Down & Out in Las Vegas, NV

The day after New Years, Tarbet had to go to Vegas for Valley Service School.  We have been wanting to go on vacation with our friends and they had decided on Vegas, so we decided this was the time to go.

Thursday morning, I took my two boys to the baby sitters house.  It was hard to leave them considering I have never left them for more than 2 nights before.  I had talked it over with them :) and they knew what was going on.  Once we got there and checked them in, Aunt Kara walked in and they rushed right over to her.  That made me feel much better that they recognized her and were super excited.  So they went with her and I made my way to meet up with the crew.  Kirby, Lindsey, Boda, and I all loaded up in Lindsey's new car and we hit the road!

We made a pretty fast trip only stopping 3 times and making it in just under 8.5 hours the Utah way.  As we were trying to find parking at the Mandalay Bay, Tarbet drove by in a taxi.  We were directed to a parking garage which was hard to follow and we ended up going the wrong way down a one-way-only exit, eventually said screw it, swung into a spot and called it good.  Seriously the car ride to Vegas was such a good time by itself!  We got all checked in and met up with Cory and Jocelyn Webb, who flew in a little earlier.  It was so exciting to be there with all of our friends!

That night we hung out with a few other Sprinkler Shop guys who were leaving in the morning.  We walked around New York, New York, ate some food, and played in the arcade.  Tarbet kept catching these bouncy balls in one of the machines and at one time probably had 10+.  They started handing them out to kids.

We're set for a little stroll on the Strip

The boys even enjoy shopping in Vegas!

The next day Boda, Tarbet and I located a Subway down the road which we ate at numerous times while we were there, including one 4:30 AM taxi ride trip. :)  Once everyone was ready, we went down to the Boot Barn.  I had been telling Tarbet how awesome this place was and that he should save his money and look for a pair of boots there.  Seriously walls and walls of boots, which if you're anything like us, you are in heaven!  He picked out a nice pair of Ariat square-toes with bright green on top.  The rest of that day we walked around the strip.  On our way back up to the room that evening, some guys gave us a card to get in free to a nightclub in our hotel.  Kirby, Lindsey, Boda, Tarbet, and I decided to check it out.  It was called the Foundation Room and it was on the top floors of the Mandalay Bay.  It was pretty neat when you got up there because you were allowed out on the balconies which overlooked the whole strip.  We stayed there until the wee hours of the morning and had a blast, so much so that we decided to go again the next night.

The view from the Foundation Room

This was such a fun night!

Boda picking up cuties!

Our hotel had a Shark Reef Aquarium in it also, so on Saturday we all went and checked that out.

HUGE blue fish

A tunnel you walked through where you could see all the sharks

They had sting rays that you could pet

We didn't do any gambling until Sunday when Kirby found this fun game where he kept winning pretty good money.  It kinda sucked us all in and we played at those games for 3 hours until we all lost the money we had made, but it sure was fun. 

Taking in the view

The whole trip was such a good time! I think we were all ready to come home but sad at the same time because we don't know when the next time will be that we can all get together and go somewhere again.  I'm so glad that we decided to go and make it happen though and we will always remember the good times we had!  UNTIL NEXT TIME!