My (Secret) Public Weblog: Family Trip to Vegas

We spent this past week in Las Vegas. It has become my home away from home. This was the second time I've been there in the last three months. This time it was a family vacation. We flew out last Monday night on a direct Allegiant flight. Amelia was super excited to ride on an airplane. She is a pro at spotting them flying in the sky and always makes sure to point them out. She loved seeing them up close at the airport.

Amelia has always been an awesome traveler, and this was no exception. Within 5 minutes of taking off she was asleep and she was out the entire way. She did wake up crying when we started to land. I think the pressure in her ears scared her. She cried and whined for about 5 minutes then was back asleep.

She slept all the way through the airport, then finally woke up at baggage claim. She was excited to see her stroller and carseat again. She was pretty upset when we had to check them in. We got to skip the entire taxi line and jump right in a cab and be on our way. We took our carseat just for the ride to and from the airport, and we are glad we did. It was a bit of a pain to carry through the airport, but we didn't have to go far with it. We weren't required to have it. The cab driver said most people just hold their kids in the car. We all know how risk-averse I am, so it was worth it to have the peace of mind. You never know when you could have a car accident.

Aside... I am so risk-averse that this is my second consecutive trip to Las Vegas where I didn't gamble a single cent. The closest I got to gambling was trying to win a stuffed animal for Amelia out of the claw machine at Denney's. (I didn't get it.) There is no way we were riding in a taxi without a car seat. We thought maybe there were certain taxis that had car seats in them. Then I thought about my daughter sitting in a communal taxi cab carseat and that was out of the question. We were taking our own even though we only used for about 30 minutes the entire week.

We made it to our condo about 11:00pm Vegas time. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Niece, and Nephew had come in the day before, so they were waiting for us. Amelia had been pretty sleepy, but when we got into the condo she was wired. She ran around with her cousins for an hour or so, but then we made her go to sleep.

We had a busy week of playing at the pool and going all over Vegas. We went to see Mystére, visited the shark reef at Mandalay Bay, made a trip to Fremont Street, and ate out several times. There was lots of riding in shuttle busses and waiting around, and Amelia did great through all of it. I am always amazed at how good she does when we are carting her around all over the place and getting her out of her routine.

We flew back Friday afternoon. We left Vegas at 4pm, and got back to Arkansas around 9. That time difference is killer. It is nice to have a weekend to recover from our trip. I was able to get all the yard work done yesterday and today we'll catch up on laundry. Yesterday was hot, but not miserable. Perfect day to go get a snow cone.