Viva-ing in Las Vegas

After our super fun stop in Arizona, the kids and I trekked through the desert to Las Vegas, where we met up with Daddy/Steve. The kiddos were SO excited to see him, they could hardly contain themselves. Add that excitement to the pent-up energy of being stuck in the car for 5+ hours, and you'll understand why they were climbing over all the couches in our hotel lobby as I got our room keys.

Since we'd decided to stay for a little over 10 days, we thought a suite would let us have more routine with the kids, cook our own meals, etc. So we looked around a lot--all the suites in Vegas were about the same price with our military discount--but finally TripAdvisor yielded hotel-gold: the Staybridge Suites on Dean Martin. Holy cow. We've stayed in more than a handful of suite hotels before, but this one takes the cake. It was basically a small apartment! I could not BELIEVE my eyes when I walked in and saw all the awesomeness it had (including the balcony with ashtray that Gracie found so fascinating), like full-wall windows with a view of a gorgeous pool, the most ginormous sectional ever, full kitchen and dining area, and, okay I know this is an odd thing to notice, but the fixtures--like the faucets and appliances--were SUPER nice brands. Like, nicer than I've ever had in an apartment.

Is it weird if I show you pictures of our hotel room? I was kind of in love with the bigness/convenience/wonder of it all.

Full kitchen (which you see right when you walk in). There was even a dishwasher. And cooking utensils, plates, cups, silverware, dish detergent. Everything. You can see the dining table beyond.

Dining area and living space. The couch folded out so Gracie slept there on a gargantuan mattress. And then they had plenty of space to play when it was folded up.

View from the couch so you can see how the double doors leading into the bedroom. Feels pretty cool to fling open double doors to enter your bedroom, by the way.

The bedroom (sorry, I should have taken a picture after housekeeping made the beds--I am not very skilled at that clearly) also had floor-to-ceiling windows that lead out to a balcony. And I forgot to take pictures, but there was also a HUGE bathroom with double sinks, a super deep bathtub, separate shower, and a third sink by the toilet. I think its pretty safe to judge the amount of luxury of a hotel by the number of sinks it has, and ours had four total, which is probably why I was so happy.

Okay, enough. Sorry. It was a fabulous place to stay, and a perfect home base for our "real-life" style vacation where Steve actually had to go in to work on several days.

When he had days or mornings off we buzzed around Las Vegas and checked things out. Our favorite morning was spent taking the kids to the m&m world and the Coke store. Gracie could not BELIEVE all the m&m's we saw, and was SO excited to get to pick some out in new, fancy colors. She chose a little butterfly case with turquoise, butter yellow, purple, and pink m&ms in it. And Charlie learned the word m&m, which he now says anytime he sees them. ("I LIKE m uh m's!")

At the Coke store Gracie was the only one in line to see the Coca Cola bear. They were precious together. She really looked like she had just walked up to a life-sized teddy bear; it's fun to see the little kid in her come out like that, because she can be so grown-up and practical, too.

Then Steve found one of our favorite activities--soda tasting. For I think it was $8 we got two trays full of tasting cups filled with different sodas from around the world. We all took turns passing the cups around and narrowing them down until we chose our favorites (some were delicious, but others were TERRIBLE! One tasted like cough syrup; it was awful!).

Steve tasting one of our favorites... As Charlie chugs soda from his sippy.

This face does not display the sheer joy she had over tasting ALL this SODA! She thought it was so fun.  (And here she is handing me one she thinks I should try. ...as Charlie goes for another glass beside her.)

Pinky up: proper soda drinking etiquette.  That was the kiwi-something, I think, which turned out to be our favorite.

Lots of sodas, and a very happy Charlie.

We also went shopping, got giant cookies, ate at a burger place, and played at a super cute playground in one of the shopping centers.

The days that Steve had to work I took the kids to the park, or shopping, or to Cafe Rio (or all of these things). It was nice to be away from the chores and distractions at home (cooking/cleaning/bills/preschool/gym/etc.) and just be able to hang out and enjoy these kiddos.

And back at home base, we spent a lot of time playing with the washer door (well, Charlie did anyway... even though he wasn't supposed to...) and other doors (did I mention Charlie really has a thing for opening/closing doors?).

And as much time as possible at the pool!

Steve and I also got to dress up and go out to Cirque du Soleil. I had gotten food poisoning the night before, so I had to stay in bed ALL day eating boring foods (crackers? Gatorade?) but I was SO happy to feel good enough to go that night. Steve's cousin Becca watched the kids, and I put on a brand new dress and sat beside my sweetheart to watch an incredible show! (We saw "O" which was fantastic--add it to your bucket list!)

It was such a treat to get to see him for so long in the middle of an away rotation. It was really hard to leave! But the next part of our journey took us on another long drive to see more people we love!