It's About Time!

This absence from blogging hasn't been intentional, but I do think I'm about to get rolling again! We were home all summer until the middle of July, and then bam, bam, bam we had several things in a row going on! Also, to add to the mix, we closed on our new house at the end of June, so trying to get that in shape has kept us busy in between our adventures!
So, the middle of July found Brian and I in Las Vegas! Brian has a conference every summer in a different location, and this year I was able to go with him. Brian's parents graciously watched the kids for four days. The conference was in The Paris hotel, so above is a picture of the Eiffel Tower replica at the hotel.

This is the Stratosphere hotel. WAY up at the very top are three amusement park rides, almost 1000 feet above The Strip. I LOVE rides! Riding those rides was a major goal of mine on this trip!

Here's Brian next to one of the rides at the top of the Stratosphere. It's a short, straight roller coaster track that shoots you off over the edge of the building and you hope it stops at some point!

This ride shoots you up the tower at an incredible speed, and then you free-fall for a few seconds as you come back down. It was such a rush! The third ride up on the top of the building was closed due to high winds, so I got to do this one twice!

Here we are at the top of the Stratosphere.

Posing with The Paris' Eiffel Tower in the background.

We watched a lot of the fountain shows in front of the Bellagio. They're especially impressive at night.

Here's another view of the fountains during a show we watched from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

We took a tour to Hoover Dam one morning. Hoover Dam is right on the Nevada/Arizona border, and dams up the Colorado River. That's Nevada on the left, Arizona on the right. It was quite impressive learning about the major feat of building it in 1936, and getting to go down deep inside the dam and see the turbines, generators, etc. You definitely can't appreciate its magnitude unless you've been there! The dam also created Lake Mead, which is such a beautiful lake.

Right next to the dam, the Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge is almost complete. It will be a Hoover Dam by-pass when it is finished.

The white line on the banks of the river show the river's highest point in years past. The normal height is usually about halfway up the sides, so it is currently about 75 feet below it's normal flow, due to severe drought in the area.

Both Brian and I agree that the highlight of our extra-curricular activities was getting to see the Cirque du Soliel show, "O". It was an amazing combination of theatre, acrobatics, synchronized swimming, and symphony. Incredible. Amazing. Can't even think of how to describe it to someone who hasn't experienced a Cirque show. Highly recommended!

We saw several street performers along the strip. They were all painted in this amazing bronze paint that made them look like statues. They'd pose there, motionless, until someone came to get their picture taken with them and they'd do some sort of fluid, robotic move and change positions. They were very talented!

It was a fun break to get away with Brian, even though it was for a conference. As you can see, though, we managed to fit several fun things in between meetings! Next year it's in Orlando! ;-)