Mandalay Bay's Shark Reef- MLK Day

Today we went to the Shark Reef. I had the day off of work and the kids were off of school for the holiday. It wasn’t as cool as the Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage, but it was still nice to get out of the house and do something as a family. Sometimes I feel like I live on Las Vegas Boulevard. I’m either headed there 5 days out of the week for work, or on my days off I’m taking the family there to do an activity- not that I’m getting sick of it or anything. I just never thought I would find myself there so often. Before I started this job, the only time we would go to the strip was when we would have visitors from out of town. So when we would go- I often felt like a tourist. Now I feel like more of a local. I am grateful for my employee discounts that we’ve been able to take advantage of at the different MGM venues. If it weren’t for the great deals we have available we wouldn’t be taking the kids out as often as we have been.

Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

Ever since I started my job I feel like all I do is work and sleep. Today I had the day off so me and Ti Tonga decided that we should spend the day doing something fun with the boys. Ti was so set on going to the Shark Reef, but I thought it would be fun to go to the Mirage since we've never been there before. After we bought our tickets for the Secret Garden I was kind of worried that the trip would turn out lame. We arrived at the first pool of dolphins and there was little action going on, but Ti spotted a second pool and as soon as we got there the kids were just in awe of how close the dolphins were to them. I think Nic was the most vocal about his excitement. He chased the dolphins up and down the pool with a huge smile on his face. I wish we could've touched them, but we weren't allowed to reach in the pool. We stayed there for a while just waving and watching the dolphins. There were 3 of them: a baby dolphin by the name of Bella, her mother, and her grandmother. I have never seen such intelligent animals before. I mean, I know that every creature can feel and express emotions, but these dolphins- it was like they could comprehend the admiration we had for them, and they were able to show us that they understood.




After playing with Bella and her family we went into The Secret Garden and got to see lots of animals. The kids were most excited to see the white tigers- they were all beautiful.

We came back out and headed downstairs to where we could see the bottom half of the pool which allowed the kids to see a different set of dolphins swim below the water. These dolphins were all males and were a lot bigger than Bella and her family- and a lot faster too.
The kids had also hoped to see the volcano show out front, but we didn't get a chance to see it because it was still light out... maybe another night.
I'm so glad we ended up going to the Mirage- way better than the Shark Reef in my opinion.

Viva Elvis

While we were in training we were invited to watch the newest Cirque Du Soleil production to be brought to Las Vegas. Viva Elvis! What an experience! I've always wanted to watch a Cirque Du Soleil show- any Las Vegas show to be quite honest, but I've never gotten around to it. So when I heard that we would be one of the first in the world to watch Viva Elvis I was so excited!! We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but I found these online from the performance they did for Priscilla Presley. The stagework was insane. I never thought of myself as an Elvis fan before, but I was dancing in my seat the entire show. They put a modern twist on the King of Rock N Roll's songs which made it pretty much impossible not to clap your hands and boogie.

Going Out With a Bang

I totally lucked out this week and ended up not having to work on New Year's Eve. The boys have been in Salt Lake since Monday leaving me and Ti Tonga home alone. With nothing really exciting to do we decided to drive out to the airport to see if we could catch a glimpse of the firework show on the strip. The little "airport park" was packed, so we drove around until we found a business park that had a good view of the strip. Before we knew it there were cars all around us with people waiting to see the fireworks as well. We rang in the new year with our hoodies on, sitting on the hood of our car, staring at the city's skyline- it was beautiful! The fireworks were so cool!! We watched the synchronized fireworks shoot off the tops of several hotels (Aria being one of them!) I think that maybe one year I would like to be amongst the crazies on Las Vegas Boulvard on Dec. 31st... one year :)