Viva Las Vegas!

A couple weeks ago Dan had to travel for work to Vegas for a conference. He had to stay there all week. When he arrived at the resort they had put him in a room at a different hotel than where the rest of his coworkers were staying. So he switched hotels, but all they had left was a 2-bedroom suite. That's when Dan called me and said, "Would you want to come down to Vegas for the week?" How could I possibly refuse?? Especially when he was staying here...

The Mandalay Bay Resort!

We left the next day and made the 6-hour drive down to Vegas. The kids were so excited - Nathan kept asking, "When will we be in Pan Vegas??" Yeah I don't know where he came up with that but it stuck and that's still what he calls it!

Our room there was amazing - on the 28th floor with walls of windows that you could see for miles from, it had a kitchenette, dining room, living room with tv, a bedroom on either side with its own tv and huge bathroom. The bathroom was probably the best feature - each one had the biggest indoor jacuzzi tub I've ever seen! So of course the kids had to take as many baths as they could while there...

These kids love taking baths!!

What's that? It's a TV in the bathroom! It doesn't get any better than watching cartoons while taking a bath!

Don't forget the bubbles!

Nathan was always the last one to get out of the bath

Tyler lovin' the bath

Pics of our room:

Living room (the sliding doors on the far side lead to our bedroom)

Dining room

The best part of our stay in Vegas was the amazing pools at the resort. We went swimming a lot while we were there - it was so nice to be in warm weather!

Natalie loved getting to swim again

And Nathan immediately took to swimming with floaties (he was hesitant to not have his lifejacket) - our kids are such fish!

View from one of the pools

Tyler loved playing in the shallow waves from the wavepool

And I soaked up as much sun as I could while we were there :)

Strike a pose!

We had to stop and look at the elephant fountains every time we walked to/from the pool

The grounds were beautiful with so many trees and flowers

We went out one night and drove down the strip:

This pic is for you Vivian!

It was fun seeing all the lights

This was the view from the kids' bedroom

Our last morning in Vegas we went to the Shark Reef at the resort-

They gave us little recorders to listen to as we walked along the tour - Nathan quickly handed his to me, but Natalie made sure she listened to every single display

There were lots of different fish and ocean life, and of course there were sharks!

It was so cool - there were several tunnels where you could walk through the huge aquariums and see the fish/sharks all around you

The kids loved the stingray petting pond but only Natalie was brave enough to actually touch one!

Check out the jellyfish! It looks like they're swimming through the air but it was actually a tall circular tank in the middle of the room. So cool!

The resident octopus in the starfish tank. It was so neat to see one up close like this - the week before we had all watched a tv show on "The Amazing Octopus" so the kids were really excited to see this one.

Look who we saw swimming in the tank! If you look closely you can see the special suits the divers were wearing to protect them from the sharks. The only reason they weren't getting eaten? They keep the sharks well-fed!!

It's hard to tell but this tortoise was HUGE! We watched him swim over us several times.

What an amazing time we had in Vegas! It was exactly what we needed - a break from the cold weather, some sunshine, swimming, relaxing, and spending time together as a family. Thanks babe for inviting us to come with you and have so much fun!!! We absolutely loved Vegas :)