When we saw that there was a sedation class in Las Vegas over Valentines weekend we thought it would be a good idea to make our first voyage to Vegas. We planned on meeting up with some of our old friends from dental school and later New Mexico, the Shepherds. It was fun to see all the crazy hotels, our favorites were those that represented different areas of the world. Like New York New York, the Venetian and Caesars Palace. Our first day in Vegas we went on the New York roller coaster, it was a lot of fun to be there without the kids. Janelle especially loved the cork screw in the coaster. 

The Shepherds brought their baby boy Vann, it was our first time meeting him. He was a trooper and he got all the looks from the ladies on the strip, not those ladies but the grandmas that wanted to stop and give him a squeeze.  He did get ran over by some maniac that was running up the sidewalk. As he ran he was looking over his shoulder. I was looking to see if he was running from the cops or something, but it was clear that he was being pursued by some imaginary being. He dove at the last minute to try and avoid a head on collision with Vann's stroller. He clipped the stroller which greatly upset Vann and the mama. In the end everyone was OK and the young man who was battling imaginary creatures was very apologetic. 

We stopped and had a frozen hot chocolate which didn't make much sense to me but apparently it was a must and it had to be from Serendipity, what ever that means. It was tasty and was nice to have a cold drink at the end of a day filled with walking. The first day we were there we walked from our hotel (Treasure Island) down to the southern end of the strip and back. We then went up farther north to Circus Circus later that night. It was a lot of walking. Our trip up to Circus Circus was poorly timed, we left a little later then we should have and found that the crowd quickly changes as you go farther north, especially at night. On our way back from a smoky Circus Circus we were approached by a young man that was clearly in his own world. Janelle and I were holding hands and that upset him greatly. He was calling Janelle a different name, I suspect it was the name of whatever lady friend he was hallucinated about. The followed us speaking very loudly and saying all sorts of strange things about this girl who he clearly thought Janelle was. We did our best to stay between him and the ladies and to ignore him, finally he grabbed the back of my neck and then went running the other way. I am glad it didn't escalate into anything more than that, who knows what the guy was on and what he had on him. It made the evening a little more exciting.

My classes were a little boring, it was all good information and good to have reminders about sedation and safe practice. In the evenings we would walk down the strip and look at the shops. It was kind of surprising and eye opening to see how over the top the hotels and shops were. It made me think, man if I had enough cash to be shopping here I would totally use it somewhere else. I guess that is what student loans will do to you. The debt lingers and haunts you and you can't look at a gucci store without thinking about how much of your debt you could pay off with the amount of money someone is dropping on a purse.

We really liked the hotels and shopping areas that had the skies painted on the ceilings and the store fronts made to look like rome. It didn't feel cheesy, it was quite nice.

The last night we decided to go to the buffet at our hotel, after all we had been given a two for one coupon and the reviews were good. Well it turned out to be a big mistake, Janelle and I both got sick later that evening. Unfortunately it was our last evening in Vegas and it was the evening that we had planned on for watching a show. We ended up going to the show Zarkana, it was good. It is amazing to see the talents of the acrobats and imagine how much practice even their most simple stunts must require. During the show the buffet struck me hard and I spent some time exploring the stall walls of the theaters bathroom. It was a nice bathroom but I would have rather been in the theater watching the show. Janelle spent much of the show dreading the acrobats next move, she gets so nervous when they are swinging and jumping around up high. After the show she mentioned that she would prefer to see something funny next time, that way she will get her money's worth and not spend so much time looking the other way when the acrobats are flying through the air.

The Villagio water and lights show was cool. It made me feel like we were in the movie Ocean's 11, except we hadn't just robbed a bank. It was great to see the Shepherds again, next time we will definitely need to have the families come, the kids miss each other a lot. Our last night was rough, but we were lucky enough to make it home to our family safe and sound. We are blessed to have so much support from our families coming from every direction. We have been able to leave the kids on a few occasions now with family. Which has allowed Janelle and I to have a quick break and has allowed the kids to spend quality time with their grandparents. It has also been a fun trip down memory lane for their grandmas as they got to get 4 kids ready for school and play everyday. Something they had lots of practice at, but dare I say it has been a while :)