This day rolled about with one kid up and the other kid down. While the husband snuck out for some of his alone time with the tables, I packed (yup, non-stop packing), and fed the little boy who was awake. The elder child was still in slumberland, and just as well since I attempted to do some yoga.
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| One asleep, one having breakfast |
When everyone finally awoke, we got dressed and prepared to head out to fill our tummies properly.
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| One in the huge lobby's mirror |
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| 1-2-3-4-5; 2 of them are not like the others |
We headed to have our lunch at the Wynn. Ten years ago when the husband and I hit Las Vegas, we were mighty impressed with the spread here and wanted to relive the experience. Some parts were exactly like how we remembered; specifically the 'dessert house' which was a central walk-through area that served desserts. While it was still a large spread, it didn't feel as decadent as our previous buffet. The husband had done some research and it seems that while years ago, the Wynn was the newest hotel on the strip, it's now no longer; and perhaps that's why it wasn't as spanking new. Truth is, when we were doing our walk down practically the whole strip, we plodded through a huge hoarding that spanned forever and it was yet another new hotel. And from our room window at Monte Carlo, there was also another hotel being built right next to it. As they say, Vegas never sleeps and that's probably true and things just need to keep evolving to keep up.
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| Nom nom nom - spot the sleepyhead |
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| Post-meal - one of a rare couple shot of us |
After eating, we had to walk away our meal. We headed back towards our hotel to park our vehicle and opted to go across the road to the M&M's store. The husband and I had visited it years ago and I recalled that it was such a cute and fun store that the kids will surely enjoy it.
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| Hello Blue and Green! |
There was a 3D screening of a show and of course, we had to watch it.
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| Waiting for the show to begin |
After visiting M&Ms, we headed to the MGM. Its mascot is a lion and years ago, again on our last visit, the husband and I recalled walking through a viewing gallery that showed us real lions. Wanting to share this experience with the children, we trooped to the MGM - only to realise, to our dismay, that there was no longer any live lions. Oops. So we made our way back across the bridge to New York New York.
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| Statue of Liberty, because NY NY! |
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| And of course, Sesame Street |
At this point, after all the festive feasting and walking about, everyone was low on energy. We had plans to catch some shows that evening so we had to take an early dinner. We strolled back to our hotel, because the plan was to catch a nap before the show so that no one will collapse from fatigue. We had a simple dinner at the noodle restaurant of our hotel, during which J nearly fell asleep whilst eating; and the husband ended up carrying him up to the room because he did concuss mid-meal. The little girl and I stayed on to finish our dinner, and even put the leftovers in a tapau bag and brought it up to the room. We all probably managed to rest for about half hour, before we needed to get up and head off.
The husband wanted to watch La Reve, a show that involved water and acrobatics but because that show was not suitable for children, I offered to take the kids to catch a child-friendly show and let him go for what he wanted on his own. We opted for a some-sort of live variety show that had ping pong balls and juggling hats, dance, jokes and some acrobatic acts along with magic - it's really a mish mash of sorts; and it probably suited the children ok.
So here came the juggling act of our own. After discussions, we decided that (1) the husband will send us to our show that started at 800pm. (2) He will go for his show that'd start an hour later. Our show will end about 1 hour+ before his did, so I initially toyed with the idea of carting both kids back to the hotel on my own. I'm glad I didn't go with that option because juggling 2 kids with only 1 pram and a big bag on my back was not easy. So, (3) once the husband finished his show, he'd come to fetch us (challenge, we had no phone and only a rough sense of time to meet back at the pick-up point).
(1) Drop off - the good news is that we made it on time, the bad was that I was in such a frenzy trying to rush to make the show. I think from where we were dropped off (the lobby of a neighbouring block), we had 5 minutes to make it to the show. Thankfully, the show wasn't too punctual (thank goodness for allowance time) and also K was behaving like such a star trooper that she brisk-walked alongside me, understanding the urgent need to co-operate so that we'd be able to watch our show. J was thankfully also sitting comfortably in the pram and together, we three made it. Hooray!
The show itself was ok, the kids were probably suitably entertained but it wasn't a big deal for me. But the point wasn't for me, but for them so it was fine. After the show ended, we had an hour to pass and we spent the time browsing the shops, buying a toy for each child and trying to secure a snack.
So, here is what I call the 'Kind Act that popped up'. So, while tossing around options in the mall for the kids to have, we decided on Garrett's popcorn. It was affordable, easy to eat and the kids could pick their own flavours if they disagreed on one. So there I was, in the Q, talking through the kids the flavours that were available through the counters; and the attendant - this lanky, young African-American lad, beckoned to me. He had a bag of popcorn in his hand and pointed to J to come forward. J did and took the bag from him. The guy then proceeded to fill another similar bag, this time passing it to K. I smiled, seeing how happy the kids were and asked how much I had to pay (I couldn't see an option of a 'small bag' on the wall menu). He smiled at me and shook his head, then clutched his fist and pumped it to his heart then pointed to J and said "this is between me and the little man". We thanked him profusely for his kindness and headed to a nearby bench to eat. I was truly surprised by this kind gesture - perhaps they gave out free samplers this way, but still, it made me happy.
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| One happy boy - with the cup of jelly beans in the foreground (yet to be presented) |
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| One happy girl with her free bag of popcorn |
So, in my heavy backpack, I had diapers, waterbottles, jackets... and I also had candy. The candy of the night was a bag of jellybeans that I'd feed to the kids sparingly to distract/bribe/entertain them. I decided that the kids had to return the guy's kindness and so, I poured a bunch of jellybeans into a little Garrett's plastic taster cup and asked the kids to pass it to the guy. It took a bit of persuasion, but both of them headed to the shop on their own, with each other to pass the guy the candy. What struck me was how wide the guy smiled to get the candy, and he didn't even take the candy over the counter. Perhaps it was because the kids were too short, but he actually stepped out from the counter, to the front and took the candy from the kids.
This exchange may be simple and not superbly significant, but even till today, I'd say 'remember the kind popcorn uncle?' and they do remember. I hope that this teaches them to be kind and to always pass it on, because it's these little things that mean the real deal.
After snacking, I managed to do a spot of shopping then we headed to the pick up point to meet the husband. And by then, it was pretty late so it took us little time to settle the kids. Oh, but not before we devoured the leftover noodles from our very-early dinner.
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| Good night. |
Read about our previous day here.
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