Elliott's Las Vegas Trip

Last year, after Elliott turned 8, we had planned a trip for him to go to Washington DC with me for a conference. However, COVID-19 hit, the conference was cancelled, and everything in Washington DC was shut down. A year later, Elliott was now 9 and wondering when his 8-year-old trip was going to happen. After talking one night, Rebecca and I decided that I should just take him on an outing, separate from a conference that I might usually go to. As we were talking about possibilities, we remembered that Elliott's cousin (Jacob) really liked a trip that he recently did with his family to Las Vegas. Tickets were cheap and hotels seemed affordable, so we decided to do it (although, with all of the resort fees and how expensive things are in Las Vegas, it ended up costing a lot). It was worth it though as I think Elliott will remember the trip for the rest of his life.

We flew out of Idaho Falls, which was a first for us. Our flight didn't leave until 10pm at night. So once we got into Las Vegas, we just took a taxi to our hotel (the Flamingo) and went to bed.

The next day our plan was to go to Circus Circus and spend the day in their Adventuredome (an indoor theme park). On the way we walked through the Venetian, which is always really cool to see. It was still earlish in the morning, so everything was pretty quiet.

At the Flamingo. A view from our room and the outside of the hotel.

Walking through the Venetian.

The Adventuredome was expensive, but once you got in, you got to do all the rides you wanted without paying anything. For about the first three hours while we were there, hardly anyone else was there at all. So we could just walk up to any ride and hop right on without waiting in line. We did lazer tag, did some 4D rides, bumper cars, and some semi-scary and not so scary rides. Elliott had no interest in going on any of the roller coasters or anything that went upside down, which I was really happy about since I do not like those types of rides either. We did go on a couple that were a little intense and Elliott was even willing to do one of them several times. Usually, Elliott has a pretty sensitive stomach and I was worried about him throwing up. But, we were doing a special fast for a youth in our ward who was in a swimming accident, so that helped with Elliott's stomach a lot. 

While we were waiting to get into the Adventuredome, a family who was going home came by and gave us a game card with credits on it still. So we got to spend some time playing arcade and amusement park games. Elliott won two small stuffed animals.

We also watched a couple circus acts. These jugglers were great!

On the way back to the Flamingo we got pizza at the Pizza Press. Elliott loved making his own pizza and that he could eat it all on his own.

We also stopped by Treasure Island to see the pirate ships and walked through Caesar's Palace. Last, we waited until 8pm to see the volcano go off at the Mirage. That was really cool. We got there about 20 minutes early, so we had really good spots.

The next day we planned to do lots of swimming at the Flamingo pool. However, the water was freezing. Elliott and I were numb after being in for about 20 minutes. On top of that, their water slides were not open. So we had to adjust our plans for the day. We met up with Grandma and Grandpa Swift who were driving through. Together we checked out the Flamingo habitat. It was cool to see all of the birds and fish. Then we walked through the Paris and made our way down to the M&M store and the Hershey's store. We also walked through the New York, New York hotel and ended by seeing the water show at the Bellagio. All of the walking wore us out, but we saw a lot of cool things.

For our last night, we were switching from the Flamingo hotel to the Excalibur. We started at the Flamingo because it was a little cheaper and more central to other things on the strip. However, I booked one day at the Excalibur too because we thought Elliott would be really excited to stay in the castle. So we checked out of the Flamingo early and made our way down. On the way we checked out New York, New York again and walked down to check out the Luxor. Elliott was really impressed with the pyramid. We went inside and went up to the 12th floor to be able to look down on everything inside.

Our check in time at the Excalibur was not until 3pm. However, at about 1pm we decided to see if we could get into our room early. The pool at the Excalibur closed at 5pm and Elliott wanted to get in as much swimming as possible. And fortunately, they let us check in early for free. So we got a ton of swimming time. Elliott loved the Excalibur. He loved being inside the castle and seeing all of the decorations inside at out. But the pool was the best part. They had three big pools and they were all heated. We spent the most time in the one with the waterslide. Elliott just did that over and over again. Then, after swimming we ate, checked out the hotel some more, and then watched a movie back in our room.

On our last day, we had to check out at 11am. But, the pool opened up at 10am. So we got all packed up and went down to the pool for 50 last minutes of swimming and sliding fun. Then we walked over to Mandalay Bay to the Shark Reef Aquarium. There, we saw an alligator, komodo dragon, and tons of sharks. The sharks were really cool and it was neat to be up close to them. Our entrance ticket also came with a virtual reality dive with the sharks that was pretty cool.

Then, we decided to save $30 on the taxi fare and walk the 2.5 miles to the airport. It was hot and a little long, but we did it. At the airport Elliott watched some episodes of Boss Baby while we waited for our plane. He was pretty excited to get back home and tell everyone about his trip. I am glad that he had a fun time. And it was really nice for me to be able to spend so much one-on-one time with him.

Spring Break and Easter

For the children's Spring Break this year we went down to Utah. We didn't have as much time as previous years, because ISU decided to postpone their Spring Break due to COVID-19. So we had to be in Pocatello on Monday and Tuesday, but went down to Utah for Wednesday through Saturday. 

There was a smaller group of us because Ethan and Christian went on a trip with Grandma and Grandpa Little to Florida. They got to go to Disneyworld, Universal Studios, the Kennedy Space Center, and the beach. They had a blast!

The rest of us had a fun time too. We first met up with Tyler and Hye-Won and Ryan and Monica and their families. We got to play at the park, visit BYU (the dinosaur museum, the Bean Museum, and walk around campus), try a new Indian restaurant, and play some games. 

Monica took this next picture.

After a couple of days at Tyler and Hye-Won's house, we went over to Nathanael and Mary-Anne's house to visit them as well. Mary-Anne was kind enough to take Agnes with her and Hannah to a butterfly museum. Agnes had an amazing time. Here are some pictures that Mary-Anne shared of their trip.

Our children loved playing with all of their cousins throughout the week. Then on Saturday, we met up with Ethan and Christian in Salt Lake, had dinner, then drove home. It was nice to be back together as a family again.

The next weekend was Easter and General Conference. All of the talks at conference were amazing and it was great to be able to listen to them together as a family. On Saturday we also did our family Easter egg hunt.

We also got to do our firepit for the first time of the season.

Then the next weekend we went back down to Utah for Hannah's baptism. While we were there, Nathanael and Mary-Anne prepared an awesome egg hunt for both the children and the adults. Rebecca really lucked out on that one and got money, a gas gift card, and a pizza gift card. I guess there was one egg though that was never found that had $20 in it. 

After all of the COVID-19 restrictions, it was so nice to have a lot of family time at the end of march and start of April.