Howell Family: Vegas, Baby

We have discovered the secret to the perfect family vacation with little kids - bring a grandma along! Nate's mom joined us for a fun filled (despite what this picture looks like - I promise we were having fun!) week in Vegas and it worked out so well!! We got a family vacation with a built-in babysitter and she got lots of quality time with her grandkids. I highly recommend it! We had so much fun and the girls, especially Sophie, LOVED having their grandma there. Sophie was a blast - she thought everything was so exciting: "Mom! I need to show you something!" Me: "What?" Sophie, squealing: "I DON'T KNOW!!!" We also heard: "Let's go see some more fun stuff!" over and over. And Miss Clara was a breeze - when she wasn't happy as a clam in the stroller or in a baby carrier, she was more than happy to just sit on the couch with her toys. That kid is pretty unflappable. And friendly - she would smile and reach her little hand out to anyone that came by. They were great to travel with although it was a HUGE help to have an extra set of hands and someone who would sit at home while they napped so Nate and I could go play. Thanks, Jane!!!

So I took eight zillion pictures and tried to narrow it down - this is the best I could do.

We spent an entire morning playing video games at the arcade at New York New York, with a quick roller coaster ride for mommy and daddy (the first of many). There weren't a lot of other options early in the morning.

We could see a bunch of casinos from our balcony in our awesome hotel just a block from the strip. Nate and Sophie spent a bunch of time out there looking for letters - one of Sophie's favorite games.

We spent another morning wandering around the Venetian before anything was really open. We got gelato, saw a parade of gondoliers, checked out the giant tiger and threw pennies in the Grand Canal.

The dolphins and tiger at the Mirage were also pretty cool. I couldn't believe how close you could get to the dolphins. Both girls really liked that. And Sophie was making up stories about the tigers - about how she wanted to get in the cage with them. Bad idea, Girlie. This is where we got her stuffed dolphin, Dolphie, who is one of her new best friends. And Clara got an octopus with koosh-like hair. It's one of her favorites too.

We only went swimming once because it was kinda cold in Vegas. It was actually warmer here - so much for getting away from the winter weather. Sophie, who used to be a total fish didn't love swimming at first - it took her a while to warm up to it. Clara, on the other hand, was having a blast from the second she got in. It was like the tub, she got right to work trying to splash as much water as possible.

One night, Jane watched the girls and Nate and I went to see Penn & Teller. It was so awesome!!! And we got to meet them afterwards! How cool is that? We even heard Teller talk although we've already forgotten what he sounds like

Sophie was a total goof this trip. She wanted to wear her sunglasses around everywhere. She was obsessed with getting ice from the ice machine. And she was introduced to "Stayin' Alive" so she wanted to listen to that over and over so she could "strut".

Sophie's favorite adventure was at the M&M store. She got to meet an M&M and mix her own bag of M&Ms (pink, green, blue and gray). She asked to go back about a million times. "More Em-El-Emons?"

Another night, Nate and I went to Craftsteak and had the most amazing meal of our lives. Can you say wagyu beef? It was unbelievably expensive... but so worth it!

The girls loved Circus Circus. We played tons of carnival games, watched the clowns and the acrobats and won a zillion "friends" for Sophie and Clara.