"Vegas Vacation"

Blake and I went to Las Vegas with Melissa and Gregg Rupp for 3 days without Ashlyn and it was the first time we'd spent a night away from her. Getting ready for the trip was harder than actually being on the trip. Of course I missed her but we were seriously busy from 9AM to midnight just about all 3 days!! We called our parents to see how she'd slept and eaten her meals and just to hear her talk on the phone. I swear she learned about 10 new words while we were away... Blake's parents watched her for 1.5 days and my parents did the same. We were so grateful to them for taking such good care of her and allowing us to enjoy a nice vacation.

At the MGM Grand they had a Lion Exhibit and they usually had 2 lions in at a time. Mostly females but we did see one male one of the days!

This was at the Bellagio Hotel looking back at the "Eiffel Tower"

Also at the Bellagio they had such an Amazing Garden area full of the neatest flowers and sculptures made out of flowers! This snail was one of my favorites with the roses!

This was our room, we stayed at the Excalibur for cost reasons and we hadn't planned on spending much time in our room so we didn't care if it was in an older hotel! They upgraded us for free!

This was part of the Fountain Show at the Bellagio - every 30 minutes or so was a different show

At the Venetian they had the Wax Museum and we actually went to the Brookstone store inside to use there massage chairs - we wish we would have done that everyday. I of course wore sandals and Blake told me NOT to and to bring tennis shoes, he was SO right - my feet were killing me the first day after walking 10 hours. I bought some flip flops which helped but didn't cure my problem! Inside the Venetian they had the cutest kids clothing store but when I walked in and the first t-shirt I saw Ashlyn's size was $140 I walked right back out. Crazy

The Wynn had an awesome waterfall and we walked inside for a minute but I felt like I was on Rodeo Dr. in California or something, I hadn't heard of half of the stores!

We had a tram pass to save our feet from walking back and forth on the strip and the last day we went to the Stratosphere and went right to the top (I of course wasn't excited about the idea because not only do I hate elevators but also being up SO stinking high). I once went to New York City and to the Empire State Building and they cram SO many people in elevators and it took forever to get to the top and I think it ruined me. All in all it was fun and Blake and Gregg rode on the 3 rides they had at the top - One shot you up the needle, another seemed like it was dropping you off the edge of the top and another swung you out off the side of the top. The picture shows it best. They are crazy dare devils and I would NEVER do that!

We experienced the Dolphin Habitat and the Secret Garden (Sigfried and Roy's Tigers) at the Mirage and the dolphins did some flips and jumps and just swam under water. It was neat!

Melissa and I were pretty much done at this point and our feet hurt so bad! We of course still had 4 hours until we had to go to the airport!

We had such a great trip and were happy to spend time with great friends! We will be going back one day to see more shows and actually relax at the pool since we were so busy going and seeing EVERYTHING we could!