The Boring Trip: Day 1

Boring Trip Revealed...

Don and I wanted to surprise the girls with their first trip to Disneyland and so when we referred to our upcoming trip it got nicknamed "The Boring Trip" with the girls thinking we were tagging along with Dad on one of his business trips with fun things squeezed in. They seemed okay with the prospect so with Christmas glee Don and I laid this out for them the night before with a note from Mickey saying: "...get into the van because they were going to Disneyland..." They were bleary eyed and confused (having never been to Disneyland) but sensed this was good news:). I am positive the next time we let them know we are going to Disneyland (now that they've been) we will have to peel them of the ceiling!!!!

Stepping out the door...

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," He used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." J.R.R. Tolkien

Here we are, about to be swept off on our adventure!!!
We arrived at Las Vegas in good time and went to Yama Sushi for a late lunch (Don had researched this place out - it was SO good...) with full stomachs, me covered with Miso soup (thanks to Liberty's love of throwing things near her on the ground), and all of us loaded down with suitcases (Bizzie and Autumn included) we walked the miles into the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Here are the girls enjoying the giant aquarium in the lobby...

Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef Aquarium:

We had just enough time (before that's night adventure) to go through Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef Aquarium, the girls really enjoyed this 1) they were able to get their wiggles out 2) it was a great collection of sharks, piranhas, jellyfish, and other cool sea life 3) they got to pet manta rays and go through tunnels and fake sunk ships to watch the sharks swim all around them (I found moments of panic when the sharks seemingly would swim right at you and I found myself wanting to put myself between the sharks and the girls!!!)

Lion King!!!

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this. I had heard the costumes in the Lion King Musical were different and Bizzie had never sat through a stage production before. My verdict?! Wow. Super Wow. The costumes and affects were different but very cool. It was the perfect Musical for the girls - colorful, very similar to the movie so they could follow along easy, and great music!!! The seats Don got for us helped a lot too, they were near the front and in the middle so they could see everything happening... (Autumn loved the way the lions fought and the book she is holding - the book was great because it showed the girls ahead of time what the different characters were going to look like.) (Bizzie's favorite parts were the Skittles and "the green guy" (Timone)...

(The girls are taking the lioness fighting stance...)

Such a cool day!! Don had cheesecake waiting for us in our room and had done wonderful with Liberty in the hotel room waiting for us. Our new Sit n' Stand stroller proved it's worth by serving as a caddy for Don bringing in the rest of our luggage. I laugh picturing Don with a stroller loaded down with luggage strolling through the casino, the image he created must have gotten a lot of stares from the "normal" crowd... (it was all old people & single people - no kids, no strollers and to get to the rooms you have to go through the casino portion of the hotel).