It was time for Winter Break.
This year, we planned a little jaunt to Utah of all places.
We flew into McCarran International Airport and picked up our rental SUV.
On the way out of Las Vegas, the kids caught a glimpse of the south end of The Strip.
And a view of our hotel that we would return to in a few days time.
No one told me GAGA was in town!
Damn!
We had to drive about three hours up to Utah.
Most of the drive looked like this......
It was interesting taking in the desert landscape.
But, not that interesting.
We arrived at our location after dark.
We were going to spend the next couple days at Zion National Park.
We were staying in a place that was literally just minutes from the entrance to the park.
It was a place called Cable Mountain Lodge.
They had some really beautiful holiday lights up.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooo.
We really wanted to have our own kitchen on the trip, so we selected one of their "residence" room options.
Upon entering, there was this bedroom on the right.
A little ways down the hall, a bathroom.
The entrance hallway opened into this high ceiling dining room/living room/kitchen area.
Stairs to go upstairs to the other bedroom.
The upstairs bedroom.
Upstairs bath with soaking tub.
Here's a view down from the stairs.
A sliding glass door led to a covered patio that looked out into the park.
The patio roof could be controlled to allow sun in or to close it completely.
This place was incredible.
It also had a full kitchen, gas fireplace in the living area with TV and TOTO toilets.
In case you don't know, TOTO toilets are bidet toilets with HEATED SEATS.
Huzbend and I had to make a run to the local grocery store.
It was down the street.
We got back with our haul and ate a late pasta dinner.
It was GF pasta for everyone.
Mikey, not being a fan of GF pasta, was not happy.
The next day, we had plans to hike The Narrows.
The Narrows is a gorge created by the Virgin River.
You actually hike IN the river to the narrow parts of the canyon, with thousand foot walls that sometimes are just 20 -30 feet across from each other.
The problem with the Narrows hike is that it's IN water.
The water is cold, because it's winter, AND the water fluctuates due to rain/snow AND if there is rain in the forecast, there is always the possibility of a flash flood.
The Narrows can be closed because of dangerous conditions, including Flash Flood warnings issued by the National Weather Service and because of the "flow rate" (how fast the water is moving) from observation stations on the river. The river closes at a rate of 150 cubic feet per second.
In case you don't know what cubic feet per second means, it means a "volume of water one foot high and one foot wide flowing a distance of one foot in one second."
Rain was in the forecast for later in the day.
We had reserved cold water gear from a gear store located across from our hotel.
Dry suits for everyone, along with a hiking stick, neoprene socks and canyoneering boots.
We walked over bright and early to get our gear.
The lady told us the water temp (no shocker, it was cold), that the "flow rate" was about 85 CFS and that the water levels were very high - almost about 4 feet at the narrower parts of the canyon.
The water would be running at chest level for us adults.
With rain in the forecast for the afternoon, they were recommending people get out of the canyon by 11am.
Because we had kids, they were recommending that we rethink our plans.
We hemmed.
We hawed.
We eventually decided not to give it a go.
They refunded our gear reservation.
And wouldn't you know it, it didn't rain that whole stinkin' day until about dinner time.
Coulda, shoulda, ARRGGGHHH.
It still bothers me that we didn't do it.
I mean there's something to be said for being responsible.
Yes, I get that.
It could've gone the other way, right?
Like, we get into the canyon and then it downpours and then flash flood and we drown
OR
we try to ford a narrow part with the water flowing fast and the water enters Mikey's dry suit from the neck 'cause he's a little too short for the water level and then he gets hypothermia and we're literally multiple HOURS away from anyone
OR
Katie tries to ford the narrow parts with the water up to her chest, the speed of the flow pushes her off her feet and water enters her suit
OR
One of us has Mikey on our back, because the flow is just too challenging for him to walk through, we slip on a underwater rock and break our ankle
Okay. So, the possibility of danger was there.
But, still.
I will think about us NOT doing this hike until we get the chance to go back and do it.
SUPER SIGH.
We decided to hop on the shuttle and at least walk down alongside the river to the entrance of The Narrows.
The park entrance was a five minute walk from our place.
There's the visitor center in the background.
The park operates a shuttle system in order to alleviate the park roads from congestion, to help with parking issues and to protect the vegetation and tranquility of the park.
Not only is there a shuttle system in the park, there is one for the town right outside as well.
The shuttles usually only run from March through November, but they activated it for the busy holiday weeks.
The Narrows trail head was the last stop on the shuttle. It took 45 minutes (!) to get there.
As you ride the shuttle from the Visitor Center up through the park to the various stops, there's a running commentary on the importance of the park and the dangers associated with such a rugged landscape. Hiking and wandering in this place was no joke.
As you ride the shuttle from the Visitor Center up through the park to the various stops, there's a running commentary on the importance of the park and the dangers associated with such a rugged landscape. Hiking and wandering in this place was no joke.
We had never experienced a desert landscape before.
There were so many colors. Unfortunately they were a bit muted by the gray skies.
And as always, a camera just doesn't do it justice.
Those green things are cacti.
There were so many colors. Unfortunately they were a bit muted by the gray skies.
And as always, a camera just doesn't do it justice.
Those green things are cacti.
Off we went down the trail to the river.
Our first hike was to the mouth of the slot canyon created by the Virgin river.
The rocks in the canyon "weep" water.
It very, very slowly seeps through the sandstone layers.
When I say slowly, I mean thousands of years.
It makes a very calming sound as it plinks and plunks.
Katie was freezing but enjoyed the scenery.
It was an easy walk down to the river.
The trail was paved and mostly flat.
It was an easy walk down to the river.
The trail was paved and mostly flat.
It's actually as if this whole place is fodder for noise machines to help you relax or sleep.
We got down to the entrance to the river.
While we were there, there was one group of people that entered and began their walk up The Narrows.
I was jealous.
BUT, feeling the water and see how fast it was actually flowing made us think that we made a semi-good decision in not trying to ford our way up it.
Mikey discovered that some of the sandstone was easily smashable.
You can learn about the various layers of earth at Zion here.
The canyon walls were high and just a tiny bit intimidating.
I was there too.
A little beard overhang.
A nice family photo.
We look cold.
And, surprisingly, there are no other people in this photo.
There were other people there.
Lots.
.
Hmmm.
I'll let you guess the animal that made these prints.
And, garsh darnit, wouldn't you know it?
A giant earthquake happened and a huge slab of canyon wall fell off!
Good thing the Buff Bros work out three times a week.
You didn't really think a boulder fell on us did you?
'Cause that would be silly.
What wasn't silly was walking under this giant rock.
Talk about feeling like an ant.
I spotted an actual fossilized shell IN a rock on the side of the trail.
I literally just looked down and saw it.
AWESOME.
A warning....there are lots of pictures of cacti.
Mikey spotted a face among the rocks.
We hopped back on the shuttle and got off at the Zion Lodge.
We thought that there might be a place inside where we could warm up and eat lunch.
There wasn't.
There was just the lobby, a gift shop and a restaurant.
We figured it would be bad taste to take up seats in the lobby just to eat our lunch.
We went outside and ate on a cold bench.
Katie remained inside.
She convinced me to let her eat inside as there were other people who were eating.
After lunch, we crossed the main park road and headed up a trail that would bring us to a small waterfall and pool.
One of the remarks the shuttle narrator made about flooding on the trail was to try to look for trees that are bent and twisted. These are signs of the power of the flash floods that occasionally rush down the Virgin River.
DAMN.
This was a different sort of trail.
Definitely NOT paved and definitely not flat.
We spotted some deer down on the flood plain of the river.
I used my zoom lens to get this picture.
We learned quickly that there were A LOT of drop offs
on this (and future) trails.
The drop offs make for breathtaking views in the sense that you can't catch your breath because you're constantly thinking, "I can fall off and die". Unless you're 10 years old or a teenager.
Our friends the cacti.
A close up this time.
Taking a little rest after a steep uphill.
Time to continue on our.....
WOW.
Here is the first waterfall (there's two there) that we encountered.
These falls empty into a pool below that has its own trail, but it was closed due to landslide.
Our final destination was that dark spot of cliff above the falls that looks like a cave.
I was hiking with Mikey.
He was a bit under the weather (another reason we didn't attempt the Narrows), so he was a bit slower than usual.
Perfect speed for me, by the way.
He liked this tree.
Katie was up with Huzbend.
They waited for us at the convergence of streams that created that waterfalls you saw above.
Here we are crossing the stream.
And, here is the tiny stream that creates those waterfalls.
It's really not that impressive from this angle.
Except when you stand up and look over the edge where the water falls off the cliff face.
We continued on moving upwards.
Part of the trail brought us through these HUGE slabs or boulders.
We made it!
Time for a snack.
Seems that something else was interested in a snack as well.
Say hello to Roger the Rock Squirrel.
Roger got no food from us.
But he did get a great deal of "AWWWWWWW's!!!"
and
"HE'S SO CUUUUUTE's!!!"
"Seriously? No food?
Hmmph.
Tourists."
He made his way to the many other tourists wandering around.
Most of whom were happy to accommodate his unhealthy love of human food.
Here's hoping you don't lose your scavenging skills or die from early onset heart disease due to eating fatty potato chips.
Live long and prosper, Roger.
Roger had left and snack time was over.
We decided to take a look at what we had walked all that way to see.
Here's a 300ft waterfall.
The water falls onto the cliffside and then down into a pool.
It was cold, so it froze upon impact.
Sandy snow.
There were ice chunks floating in the pool as well.
The pool had a very sandy bottom.
There were A LOT of people on this trail.
I'm not sure how I didn't get a picture with anyone else in it.
I guess you can see some in our snack time picture above.
It was on this trail that we figured out that we were only a few out of many that were actually prepared for hiking on these sorts of trails.
Most were wearing jeans and sneakers. Some ladies were wearing flats.
Some were wearing a variation of heels.
Some were wearing a variation of heels.
Like they were going for a stroll down the street.
We now understood why the narration on the shuttle was so doom and gloom.
It was trying to get these people to take the landscape seriously so that the poor rangers didn't have to rescue their asses.
We decided to head back.
Caught a glimpse of this little dude hanging out on the underside of a boulder.
50 people walked under him and didn't even notice him.
He was about an inch to an inch and a half long.
Here's a good example of what walking on the trail was like.
Cliffs on one side, drop offs on the other.
This time I got to walk down with Katie.
Mikey and Huzbend took off.
Katie was good a spotting deer.
Specifically, mule deer.
There a loads of animals in Zion.
Many of them, due to the heat, are nocturnal.
And, yes, they even have large predators.
You can learn more here.
She also spotted this Great Blue Heron.
(we have these where we live, that's why I know it's name)
Again, these were down on the flood plain of the river.
We were up on a cliff looking down on them.
Before we headed back to our hotel, I snapped this picture looking south through the canyon.
Pictures can't do it justice.
It really is amazing.
On our way out of the park, it began to rain.
Hard.
We headed to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.
They touted menu items that were gluten free and they had gotten good ratings.
The food was just okay. Barely.
Nothing to rave about.
The kids were happy.
Katie actually ate her whole salad.
There was talk of hitting the resort hot tub when we got back.
I took Mikey and Katie to find it.
Not only was it frickin' freezing out, it was windy.
They decided against it.
They instead wandered the grounds looking at Christmas lights.
The night was spent watching Food Network shows.
Rise and shine, kiddos!
Katie slept on the pull out couch in the living room.
Mikey and I shared the bedroom downstairs.
We were up and out the door.
It was chilly with a chance of showers.
It had rained the night before and, checking the forecast, decided to wear our rain pants.
We found our way to our trail for the day, which was called The Watchman Trail.
It began by the river near the Visitors Center and wound its way up.
We spotted this little guy doing his thing by the river.
Not sure what he was.
Because of the rain the night before, the trail was quite muddy in places.
There were a few other people on the trail with us.
But not nearly as many as the day before.
We turned a corner and came face to face with a family of mule deer grazing about 10 feet off the trail.
I read that they were named mule deer because of their overly large "mule-like" ears.
They were pretty large. The ears, that is.
It was fascinating to watch them graze and do their thing right next to us.
It was time to move on.
We were headed up into the hills.
The landscape certainly made one feel small.
Katie wanted me to take a picture of her walking through this tree tunnel.
I don't think I ever got used to the near constant drop offs.
I reminded the kids about a million times to stay on the inside of the trail.
Family photo time.
Thank you million year old rock layer for the camera assist.
Lots and lots of layers crunched over millions of years.
Somehow, Mikey managed to get mud up to his knees and almost up to his butt.
"Typical".
Her mud coverage was not as extreme.
We stopped next to a boulder-made cave to have a snack before proceeding along the ridge line to the viewpoint.
Hi.
After our snack, we made our way along the ridgeline to the lookout.
Quite the view.
Too bad it was cloudy.
I'll let you caption the photo below.
Up in the higher elevations, it had snowed the night before.
We were wondering what it was like to be on the Angels Landing AKA Crazy Person trail.....
Angels Landing is one of the most popular trails in the park.
Here's a video of that particular experience...
No spank you.
Couldn't imagine doing that with snow on the trail and a million plus tourists/non-hikers all trying to get up it.
We were happy on our smaller ridge.
The best part was that there was nobody else there.
Okay.
So not nobody.
There was this little guy.
He was chirping and chirping.
Here's an example...not my video, of course.
It was the only thing we could hear, besides the wind and our own breathing and walking noise.
Met this guy a little ways on.
California scrub jay, maybe?
You can see the list of common Zion birds here.
It was time to make our way back down.
A close-up of a very spiky cactus.
I learned, by self experimentation, that each of these cactus spikes is barbed for massive pokie-ness.
If you stuck your finger to the end of one, it kinda stuck a little when you pulled it way.
Snack time at the cave we found on the way up.
Someone also took time for a bathroom break.
Sigh.
He ALWAYS has to poop while on trail.
I'm not sure about everyone else, but I never got tired of the striations in the rock faces.
Fascinating to think how old these are and what secrets could be hidden in their depths.
I took my time on the way down so that I could get pictures of the family in these magnificent spaces.
Here, Katie is concerned with my slowness.
I think I'd like to frame this one.
It would be very easy to take a million photos.
I actually think I might've come close.
A switchback portion of the trail made for some good perspective photos.
Just to give you a sense of the feeling you got whilst walking in these huge valleys of rock.
As we left the trail, we encountered the same muddy areas as before.
This is a picture of Katie's feet.
The mud practically pulled the shoes off your feet.
We saw some fools try to make their way through with just sneakers on.
When they realized they might lose their shoes, they decided to go OFF TRAIL (a big no-no).
Grrrrr.
Although that morning hike took up about half the day, we weren't done yet.
We stopped in the Visitor Center to eat our lunch and do some shopping.
I told Katie that she had to get something Zion specific that she couldn't get anywhere else.
She fell in love this this California Condor.
I told her I would take a picture of it so she could remember it forever.
We definitely do NOT need another stuffy.
We decided to head out for one more hike.
We hopped on the shuttle.
Mikey declared that we had to sit in the front of the second shuttle.
Each shuttle had the section that the driver was in and then a second section of shuttle bus attached.
There was an advertisement on the back of the first section that we had a front row seat to see.
It was a "Don't Feed The Animals" plea that had a picture of a hand that had severe bite marks and stitches all over it.
Mikey thought it was hilarious that we had to stare at it for 30 minutes.
Off we go!
This is a zoom shot the rocks above us.
We crossed a little stream and then decided to take a break.
The kids were tired.
We sent Huzbend up ahead to see if there was anything worth seeing.
I could tell the kids were tired as they were getting very giggly.
Huzbend returned to let us know that there really wasn't much there.
We decided to turn around and head to the Zion Lodge to catch the shuttle back to our place.
Katie's energy was flagging, so I hung back with her while the boys went up ahead.
The trail followed the river.
There were still plenty of cacti to look at.
And mule deer.
Katie made a friend.
Mikey and Huzbend walked right by this guy without seeing him.
He was RIGHT next to the trail!
Katie remarked, "That was one cool ass deer" as we sauntered away.
Get it? Get it? Huh, huh, huh?
One last view of the Virgin River.
It was Christmas Eve.
The kids entertained themselves with Pokemon and Food Network while Huzbend prepped dinner.
Mac n' cheese n' hotdogs.
With a side of broccoli.
Mikey's favorite vegetable.
That was sarcasm.
We spent the rest of the evening watching corny Christmas specials.
Christmas Day brought with it some blue skies and an extra dusting of snow.
We got up early so that we could drive through the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel.
We were going to access a trail on the other side.
As with any twisty-turny-high-up-in-the-air drives, I had the wheel.
Huzbend doesn't like to look out the window on drives like this, so Mikey was in charge of the camera.
Inside the tunnel there were "windows" to the outside.
Here's a photo of one of them (and a silhouette of Katie).
We made it through and had to find parking for the trail head.
Of course, the parking lot was full.
We found a spot along the curvy road.
No sidewalk.
We hoofed it on the dirt on the side.
Mikey found some ice to play with.
Up the Canyon Overlook Trail we go!
Plenty of warnings along this trail about steep drop-offs.
There was a lot of UP on this trail.
And, on the other side of this rock wall, was a one-person-at-a-time plank bridge over a gap in the rock!
Don't worry, I have pictures of it on the way back.
Huzbend and Katie almost gave it up at this point.
But, we explained the plank bridge was short and they could just shut their eyes.
They made it!
It led to this cavern area that had moss and plants growing out of the rock.
A view out of the cavern.
There was a lot more UP after that.
Finally, we made it to the Canyon Overlook.
They had placed a fence so you couldn't get too close to the drop off.
As we were standing there, some dude behind us was shuffling up a large boulder that was not near the drop off. He slipped and skidded down making everyone jump because we were all nervous being near such a short cliff.
I got closer to the fence so I could take some unobstructed pictures.
Mikey wanted me to take a close up of this rock formation in particular.
That's because it was called the "Altar of Sacrifice" and in his words it was, "COMPLETELY AWESOME!"
Here is a view of the valley below with the road driving up.
Huzbend, Mikey and Katie decided to stay waaaayyy back from the fence.
To quote Mikey, "You think I'm gonna trust THAT fence? Yeah. No."
We took a family selfie to send out as a Christmas greeting.
While we were up there, it began to snow.
It was pebbly snow.
We encountered quite a few more people heading up the trail as we made our way down.
So much so, that we had to take turns on some of the narrow sections of trail.
Here is a view of the plank bridge from across the canyon.
And here it is, up close.
Yay, Katie!
Mikey didn't seem to be bothered by it.
(I'm not sure why he trusted this and not the fence....).
The boards bounced when you walked on it.
If you care to see what it was like to walk on and look down......
Here you go.
Next up, some narrow sections.
Here's what it's like to walk on these parts.
And lastly, a view down to the tunnel from the trail.
We made it down and began our trek back to Vegas.
We headed back the way we came through the tunnel.
This time Mikey got a pretty good picture of one of the tunnel "windows".
We had already checked out of our place, so we had to eat lunch in the car.
Huzbend didn't trust the kids to eat in the car without making a mess, so he made them eat in the back.
It was FREEZING.
That didn't stop Katie from enjoying a chocolate popsicle when she was done with lunch.
We got to Vegas at about dinner time.
Here was the view from our room.
Mikey was obsessed with this mirror key hole in the elevator bay.
The kids first jaunt onto a casino floor.
Surprisingly, they did not complain about the smoke smell.
We wanted to go to the Mandalay Bay aquarium, but we wouldn't have had enough time to see it and make it to our dinner reservation.
We headed out to The Strip to get ourselves to our Christmas dinner reservation.
The kids didn't complain about the smoke inside the casino, but they did complain about the pot smell outside on The Strip.
It was even worse than walking in Seattle.
And, that's saying something.
We had some time to spare, so we stopped by the Bellagio fountain.
I remembered it being a lot longer.
It only fountain-ed for one song.
Here you go.....
Still more time to spare, so we headed into a giant candy store.
Say hello to Jelly Bean Elvis, accompanied by Jelly Bean Marilyn Monroe.
We temporarily lost our wits and allowed the kids to fill up a bag of candy.
Most expensive candy EVER.
We were eating dinner in Paris (Las Vegas).
We had reservations, but we still had to wait a bit.
We let the kids snack on their MOST EXPENSIVE CANDY EVER while we were waiting to be seated.
JACKPOT!
We got a table outside on the patio that was right across the street from the Bellagio fountain.
Nice.
The propane heaters kept us nice and warm.
We ate at Mon Ami Gabi, a restaurant known for its ability to cater to gluten free peeps.
Katie was excited to give it a try. We had let her peek at the menu pre-trip.
You really couldn't beat the atmosphere of the place.
On one side a fake Parisian landmark that changed colors every 10 minutes......
.......and on the other side, the eccentricities of The Strip and some great people watching.
Perfect.
It couldn't get any better.
Except it could.
Dinner was delicious.
Katie had the filet mignon and was actually able to have pomme frites, for the first time ever!
Huzbend and I had some kind of steak.
We were all able to share haricots verts.
Mikey got a kids steak meal and ate most of it (except the haricorts verts).
Dessert was up next.
Mikey was able to get crazy and order a profiterole.
I got even crazier and ordered the adult portion of the profiteroles.
Unfortunately, no profiteroles for Katie.
But, there was a creme brulee.
(There's ALWAYS creme brulee for GF peeps. It's usually either that or sorbet)
This time she actually ate the whole thing.
Usually, she just takes off the crispy sugar layer and leaves the custard.
After dinner, we walked back down The Strip to our hotel passing by many landmarks including.....
...The MGM Grand....
...New York, New York....
and Excalibur.
A preview of tomorrow nights entertainment....
We hopped on a free tram/monorail at the Excalibur to our hotel.
Our feet were tired.
I'm also thinking that there may have been some second hand smoke inhalation.....
One last look at the lights of The Strip before bed.
We all slept in a bit and then headed to our lunch reservation which was WAY north on The Strip.
We decided to hitch a ride on the official Las Vegas Monorail to get there quicker.
You have to pay to ride this one.
It starts at the MGM, which was all decked out for Christmas.
A casino walkthrough:
We were all the way in Treasure Island territory.
We walked by the Mirage and the Siegfried and Roy tribute.
We ate at El Segundo Sol, a Mexican joint known for catering to GF.
Katie was ecstatic that she was able to eat the chips and guac.
(many places fry them in the same fryer as flour tortilla meals).
I was more than happy to indulge in a frozen margarita.
And, for the first time ever, the kids got to try flan.
With our tummies full of yummy Mexican food we headed over to the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. to creepily pose with cardboard cut outs.
And to give them high fives.
"Life size" Hulk hand.
Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. (Scientific Training and Tactical Intelligence Operative Network) is an "interactive and educational" experience that invites you into the world of the Avengers using props, costumes and information.
Mikey took full advantage of the ability to get his hands on some Avengers tech.
CAUTION: HULK CROSSING
We put eyes on Dr. Selvig's Tesseract portal machine.....
....as well as the Regeneration Cradle.
Mikey wasn't allowed into the secret areas because of zero matter.
Funny, we haven't seen any symptoms....except extreme talkability.
Is that even a super power?
This ant arrow absolutely freaked out a lady behind us.
"I could take 'im."
Distant relation?
At least they have the same look on their faces.
A smile crept out as Katie got her hands on Mjolnir though.
I'm sorry to say that it didn't budge for either of them.
Me neither.
There was a pretty cool life-sized Hulk Buster there.
Along with every MCU Mark version of Iron Man's armor.
We finished our experience with a battle against Ultron, which we won.
Of course.
Time for a foot tour of The Strip.
We headed out of Treasure Island, where the Marvel thing was located.
Our next stop were the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.
It's a very Roman themed "luxury shopping destination".
It was all decorated for Christmas.
If you had a few thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you could take this thing home.
We wandered through Caesars forever trying to find an exit.
Finally! Out!
Our next stop was the Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
What a mistake this was!
You can't tell from this picture, but it was wall to wall people all shuffling slowly through the very pretty holiday displays.
As we were trying to make our way through, a family was trying to get a photo in front of one of the displays.
One of the teenagers made some snarky remark and got full on face slap by what I assumed was his Grandpa.
The mom grabbed the teenager and cradled him in her arms as the Grandma grabbed the Grandpa to hold him back and stop him from yelling probably not nice things in public (it was in another language).
The ice princess, and I, did not approve.
The kids were like, "Did that guy just SLAP that other guy?!?!"
We quickly got the hell outta there.
It had begun to rain, but we didn't care.
That meant there were less people out and about.
They were all inside.
There was a cute holiday display in a small park that we walked through.
It was almost time for our show.
We made a quick stop at the Hershey's store.....
....and I took Katie to the Coca Cola store.
We jogged back to the boys and headed into Excalibur for our dinner show.
The Tournament of Kings!
I wore my crown too.
I asked Katie if she wanted to and she gave me a look that could curdle milk.
I let it go.
We were seated in the "Dragon" section.
Our job was to root for the bad guy.
The evening started with a little dancing and singing.
As well as dinner.
Mikey sampled the "dragons blood" AKA tomato soup.
This was dinner.
No utensils.
Eat with your hands, peasants!
As we ate, the show got started.
A holiday tournament would be held.
Except, no one invited the evil knight.
He was mad.
Really mad.
He sent out his even-more-evil knight to fight for him.
And, there was much rejoicing.
There was also some fruit eating.
Katie had to have fruit because the dessert was some kind of apple tart (I think).
It must've been good because she ate the whole cup full.
It was time for the tournament to begin.
This was our sections cheer leader.
BLAMO!
King Arthur sat at the end of the hall with his wenches gypsy ladies.
Can't be just jousting, can it?
There was a little sword fighting too.
"How rude, having a tournament without me.
Feel the wrath of my DRAGON KNIGHTS!"
Poor Arthur was the only one left and they trapped him in a ring of fire.
Lucky he had Excalibur.
He and his crohnies Knights of the Round Table beat the Dragon Knights into submission.
Except this guy, who didn't know when to quit.
He was Mikey's favorite.
Eventually, the Dragon Knights were sent packing and the head bad guy knight was given a gift from King Arthur even though he killed, like, a dozen of his good guy knights.
It turned out to be a baby dragon.
I don't know.
The show was entertaining.
The food was surprisingly quite edible. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't complete crap either.
It was a good time.
The show let out into a large game arcade.
Mikey played a cool Star Wars game.
Katie chose to WHACK-A-MOLE
(or two)
And, we introduced them to dance video games.
They didn't like it.
AT ALL.
Last stop, before crashing for the evening, was at the Luxor.
Katie wanted to go in the big pyramid.
Mikey was there too.
The Luxor was connected to our hotel, so we walked through the casino 'till we found the entrance.
It took a while.
Annnnnnnd, they're OUT!
Time to say goodbye to Vegas.
We "lyft-ed" back to the airport.
Katie was excited that it was finally our "Fake Christmas Eve Day".
Back to Seattle we go!
We got home with no issues.
We selected a classic for our Fake Christmas Eve movie.
All set up and ready to go.
Sorry, Pip.
FAKE CHRISTMAS DAY!
Before we began our present opening, we had to decorate our tiny tree.
Awww, cute!
Let the present opening BEGIN!
POKEMON!!
BOOKS ABOUT MATH!!
Mikey is very passionate about his present opening.
Ralph is only passionate about cheese.
Fake-Christmas morning disaster area.
Pip was pushing his luck....
It didn't last long before....
...he was put in his place.
One last present reveal....
I honestly didn't think these would be such a big deal.
Maybe because they were unexpected?
Oh! So those chainsaws on the guns are used for cutting down Christmas trees?
Hmmmm.
Ralph got a present too.
The kids spent the afternoon playing with all their new loot and took a break to decorate our gingerbread house.
Mikey pre-chewed Swedish Fish to make creative decorations for his side.
He says that he, "stretched them" and didn't "chew on them."
No one believes him.
???????????
You'll never guess whose side this is.
No.
It is not Huzbend's.
Katie's favorite part about decorating the gingerbread house is eating the decorations.
We rounded off Fake Christmas Day with a super yummy ham and mashed potato dinner.
We also had some sort of vegetable.
We had a few days to just chill.
We ventured out one of those days for a hike and mountain bike ride near the kids old elementary school.
They couldn't resist playing on the playground before we left.
We headed to a friends place for New Years Eve.
Here's what Katie had for dinner.
Cocktail wienies and bacon wrapped dates.
Seriously.
The kids watched Shrek and played board games.
Some of the adults took part in traditional New Year's tequila shots.
Tick tock.
The clock kept inching towards midnight.
