Here are some other highlights or lowlights, depending on if you're a glass half full or glass half empty kinda person, that Maggie was not responsible for.
*It was brought to my attention on the first night of our vacation that underwear was not packed for GI Joe. Spreadsheet fail #1. Thank goodness for Wal Mart, once we found it, no thanks to Maggie.
*Playing with fossilized dinosaur poop at the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center. Surprisingly fun and informative. Hand sanitizer packed. Spreadsheet SUCCESS!
*A couple hours spent at Garden of the Gods in Colorado, hiking in our flip flops because someone packed for a BEACH vacation and didn't account for hiking in the mountains. Sometimes I'm kind of a one track mind. Spreadsheet fail #2.
*The 2nd morning of our vacation we awoke in Colorado. It was a mild morning but still shorts/flip flops appropriate. That was our attire as our destination for that day was Las Vegas, you know in the desert. We didn't look the least bit ridiculous in our Vegas attire when we stopped at a scenic point in the beautiful mountains of Colorado where it was a cool 46 degrees. I felt like taping a sign to my back that said "Just passing thru, Vegas bound!" so people would quit looking at us as if we were imbeciles. The stop was short and sweet so we could get back in the car and crank up the heat...on our SUMMER vacation. Huh.
*The 2nd major destination on the trip, after Colorado Springs was Las Vegas. The #1 family destination in America...or not. But hey, there are a lot of cool kid-friendly things to see and do and we were passing thru so we figured why not? Because we made a spontaneous stop at Arches National Park in Utah (what spreadsheet?!?), after leaving Colorado we arrived in Las Vegas considerably later than planned. As in 10:30 on a Friday night. The nice thing about Vegas though is that it never really closes so we did what any responsible parents would do. We checked into our hotel (Circus Circus), freshened up and then caught the monorail to head down to the strip...at 11:00 on a Friday night. We kept telling the kids what awesome parents they have, not sure they were convinced. We just wanted them to see the fountains @ Bellagio and all the lights of the strip. I wish I had a quarter for every person we heard that night saying, "WHO WOULD BRING THEIR KIDS TO THE STRIP? ON A FRIDAY NIGHT?!?" Ummm, that would be us..parents of the year, obviously. We were all pretty exhausted so we made quick work of seeing what we wanted to see, including a showgirl in her hot pink feathered outfit, and headed back to the hotel.
*The following day we got up and decided that the kids hadn't seen quite enough SIN yet so we explored some more. That and I also wanted to collect more quarters from people saying, "I can't believe people would bring their kids to Vegas," you know, to play the slots with while the kids held my cocktails. I TEASE! Admittedly, I was one of those people saying that about others the last time I was there but excuse me, the M & M's store? Totally for kids. Our hotel, Circus Circus, complete with actual circus, roller coasters, rides, and carnival games? Also, totally for kids. I could go on but I think I've justified enough. In the end, the kids enjoyed seeing Las Vegas, but we were all so ready to leave it by the time we rolled outta there, less than 24 hours after we rolled in.
*But before we rolled outta town we found TWO very important landmarks. The first, the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop where Pawn Stars is filmed. We love, love, LOVE the show Pawn Stars. Unfortunately, none of the guys from the show were working that day. Apparently, now that they've hit it big on TV and stuff, they only work Monday-Friday. It was such a cool place and much smaller than it looks on TV. Don't worry, much to the embarrassment of my husband and children, pictures were taken. Feast your eyes.
Yes, I realize you can't really see us but I felt it inappropriate to ask the nice stranger who offered to take our picture to do a retake. That, and I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to run off with my camera and do something crazy like, PAWN it. This was pretty much the highlight of our Las Vegas visit.
*The second thing we did before we left Sin City was to find the obscure Welcome to Las Vegas sign that we were certain was a figment of a marketing genius's imagination. Between GI Joe and I, we've been to Las Vegas 3 times and never saw this sign. We were sure it wasn't real, that it was just a "symbol" of Las Vegas, not an actual sign. We couldn't count on Maggie to find it for us so I did a little web investigating and we found it. But not before we found one on the opposite side of the strip that was approximately the size of a street sign and totally not THE one. We nearly embarrassed ourselves and fell into its evil trip and took our picture with that one, even though we would've gotten run over doing so. But we finally found the ONE and now our lives are complete, we kinda felt like we'd found the holy grail. Especially since there was an Elvis impersonator hanging around, ready to pose in pictures, AND a wedding taking place. Classic Vegas. You're welcome kids.
I told you he wasn't dead.
*After leaving Vegas, we set out for our ultimate destination, San Diego. And that's when the fun really began....
Nice cliffhanger, eh?
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