I want to back up for just a moment to our Christmas card picture. It is just the truest picture of how life in the year 2012 felt. Just imagine me as a juggler and I can't keep all my balls in the air no matter how hard I (or Luke) try or maybe it's that I have been trying to juggling too many balls at one time. Either way it has been exhausting and frustrating and defeating (at times). So, when Luke was ask by his lumber vendor if we wanted to go to Las Vegas for their national convention (all expenses paid), we said YES!!! We both needed to step away for a bit for some fresh air, peace & quiet, and to remember the feeling of not being on duty.
So with the kids left in the good hands of Danielle & Emily for a bit and then Franny for the majority of the time, we were off for 3 days!!!
Upon arrival we quickly realized that we weren't actually staying in Las Vegas, NV, but the nearby town of Henderson in the resort hotel the M. I was kinda glad about that because I wasn't really going for Vegas, but for the time away. This sorta ensured that I wouldn't go-go-go, but rest-rest-rest at the hotel, although we did do some sight-seeing.
One thing I was really looking forward to was playing around with my new camera! Luke surprised me with a Canon DSLR for Christmas and I will go ahead and warn you that I took alot of pictures.
This was the view from the hotel-
the mountains
the strip
the strip with our one of our ultra zoom lenses
the many, many rows of houses
the strip at night
Wednesday was spent traveling and at the hotel, but Thursday we took a shuttle to the strip for a couple of hours with a list of all we wanted to see.
First up was the Palazzo & Venetian.
Inside the Venetian were these singing gondola drivers along an inside river. It was our favorite thing to see.
Next up was The Mirage, which was where Siegfried & Roy performed.
This was about the half-way point.
Then there was Caesar's Place with it's curved escalators (!!!) & statues and murals. It was beautiful!
Next up was a little Paris and then we headed over to the Bellagio for the water show.
Near the end of our time we saw the Leaning Towers of Vegas, which Luke was excited to see because he had watched a show on how it was built.
It was alot to see and the only thing we didn't make it to was the pyramid. We didn't make it back at night to see the lights, nor to a show, but still felt like we experienced Vegas. Luke even won $26 dollars at a roulette table. Part of it was by hitting his friend Mike's lucky number 21 (and it was made funner by the fact that it was Mike's birthday).
On Friday with the convention over, we headed out to Hoover Dam before our flight.
Our first glimpse of Lake Mead.
Our first glimpse of the dam.
A few pictures on our tour of the power plant.
Hoover dam is just massive! Pictures just don't do it justice.
In Nevada
The state lines
In Arizona
In both states
I definitely recognize a drought line when I see one.
We were so high up that we thought this was a turtle, until I zoomed in and realized that it was a duck.
Having a little fun with the green screen shot during our tour.
BMC, the company hosting the convention, gave us these matching shirts with lanyards to wear at the events. I couldn't actually bring myself to match Luke, but I did take this in the hotel room for fun, although most of the other invitees & guests did match each other. Although this was cheesy, nothing else about the trip was and we owe a big thank you to BMC. Next time we will know to attend the drawings (instead of nap) so that we don't miss out on winning a $500 chip- true story.
No comments:
Post a Comment