Last Las Vegas Post

Our last day in Las Vegas had Tucker and I looking for things to do. We decided to visit Ethel M chocolate boutique at the Flamingo Hotel. I actually wanted to visit the factory, but we never actually made it there. I had visions of Tucker and I trying to take chocolate off of the conveyor belt like Lucy and Ethel from "I Love Lucy" show. Tucker and I would be fine with shoving chocolates in our mouths! At the "chocolate boutique" we picked out a box of chocolates with lemon filling, coconut filling, caramel filling, peanut butter filling, and chocolate truffles. We loved them all, but the lemon and caramel ones were my favorite! With our belly's full of chocolate, we then moved on to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville and relaxed on a couple of painted chairs. It was a great place to watch the people go by. I didn't blow out a flip flop, but I still wasted some time away. :0)

Later in the day, we went to the Hawaiin Tropic Cafe at Planet Hollywood.

While we were there, in walked a young girl who looked really familiar, but I couldn't place her. She went on to sit in a cabana at the restaurant. When John looked at her, he immediately proclaimed that she was "bikini girl" from this year's American Idol. He would know...he is absolutely in to American Idol, which actually surprises me a bit. While I am all over reality T.V., he doesn't get into TV much at all unless it football or golf. He will watch a movie, but he will not watch any series of shows except for American Idol. When it is on, basically the world is on hold. So with his American Idol knowledge, he KNEW that the girl was "bikini girl". He and Tucker were brave enough to go to her table to get a picture (all for Tucker, right?) Sometimes being a dad is really hard work. So that was our brush with fame while were in Las Vegas, if you can call it that. Tucker was excited about meeting "Makini girl" as he called her.

Magic Show Fun? At least for some...

This is Mac King. He has an afternoon magic show at Harrah's that we attended Thursday afternoon. We were trying to find a show for us to watch with Tucker and this was recommended by several people that we talked to. He has a lot of interaction with the audience and was actually very funny. Did I tell you that Tucker was with us at this show? Most of you know that the boy is not shy and can talk a bar stool's leg off. Well, at one point Mac needed a "couple" to come up and be part of the show. Little loud mouth popped off and volunteered his mama and daddy! (Yes, we were rather close to the stage.) I guess Mac coudn't say no, and talked us into coming up on the stage. So, there John and I were on the stage staring out into the bright, hot, white lights with Mac King being part of a card trick bit. We were on the stage about 10 minutes and then we were on our way back to our seats. One day I will get the boy back! Thanks Tucker!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from my little leprechaun! Since his first name is actually Patrick, he seems to think that this day was invented for him. Don't know where he would get a crazy idea like that?

We managed to pull Tucker from the pool and game room at the hotel long enough to visit the lions at the MGM Grand. We just happened to get there in time to watch the trainers give the lions treats. Luckily none of the trainers became tasty morsels while we watched! The trainers would throw meat on the glass walls where we were watching so that we could get an up-close-and-personal view of the lions grabbing the meat off of the walls. Quite the show and I am very glad that I was on my side of the glass walls.

We also walked down the Vegas strip for a little bit and headed toward the M&M store. Even though it was daytime, it was still a great time to people watch. I didn't realize how much green clothing there really was out there, but I am pretty sure that I saw it all. We had a view of our own little St. Patrick's Day parade. We saw great big green hats, beads, and ittybitty green dresses.
After an afternoon on the 'strip'. We ate at the ESPN restaurant where Tucker was able to watch a hockey game at our booth. Right up his alley! Then we went back to the hotel to join the St Patrick's Day pool party at the hotel where Tucker was able to tye-dye a t-shirt and swim with new friends.

Vegas Baby

Today is our first full day in Las Vegas. We are trying to adjust to the time change, but I don't think that we will ever get use to it. We were up at 6:00 AM, which is 8:00 AM Texas time. We may have been the only ones up in the whole hotel. No problem! When Tucker is awake, everyone is awake! After a quick swim and soak in the hot tub, we grabbed breakfast and figured out a plan for the day. We took our hotel shuttle to Harrah's and proceeded to walk around. Our first stop was to visit Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. We spent several hours there watching the dolphins swim and the "big cats" play. They had five 10 month old white tigers and the trainers were inside the habitat with them playing/training. We saw a couple of the tigers "play" fight when one of the trainers brought out a large ice chunk about the size of watermelon. Evidently this is a tasty treat and all of the tigers want it. We also saw a four month old leopard. What beautiful creatures all of these animals are!
After visiting the animals at the Mirage, we decided to see what other sights there were to see for the day. We went to Caesar's Palace Forum Shops to see the moving statues and then we ended up at PF Chang's in Planet Hollywood for a late lunch. Tucker had about as much as he could stand of walking and looking around. He was ready for the pool as he exclaimed about 100 times through out the afternnon! So, we started to make our way back to the hotel. As we were walking, we passed by Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. I had to go in and get a t-shirt and Tucker wanted one, too. Somehow John and Tucker left with shirts and I ended up empty handed. How did that happen? With souvenirs in hand we returned to the hotel and changed into our swimming suits. After a pit stop to the rec. room for video gaming, we then hit the pool. We had a great, busy day. I am glad I came all the way to Vegas to spend some time playing video games and swimming in a pool. That is something we NEVER get to do in Texas.

Spring Break

We left Saturday, March 14 to drive (yes drive!) to Las Vegas. We really don't mind a rode trip since we usually drive 30 hours or so to visit John's family in Montreal, Canada. Driving to Vegas is actually nothing compared to that! We spent the night in New Mexico and today are driving through Arizona and will eventually get to Las Vegas later today. Before we hit Flagstone, Az, we kept seeing signs for the Grand Canyon. So, we changed our course just a little bit to stop by and visit it. It was just a little bit out of our way, and we decided that we may not ever get back there again! I must say that I was very excited to see the Grand Canyon because I have never been there before. I don't really know what I expected to see, but it was quite a sight. I would never say that I am afraid of heights, but this made a little uneasy and a bit anxious. Maybe because it is so far down to look, but I just couldn't get a grip on my depth perception. Needless to say, I did much better just looking out rather than looking down. Tucker just thought the whole thing was "cool". Well, guess we can check that off of our list of things to see and do!

Once we said our good-byes to the Grand Canyon, we still had another a few more hours before we hit Las Vegas. Traffic was fine until we were 10 miles from the Hoover Dam. It took us about an hour and a half to go those 10 miles and we had less than a quarter of a take of gas. Somehow we made it through, but it was close! We finally made it to our hotel, excited and exhausted. Now, we have to go to bed so we can start our day early tomorrow!

My Montreal Canadians

Sunday night was the BIG game for my boys. The Montreal Canadiens played against the Dallas Stars. John made sure that he and Tucker had tickets to the big game! Tucker has been counting down the days to the game. However, when it was about a week before the game, he began to panic because he didn't have a jersey. One night at dinner he told the two of us that he would NOT go to the game unless he had a jersey. I immediately thought of our best resource and figured that John and Tucker would call Oma to rescue us. I figured a trip to the local store would net Tucker a nice authentic jersey, but John didn't think that it would get here in time. So, I went online and ordered the jersey. (Not only does the grandparents spoil the child, but it seems that I can be blamed, too!) The jersey was delivered in time and the boys were off to the game in style. They had a great time at the game and ended up on the very front row! According to family watching the game on TV, they actually spotted Tucker and John in the third period banging on the class behind the Dallas Stars goalie, Marty Turco. Tucker said that it was the best night ever!