Mini Family Va-Ca

Watch out Las Vegas, Here come's the Peterson's!

We took the girls down to Vegas for a business/pleasure weekend getaway.

WEDNESDAY: Adam and I drove down with Sean and Amy early that morning after getting the girls off to school  and met up with Curt and Ronda for the Pool Show, Lunch and Dinner. For dinner we ate at a place called "Honey Salt" it was different but pretty good. We drove back that night.

THURSDAY Adam went to work, I taught preschool and the girls all went to school. As soon as they were home we packed up, loaded the car and we were off to Vegas again.  We arrived to our resort (it was a timeshare through Johansen Pools) around 6:00 pm Vegas time. We checked in and took a tour of our weekend "pad." The girls were in awe.

 We were on the 9th floor and had our own balcony.

 You could see the strip and a lot of the Vegas lights.

We had a two room suite complete with...

 

 Kitchen,

 Living room,

 Bathroom with a jetted tub and steam shower.

And two TV's one for the girls and one for Adam and I.

The World's longest hall. Okay, not really but it sure felt like it every time we walked to our room.

 That night we picked up Panda and brought it back to our room to eat.

And then the girls tried out the jetted tub.

Adam kicking back on the balcony.

FRIDAY: We slept in and enjoyed a slow relaxing morning. (the pool had really odd hours of 10:00am-4:30pm) so the girls wanted to go swimming as soon as it opened. While waiting, we walked around the 25-acre resort and checked it out.

It was Awesome. Gorgeous, lush landscaping with huge palms trees surrounding it. You would have never guessed we were in the middle of Las Vegas. It was like it's own little paradise. 

 The 1/8 mile lazy river.

The game room. 

At 10:00 sharp we were all ready to hit the pool.

The Lazy River

The girls and their tubes

Heading towards the waterfall

Calli

 Adam and I in front of the waterfall.

Underwater pictures of the girls. HAHA! 

After the Lazy river we headed to the pool.

 It was a beach entry pool.

The girls loved the sand.

 and the beach.

While Adam, Calli and Sadie built sand castles...

Gentry and I enjoyed the hot tub.

After a couple hours at the pool, we went back to the room , showered and got ready for a day of shopping. There was a huge outlet mall right next to our resort. We spent most of the day there and then also hit the showcase mall as well. 

The girls had a blast shopping til they drop.

After shopping we drove down the strip to give them a little taste of the Vegas night life. This was the first time the girls have really been to Las Vegas. We drive through it all the time and have stopped a time or two but have never "stayed and played."

They seriously loved it. They thought it was so cool and was hanging out their windows trying to take pictures of everything. 

After a late dinner at Outback we went back to the room and fell into bed.

SATURDAY: We got up bright and early and hit the strip...on foot. We started at the Mandalay Bay and walked inside, through Mandalay Bay, The Luxor and Excalibur. They were all so cool and the girls were in awe at the differences between each casino. 

In the Excalibur they had a huge candy store with giant-sized candy.

The Luxor

 Then we headed outside to walk on the strip.

 Excalibur

New York, New York

and finally made our way to the M&M Store.

 3-D M&M movie

 M&M's for as far as the eye can see.

 Different colors, sizes, and flavors lined the walls.

Sadie and Gentry filling up their "expensive" bag. 1/2 pound for $7.00. Yikes!

 They loved seeing all the M&M merchandise. Clothes, toys, school supplies, home decor etc.

 Next up, the Coca-Cola Store.

 The Strip. Sadie and Gentry held either Adam or I's hand the entire time. Sadies' least favorite part was crossing the bridges because it was always full of people and "hobo's" (in Sadie's words) Every time we crossed a bridge her grip would get tighter and tighter. But we managed to make it out alive. In Calli's words: Vegas is full of "porn" Anything that was even a little risque she said was porn.

 

We made it to the Bellagio Hotel just in time to see the end of one of the water shows and then walked through the Gardens. It was pretty cool.

 Then off to  Caesars Palace in search of the Cheesecake Factory.

 "Another" escalator ride.

After our long walk there we decided to hit the tram on our way back.  We got back to the resort just in time to go swimming again.

More Lazy River Fun. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and then walked to the on-sight Denny's and had dinner. We were exhausted and went to bed early. 

 SUNDAY: We took our time, getting up and checking out.

 The girls looking down on Adam and I from the 9th floor as we took the luggage to the car.

What a fun eye-opening experience we had. It was fun and adventure filled yet nice and relaxing at the same time.