What Happens in Vegas...

On Saturday we went to Vegas.  When we got there the kids literally thought the hotel sign was the hotel.  Heck it was big enough to be one:

The hotel, of course, was even bigger.  (We stayed on the 20th floor.)

Since we were in Vegas, we made sure to play cards--a wild game of "Go Fish" in our hotel room.

The next morning Andrew said what he really wanted to do was play in "that arcade thing" downstairs.  We had to explain to him about "arcade things" in Vegas.

Then I told my kids about the time when my mom taught us six kids a lesson about gambling.  She lined us all up behind the railing surrounding the casino and made a show of taking her quarter to the slot machines.  She explained to us that the machine would eat her money and it would be gone forever.  She held up the quarter for us all to see, fed it into the slot, pulled the handle and...you guessed it...quarters started flying out.  Our eyes were wide with delight as she scooped the piles of money into the plastic cups.  We learned our lesson all right! 

I guess I take after my mom in having a proclivity to wax pedantic when the opportunity affords.  As we drove through the strip, all sad and empty on Sunday morning, I started preaching.  I said, "See, kids?  Look around.  The world offers many attractive distractions that can give us temporary excitement but in the end just leaves us empty and alone and--"

Suddenly Rex shouted:  "Look kids!!  It's the Eiffel Tower!!!"  He looked at my sour expression and then said, "Um, I mean, yeah the world leaves you empty and stuff....Hey LOOK! It's the Statue of Liberty!!"

So much for that.