I almost forgot!

We went to MGM Grand and ate at the Rainforest Cafe!
I LOVE the Rainforest Cafe. x3
We went in Chicago and it was just the coolest thing so I was really excited to hear there was one in Vegas too... aaaand I got a shot glass with a frog on it d:
I'll have to make a post about all the shot glasses I got.

I wanted to go there for my sixteenth birthday but its kind of a drive.
Both to Chicago and Vegas so...

Viva Las Vegas (Pt. 2)

Bright light city gonna set my soul
Gonna set my soul on fire

The drive to Las Vegas was about 12 hours from the ranch so we were planning on taking it easy. We drove for a while on Sunday before we got a hotel room someplace in Utah. (I think. I didn't get a shot glass from there either.) The mountains and the views were pretty amazing. Especially considering I assumed Utah was boring and plain.


Monday we packed up again and continued on our way.
We passed through Arizona a little bit which was kind of cool because I hadn't been there since I was four or five. We have some relative in Arizona and a distant cousin (?) let me ride her horse with her. I think I have a picture around here some where but, anyways, Arizona was dry and a little mountainy.


We stopped at a few points to get out and read about the mountains and take some pictures. It was pretty cool... But soon we continued on our way to Las Vegas.



Finally we could see the city on the horizon, jutting out in the middle of nowhere, in the center of a bunch of mountains and plains. We all became excited and anxious. As we neared the city we all stared, gaping out the window. Trump Tower, Circus Circus, and Ceasar's Palace were some of the first to greet us.

We pulled into the parking lot of our hotel: Mandalay Bay. My dad went inside to get the room key and stuff and he came back with a big grin on his face. He told us that we were gonna see stuff we've never seen before in there and that we should contain ourselves. We all agreed, giddy with excitement by this point.

We stepped in the lobby and you would not believe how amazing it was. There was just so much! Everything just emanated elegance. It was pretty sweet.

The light fixtures, chandeliers, everything... not to mention the thirty-something foot high cielings that made it all seem so open. There were trendy restaraunts and stores throughout the hotel. Did I mention it was amazing?
At one point I turned around and noticed fans on the cieling. They were palm-style fans that just waved back and forth slowly and I just giggled.



I found these on google earth :)
The first one is their 11 acre pool area.
Then there's Mandalay bay from above.






We went to go look for our room.
Being used to normal hotels and the whole "life's not fair" thing, I know I at least, was trying to avoid the heavenly blue light shining from the door at the very end of our hall. I would be perfectly happy with a normal room but that one was just rubbing it in.




But then we started running out of numbers and we all pretty much raced down the hall way. And alas... the room at the very end of the hall way with the double doors was ours.

Wow. Just wow.
First off, it was bigger than our entire house. Second of all, it was on the end so we had a perfect view almost 180 degrees of the airport/desert, the pool, and the strip. Did I mention the floor-to-cieling windows along the outside edge of the room? All of the curtains were controlled by little buttons on the wall. Go here to see some pics of our room.



There were two kingsized bedrooms, two giant bathrooms, five tvs, a kitchen and a living room. It was just wonderful. The beds were feathertop with down blankets and down pillows, the bathrooms were stocked with shampoos, soaps, sewing kits and whatnot :P
We never wanted to leave.

I can't even begin to describe Mandalay Bay as a whole. There was the mall, the restaurants, the casino... it was just the coolest, biggest place I have ever been in. The place was HUGE.
But it fit in with everything else on the strip. The strip was huge, everything was huge.

Then we had to make a list of everything we wanted to see and do. I wanted to do EVERYTHING. But everyone else was a bit intimidated by the immensity of the whole place.
We went to M&M world, the World of Coca-Cola, saw the Belagio Fountain Show, got lost in Paris, managed not to get separated, swam, went to the Air force Base, played games at Excalibur, gazed in awe at the Luxor, and eventually ran out of time. :( The last night/day was a rather sad one for me. There was still so much I wanted to see. And leaving meant we had to start heading back home. Considering our hotel room was bigger than our house, I would've just preferred to stay but unfortunately I couldn't. :P




statue in the luxor. that place was decked out with Egyptian stuff, pretty awesome. But we just walked through it really quick, we didnt get a really good look or anything.


Chris Angel's car roped off outside the Luxor.


fishy in the aquarium in the lobby.


awestruck by the belagio fountain show



if you ever get the chance to go to Vegas, GO SEE THE FOUNTAIN SHOW. They were once ever half hour or fifteen minutes i cant remember. but it was amazing.


when we got lost in paris and had to go through ballys.
ooo shiney.


Paris and Hollywood



Our room number. xD


an awesome light fixture somewhere...


Just when I thought our trip couldnt get any better STOMP shows up. x3
In sixth grade back when I was in school my music teacher LOVED Stomp. So we watched a ton of videos and even did our own little "stomp" thing. So it was cool to get to see them. They were practicing or making a video or something but still... it was cool.



So yeah... I loved Las Vegas. I got some souvenirs too, including a cool shotglass that has the major hotels on it, and three necklaces. A crown, an anchor and an owl. :)

I at least, was sad to leave the city behind... and the pillows... and our room...
Next stop, the Grand Canyon.


To be continued...

Meet me at the end of the world...

I had a dream that we driving and my dad decided to stop at Mandalay Bay -- our amazing hotel in Las Vegas. As we drove by all the employees waved and when i saw the building I started crying and we went inside.

It didnt look anything like it but i knew thats what it was.... it was like a reception building or something I dont know. But anyways, one wall they were painting blue with green over top of it and hanging a Monet, lol...

And my dad tried to take some free pickles and strawberries, except you have to have a room card to get free pickles and fruit so... but thats beside the point, lol.

Viva Las Vegas (Pt. 1)

I'm gonna have me some fun...

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty chaotic. We were all running around the house (most of the time) trying to clean up and finish up things on our list we had come up with of things to do before we left for Las Vegas.
Thursday afternoon my dad came home early and we packed up our things into the van and piled into the car. We were all really excited; we’d been waiting for this day, counting down to it, for about three months or so. Now that it was finally here we were anxious to be on our way.

Let me tell you now, I’m a semi-die hard shot glass collector. Actually, several years ago (Maybe five years or so) my best friend at the time, who I admired a whole lot told me that he collected shot glasses and so I started to collect them too and I still do, to this day. :P So I had been saving up for this trip, with thoughts of shot glasses and souvenirs in mind. I was uncertain after buying my new lens, but luckily I had enough. The only states that I didn’t get shot glasses from were Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Missouri. (But I had one from Branson anyways) Anyways, back to my story.



Thursday evening we drove. And we drove. And we drove some more. We actually drove for about 28 hours straight through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, mostly in the dark. As the sun rose on Friday, we entered into Nebraska – which was pretty flat, boring and full of enough corn to feed a few armies.



Then the end of Nebraska began to get a little hilly and we entered into Wyoming. The cow-flecked landscape full of hills and mountains was pretty amazing. But it did begin to get old after however many hours we were driving through there. It was also a bit chilly. And brown. The state was nice but it was really brown there, and pretty much everything was in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice place, especially the ranch we visited, but I don’t think it’s the kind of place I’d like to live… I liked Missouri and Oklahoma a lot better: slightly greener, not quite as “middle of nowhere”-esque but still the countryside.




Anyways, after we drove for 28 hours (including breaks,) and almost getting lost, we found the ranch. The family was very nice, they had three younger girls who were a little shy at first but warmed up to us after a few hours. They also had an adorable little Jack Russell who was very lovable and cuddly. We had a delicious meal of home-grown briskets and some vegetables and rolls, then after hanging out for a little bit, we went to bed. We were all pretty much zombies at about 8, since technically it was 10 pm our time.




Saturday, we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast, along with some yummy raw milk and then we hung around outside for a while, taking turns on the motorbike and doing some exploring. Jake, my dad and I got to feed the steers even, which was pretty cool. At first I thought, since they were so big, they might be pushy or something but they kept their distance... They had more important things on their minds.



One of their daughter’s friends had a birthday party so the girls all went to that, including my little sister and my mom. We hung around and watched a movie and then the dad got out two horses and we were allowed to ride them around for a little while.







Jacob’s horse got annoyed and tried to buck him off. I could imagine him flying off the horse but surprisingly enough he stayed on. Apparently he’s a natural. Go figure... Finally we decided to give the horses a break and went back inside to watch some tv while we waited for the moms and girls to get back. For dinner we had some home-grown cheeseburgers which were also delicious.







Bed time rolled around and the youngest daughter who had randomly declared that she liked me a lot, asked me to read her a bed time story; which turned into about six bedtime stories for about four or five little kids. :P Then we all hit the sack early for church the next morning.



The church was a little ways away. But I’d just survived 28 hours in a car so it wasn’t that long. :P It was small but cozy and the pews were comfortable. ;) The hymnals they use are a bit different from ours and so I got lost a few times but I figured it out. After the service we had donuts and the shortest bible class I’ve ever attended. Which surprised me. After bible class we went out to Pizza Hut for some lunch.

You don’t have to spend a lot of time in Colorado/Wyoming to figure out that most people there wear cowboy boots and drive trucks. So I was quite surprised to see the kids in their goth pants and chains at the pizza hut. I did a few double takes just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things… It was kind of weird. But anyways, after lunch we went to a park so the younger kids could play and burn off some energy before we got back in the car.

Reluctantly we all said our goodbyes and piled back into the car, to continue our drive to Las Vegas. We were sad to leave our new friends but excited to be so close to place we’d been dying to see for so long.



To be continued.

"Leave no turn unstoned"

Hey guess what! There's a store that sells Volcom stuff literally right down the street from the hotel we'll be staying at in Las Vegas. :D


w00t.