New Year's in Vegas, Part 2

Our second full day in Vegas started out pretty laid-back.  We took it easy at the house for a while, then went to a small restaurant deceptively named Baby Stacks, which served hills (not stacks) of large (not small) pancakes.  But they were yummy.

Early in the afternoon we headed out to the Silverton Casino to enjoy some of the events at their big aquarium.  First, we saw a mermaid!

Some of the mermaid-themed art was cute (I liked the little mermaid
pulling on the boy's fishing line) but most of it was... not my favorite.

Then, we saw the stingray feeding, which was actually really cool and much more interesting than the mermaid.  There were several kinds of rays in the tank and they were all fed by hand.

Then we went out for two fun shows back-to-back.  I was anxious to take Luke to see a real Vegas magician, and this one was really fun.  I'll admit, Murray the Magician (Murray Sawchuck) wasn't at the top of my list, but we had a great time at his show and I honestly don't know how he pulled off his tricks.  His sidekick Lefty was very entertaining as well.

Murray performed in a small comedy-club type venue (where our group was almost half of the audience) in the old, sad, smelly Tropicana casino.  At the other end of the spectrum was our next show: Mystere by Cirque du Soleil.  This was a big beautiful theater at Treasure Island.  We drove to TI and had dinner at the food court before going in to see the show.  Mystere was absolutely incredible.  Everyone enjoyed it.  There were several times when the acrobatics were so amazing that I honestly couldn't believe my eyes.

When the show was over, we went to the parking garage roof, where we were parked,
and watched the Mirage's volcano eruption way off in the distance before heading home.

You may have noticed that Ben wasn't in any of the pictures we took on Saturday.  That's because he'd started feeling sick on NYE and by Saturday morning he was bedridden.  We were really sad that he missed out on the fun but so glad he got better quickly.  He was walking around by Saturday night and even eating a little on Sunday.

We got everything packed and loaded Sunday morning, then had an early lunch at a really yummy pizza place before we all headed home.  There was so much traffic going back to Utah that we were actually prevented from getting on the Interstate at one point and had to take a detour.  The scenery was beautiful, and the road was less crowded, but between the traffic earlier in the drive and the extra miles, the trip took about 1.5 hours longer than normal.

Our weekend in Vegas turned out so well, especially for a (somewhat) last-minute trip.  We had lots of fun and loved spending time with family!