The final portion of our vacation as we headed to Grandma and Grandpas for the Christmas holiday was a stop in Las Vegas. Since Tyler and I had made a few trips to Las Vegas for anniversaries, the girls have always wanted to go there too. They've seen our pictures and photo books and wanted to visit some of the places we had been to like the Bellagio fountains, the world's largest chocolate fountain, and the huge M&M store. We were excited to take the girls through there from our drive from California to Utah. We even ended up staying in the Excalibur hotel so we were happy to tell the girls that we would be staying in a castle hotel! This was the best picture I got with the hotel behind the family.
We got into Vegas really late after our last day in Legoland, but we woke up the girls so they could see the strip with all the lights on. They thought all the lights were pretty cool. The smokey smell all around was our least favorite part of course and even with all the cool buildings and attractions, it was a little weird noticing how different Las Vegas is from Disneyland. We spent the morning walking through some of the hotels with our main destination being the Bellagio with all of its Christmas decorations and its crepe store which is where we had breakfast. We took the tram between a couple hotels and walked through the Aria which has all the Crystals hanging that I thought the girls would like. This second picture was a car totally decked out with jewels that I believe said it was one of Liberace's cars.
The main Lobby of the Bellagio hotel is still one of my favorite places because of the blown glass flowers on the ceiling. The girls had only ever seen pictures of it, so it was fun to finally show them in person. The Christmas decorations and huge Christmas tree were also fun to see. It was even decorated a little differently from when Tyler and I had been there four years ago.
Some things like the train around the tree and houses complete with smoking chimneys were the same.
Aubrey wanted her picture taken by everything. We loved the moving penguins but they took forever to peek out of their igloo so it was hard to get the girls to look at me for a picture when all they wanted was to see the penguins.
Our final destination was crepes for breakfast that were huge and delicious. This is where the world's largest chocolate fountain also resides. Abby wanted her picture taken here just like the one we have of Tyler.
As we walked through other hotels and shopping areas, we stopped to take a few pictures by their Christmas decorations. These were some of our favorites.
We also did a fair amount of walking outside the hotels and showing the girls all the cool things about the hotels like the mini-Eiffel Tower and the huge Harley bike.
While walking through one of the shopping centers, we stopped to watch the Rainstorm that happens inside the mall. It was over a pond area and it really rains complete with thunder and lightening. We had to wait a few minutes for it to start, so we took some pictures. I even had Abby take a few so Tyler and I could be in a couple shots. All the ceilings are painted to look like outside, so I liked this picture of me and Tyler under the "blue sky" that's really just the mall ceiling.
Our final stops were the M&M and Hershey stores which are right across the street from one another. The Hershey store was new to me and Tyler, but we all loved seeing all the things you can buy made from chocolate. These colorful pictures were some of my favorites from the trip.
The girls liked the Statue of Liberty made from chocolate and we thought the world's largest chocolate bars that were for sale were a bit extreme. They were huge but they were also 50 bucks!
This final picture has a funny story to go along with it to just clarify my point of how different Las Vegas is from Disneyland. The girls got to pick out their own M&Ms from the M&M store and as Tyler finished paying, the girls and I started walking outside. It was still early for Las Vegas, so people were still starting to fill up the streets including the people dressed up like characters. The girls wanted their picture with Hello Kitty and with a Despicable Me minion that was right next to Hello Kitty, and me being in the Disneyland mind frame just went "Ok. Let's take pictures." As the girls filed in next to Hello Kitty while I got my camera ready, Tyler came out kind of upset and hissing in my ear that we have to pay. I hadn't even thought about it, but afterwards realized he was right. These people expected tips to take pictures with them. So this picture cost more than any of the pictures we got with all the princesses and characters in California, so every time I see it, I think how it should be framed or something. And because we had to tip Hello Kitty, we couldn't take any more pictures, which made the girls sad because they probably would have rather had their picture taken with the minion. Oh well. The joys of Las Vegas!
This was the final stop of our family vacation, although it was two days until Christmas so our fun was still getting started. We finished the rest of the Christmas break with family in Utah and had a fun time with family and enjoying the holiday, but this trip was one of our first long vacations with just our little family and I loved all the memories we made. We can't wait to make more as we plan more trips in our future.
