Vegas Pleasure

As no trip can be all work and no play, we really wanted to take some time to show the boys around, introduce them to some family and let them have some fun without being dragged around on our adult errands. So somewhere squished in between our house hunting, we still managed to visit with Jake's family.

His aunt, Trisha, who lives right there in Henderson was a star and supplied us with toys, books, movies and snacks while we stayed in Jake's parents' time share (I'd love to have one of those someday), then also had us over for dinner. The boys got to meet some of their cousins (Jake's cousin's children), and enjoyed jumping on the tramp and running around playing spies. The adults got to eat, chat and catch up.

Another evening, Cousin Kim also got to show us her new house, which was gorgeous! She made us a yummy dinner, and we enjoyed getting to know her beautiful daughters better.

We then rounded it out by making a visit to Jake's nearly 99-year-old grandma Winnie. We haven't gotten to see that side of the family in quite awhile, so that was great. Some of the other activities we stuffed in wherever we could included:

* going to see the new "Night at the Museum" movie
* seeing the lights of the Strip
* walking through Ethel M's chocolate factory * wandering the cactus garden* playing at one of Henderson's public parks with splash pads (I seriously want to know why the High Desert didn't have anything like these when we were growing up! They are awesome!)(That's not an impersonation of a T-rex. Brendan was actually using The Force on the fountains to make them go up and down. It was pretty hilarious as he was pretty convinced of his own powers. His timing was uncanny.)* swimming at the time share pool
* discovering the park in the middle of the Town Square Mall
* going through M&M's World and seeing the free 3D movie (all about the free stuff he he)* and splurging on the Rainforest Cafe (none of us had ever been, and it was REALLY fun with all the animatronic animals, the lit up night sky and the lightening storms)
The Rainforest Cafe actually ended up being the crowning experience to our Vegas trip. We had a really funny waiter who made the mistake of challenging Caleb to clean his plate of hot dogs and fries. He foolishly said that if Caleb could do it, then the he would pay Caleb a dollar. Needless to say, he lost and actually paid up! We were all stunned, and Caleb was thrilled.

It was also fun because there was a magician going from table to table doing really awesome slight-of-hand tricks. Caleb was shocked beyond words when he miraculously ended up with not one, but two balls in his own hand during one of the tricks. Brendan had both a coin AND a crayon pulled from his ear. After that, Caleb resolved to be "just like him" and learn to practice magic. We may have a new obsession on our hands (see "The Whiteboard" column on the left for a funny moment).

Both boys wanted to stay in Vegas, so I guess the trip successfully convinced them that it is going to be a good place to live. Fun places, fun family, a fun house. Now if we could make it a fun moving process.