If you don’t already know, this part of our road trip is the sole purpose for the WHOLE trip.
Ten years ago, we came to this very city and ate at this very restaurant to celebrate this very woman.
My beautiful mother-in-law.
We met her and her husband at their hotel a few hours after their plane landed. Its been a long time since we’ve seen familiar faces and the kids gobbled their grandma right up.
I have a feeling we overwhelmed her a bit but there was no way to contain their excitement.
We shared dinner together at the Rainforest Café where I managed to score a souvenir t-shirt on the basis of the struggles accompanying nursing an infant on the go. Like, when your milk leaks unexpectantly in public on the rare day you forget to wear a nursing pad and there are telltale wet circles on your shirt – instead of wearing my baby carrier without the baby in it, Papa Bear insisted I replace my shirt on the spot to be more comfortable.
We walked to the Bellagio with our unsuspecting bystanders and after several minutes of just standing around on the street they begin, “are we going , soon?” and “this is boring just standing here.” Seconds later those same tired and bored eyes are bulging from their sockets and dumbfoundedness falls upon their sweet angelic faces.
I think the show on my gorgeous (I’m biased) daughter’s’ faces is much more to see than some stuffy Bellagio…
It was beautiful.
Luckily we had rented a car for our time here in Las Vegas and we had something of a hustle bustle shuffle life, like at home in PA, for a couple days.
After saying goodnight to Grandma and Nagy Papa, we drove back to the campground and called it a night.
Wednesday September 17…. Day 37
Today is the day of our birthday celebration. We made our way back to the strip and the MGM Grand to meet Grandma and Nagy Papa where we toured some hotels on our walk to Mandalay Bay and the Shark Reef Aquarium of predators. WE saw piranha and sharks among many other aquatic killers.
The girls really like the stingrays.
After our walk back to their hotel, we cleaned up and piled into our rented minivan to drive to the Venician for dinner.
We ate and talked with aunts and uncle and enjoyed a nice meal as a family.
After cake and several trips bringing little bladders to the bathroom it was time again to say goodnight.
The restaurant photos are courtesy of Nagy Papa.
Thursday Sept. 18….Day 38
Early to rise and off to drop our house at a local Dealer because our front slide motor is fried. It’s one headache after another with this hunk of plastic and particle board.
Anyway, after we dropped of our garbage heap of an RV we met Grandma and Nagy Papa at the Hoover Dam.
We didn’t go on the dam tour but we did walk around the dam museum, dam gift shop, dam observation deck and had fun learning about the electricity, generators and that it cost more money to divert the mighty Colorado River than to build the Hoover Dam.
I found it interesting to learn 96 people died constructing the dam and newspapers clippings detailing the deaths were quite colorful, siting electrocution and being crushed by a boulder.
It sparked the thought that in all great things there comes great sacrifice. I’m reminded of the Great Pyramids, the Parthenon and the Colloseum – all great feats of mankind, I’m sure took hundreds if not thousands of lives to their end. ..and such is life.
Well, after all the dam fun we said our final goodbyes as they had an early flight back east in the morning and we had to get our home, slide still out of commission. We spent one final night in the city because on Friday, we’re leaving Las Vegas.
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