Vegas - Day 2

Once again Rod slipped out, we had a leisurely breakfast, then headed to the Springs Preserve to spend the day.  The reality is, each day by the time we got up, got ready, had breakfast, got packed up and to our destination - Charley was about two hours away from naptime!  So, we had a good two hours before I had to get Ms. Crankypants back to the hotel for her nap!  We made the most of it.

Unfortunately, we arrived at 9 but they didn't open until 10.  Fortunately, we could access the grounds, just not the buildings, and they had a fantastic playground!

Whoa, look at that lizard!

I LOVE this turtle!

Cool train!

Kissing a snake for Dada

Yeay, kids to play with!

I couldn't get her to come on for looking at this stream!

And THEN I couldn't get her to leave this table of puzzles - PUZZLES!  She NEVER wants to play with her puzzles at home, and it's ALL she wanted to do here - for about 45 minutes!!!

My little explorer

 They were having a tots' Halloween party too - we went to storytime and they had games - too bad I didn't know to dress Charley!  Good thing that that night we found a Halloween event in nearby Henderson.  It was GREAT!  Charley had so much fun trick or treating from trunk to trunk.

 We played some games...

Posing for a pic

 Enough of this, Charley says - "Dance!"

 So we headed over to the stage where the DJ was rocking out, and she danced!  That's what she most wanted to do!

 THEN she discovered the alien.  Scared of the dinos, but oh no - not the alien.  Go figure.  Forgive me for the millions of alien pics that follow, but - seriously - she did NOT want to leave him.  The pictures reflect the amount of time we spent with this little guy that night!

"Booking" his nose

Cuddling the alien - passersby were stopping to watch and giggle

Seriously?  Now we're slow dancing with the alien!

By now she had a small crowd!

It was traumatic saying her goodbyes...

Enjoying the spoils of the night

Viva Las Vegas - Day 1

After an extremely harrowing drive to Vegas (that almost made us rethink our trip altogether) - driving in the dark, at one point snow, at one point slamming on our brakes just in time to avoid hitting two black cows standing in the middle of the road, and at one point Rod veering off the highway (THANK GOD there was a shoulder here, often there's not) and coming to a complete stop, as an oncoming truck was passing a semi in our lane (had Rod not reacted so coolly...  well...  whew) - we finally arrived, around 2 am.  It was miserable.  I've never come so close to thinking I could have easily died in a car.  We were both pretty shaken.  And furiously pissed off, at the bastard who almost killed us all.  And nothing we could do about it.

So, we awoke in Vegas, in our luxurious hotel room (that's what traveling on government funds will get you), Rod slipping out quietly to walk to his conference, and Charley and I sleeping in until NINE.  Yes, you got it - the kid slept till 9:00 am.  Then, we went and had a day at the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.

Parasite exhibit...

Need I say more?

She always loves dinosaurs...

... but for the first time said she was "scared"

More her speed

Future paleontologist?

She loved the evolution exhibit...

... of course, she enjoyed the zebra being mauled to death too.

She is DONE.  No more.  

Though we did find a playground behind the museum to spend a minute more.