Saturday, February 14, 2009

"What happens in Vegas...












Hey Everyone,
Missed me? LOL
I have just returned from Las Vegas. We went for our 25th Anniversary!
Whoo Hoo!!!!

I have a BUNCH of stories to tell you so come back everyday this weekend if you have time! I guess you could say "What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" does not apply here! LOL

So lets begin with last Saturday, the day before we left... Originally I asked Gram Pam to come baby sit my doggies but Sam had a bunch of work for the boys... so we had Kameron watch them instead...

As I was packing, I received a frantic call from Gram Pam... Her son Allen [27] races off road cars... Remember my photo in it at Thanksgiving?
"Kendra, Allen broke his back and is being air lifted to a Phoenix hospital. He is awake and talking but we don't know much more than that... He was racing and they crashed, totaling the race car" She was pretty upset... and understandably so... but I tried to calm her down... If there is one thing I learned from all of Kieffer's injuries... You can not go to that place of losing it... You just can't... It doesn't help the situation and only freaks you out more... She calmed down and kept calling me through out the day with updates... I will cut to the end of this story and let you know... Allen is going to be okay... He fractured his L-2 vertebrae and is at home with a back brace, walking, doing really well... No surgery... Thank God!

The Luxor Hotel - To the left of the pyramid is the 'west tower' -

Sunday February 8th,
Our Anniversary!!! We took off for Las Vegas and drove the 4 hours to get there... We had reservations at The Luxor [pyramid looking hotel] for Sun, Mon and Tues... then we would be checking into New York, New York for the rest of the week...
We stopped in Baker [Home of the worlds biggest thermometer] and had lunch at Bob's Big Boy... Yummy....
We arrived at The Luxor around 4pm and were quite surprised to see 2 long lines at check in... I mean Hello? it was a Sunday... not a Friday right? We finally get checked in and start walking to find our room... ummm did I say walking? I should have said hiking up and down the hallways! When we FINALLY found our room... OMG!!! it was disgusting!!! We were shocked! This was the Luxor!!! A corner of the ceiling was falling down, there were HUGE gouge marks in the little table between the two chairs, a yeagermeister sticker on the window! WTH???? Sam was ready to check out! I called the front desk and complained! They said "No problem, come on back to registration, you don't have to stand in line and we will give you another room" which they did in the "west tower"... This room compared to the other one was like night and day! All of this took about an hour and a half... ugh... we were happy with the new room but jeez... WTH? After getting settled into our new room, we left to explore the rest of the Luxor. We found an exhibit called "The Bodies" they had in the hotel. Sam wanted to see it... so we put it on our list of things to do before leaving on Tuesday... It's real bodies of people who have donated their bodies after death for this exhibition... There are bodies on display with muscles, bones, veins, etc.. each body showed something different... it was fascinating! I highly recommend it if it comes to your town... You leave the exhibit realizing how miraculous a human body truly is!! Uh Oh I am getting ahead of myself because we went to see "The Bodies" on Tuesday before checking out...
Our first night in Vegas we gambled at the slot machines, had some cocktails at a really cool bar in the Luxor and then went to a buffet to eat at 10pm... Wow... late for us to be eating dinner... the buffet at the Luxor was nothing to write home about... I'd give it a C- to a D... Seriously... it wasn't very good... so far the Luxor was not impressing us and we are not that hard to make happy...
The New York New York Hotel - We stayed in the Empire State Building part... More on that later...
Monday after waking up around 10am... Ooooo how cool is that! LOL We drove to the Hoover Dam...
It was a rainy and cool day... plus it was a Monday but the Hoover Dam had plenty of tourist visiting... We decided to take the tour...

The Dam tour... lol

It was so interesting... I highly recommend it... We watched a 30 minutes movie of the building of the Dam during the Great Depression. It was finished 2 years ahead of time, with most workers making about $4 a day!

One half of the Dam is in Nevada and the other half is in Arizona...
[Nevada is also an hour behind the Arizona side... So its 10 am in Nevada and then 11am in Arizona] There are two huge clocks displaying the difference on the round cylinder water intake towers...

They are currently building this huge bridge over the Colorado river, because the road on the dam is so highly traveled its becoming a problem to simply allow everyone to drive on the dam... In this area, its the only way to get to Arizona... etc... etc...


We are on the Arizona side here


The new bridge being built over the river


You all come back now hear...
Happy Hearts Day too!!!!

























5 comments:

lisa said...

those are great pics....thanks for adding them...gas is high there.....sounds like there was no recession in Las Vegas, huh? It is a shame how crappy that place was....you'd have thought they'd be nice rooms and great food! love reading all about your fun with hubbY!!

Chrissie a.k.a. HoneyB said...

I love Vegas, but I am sure things have changed ALOT. They say they are hurting really bad it's all over the tv. Glad you guys got away that is all that counts.
Take care, Chrissie

Anonymous said...

All these wonderful pictures, but where is the pics of Art Bell's house and the Chicken Ranch? I'm disappointed! LOL

LIZ said...

As many times as I have been to Vegas I still havent been to the Hoover Dam....its on my to-do list though...Happy Anniversary!!!

Pamela said...

I haven't been to Vegas in so long. I've always loved the Hoover Dam. It always amazes me.
Glad you had fun. Loved the pictures! You guys look GREAT!
xoxox