Cousins Do Las Vegas
The post you've all been eagerly anticipating. Ok, maybe not so much. A lot to share, and to jog from my memory, so instead of one big post that takes forever to write up as I struggle to remember, I'll be doing a "series of posts" by which I'll be updating this post. Enjoy and feel free to leave your own memories in the comments.
May 22, 2008
The ride out to Vegas was pleasant enough even if the kids were taken into consideration. EJ got the best of it as it was merely him and Annalynne in the back row of the rental. As for myself, I sandwiched Jayden with the baby in the middle row. But even with the talkative, curious 7 year-old next to me, I was able to nap through the first leg of the trip. After two quick stops (one to get gas, the other to clean up the kids), we arrived in Vegas and picked up EJ's woman at the airport. Lindsey was later picked up. 
We crashed our first night in Vegas at Jade's ex-sister-in-law's place. Lindsey and I crashed on the downstairs' sofas while everyone else made their bed upstairs with EJ's woman and EJ taking the princess themed bedroom. That was our ho-hum first night in Vegas. It was not a quiet ho-hum though as the night wind howled and the kids pitter-pattered upstairs throughout what was a cold Las Vegas night.
The only notable thing that night was that by happenstance - I swear Annette, it was by pure happenstance and not by any fault of my own or Lindsey's - Jayden learned where babies came from. Apparently, Jayden had sneaked his way downstairs while Lindsey and I are were watching Knocked Up and was watching - again, unbeknownst to the two adults who do know better - the birthing scene which made Lindsey remark on her disbelief that they would be so graphic.
Anyway, it's probably safe to assume that Jayden has a leg up on most other 7 year-olds when it comes to becoming a man and it saves Annette and Jade one instance from having to explain where babies come from. So in the end everyone wins out.
And that was our drive out there and our first night in Las Vegas. Not exactly a running start to a crazy Vegas weekend but as you'll soon read we were just pacing ourselves.
May 23, 2008
The day began with Eggo and rotten eggs. Not exactly the breakfast of champions, but considering none of us were champions it worked out ok.
We decided to make the early part of the day a day for the kids so we took them to Circus Circus. We first made our way to the Adventuredome.
Want a surefire to not lose a kid? Well EJ, Lindsey, and I placed bets on which of the kids we thought would be the first to get lost. That meant we each kept an eye out on the kids we didn't bet on so as not to lose. At least that was the theory. I'm happy to report that no kids were lost on this expedition.
Adventuredome was alright I suppose. I could see how it would appeal to the much younger set who can't partake in the other diversions that Vegas has to offer. The kids had a lot of fun as prizes were won, bungee trampoline was tried out by Annalynne, and Jayden climbed up a wall.
After Adventuredome, we made our way to the Midway. EJ continued to impress by winning even more prizes, including a purple acoustic guitar for Annette by knocking blocks off a pedestal with a bean bag. I on the other hand was less than impressive at that game as I tossed that bag three feet to the ground in front of me. Apparently the trick to that game is to have the blocks slide off the pedestal. After adding to the collection of prizes we caught one of the circus acts where we learned that hair is fairly strongly attached to one's scalp.
Seeing that we didn't have much of a breakfast (seriously, forget about a breakfast of champions, even losers need a decent one to start the day) we were very hungry and settled for what was there. What was there was a lackluster buffet. I think the baby corn was mentioned as being good and when baby corn is the best thing that can be said even mentioned about a buffet than you're either a vegetarian or it wasn't much of a buffet.
And that was our first morning in Las Vegas.
That afternoon we moved into the time share that Annette had reserved for us that weekend. The time share resort was nice. It was situated between the Strip and Hard Rock, a very walkable distance if one wanted to just hit the Strip or Hard Rock and nearby surroundings. The time share itself had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a jacuzzi, a fully equipped kitchen, a washer and dryer, and a dining area. Amenities included two pool areas (one for families with kids, the other an "Adult Pool Area" which didn't live up to the connotations I thought it had) and a shuttle service to and fro the Strip. Overall, a very pleasant place to stay.
The only quibble I had was that it was a time share so there weren't all that many similarly aged people there. However, along with that quibble came a not so minor gripe. As we were checking-in, Lindsey and I explored a little with the discovery of alcohol as the main objective of the exploration. We happened to find what looked like a bar. I say "looked like" because this supposed bar had no alcohol in it. We were then informed that they only served alcohol during Happy Hour (which had ended a mere 20 minutes before we began checking-in), with another restriction to be revealed to us only later on. The Happy Hour restriction made me think our titas and uncles had called the place ahead of time or at least Lindsey's parents had.
Shortly after checking in Lindsey got a call from her parents inviting everyone out to dinner. I guess I should backtrack a bit. On our way to Circus Circus, Lindsey got a call from her parents to see if she got into Vegas alright. At the end of that call, her dad said they'd be seeing her soon. Of course, Lindsey had no idea that her parents were planning on going to Vegas that weekend, so she kind of thought her parents were just joking so as to keep her on her toes.
