Viva Las Vegas

First off, SUSANNA, your "sevens" blog is coming... maybe tonight, but probably not until next week. I haven't forgotten your request!
Oh, and another disclaimer... LACHELLE, sorry we didn't call you and Ty while we were in town. We had good intentions to show up at your work and ask for a discount wedding... but our good idea never got off the ground. I love you anyway!

So, I went to Las Vegas (of all places) for General Conference weekend. Most of Greg's family was going up there to visit Grandma and Grandpa and Greg was going to drive in from Flagstaff to meet up with his family... I thought that sounded fun and I've been dying to get out of town anyway, so I drove up to Flagstaff Friday morning and then headed over to Vegas from there with Greg. It was quite a full house, but I'm already pretty cozy with Greg's family (and Greg, of course) so it all worked out just fine. AND, I was still able to watch ALL sessions of conference!

(Of course, I had my occasional "Oh crap, I just totally slept through that talk" but that happens to me almost every conference, so I was still pretty dang proud that I watched conference on "vacation")

Anyway, like any true blogger, I had my camera ready to capture all the fun and quirky memorable things that we did. Friday night, I was pretty tired and my knee was killing me (PS I'm having major right knee problems. I had an MRI last Thursday and I have my follow-up appointment on Monday... I'll keep you all informed.) so, I pretty much crashed on the couch and didn't do anything. However, there was one really funny moment to me. You can read about it on Jill's blog... and in Greg's defense, he says it wasn't really like that. (Go ahead, click on the link... I know you're dying to know what I'm talking about!)

But Saturday night, my knee felt good enough to go out, so what better way to celebrate the words from General Conference than to visit the land of great a spacious buildings. Between the afternoon and Priesthood sessions, we first decided to try our hand at the "health" benefits of the word of wisdom by GORGING ourselves at one of those famous Vegas buffets.

I think we both had 4 trips to the buffet, trying a little of everything before moving on to...

the desserts!
This one was my (our) favorite...

THE MAGIC BAR of all magic bars. Mmmm....

When all was said and done, well... I'm pretty sure these pictures say it all: following the word of wisdom is a good thing!

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I generally don't have rolls in my stomach like that.

And Greg's not pregnant either. So, yep, we ate a ton. All $11/person worth!

After Greg went to Priesthood session (I went "window" shopping) we headed down to the fo' real strip. We parked the car at the MGM Grand Hotel, which I've never been to, so I was quite amazed to see this:

The MGM Lion!

And this king of the casino had a female companion too!

Isn't that cute? They're cuddling!

Well, that was just the beginning of what then turned into some serious lion lovin'! Yep, we (and a lot of other on-lookers) got to be eye witnesses of a free X-rated Vegas style show... but for the purpose of my Vegas General Conference experience, we're going to assume these lions were married and that we got to be eye witnesses of the joy of living the law of chastity within the bounds of marriage... or something like that.

Ok, on that note, moving right along... NEXT, we hit up the Coke store. Greg excitedly walked ahead of me and ordered a little surprise for us:

"Tastes of the World"

A taster size of 16 international coke products!
And this helped us feel more unity with the great international members of the church.
(Still trying to maintain that General Conference tie in...)

1. Gold Peak Black Tea from USA (never heard of it)
2. Nestea Raspberry from Spain (heard of it, but not through Spain)
3. Nestea Punch from France (heard of it, but not through France)
4. Delaware Punch from Honduras (tasted like Black Cherry punch)
5. Aquarius Citrus from Taiwan (tasted like super watered down Squirt)
6. Vegitabeta from Japan (contrary to what Greg says, this was not made of veggies)
7. Bibo Kiwi Mango from South Africa (tasted like kiwi mango... crazy, I know)
8. Bibo Pine Nut from South Africa (I didn't know pine nuts were super sweet)
9. Lift Apple from Mexico (tasted like your typical manzana/apple Mexican drink)
10. Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica (Kolita is Spanish slang, but it didn't taste like butt...)
11. Krest Gingerale from Mozambique (tasted like gingerale, heavy on the ginger)
12. Smart Watermelon from China (tasted like a super sweet watermelon lollipop)
13. Kinley Lemon from England (typical, bland English food... watered down lemonade)
14. Smart Apple from China (I'm starting to think "smart" means "super sweet" in chinese)
15. Beverly from Italy (Bitter as all get out. Disgusting. Brooke, please tell me you hate it too...)
16. Mezzo Mix from Germany (I can't remember what it tasted like... but 15/16 aint' bad!)
    

So, based on my descriptions, can you tell which one was both mine and Greg's LEAST favorite?

Beverly, from Italy.

If this is all they drink in Italy, I never want to go! Just kidding, Brooke... but seriously, I never want to taste this crap again. And I certainly never want to name one of my daughters Beverly.

My personal favorite was the Delaware Punch from Honduras and Greg's was the Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica. I know, it's sick how cute he is...

Ok, moving along, again. Next was the M&M store. We paid $12.99/lb so Greg could try some cherry chocolate M&Ms (but I made him get more than just the 4 singular M&Ms he first put in the bag...) and 4 other packs of our favorite M&Ms for 70 cents a pop. Whatever, we're on vacation, right? Although, the prophets have repeatedly counseled us to live within our means, so that's the wrong attitude to have, right? (Did you catch that plug?)

Greg is always so willing to pose for my blogging moments.

Finally, the moment came that I had waited for. I absolutely LOVE the fountains at the Bellagio hotel. When I was in college and would drive back and forth from Utah to California, I loved taking a break in Vegas and catching a quick Fountains of Bellagio show. If you've never seen it, do it! There every 15 minutes and if you've got 2 minutes to spare right now, I've got one on video for you. Fittingly, it's set to Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas", "worthy" music for the occasion... ok, that one's a stretch.

We ended up staying there for an hour and caught 4 different shows. It sprinkled a little bit on us and it was a tad bit cold for me. So while I huddled up with Greg to stay warm, I had my hands between our stomachs and got a little curious as to what my camera could see from that view. You curious too?

Straight teeth, nose hairs and very different colored eyes. Fascinating, I know.

Just another sickeningly cute picture...

Well, by this time, it was getting late and we really only had one thing left to do. Quarter slots. We put a money ($10) and time limit (20 minutes) on our gambling and stuck too it. Although we both were up at a few different points (Greg more so than me) the money limit came before the time limit ran up, so we each spent 10 bucks on "entertainment" for the evening.

A hands-on lesson that we should not engage in gambling and other addictive behaviors...

Alright, that's it. Can I just tell all of you how much I love blogging? I've never really gotten into any hobbies and have always stunk at journaling (I'm like you, Jodi). But I love this blogging business! I just wish I had more time to do it!