Tales of the Travels, 3

From northern Utah, we headed a tiny bit south to Draper, where my friend M and her family live.  We spent a fun day with them and King, M, her two girls, Cinderella and I were able to spend a beautiful, relaxing morning in the Draper Temple.  It was so nice.  The other kids spent the morning at a Primary activity, so it worked out perfectly.  Our girls always have a great time with their three girls and boy, and M was so nice to let me sleep the afternoon away--I was completely worn out.  After some night games, and some delicious sourdough waffles, we were on our way further south...

...to Las Vegas.  I almost had King drop me off at my parent's house because I was pretty miserable after a day at the amusement park. Go figure.  But, I hate to be a party-pooper, and wanted to see King's family, so I went.  Now, I won't say I regret going, because it was a nice time, but I was miserable 80% of the time.  Never again will I eat in a buffet at a casino with a major headache.  Blech.  Enough about that, let's dwell on the positive...at least what I can recall.  Remember, I was miserable 80% of the time, the other 20% of the time I was completely drugged to get myself into a semi-normal, out-of-bed state, so...you've been warned. :) 

We had a nice room that my mother-in-law got on a great deal.  Not on the strip, but so close.  When we were checking out the Venetian for dinner and the cool little shops on the canal, we saw that The Wheel of Fortune was going to be taped there the next day.  We thought that sounded fun and different, so got some tickets.  We got to the taping and realized our tickets were not real tickets, but "stand-by" tickets...and we were at the end of the line of 200 or so people.  Darn!  However, as luck would have it, we got in at the last second, and they escorted us to the second row!!

This is what I think:  Vanna White is tiny. So is Pat Sajak. They look much younger than they are, even from 25 feet away (yes, I was that close).  They are professionals and move things along rather quickly.  I got tired of clapping, smiling, and cheering.  It was so fun!  Look for us on February 7th and 8th of 2011, when the shows air.  We are on the second row.  We took some illegal pictures for evidence, in case they leave our sweaty, hot, exhausted faces off of the actual show. ;)  Proof:

We also ate lots of food, saw a movie, and the kids went bowling and swimming a couple of times (I think, see previous warning.)  We managed not to melt in the hot Las Vegas sun.  (That was hard.)

And we visited the four-story M&M store and let the girls pick out a souvenir (harder still--do you know how much stuff can be found in four stories?  Have you met Sleeping Beauty?  Yikes.  Talk about a nightmare for an indecisive person, (or her mom at least).)

We had a great time, and were so glad King's family was able to meet us there.  It was fun, also, to spend some time with our soon-to-be Aunt R and get to know her better.  Would you believe I took NO pictures of all us together.  (See previous warning.)  Darn.  Maybe mom will email me some. :(  

(More pictures from Mom--yay!)

And then...we were off again.  We sure loved being in our car... :/