Next up in my recap of December, 2013 is our trip to Vegas. Paul’s parents retired out there within the past year and with one of his brothers and a niece in Vegas, a brother and niece in San Diego, and one of my brothers in LA we knew we had to get out for a visit. We hadn’t seen Paul’s brothers in two years so it was so great to finally get out there and to meet our niece who’s just about two months older than Eliza…
Unfortunately, I really didn’t get too many great pictures. In fact, we really didn’t do very much while we were there other than visit with family. We’ve been to Vegas so many times that we didn’t feel as though we were missing out but travelling with a 15 month old definitely meant a lot more time at the house and a lot less time going places.
Eliza did great for her first time flying. She cried a few times on the very first leg of the trip as she wasn’t sure how to nap on my lap but figured it out pretty quickly. She LOVED take-off and landing and was pretty content as long as she could look out the window and eat snacks. LP was great as usual- we pretty must just handed over the iPad and he was all set… We had a very short layover on the trip there (too short- just enough time to go potty and book it to the next flight) and had to leave home at 3 a.m. but it was worth it to arrive in Vegas before lunchtime there…
One of the places we always end up in Vegas is the Silverton Casino/Hotel (off the Strip) and the attached Bass Pro Shops. There’s a huge fish tank in the lobby so we met up with Paul’s brother and girlfriend and their little girl the first night for dinner. The kids always love seeing the fish.
The next day we went with Grammy and Papa (who we stayed with) back to Bass Pro to visit Santa. Eliza has been obsessed with Santa since he first appeared at our local mall and started calling him “Ho-Ho.” Paul was not as keen on visiting Santa but we finagled him into going up with Eliza. Sure enough, Eliza freaked out and Paul ended up sitting and chatting with Santa for quite a while. Go figure.
Of course, we had to go see the fountains at the Bellagio and the Christmas decorations in their atrium garden room. It’s impossible to photograph well because of the crowds but it’s totally worth seeing if you’re there at Christmas time.
We even managed to get a decent shot of the four of us!
All of the decorations are covered with flowers, kind of like the Rose Bowl parade. It’s really quite beautiful.
The following day Paul’s brother in San Diego flew in for the day with his daughter. Our niece has grown so much since we last saw her- hard to believe! By this point Eliza was practically glued to me- she had a hard time adjusting to the time change and to all of the activity/people and I could barely put her down without her screaming so I wasn’t able to get as many photos of the kids as I would have liked…
Below is a photo of our oldest niece with LP the first time we took him to Vegas- he was 15 months old and she was four I think- they’ve both grown up!
The photos below are the only shots I was able to get with all four cousins. They’re so terrible they’re funny…
LP, of course, loves babies and ADORED his little cousin… Maybe too much!
And Eliza and her cousin were pretty good about playing together.. Well, near each other anyway!
It was a busy but wonderful visit. We stayed with Paul’s parents who live a little bit outside of Vegas near the mountains and it was gorgeous there. My brother in LA and his wife drove out for two nights and Paul and I were lucky enough to take advantage of our babysitters (thanks Grammy and Papa!) and their comped rooms at Red Rock Resort to stay in the same hotel as my brother and spend some time with them… It was strange to be in Vegas with my brother- not something we ever imagined happening but we had a ton of fun!
We were there for six nights and had quite a time getting home. On our trip home our plane stopped in Topeka before continuing on to Chicago. We were literally the only people who didn’t get off the plane in Topeka. We had a three hour layover in Chicago which ended up being over four hours as the East Coast was getting hammered with snow and ice. We finally got home at 3 a.m. The kids, fortunately, behaved pretty well the whole time.
So that was Vegas, baby. With babies.
You had a very full and eventful time and you have my admiration for travelling all that way with a 15 months old. My grandaughter, same age, came for Christmas with her 21 months old cousin and they didn't actually play together but side by side. Unfortunately Rose was having a 'wonder week' which you probably know all about so she was very mummy and daddy clingy. They went on to fly to Stockholm for New Year and she fortunately got over her difficult mood and was really good on the plane. She also didn't like the big red, hairy chap. It just amazes me how much babies/children follow a pattern of behaviour according to their age and growth. Lovely pictures too. Thank you. I am enjoying reading your blogs again.
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