The Family Side of Vegas (Part 2)

Part 1 is here

Day 4: Red Rock Canyon
Less than 20 miles outside of Las Vegas is one of the most beautiful spots I've seen - Red Rock Canyon. It only cost $5 per vehicle to get in, and it was a great spot to spend the day!
Our first stop was the Visitor's Center where they told us where to find the Children's Discover Trail. Sounded perfect for us!

We had a picnic lunch near the trail head where we saw these ancient handprints. Pretty neat.

We walked a little way to see petroglyphs (they are on the dark wall behind the kids)

The trail had lots of signs along the way so we could learn more about what we were seeing and the plants and animals around us.

Just a short hike up the trail was a waterfall! It was beautiful!



We had to stop at a Joshua Tree. We are each doing our best impression of a crazy looking Joshua Tree. (yes, I'm a dork)


We had a great time in beautiful Red Rock Canyon. We enjoyed the pool when we got back.

Day 5: Family Fun in Vegas
We decided that we would spend at least one day IN Las Vegas, and see if we could find family friendly things to do. Our first stop of the day was the M&M store where we let each of the kids pick their own color combination of M&M treats. Zander picked blue, red and orange, while Ady went with two shades of pink (of course!)
We got to see a big M&M with legs! (Ady thought this was Super exciting!)

Then we went to Circus-Circus to see a free show. Of course, they make you walk through the WHOLE place to get to where to acts are preformed. But the kids really liked watching the clown.


They weren't quite as impressed with the acrobat - and I admit, her act was a little bit odd...

We had lunch at the McDonalds there, and then headed to the Nevada Natural History Museum.


They had a history of Las Vegas including a "play" casino where Brandon taught Zander how to play Blackjack. I'm not so sure that was the best idea...

We stopped by the Las Vegas Farmer's Market and got some fresh strawberries (YUMMY!), and then we decided to find a place to eat. As we were driving, we saw a sign for an Italian Restaurant. We thought that sounded pretty good, and decided to try it out. But, when we pulled in to the parking lot, we realized that it was ONLY valet parking. I wondered if it was a good idea, but Brandon insisted that we could just try it out and see. Well, when we left the car with the valet, he told us to go to the front door of the restaurant and ring the bell. Then they'd let us in. Umm... weird?! When we went in, it was pretty much pitch black. The only light was coming from candles and some very dim chandeliers. Each of the menus had a little LED light attached to help make out what you were reading. There was live entertainment from a lounge singer. Again, I wondered if we really should be going in to a place like that - especially with three young kids. But, we stuck it out. We ended up getting two plates of spaghetti - to share among the five of us - and payed almost $50! Not the best financial move, but it was most definitely an experience. Brandon thinks we may have stumbled on to a mafia hang out. Maybe we did!





Another perk of staying in a timeshare is that you can often get freebies. We took a tour of the resort and in return, we got free breakfast AND free tickets to a magic show: Rick Thomas and his Tigers. Pretty neat! Regular ticket price is at least $50, and we got four tickets!
So, after dinner, we went to the show.


We even had "VIP" tickets, so after the show, we got to go on stage and meet Rick Thomas and the tigers.