What Happens in Vegas...

...gets posted on our blog, of course! ;)

SATURDAY: Jed and I got kind of a later start than we hoped, but we made it to Vegas by evening. After we checked in to the hotel, I called my friend, Becky Webb, to see if she wanted to go out to dinner. We went to Buca di Beppo. Yum! I even made a conscious effort to bring my camera to dinner, and then I forgot to take a picture! I was so mad when we pulled out of the parking lot to leave and I realized that.

SUNDAY: This was our "tourist" day. We stayed at the Riviera Hotel, which is on the North end of the strip, and we spent most of the day just walking from our hotel to the other end of the strip and back. We stopped at almost every major hotel on the way down, finding neat things at each one. By the time we got back to our hotel (18 miles, and almost 6 hours later), I had blisters on (the bottom of) my feet because I chose to wear my warm, fluffy boots and apparently they weren't made for day-long excursions... Anyways, here are some highlights from our walk:

Ever seen the movie Big? I wished that I could go to Italy.

Next thing I knew, I was in Italy, watching the gondolas drift by. It was either Italy, or The Venetian Hotel. They're very similar.

This is my better half, Jed. He loves me. And he was so impressed with all the planning I did for our trip. He's easily amused. Probably why he married me.

This was Jed's favorite part, a huge aquarium in the Mirage. They had tons of fish (including some Doris and a whole bunch of Nemos)!

We found some Roman artwork at Caesar's Palace. Maybe I'll get one for the living room. We could put it right next to our Indian-print rental couch.

We couldn't find any sirens at Treasure Island, so we got a picture with the rocks. A close second.

Paris was next on the tour. Someone threw a penny off the top and it sliced this guy in half. Well, maybe not, but it would have been a good story. Je me souviens de Paris.

This is the entrance to the Bellagio Garden. You can kind of see the streams of water that spray overhead as you walk under them.

These snowmen were the best part of the elaborate Bellagio Garden. They are made entirely of flowers. The white on them is white carnations. (I love snowmen)

This picture is for my mom. It's a ginormous slot machine. She loves eBay.

Back to America with Lady Liberty.

I love castles. This is Excalibur. They have jousting shows, like in the medieval period, that you can watch while you eat dinner. We didn't get to do this this time, but I'd like to eventually.

The New York skyline at the New York New York Hotel. Do you think they changed the building after 9/11? I never saw it before. Jed and I didn't ride the roller coaster this time because we rode it last time we were in Vegas, and we've got a wicked picture to prove it.

Man, pictures look way darker on here... The boat says "New York, New York, FDNY". God bless those men and women. Fire fighters are awesome.

I thought this was a cool old Pepsi wall, so I took a picture. And I knew you'd like it too, so I'm sharing with ya. "Be Young, Have Fun, Drink Pepsi"

The M&M World store on the strip. For some reason this store makes me think of New York. And now I want to go to New York. I love that city!

Once we were rested up from our excursion and I had put on three pairs of socks to cushion my poor feet, Jed and I went to the buffet at the Circus Circus Hotel (right across the street from the Riviera). Not worth $13.50 - the food was just a tad bit better than high school cafeteria food. The good news is that after dinner, we were walking around Circus Circus, letting our food digest when we came across a circus act that was about to begin. It was a unicycle rider, and he was incredible. I didn't have my camera with me, so no picture.
When we crossed the street to go back to our hotel, I ran to beat the light and popped one of my blisters (on the bottom of my foot). It hurt so bad! Jed went off to find band-aids while I hobbled up to our room. That was the worst part of the trip, hands down.

MONDAY: Before we left, we wanted to go to the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Garden. So we did. :) The "botanical" cactus garden was decorated pretty cute for Christmas. It's too bad we weren't there at night to see the cacti all lit up.

We ended up at the North Pole. Lots of cacti there...

Tasty.

Cute little snowmen among the cacti. :) I love snowmen, in the desert or not.

We went on the self-guided tour of the factory and saw lots and lots of chocolate and cream and butter and cellulite... Of course we got samples, too! :D
These sculptures were made entirely out of chocolate. We thought that was pretty cool.

On the way out of town, we stopped by the Las Vegas LDS Temple. It's a beautiful building.

After a stop at In-N-Out for lunch (we couldn't leave without that fix), we were on the road home!
Jed had to take a picture when his car hit 200,000 miles on the trip. Silly boy. :)

We stopped in St. George on the way home to see the St. George Tabernacle. It's a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints building that was built as sort of a community center when the Mormons settled in St. George. Neither of us had ever been (I don't think I'd even heard of it until about a month ago...) but it was a really neat experience.

This original, free-standing, two-story circular staircase was built by Miles Romney, my great-great grandfather. He was the building superintendent and played a large role in the construction of this great building.

The inside of this building is so beautifully constructed. And sturdy. All of the architecture is original. It's just amazing to me.

This is the view from the pulpit. Our tour guide let us sit there, and then told us that every single prophet, except Joseph Smith, had sat in that exact spot. It was so neat. We could really feel the Spirit there.
When I told our guide that I was a descendant of Miles Romney, he teared up and we had a great, spiritual moment with him. I was thankful that Jed humored me by stopping there.

Brigham Young's house was closed by the time we got there, but it looks cute from the outside. :)

We made it home late because we had to drive like 40mph on the highway because the conditions were bad. It is good to be home, even though that hotel bed was so BIG and comfy compared to ours.

Tomorrow we get on a plane headed for TEXAS!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!