St George and Vegas

For our Anniversary, Adam and I (and Madison) took a five day trip to St George and Vegas. I've been procrastinating posting it though because I knew it would take a while to tell all about it. Ironically, now I've forgotten a lot of things and so it won't take as long to post, but I also won't have a record of some of the things we did, because I am a Mommy and have therefore lost my ability to remember things. (aside from REALLY important things, like the fact that the kids don't like onions, meat and most kinds of sauces, where the diapers are located in Walmart, EXACTLY how long it takes to get to Walmart-13 min by the way- and that you NEVER drink from Maggie's cup unless you plan on a tantrum. REALLY important stuff like that. I can't however, remember where I left my keys, the fact that I had a visiting teaching appointment yesterday, or that I apparently told the kids they COULD have captain crunch for breakfast- which I KNOW I didn't) But I digress, where was I?
Oh yeah, our vacation.

Adams parents took the older three kids for the week. I was worried they would have a hard time and miss us, but each day when I called them, they assured me that, NO they did not miss me. They had a ball. They watched movies, baked things in the kitchen, went to work with grandpa and went to the dinosaur museum in Ogden.

We had an AWESOME time in St George. My neighbors mother owns a second home there and they let us use it for FREE! It is an awesome little house too. It's in a "Desert Community" which consists of stucco houses with tile roofs and "natural landscaping" (cacti, sage brush, red dirt, lizards and spiders).

We laid out by the pool, stayed up late watching movies on the flat screen, went to a "grown up movie" (no, not like xxx or anything like that. It was a grown up show because it was NOT ANIMATED) went to the outlet mall, out to eat at Lonestar and The Olive Garden, laid on the lawn at the St George temple, walked around Historic Main street, and went golfing. OK, it was actually only the driving range. They wouldn't let us take Madison with us out on the course, so I settled for a "private" lesson on the driving range-my first lesson and Adam said I did really well. (He's not a stupid man, he had to say that regardless, but I felt like I did pretty well too.)
It was SO wonderful to relax, and just do things at a slower pace for a while.


We were there from Wed till Friday. On Friday afternoon, we headed to Vegas. Who knew that in only two hours you can be in a completely different world?!

Neither of us had been to Vegas since we were kids back in the early '90's. Back then they were trying to make Vegas more Family Friendly. Now, not so much.

It was really cool to see the different Hotels and fountains and malls and fountains (oh, did I already say fountains?)etc. It's amazing what creativity and A LOT of money can create. However, we really didn't enjoy the atmosphere. The feeling of the city was too,.....too.....what? Too fast paced for one thing and little to "free" for our taste if you catch what I mean. Not price wise though. Adam noticed there was not one single drinking fountain any where on the strip. At all. They did, however sell $4.50 bottles of water.

Friday, we checked into our condo and were too tired to go any where, so we ordered Chinese takeout, bought an INSANE amount of "vacation food" (Oreo's, chips, ice cream, soda, etc) and watched movies.

On Saturday, we went down to the strip and walked and walked until our feet were too sore to walk any more. The weather was gorgeous and we really enjoyed ourselves until mid after noon hit and the people started getting drunk, and the "coupon guys" came out. To get away from all the people out side, we went inside the Belagio to see the indoor garden. While we were there, some woman flashed Adam, while I was standing right. next. to. him.! I was SO mad! The nerve of that woman! It's lucky for her she turned and walked away right after. I'm not a large woman, but I can definitely hold my own thank you very much. I can't remember the last time I was so angry.

After that we decided to go back to the condo. On our way back to our shuttle, we stopped at Serendipity and had a frozen hot chocolate. Oh heaven! It almost made me forget all about the nasty lady at the Belagio. Almost.

We drove home on Sunday. When we were packing up, Adam realized he left his suit at the house in St George. We stopped by to pick it up and decided that since we had to stop any way, we'd go to sacrament meeting while we were there. We walked into the chapel after leaving Vegas only two hours before, and the change of atmosphere was so obvious it surprised me a little. It was like it quenched a dire thirst I hadn't even realized I had. It turned out that we were in Adam's Aunt's ward! Of all the wards in ST George, we just happened to walk into hers. Pretty cool.

St George:



Here we are in front of the house in St George in the "natural landscaping".



The front room. There were so many windows! I LOVE lots of windows.



Me and Maddie out by the pool. The water was still too cold to swim in (it's solar heated) but there was plenty of sun to soak up!



In front of the St George temple.



Not a bad back swing for a beginner.



I want to live in one of those houses someday. I'll take the big one with lots of windows, thanks.




Vegas:
The "Eiffel Tower"



The fountains out side The Belagio



Waiting for the fountains to start. Madison was SO mad that she couldn't figure out a way INTO the water.



The Gondolas out side the Venetian.



The giant fish tank inside the Forum Shops. Again, Madison was mad she couldn't get into the water.



More fountains in the Forum shops



Caesars Palace.



The gardens inside the Belagio just before our encounter with the nasty lady. See how happy I was?



Our Condo.



The view from our condo.




When we got home, we gave the kids their presents and went to bed without unpacking a thing. Why is it that after a vacation you feel like you need another vacation because of how much work it is to unpack?