Viva Las Vegas!

Clarissa has had an exhausting weekend with the Beehive Bizarre. So she is passed out beside me on the other couch. I know that she is a much better writer than I am but I will try to hold to her high standard of clever writing. This week has been one to remember. Clarissa and I went on one last whorahh with our good friends the Simpsons who are moving to Nebraska soon. We traveled to Las Vegas to visit Josh and Willow, our mutual friends.

On the way up Clarissa and Lisa (which proved rather frustrating at times because I have taken to calling Clarissa nothing but Issa which sounds very much like Lisa) anyway. Clarissa and Lisa worked on Clarissa’s onesies for the Beehive Bizarre. While Clarissa sewed the patterns on the front, Lisa helped by sewing the labels on the back. They worked furiously on both the ride down to Vegas and the ride home. A word of caution to any of you who are riding in the back seat of the Simpson’s car: There was more then one needle lost back there, so tread and sit lightly.

While the girls sewed their little hearts out in the back seat, Roger acted as the rugged pilot Han Solo while I was the hairy co-pilot Chewbacca. We found that with our powers combined we could rival tom tom, the GPS system.

When we arrived in Las Vegas we planned on going through the temple but it wasn’t until we pulled into the empty parking lot that we remembered that all temples are closed on Mondays. However not all was lost--we were able to get out and stretch our legs and warm our faces in the beautiful 80 degree weather. We walked around the grounds and enjoyed the beautiful flowers and view that the Las Vegas temple has. Clarissa followed in her father’s foot steps by taking some very cool close up pictures of the flowers that surrounded the temple.

That evening we went to Josh and Willow’s beautiful home. The girls went and took a hip hop exercise class, Josh sang at a cadaver ceremony for his medical school, and Roger and I watched an NBA play-off game. After everyone reunited at Josh and Willow’s we went out for ice cream at a casino near their house. After ice cream we went and watched the Bellagio fountains which was really cool. Tuesday morning Josh had to go to school and Willow had to work. So the rest of us braved the greater Las Vegas area and found the outlet mall so the girls could do some shopping while us guys just walked around. At 3:00 we were able to check into our hotel… the MGM Grande… it was awesome! We were able to get a great deal on a really nice room. After we checked in we went down to the pool complex. There were something like 4 different pools, a lazy river, and a water fall. It was amazing. So we enjoyed to sun for a while (my upper lip was the only part of me to get sun burned…jerk), then we went to the amazing Studio B buffet at the M resort. There was bamboo salmon, sushi, steak, shrimp, fruit, and all kinds of really nice food. Then they had a succulent dessert bar that was to die for, with little pastries and crepes and gelato. My shoe especially liked the cream from the little éclairs. The reason the buffet is named Studio B is because there was a little cooking studio where they have cooking shows. Martha Stewart had been there recently and done a cooking special. So of course we had to get some pictures in there pretending to do a cooking show of our own.

Then, unfortunately, we had to leave Wednesday after a farewell lunch in the MGM Grande food court. We loved being with the Batts and enjoyed the brief 6 hour drives with the Simpsons. Thanks for making it so much fun, guys!