great Grandparents, as I do mine.

Another spectacular attraction in Vegas is the Bellagio. There is a beautiful fountain show outside,

and the inside is exquisitely decorated. Of course we tortured the kids with more pictures.