BEGAS BABY!!!

Hi all. We are actually still in Vegas and have had an amazing weekend!! We have lots of pictures that I'll upload and put on the website (http://photos.yahoo.com/ilanasims) sometime tomorrow (POSTSCRIPT: just editing now and adding pictures.. see below!) The first night when we landed we dropped all of our stuff off in our room and got monorail passes and hopped over to the next stop and walked thru Paris (Katie's favorite) and over to Bellagio (the girls LOVED it!) . Unfortunately, there was lightening so there was no fountain show that night. Girls got to bed around 11:30 pm. The next morning our friends arrived and we all met at the buffet downstairs in our hotel. The hotel lost money on Katie's entrance into that meal... WOW. After, we walked over to the Lion Habitat here at the hotel, it was amazing!!! There were three 16 month old lions and they were fantastic to watch, we watched them play with each other and their trainers. There is a little walk way with glass ceilings so you can see them up close. Unfortunately, at the time we only had our camera phone but we went back later that afternoon to watch them again! So next we decided to hit the Mirage and go to the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden (yes, home of Father of the Pride, but there were no monkeys... I was disappointed!). There was an admission fee and it was probably hotter (and MUCH more humid) than Phoenix so the dad's opted out and went to the craps table and blackjack table while Karen and I took the three girls and headed out to the sauna. We watched the dolphins and then saw a group of lions and a bunch of white tigers that were GREAT to watch!!! After we rescued the dad's (and boy did they need to be rescued) we headed back to the hotel for naps and the pool. After we all went to NY NY to get some food for the girls and headed back to get dressed and bring the girls to meet the babysitter. Rose was a very nice older woman but as excited as the girls were, we were concerned that she may not survive the evening. She did! But when we walked in at 1 am, the girls were running around crazy and she looked exhausted!! The next morning, the girls slept until 10:45 am so we got up and had a breakfast/lunch and then met up with our friends and headed out to the Venetian. After hanging out there and seeing all the sights, we hit Madame Tussauds and had a great time taking our picture with tons of movie stars (more pics on the website!) . Spent a little time at the pool at our hotel that afternoon and then met up with another babysitter, Lori. She was younger, but didn't exactly listen to our directions of "don't let them watch Sponge Bob" oh well. The girls were all out cold by 10 pm!!! The grown ups had a great dinner at Nobhill, a restaurant here at the hotel then we hit the slots :)

This morning we are all packed up, headed over to M&M World and the ESPN Zone and next we are finally taking Ellie back to the Bellagio so she can see her fountains. Then around 4:30 we'll be on our way back to the airport for our 39 minute flight home!

All in all it was a fantastic weekend with our wonderful friends!!! Hope you all had amazing fourth of July weekends!!!