Las Vegas Journal #2

School was so overwhelming this week that I barely had time to play. During the duration of our student teaching we have to create a unit and teach it. The criteria is lenghty and there are many things to plan. I was told that I am teaching mine this upcoming week (which I was not expecting. I thought I had a month until I taught it, but things go switched around), so much planning had to take place so I couldn't play much. The weather has also been extremely rainy and stormy all week, so when I did want to play at the pool, it was too cold.

Wednesday: Zipline at Freemont Street. This was extremely cool. You go up 5 stories, someone straps you into a little harness, and you get launched off a little area and zipline across the whole street of Freemont. Holy Cow. This was seriously one of the coolest things I've done yet. It was so much fun, but went really fast. That was the only bummer to it, but I'm so glad I got to do it. Melanie and I went together and our friends Stacey, Aaron, and Janey were behind us. Super fun!

Laura and Jerry came to play this weekend. Thursday I went and picked them up from the airport. We drove down the strip - got to see all the lights and fun things from the car.

Friday I had to teach that morning but met up with them around 3. While I was gone they went to the strip and saw somethings - walking tons of course. When I got there, we at at Steak-and-Shake, one of my favorites, and hit up the strip again. We tried going to the gondolas at the Venetian but they were outrageously expensive, so we didn't go there, then we went to the Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage, but it was closing in 5 minutes so we couldn't go there, but finally we got to see the conservatory at the Bellagio. It was adorable. Everything was decorated for fall. There were gigantic pumpkins made of roses and the place was covered in fall colored flowers. Everything was adorable there - now I am having splurges for fall (I don't think Vegas has fall though - and I will just barely miss fall in Idaho :( that does make me sad. I LOVE fall!!!) Afterwards we made it the the Bellagio fountains which were amazing as usual. Accomplishment of the night: I got into two pictures of people and smiled. One was just random people, i think a family, i walked behind, turned and smiled right as they took it. The second was great - it was a couple that had just gotten married. I was so proud. They were taking pictures by the fountain and I gave a great grin for the camera.

Saturday: We started out by going to Hoover Dam. It was really cool - this time around more things were open since it was earlier in the day. We walked on the bridge, had spitting contests and took pictures. When we went down to the dam we went to the visitors center which was really cool - it had lots of the history and little hands on things of how the power works and stuff. It was really fun. We also went into the awesome bathrooms. I know this sounds silly - but it was really cool - you went up fancy stairs to get to the top. It was also right off the dam and there were windows you could look out and see down. After the dam we drove to the temple. On the way I got in my first Vegas wreck - luckily I was not alone. I was so glad for that. I have no idea how, but my car didn't get hurt at all, but the guy who hit me got banged up pretty good. I hate wrecks! We made it to the gorgeous temple, took pictures and had a good time. We were pooped by this time, we we went to the hotel and I took a nap on the wonderful bed! Oh how I miss my bed at home. It's seriously the best thing in the world, but after 3 months of the lovely college twin bed, I bed I'll appreciate it even more! We were feeling slightly lazy still, so the rest of the night we just chilled and went to the Cheesecake Factory - which was amazing! I had a great time with them. It was really fun to have them here!