How to test your child's sensitivity to the warnings of the Holy Ghost:

Take them to the Las Vegas Strip.

Wow, that sounds horrible. The truth was, I intended to avoid The Strip our entire visit. I had no plans to take my children there. Instead we had planned to go to Disneyland for the weekend. But two weeks of bronchitis and the fact that the air conditioning died in our van and had to get repaired at no small cost sort of killed the Disneyland dream.

After four weeks of being shut up indoors, my kids were just as bored as any kids can expect to get. And they whined and moaned and whined some more. Finally my mom and I were desperate for some sort of free, quick-fix entertainment and decided to risk The Strip. Heck, we knew where to go to find the more "family friendly" spots, right?

Driving down the Strip:

The Lexor:
The Exalibur. This was a total score. Noelle saw this and thought this WAS Disneyland!
New York, New York:
M&M Factory:
I thought we were going to be okay at this point. The huge, gigantic screens didn't seem to be showing show girls, so I breathed a sigh of relief, until I heard Laura try to point out the Eiffel Tower. She said, "It's over there. Behind that big sign that says Peep Show."

Our first destination was safe enough: Inside the Bellagio at the flower garden display, which is quite magnificent.

Frog made out of flowers:
Snail made out of flowers:
The world's largest chocolate fountain:

The entire garden had this cool fresco-tile floor. The kids loved it.
Then we walked over to Caesar's Palace to see the aquarium. This is where things got uncomfortable. Statues. I forgot about the statues. Lincoln went bonkers. He kept running into people because he would only look at the ground and not up to see where he was going. Laura kept asking questions like, "Is that how they REALLY dressed in ancient Greece? Because that's just gross!" Isaac didn't seem to care. (Still worried about that kid.)

Then we had to walk through a casino to get to the aquarium. As a kid, I was used to slot machines. Living in Las Vegas, you don't notice them after a while because they're in every grocery store. But my kids were very, very disturbed...well, not Isaac, but the others. Lincoln kept griping the whole time. "This feels yucky." "I don't like it here." "I miss Iowa, where it's safe and smoke-free." Boy, did I ever feel like a bad mom.

Then we reached the aquarium and everyone liked me again.


Then we walked back to the Bellagio to catch the night fountain show. They all warily enjoyed it, though they were still uneasy with all the smokers and ill-clad tourists swarming the area.



But look, we hit up both Disneyland and Paris in one night! And I like this picture. A memory of the last time I ever took my kids to the Strip.

(Below is a video clip of the fountain show. Enjoy!)