Viva Las Vegas!

Brian had to go to Las Vegas for work stuff so we decided to make a little vacation out of it.  We were able to go visit our great friends Chris & Julie and their kids Liberty & Ruston.  We hung out with them a little bit as well as do some fun things just as a family.  During the day we (Amanda, Avery & Lily) just hung out in the hotel and went swimming while Brian was doing his work stuff.  Unfortunately Avery & Lily were sick the entire week and a little cranky but it was still fun.
The first day we were there we mostly hung out and then we went to eat at an amazing Brazilian restaurant.  Then we walked around a bit before the kids got too grouchy.
We saw it "rain" indoors at Planet Hollywood.  Then we saw the Bellagio Fountains a couple of times:

 Tuesday we got to go see dolphins at the Mirage.  This was the highlight of Avery's trip.  He couldn't get enough of the dolphins, especially seeing them through the underwater windows.  We got to see the trainers work with them a little bit and it was really neat.  We also saw the wild cat habitat with Lions, tigers, and leopards.   It was close to closing time and Lily was really cranky so we didn't stay too long.

 Wednesday we just hung out at the hotel.  By the evening Avery was running a temperature and wanted to sleep the whole evening.   It was kind of nice to just relax in the hotel.  

Thursday we were ready to get back to some fun.  We decided to visit M&M world.  Then we mistakenly decided to walk to Treasure Island, which was on the opposite end of the strip.  Wow, that was a really long walk!  When we got there, the outside show was packed with people so we only got to see the tops of the ships.  The pyrotechnics were cool, but we weren't a fan of the dancing ladies...so its probably a good thing we couldn't see very much.  Then we walked over to the Mirage Volcano, which was really cool.  Avery &; Lily were a little frightened by it.  Lily jumped over to Avery's stroller to "get away" from it.

Then we stayed one more night and got up and made the long trek home (for about a 1/2 hour) then we were off to Idaho for the Bone & Back Race (more to come on that later).