While we were in Vegas...

We went on a roadtrip from LA to Las Vegas. Google said it would take just under 4 hours. Travelling with 2 families and young kids...yeah, right.








We stopped at the famous Alien Fresh Jerky store in Baker. It was certainly an experience.







We also stopped at an outlet mall. By this stage the storm had hit, and the high winds blowing across the desert was intense. The mall was practically empty and we were joking that it felt like we were in some sort of Waking Dead episode.



Finally we drove towards Las Vegas central, with the beam from the Luxor showing us our target.



We stayed at Ballys; next door the Paris.







The plan was to come to Las Vegas for whistle stop visit, see the Blue Man Group performance, and then leave the following day. We managed to have a relatively relaxing time here.





















...and then we were on the drive back home to LA. The cloud formations were spectacular.

Reminiscing in motion

I've finally finished editing the movie of our trip away. Finding the time to do these things is hard, especially when there are work pressures combined with sleep deprivation and a child that thinks 9pm is a reasonable hour to hit the hay (only to take another 30-60 minutes to actually fall asleep and in the process making his Mummy come in and out of the room to reassure him she is just outside the door). So the only time I actually have for "me" time is between 10pm and whenever I decide is a reasonable hour to get to bed and still be able to function the following that day.

When I first started making movies a year ago I had not anticipated that my son would love them so much, and so soon. I had hoped he would be interested in them when he was older, but it turns out he is a narcissist by nature and loves seeing himself in motion. He has already seen this latest movie perhaps a dozen times this morning - over and over. He usually asks for "watch Kien" and then "more Kien" but today it was "more Ethan". It's funny how he sub-names the movies. He calls the Xmas one "Jingle Bells" or "Thomas", and he calls the zoo one "Away", or the beach one with all his little friends "Catch". The rest of them fall under the generalised bucket of "Kien" movies. I like that "watch Kien" rates the same as "watch heli hey-tee-tas" or "watch diggers", and he gets just as excited with turning on the TV or iPad or iPhone to watch any one of them.

So without further ado herewith the movie - L.A. 2012.

Hey, if you are receiving this post as an e-mail you will not see the movie I've just embedded above. So you need to come to the actual blog post online, or if all else fails, here is the link to it on youtube.

Last day in Las Vegas

Our time in Nevada was brief and tiring - but fun. We took the kids to play more carnival games on Sunday morning.

We won big! Jef won a dolphin by popping a balloon with a dart. I won a cow/giraffe (kinda hard to tell what it resembled) by rolling balls into holes and making the horse move forward.

Jeff bought a bucket of rings to throw at coke bottles, and he was successful at landing one. The prize was a giant soft toy/pillow. As he walked from the carnival games area through the casino to the carpark it was like Jeff was a celebrity for kids. They were a gasping and pointing at the giant stuffed thing.

We made our way down The Strip of famous Hotels/Casinos.

Our drive back to LA looked like this for a lot of the journey.

I love the swirling clouds (what clouds there actually is), and any jet streams from planes stay suspended in the sky for a long time.

Another first

On the way back we stopped at the "golden arches" to use the bathrooms and pick up some dinner. It is ironic that Kien had his first Happy Meal ever whilst in America between Las Vegas and LA.

Adventures in the desert

On Friday night after we checked in to our Las Vegas hotel (we stayed at Circus Circus) we had a late supper and went back to our rooms to drop the kids off and freshen up after the long day. We had intended to put the kids to sleep, have one of us watch them while the other three go out exploring. So it was unintentional that we all passed out pretty much as soon as the lights went out and our heads hit the pillow. It was also a late start on Saturday morning as we slept in, including all the kids! We opted for brunch at 11am before heading out to the dam.

Hoover Dam

If you haven't guessed already I'll tell you now - it's massive!

Every time I visit a place that is an industrial engineering feat I am always in awe of the brilliance of mankind and the epitome of human achievements.

Jef and Kien waving from the bridge over the spillway.

The middle of the dam crosses the state line, and since Arizona does not observe Daylight Saving there are clocks on either side of the dam, and you do the "Time Warp" between the two within minutes of walking.

This place was swarming with tourists, trigger happy snappy with cameras galore. Ethan was keen to take a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me.

End result of Ethan taking a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture of me.

We walked across the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge to enjoy the lovely view.

The view of the dam was spectacular at the bridge midway point.

On our way back to the car we were stopped for looking suspicious with all the kids…

We were stopped, but for no other reason than that the friendly police officer wanted to show the kids the vehicle. She put the lights on and told Kien to get in. He was too shy. Then she got Ethan to talk into the amplifier talky thing (that's the best technical description I can conjure up) and he said "Mommy, I love you" for everyone to hear.

I'm glad this was Lynette and Jeff's first time at the dam as well and therefore a new experience for us all.

Hello Las Vegas!

We arrived in Vegas yesterday after a long drive from LA plus a few stops in between. So we are here, in the Nevada dessert, in Sin City.

That's an airplane way up in the cloudless sky.

When you are in Las Vegas eveything feels surreal. Fake cities as themes for casinos can be interesting to walk through.

Strip joints are everywhere around here, and so "normal" it's not even worth talking about.

This is Paris where we went for dinner tonight.

There is temptation everywhere you go, and I'm talking about tempation for the small kids - rides, flashing stuff, stuffed stuff...anything to grab their attention and draw them (and their parents) into the stores or casinos. Competition is fierce, obviously.

At an outlet on the outskirts of Las Vegas yesterday.

At the carnival games in Circus Circus.

We took the kids to play carnival games before dinner tonight. The place was packed. The staff manning the boothes were very forthright and pushy pursuasive. We won a few soft toys for the kids, so at least we didn't walk away empty handed.

We had breakfast this morning at Rio before heading out to the dam.

~~~~~

Kien says "Hello!"