Good bye, Utah, and hello again, Nevada!
On our way back to Las Vegas, we stopped at Valley of Fire State Park. The kids were a bit grumpy about it; after all, they'd been driving and visiting parks for more than a week now. We drove through and only stopped at one place in the park: Mouse's Tank. Right by the parking area was a huge field of boulders leading to very large rock formations. A perfect natural playground! I let the kids go nuts, climbing to their hearts' content.
Within minutes, their attitudes had totally turned around, and they were yelling, "Watch me!" and "Hey, look at this!" We could have easily stayed there all day, and we never even explored the rest of the park. If we lived nearby, we'd visit all the time. It was so fun!
But we couldn't linger; we had a show to catch. We hopped back in the car and barely made it back to Vegas in time for the Mac King Magic Show at Excalibur. It was everything I hoped it'd be: Mac King was hilarious; the magic was impressive; and the jokes were clean. The kids were roaring with laughter the whole time, especially when Mac King kept taking things out of the fly of his pants -- including a live guinea pig! "How did he do that?" Little Man kept exclaiming. CC's favorite part was when Mac King made a reference to The Princess Bride, one of our favorite movies. She even approached him about it after the show! He told her that his 9-year-old daughter had an "ROUS" license plate on her bicycle.
Then we checked into our hotel, The Venetian. The kids are always hopeful that we'll be on a high floor whenever we stay in a hotel, and they were especially hoping that our room at The Venetian would offer a view of The Sphere. We picked up the keys and headed to our room, which was probably the nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in. Sweet Pea walked in, looked around at the spacious room, the balcony, the sitting area, the luxurious bathroom ... and yelled, "What?? We're on the first floor? And we can't even see The Sphere? ZERO OUT OF TEN!" and collapsed on the bed. It was beyond ridiculous. I knew she still wasn't feeling well, but I had to keep myself from laughing.
We headed over to New York New York for dinner. Little Man and CC had heard of Luke's Lobster Truck and wanted to try their lobster rolls (four enthusiastic thumbs up). Sweet Pea and I aren't fans of lobster, but there was a Shake Shack right next door that was calling our name. After we ate, we watched the fountains at the Bellagio, and the kids liked it so much, they chose to wait out in the cold to watch it again.
It had been a long, fun, tiring, exciting trip, but we were all ready to go home. "I need to see some green!" said CC, and I couldn't have agreed more. We flew home the next morning and were relieved and happy to be back together with MJ and Amber.
Little Man's favorite part of the whole trip was Zion, because "All the parks were beautiful, but Zion was the most beautiful. And the hikes were better."
Claire's favorite part of the trip was our hike down South Kaibob Trail, below the rim of the Grand Canyon. "That was my least favorite thing!" announced Little Man, to no one's surprise.
Sweet Pea's favorite thing was biking on the rim of the Grand Canyon. "And climbing rocks at Horseshoe Bend and Valley of Fire!"
Now I'll start planning our next big adventure! And this time, we really, really hope MJ will be with us.
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