Surprise: You're going to Las Vegas!

Noah and I recently drove up to Albuquerque to visit my brother, Ryan. He surprised us and told us we were going to go to Las Vegas!!! I had no idea! So, we packed up the car and were off to Las Vegas! We arrived about 1 a.m. Ryan had booked a room at the Mirage. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, Ryan also had to go to the hospital that night due to a kidney stone. Noah was a trooper and slept on me the whole night in the emergency room waiting room. Ryan got some relief from medication and was able to get out at about 8 a.m. We rested and Ryan was ready to go to Caesar's Palace that evening. We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It's one of my favorite places-Paradise Tea, crispy chicken costaletta, and Godiva cheesecake! What's not to like? Noah loved the enormous aquarium he could see from our table. He'd rather watch the fish, than eat!
The next day, we went to MGM Grand, the M&M Store, and the Coke Store. I let Noah make his own bag of M&Ms. He wanted every kind in the store! We also enjoyed Coke floats in the Coke store. It was so refreshing after being in the 109 degree heat! I could totally buy a lot of things in both those stores if everything weren't so expensive!
When we went to the Bellagio, Noah really enjoyed looking at the gardens. It had a garden theme with ants, ladybugs, frogs, bees, etc...Most of it was made out of flowers. It was so beautiful. Noah didn't really care for the dancing fountains because of the loud noises they make. I loved them. We saw one show to "God Bless the U.S.A." It was great!
At the Venetian, Noah liked seeing the "boats." Ryan is hilarious to watch at the Venetian. He cringes when someone opens their mouth to start singing. Most of them could use a little help!
As we were getting ready to leave Las Vegas (we just filled up with gas), my car wouldn't start!! We ended up having to get a new, EXPENSIVE battery for my car. Everything took so long, we ended up staying another night! (I know, so sad...) We stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton that night and ate at Benihana. It was so good! Noah loved it and had a great time using chopsticks!
We left the next day and stayed in Flagstaff on the way home. Noah got to see his cousins Emmanuel and Elena. We all went swimming together. (They were on their way to Las Vegas & Disneyland.)
We had such a wonderful time!!! Thank you so much, Ryan!!! (Ryan's doing much better, now, by the way.)