I kind of forgot exactly what Vegas is like.
We had no sooner walked into our hotel from the parking garage when Las Vegas literally assaulted me. We had a horrendously long walk through the casino to the registration desk. Dallin was instantly smitten with the whole thing: "Wow! I love this place!" he exclaimed more than once. He was entranced by the lights, colors, and sounds of the slot machines and other features. We tried to walk as quickly as possible through the place, which was no small feat considering the amount of luggage we were hauling (some of it human luggage). I was almost instantly affected by the feeling in that casino, and it wasn't a good feeling. It didn't help that almost the first thing we saw was a huge poster advertising the hotel's--ahem--nightclub attractions, of the female variety. (They did have something on, but it wasn't much.)
We managed to get through that mess to our room. At that point, I needed a moment to regroup. Obviously it was too late to go back to Utah.
I've been to Las Vegas before. I remember some of the sleaze. But I truly think the last hotel we stayed in was not this bad. I remember seeing billboards on the side of the road. But in my own hotel???
I found myself feeling frustrated that Dallin was so excited to be here. I had to make myself relax. He didn't understand all of the ramifications of what all this meant. He just liked the glitter and sizzle of it all. He liked the loud music. He liked the fact that we were staying in a place that looked like an Egyptian pyramid.
We sat down and talked about all those machines that he thought were video games. No wonder they looked exciting to him! We explained that they were games for grown-ups, but that even mommy and daddy chose not to play those games. We explained that people had to pay money to play those games to try to win money, but that usually they didn't win--they lost. He agreed that this didn't seem like a very smart thing to do.
I found myself initially wanting to completely discount all the positive feelings he was feeling about where we were. I wanted to say, "No, we DON'T like this stuff!" But instead, I listened to him express his excitement about it all. A few minutes later, I said, "You know, I like a lot of things about Las Vegas, but there some other things I really don't like about it. I don't like some of the pictures and things that I've seen in our hotel." "Yeah," he replied knowingly. "I don't like some things either."
We had a few other chances during our stay to talk about these things again. It was good. I still don't think I'd bring my family here again. We came last time when Dallin was three, and he was just too young to notice much. This time, I was acutely aware of just how much he would notice. Two years from now, I think he'll be too old.
In spite of it all, we had a fun time. We had planned plenty of family-friendly things to do, and we had a great time doing them. It was just those in-between times, traveling from place to place, trying to avert our eyes along the way. I don't think I scarred them for life, by any means. They certainly were far from the only children in Vegas. I think we had some good discussions about good things and not-so-good things. All in all, it was an interesting trip!
Our hotel, the Luxor.We spent the first full morning at Circus Circus, which is billed as the family-friendly casino. I did have a really good time with the kids! We got to watch a couple of short circus performances, including trapeze artists and some really amazing jugglers. We then hung around the "midway" where we mainly played games in the arcade. This way, it was pretty easy to keep both kids occupied at the same time. I could watch Sariah on a ride and let Dallin play a video game all at once.
Sariah riding a something (I'm not exactly sure what kind of creature this was.)
Dallin playing skeeball. (This happens to be my personal favorite arcade game, probably because I actually don't completely suck at it.)
The kids showing off all the prizes they won. I couldn't believe my eyes when Dallin actually managed to get a little disk to land in a little cup and won a monkey! Then Sariah felt left out because she didn't have anything, so we found a booth where all children under 12 got a prize. The prize count was still uneven, since now Dallin had two, but at least Sariah got something.
Dallin and Sariah checking out the fish at the Shark Reef aquarium in the Mandalay Bay resort.
My two sillies acting goofy at the Shark Reef.
Sariah "wimmin'". (Well, technically, she's getting a drink at the swimming pool.) We must have passed every pool in every hotel we went to, and each time she had to tell us about the wimmin'.
Dallin got tuckered out in the heat when we went to see the Secret Garden (home of Siefried and Roy's white tigers and lions) at the Mirage resort. We also got to see dolphins, which were really cool.
The kids showing off the tiger heads they got (which actually open and shut by pressing the long handles.) These kept them busily entertained for a good portion of the trip home, though they also eventually got extremely annoying.
Other highlights for the kids:
Getting to eat at McDonald's twice in one day. Oh, heaven!
Getting to be in a room on the 19th floor. They loved playing in the curtains at the window. Mommy did NOT love having to go over to the window to get them away. (I'm freaked out by heights.)
Pushing all the elevator buttons.
Riding escalators.
Running up and down ramps, and on moving sidewalks (until Mom read the warnings about kids not being allowed to run on moving sidewalks.)
Other not-so-highlights for mom:
Mealtimes in public places with two kids. Did I mention that not 2 minutes after we sat down to breakfast in the busy food court, Dallin announced that he needed to go potty? And not 2 minutes after we all traipsed back to our table (luckily our food was still there), Sariah dumped her milk all over me. This was after I had drunk 3/4 of it thinking it would save us from spills.
Our other mealtime fiasco was trying to rush breakfast in a "nice" cafe with two grumpy kids and one grumpy dad who was about to be late for his meeting. Sariah didn't want to sit still and eat and was soooo close to just losing it completely. Dallin then remarked, "Hey mom, that lady over there is staring at us!" Just what an already-embarrassed parent wants to hear. We made it out of that restaurant by the skin of our teeth before it became a complete disaster.
The insult to injury part of that restaurant experience was the $60 tab for a breakfast that would have tasted just as good at Denny's.
Standing in a very long line at the Secret Garden out in the hot sun, with a 2-year-old on the verge of a tantrum. Trying to look like a good, calm parent under those circumstances. Finally getting our tickets and going down by the dolphin pool, only to find that we had to wait 5 minutes for the next show, in yet another line. 5 minutes isn't that long...unless you have a 2-year-old on the verge of a tantrum. (And she did show her stuff a few times.) Again, Dallin said, "Mom, this is embarrassing."
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