Rob had a hazards training class last Friday in Las Vegas. Of course, we made it a family adventure. I decided to have us stay in a part of Las Vegas that I’d never been before, Fremont Street. I figured we’d all have the most fun possible if we just kept this a low-key trip and use all of our time swimming. Therefore, I wanted to stay somewhere with a super fun swimming pool.

The Golden Nugget was actually quite a nice place to stay. The casino was in an entirely separate wing of the hotel so we never had to walk through it. Perfect. We did walk by a few slot machines and the kids thought they were pretty cool, especially since they’ve been into Chipwrecked lately. The chipmunks do a bit of gaming and so Nate and Madeleine knew exactly what they were.

Back to the swimming pool. There was a good bit of shallow-enough-for-wading area, a couple of waterfalls, a tunnel area, a waterslide, and in the middle of it all, a shark tank!! It was so fun to swim right up to the glass and watch the beasts come toward you! The waterslide went right through the tank also. We all thought it was awesome. Of course, the kids mostly wanted to be in the hot tub. I remember doing the same thing when I was young. I was a little worried about the pool crowd, but every one was respectable. Here are some crappy phone pictures.

Nate sure looks tough. Those floaties really do it for him.

We ventured out the hotel to Fremont Street, on which the hotel borders. There is an overhead light and music show put on every hour at night.

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The whole area is catered to a more, shall we say, mature crowd? There were very few kids and very few adults our age. Which actually, we appreciated. It toned things down a little. But don’t worry, there was still plenty of 90’s saxophone playing and drunken dancing going on.

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But that’s about it as far as the positives of the trip go.

All three kids slept the entire way to Vegas, which was smokin’ cool. But…it was because they were sick. Madeleine was okay, just felt a little off. Nate had strep throat. Bad. He wasn’t able to swallow anything. There was only one place in Vegas where we could’ve taken him but when we looked it up online, lots of reviewers warned people to STAY AWAY; that it was a filthy and horrible place. We ended up going to the InstaCare in St. George on the way home. By that time, his throat had open ulcers. He was hating life. Caroline would prove to get sick and have a high fever all the way home. When we took her in to the doc at home, she didn’t have Strep, but another virus.  Nate is just now able to eat normally again after 6 days and a lot of pain meds. Poor, poor kid. Caroline is fine now as well. Madeleine never did get sick. She has a supernormal immune system.

Anyway, not the best trip. At least we had fun swimming.