Today has been a whirlwind day, just trying to keep up with everything we have planned to do. Last night Michelle and I stayed up to watch a movie together. All movies are not created equal and this movie was a bit longer than most. In fact, it was nearly 3 hours long instead of the typical 2 – 2 ½ hour shows we were expecting. So we were up past midnight watching our show. As a result, we didn’t even get up until almost 8:00 am. And while 8 am isn’t sleeping in for most people, when you have a family of young children it takes a miracle to get that kind of time.
When we got up Michael and Aleky were quietly coloring at the table. I was very impressed, not only with their quietness but also with the level of coloring they were displaying. David and Donovan were still in their rooms as were Quinten and Gidean. I quickly did my leg exercises, read a little bit and then it was time to get breakfast. Michelle woke up and whipped together some oatmeal which everyone ate heartily. We then put together everything we’d need for the day. Michelle made our family a picnic lunch and I pulled together the boys including shoes, socks, clean diapers, jackets, etc. We finally headed out at 10:00 am.
Our plan was to go to the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum for the day but before we went there we needed to get some wheeled transportation for Gidean (we just couldn’t handle the idea of carrying him for hours and we forgot to bring the stroller with us). In only two stops we were able to find a suitable replacement stroller and we were off to the north side of Las Vegas to visit the museum. By the time we arrived at the museum it was 11:30 am and boys were restless and hungry. It was obviously lunch time already so we just stopped in the cool of the (not so much) shade tree and ate our lunch before going inside.
The Lied Discovery Children’s Museum was fantastic, with exhibits and hands on experiments for kids of all ages. We were there for 4 hours (from noon – 4:00 pm), until they closed. The boys could not be contained, although we tried for the first 30 minutes. After that we just let them run and tried to keep them on the same half of the floor so we could see them most of the time. Some of the boys favorite exhibits included: the bucket conveyor, the air rise ball run, the hurricane simulator, the metal turntable, the frozen shadows, the bubble station, and the waterways. There was a lot more and we barely managed to stop at nearly every station in the time we had. I figured that we had spent the right amount of time because the boys were starting to lose interest but still excited about the exhibits.
Once we were back at the condo Michelle began working on dinner. The boys were already fired up about going swimming even though a strong wind had kicked up. Since that was going to be there last chance to swim in Las Vegas I took them down to the pools. David started out with Michael and Aleky (who were both using floaties) and Donovan and I grabbed big tubes and floated around the river way behind the others. I was initially worried about being so far from the boys but eventually rationalized to myself that they were getting braver and more adept at swimming, they were going in to many directions, and there were two lifeguards on duty and not too many people due to the windy and cooler conditions. So I floated with Donovan clinging on, semi-attached to my tube. After a while the order and grouping of children changed and we enjoyed our last swim at the resort. We decided that a quick visit to the hot tub would be great before heading back up to the condo to eat. Unfortunately the closest hot tub was in the pool area at the far north end of the resort. But a cool walk just made the hot tub feel even better when we finally got there.
We got back in time to eat an amazing poppy seed chicken dinner. However, we had one more stop to make and had to leave the dinner dishes on the table in order to make it up to see the lights and have the Fredmont St experience. The boys headed out first and the Michelle and I got out the door. We took the stairs in order to catch up. We found David and Quinten trying to get into our locked car without success. We sent David back upstairs to check our front door and make sure that it was actually closed (we’ve left on occasion only to return and our boys have gotten into the condo without a card-key because the door didn’t close completely). When the boys still didn’t show up Michelle went searching for them; they had left before us and were still not at the car and David had run back to the condo and still had not come back either. Michelle walked all the up to the condo, took the elevator and was almost back to the suburban before the boys. Apparently Michael had commandeered the elevator and was waiting for us and wouldn’t let the boys come down. We spent 10 minutes just trying to get everyone to the car! That did not make anyone happy because we were trying to get to Fredmont St for the light show that only runs on the hour and if we missed the 8:00 pm show the next one wasn’t until 9:00 pm (a bit late for our boys, even on vacation).
I drove as fast as I dared to get us there in time. We found the gate up at a parking area so we drove in and found a place to park. We unloaded boys, got the stroller and headed off and a speed walking pace. We covered the three blocks in about 30 seconds (maybe a little longer) and caught the last 2 minutes of the light show! Absolutely amazing on my part, getting us there in time! The show was pretty cool too. The boys were absolutely mesmerized by all of the lights that they saw. After the show finished we walked to the middle of Fredmont St. The boys walked with their mouths open and their eyes trying to take in everything. David ran into a moral dilemma each time we passed a pair of showgirls posing for pictures and he didn’t know which way to look. But we turned around and headed back to the car when Michelle and I ran out of tolerance for the alcohol and tobacco aroma that was making us sick.
