Las Vegas

Two weeks ago, we set off on our first Southwest road trip.  While in Chicago in July, we decided to celebrate Mimi's September birthday by going to see Celine Dion's show in Las Vegas.

Since we had just been in Chicago, it wasn't realistic for us to go back, but since Vegas is a drive for us, it seemed like a good idea.  Plus, we were so excited to see Celine's show.

Las Vegas isn't really a place that I would normally take two little kids, but we figured that we could spend most of the time swimming at the hotel and just hanging out.

Our rooms at the Monte Carlo were not great, but the pools were fantastic.  Cate and Timmy were so excited to try out the wave pool and the lazy river.  The wave pool was a huge hit and they spent a ton of time jumping over those waves.

Cate spent one entire morning reenacting the Little Mermaid's, "Part of that world."  She would swim around with my mom singing the song (...up where they walk, up where they run...up where they stay all day in the sun....) and then would burst out of the water (as pictured above) and belt out, "Part of that world."  Over and over and over.  Mimi was a good sport, as usual, and played the role of the rock to Cate's Ariel.

The hotel lobby had a cupcake bakery which we, of course, visited twice.  Timmy got his standard chocolate and Cate got whatever cupcake was pink and sprinkled.

We did a little bit of walking around at night.  We took the tram from our hotel to the Bellagio to check out the flower and hot air balloon exhibit.  Timmy was fascinated and Cate was not interested at all.

For Mimi's birthday dinner, we went to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in MGM.  Our food was delicious and Timmy ate his weight in pizza.  Seriously.  He ate slice after slice, long after Cate had gone back to coloring.  It must have been really good pizza.

We got to sing "Happy Birthday" over chocolate beignets and caramel sauce.  Of course, we followed that up with a visit to the frozen yogurt shop in the hotel lobby because we had already promised C&T.

Mimi, Pop and Jenn left early the next morning and Tim had some work to do in Vegas, so Cate, Timmy and I braved the crowded, scary, streets to visit M&M world.  I told them each that they could choose one thing in the store to bring home.  Timmy selected a bat and ball and Cate an M&M tea set.  Since she really needs another tea set.  I thought that maybe  they would pick something with actual candy that we could eat, but no such luck.

It was fun to do something completely different and somewhat last minute for Mimi's birthday and it was a good way to sneak in an extra visit!