The morning of September 23rd, 2021 we got all packed up, had breakfast and said our goodbyes to Miss Ellen. It was sad to be able to only stay 2 nights, but we only had so many days and there was so much more to see on our wonderful road trip!
Our first stop of the day was in Kingman, AZ. I had grown up singing the "Get Your Kicks On Route 66" so we had to make a stop. This was right around lunchtime so it was a perfect time to eat at an old fashion diner.
This was about the yummiest thing on the menu though....the burgers were probably the most awful burgers we've ever had. Totally shocking....how can they not make a good burger at an old fashion diner. Oh well...you win some you lose some!
Directly across the street from the diner was this fun area you could drive your car through for a photo op. The whole place was deserted so we had it all to ourselves. I did think about possibly going to the Route 66 museum, but ultimately I figured the kids wouldn't be that interested. But I knew they'd enjoy the next stop!
The Hoover Dam!
This is another place I was sure I would never get to see! I have wanted to go to the Dam ever since my parents went on a road trip and saw it. The only bummer was they weren't running the guided tours. We could have done a self guided tour, but we decided against it.
We had just driven over that bridge to get to the Dam. Of course we told the kids that they better get all their dam words out while they had the chance. :)
I asked a young lady to take our pictures, but I didn't really pay attention to what she was wearing before I asked her. Her shirt only covered her up a little bit so....that was awkward. It made for some good smiles though! ;)
It was extremely hot while we were out there! Zeke had the right idea by wearing his neck fan for sure!
We walked all the way to the other side of the dam. We got to see the pump tower on the Arizona side.
You can see how low the water is. It actually hasn't been full since 1983!
The pump tower on the Nevada side.
It's absolutely incredible to think they were able to build this in 4 years!
On the way out I saw this fun plaque dedicated to this dog.
The "Dog of the Dam" was a resourceful black shepherd, born on the work site of Hoover Dam, a loyal friend to construction workers for years. He knew every supervisor and would run to get a boss at the first sign of man tumbling into the cement or a crane giving way.
Sadly on February 21, 1941, a truck backed over the sleeping mascot.
After visiting the Hoover Dam we were on the road to our destination for the night....Las Vegas.
When I had originally planned this trip I had us staying at Circus Circus on the strip, but thankfully I researched a bit more and found out that the pool there closes at 5pm. I wanted the kids to have the option to swim whenever so we moved our reservation to a condo off the strip. We stayed at Desert Paradise Resort.
I didn't take an pictures of the resort so I got these online.
They were really nice 4 unit complexes. Of course they tried to get us to come to some timeshare meeting which we just declined.
We had a 2 bedroom unit....Ella and Zeke slept on the pull out couch and the older boys got the second bedroom.
We were on the second floor so we had the nice balcony exactly like this one shows.
Michael and I had a huge master bedroom. The bathroom was lovely and have an enormous tub/shower combo!
The best part was the pool! We didn't go swimming until the next day though.
What we really wanted to do was take the kids to see Shang-Chi. It was the first time they'd been to a movie since 2019! We found this outdoor type mall....think Kent Station. It had everything and it was just down the road from the condo. We are totally spoiled though because the theater did not have reclining seats. :)
We figured popcorn wasn't going to cut it for dinner so we took a walk after the movie and decided to eat at P.F. Chang's. We've never taken the kids there before. Of course our 2 eaters ate and our 2 non-eaters didn't eat. No surprise there!
After eating I wanted to drive over to the strip since it was nice and dark. I have always wanted to see the lights of Las Vegas and the Bellagio fountains. Oh boy....this was when I really thought we made a bad choice coming to Vegas. They don't call it Sin City for nothing! Yes I know I'm extremely shelter to say the least! It was not what I envisioned. There were ladies walking down the street in very little clothing. I kept having to tell the kids to look up at those lights. We tried to just roll down our windows to listen to the music while watching the fountains....traffic was bad so we were stopped, but all that did was let in the smell of pot! It was totally disgusting! Eric did warn us about that! It was not what I expected at all. I figured we would be able to drive down the strip....look at all the lights for hotels and then drive back to the condo. I didn't think there was going to be so much grossness just walking around. Yuck!
The next day we woke up ready to tackle the day and determined to have a good time.
Of course swimming was on the agenda!
This waterfall was so fun! The kids had a blast jumping through it!
Here's a slow-mo video I took!
The kids also had fun hanging out in the hot tub. By this point poor Jackson's skin could not take it anymore. It was all red, bumpy and itchy from all the chlorine from Ellen's house and then the condo pool as well. It was so sad because he absolutely loves to swim! What we've since figured out is once he's done he has to immediately take a shower...no laying around in his swim clothes at all and that has seemed to help a bunch.
After swimming we walked back to the condo to eat lunch and figure out a plan of what to do. There is a lot to do in Vegas, but it's so dang expensive! I also had my guard up big time because I did not want to expose my kids to any of the stuff we saw the night before. I researched a bit online and found a Mom that had done a blog post on taking young kids to Vegas so we decided to do one of the top things she recommended and the best part was it was free...except for parking of course!
So we headed to the strip and parked in the Caesar's Palace Parking garage and headed into The Forum...it's a huge mall connected to the hotel.
It was absolutely beautiful....the architecture....the ceiling was painted to look like the sky and you did actually forget you weren't outside. Very cool!
We were taking the kids to see the Atlantis show. It's an animatronics show that happens every hour on the hour. Of course we missed it by 15 minutes and had to wait until the next one.
Behind the stage area for the show is this big aquarium. We used that waiting time to check out the fish. It was a nice distraction.
During this time Zeke just kept saying he wanted to go. He was very nervous and downright fearful at being there. We finally got him to tell us what was wrong and he told us he was scared because we called Vegas, Sin City. I asked him what he thought that meant and he said that he thought people were going to come up and rob us. Sweet boy! We had to explain that it's more because people choose to participate in sinful behavior while they are in Vegas....drinking, doing drugs and more. We also explained that robbing someone in Vegas would be a really dumb thing to do because of all the security and the cameras they have everywhere. After that he calmed down a bit and was able to enjoy himself a little more.
The show was fun....a little hard to understand because it was so loud, but it had water and fire and lights flashing so it was cool!
After that we decided to walk through the mall and then outside to give the strip another chance in the daylight. It wasn't much better really!
Literally the moment we walked outside a guy made a beeline for Ella. He walked right up to her and told her he really liked her shirt. It was one of those sequin shirts that can change when you swipe it up or down. It was honestly quite creepy the way he was looking at her and the way he didn't even want to acknowledge me...he wanted to talk to her... a grown man talking to a random child. It was super awkward! I said thanks and the grabbed Ella and we started to walk away. That's when I told Michael and we had to hold Ella and Zeke's hand AT ALL TIMES!!!
We got to see more the beautiful grounds of the Caesar's Palace.
We walked across the street, through another shopping area to get to the Bellagio fountains. It was SO hot! There wasn't much shade, but we stayed and watched for a bit. I was actually quite disappointed with the fountains though. They really only have so many options and it was a bit predictable after a while. I thought they would have had different moves for each song that played. Also there was this couple standing near us that could not talk without dropping f-bombs over and over....so it was time to go!
On our walk back through the mall to get to the parking garage I had to stop Michael and we had to hang out while this lady in front of us kept walking. She was literally wearing see through pants and a G-string on! At this point I felt really bad for exposing my kids to this mess in the first place....it was definitely a low point in the trip!
Am I glad we went....honestly no! I would drive 200 hundred miles out of the way to avoid going to Vegas at all cost. I can honestly say with everything that is within me...I will never again go to Vegas EVER! The amount of spiritual darkness that is in that city is overwhelming. The Holy Spirit within me was saying flee! It's a modern day Sodom & Gomorrah!
So thankful for that last minute switching to our condo. Getting a bit away from the strip was so nice and refreshing. The kids had more fun in the pool....well at least the 3 that could go in the pool!
That night we went to Olive Garden for dinner and the kids LOVED it. We had the sweetest server ever. She was so busy and you could tell very overwhelmed, but she did so great. We encouraged and reassured her that we weren't in a hurry. It was a really nice end to an interesting time in Vegas.
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