Grandma Patty and Grandpa Bobby came out to California to celebrate Geoffrey's first birthday. The weekend before his birthday, we went out to Vegas for a long weekend. We left on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Vegas at around 10:00 PM. We checked in to the Excalibur for one night.
The next day we went to the Hilton to check in for the next three nights. We checked in early and we were able to get two rooms right next to each other. The rooms would be ready around 3. We headed to IHOP for breakfast and then headed back to Excalibur to use some free game coupons we had. We won some cute monkeys playing one of those racing games. Then Mom, Bobby, and Grant played some poker while Geoffrey and I hung out by the pool. The weather was nice, high 60s.
We headed back to Hilton at around 4 but the rooms were not ready yet. Grant hung out in the room with our luggage waiting for house keeping while the rest of us hung out by the Hilton pool. Geoffrey just wanted to explore and kept crawling all over the place - particularly over to a big fountain that was pretty far away.
Our room was finally ready at 5:30 (seriously annoying) and so we unpacked and watched some of the Olympics. Geoffrey went down for a nap. Grandma stayed with him while Bobby, Grant, and I went to Walmart to get some snackins. About 15 minutes after we left, Geoffrey woke up and started wailing. His head was planted firmly into the bed but his legs kept thrashing about. He finally fell back asleep, and when he woke up, we looked him over and realized his knees were bruised and cut from all of the crawling earlier on the pavement. Poor guy! We put some ointment on his knees and kept him off of the floor for the next few days as much as possible.
On Saturday, we checked out the new City Center. It was alright, but we didn't love it. The shopping was stark - and except for this cool display of cylinders filled with spinning water, there wasn't really much that we enjoyed very much. We took the tram to the Bellagio and watched the fountains from this cool walkway that we'd never seen before.
We headed to Mandalay and had dinner at The Burger Bar. Geoffrey loved listening to the Mariachi band from the Mexican place next door while we waited to be seated. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and watched more of the Olympics.
On Sunday we headed over to Cesear's Palace. We took turns walking around the forum shops and playing in the casino.
Our drive home on Monday was looong. Lots of traffic. We spent some time at the Outlets and did some good shopping. Otherwise, it was a looong drive. Geoff was a real trooper, but towards the last hour he got really fussy. I pulled out a Doctor Demento Christmas CD and played the track of the dogs barking "Jingle Bells." We played it over and over on repeat and it calmed him down and put him back to sleep.
All in all, we had a nice, relaxing vacation!
The next day we went to the Hilton to check in for the next three nights. We checked in early and we were able to get two rooms right next to each other. The rooms would be ready around 3. We headed to IHOP for breakfast and then headed back to Excalibur to use some free game coupons we had. We won some cute monkeys playing one of those racing games. Then Mom, Bobby, and Grant played some poker while Geoffrey and I hung out by the pool. The weather was nice, high 60s.
We headed back to Hilton at around 4 but the rooms were not ready yet. Grant hung out in the room with our luggage waiting for house keeping while the rest of us hung out by the Hilton pool. Geoffrey just wanted to explore and kept crawling all over the place - particularly over to a big fountain that was pretty far away.
Our room was finally ready at 5:30 (seriously annoying) and so we unpacked and watched some of the Olympics. Geoffrey went down for a nap. Grandma stayed with him while Bobby, Grant, and I went to Walmart to get some snackins. About 15 minutes after we left, Geoffrey woke up and started wailing. His head was planted firmly into the bed but his legs kept thrashing about. He finally fell back asleep, and when he woke up, we looked him over and realized his knees were bruised and cut from all of the crawling earlier on the pavement. Poor guy! We put some ointment on his knees and kept him off of the floor for the next few days as much as possible.
On Saturday, we checked out the new City Center. It was alright, but we didn't love it. The shopping was stark - and except for this cool display of cylinders filled with spinning water, there wasn't really much that we enjoyed very much. We took the tram to the Bellagio and watched the fountains from this cool walkway that we'd never seen before.
We headed to Mandalay and had dinner at The Burger Bar. Geoffrey loved listening to the Mariachi band from the Mexican place next door while we waited to be seated. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and watched more of the Olympics.
On Sunday we headed over to Cesear's Palace. We took turns walking around the forum shops and playing in the casino.
Our drive home on Monday was looong. Lots of traffic. We spent some time at the Outlets and did some good shopping. Otherwise, it was a looong drive. Geoff was a real trooper, but towards the last hour he got really fussy. I pulled out a Doctor Demento Christmas CD and played the track of the dogs barking "Jingle Bells." We played it over and over on repeat and it calmed him down and put him back to sleep.
All in all, we had a nice, relaxing vacation!
