Anniversary Trip - July 27-30

During our anniversary week, we surprised each other with special gifts. Collin gave me fudge from none other than BYU. It might be the best fudge I have ever had. It was sweet, just like him.:) He also gave me a necklace with an engraving of the Tree of Life. It is found in the 1 Nephi scriptures in the Book of Mormon. It's so beautiful. My hubby is the best. :) I gave him a candy bar bouquet, a card, and a bow tie coming soon in the mail. :)

Collin and I decided that after long months of working and school, we needed to take a vacation. What better time to do that then our 1 year anniversary! This is why I am glad we got married in the summertime. :)

We left Provo on Sunday afternoon and headed to Viva Las Vegas! We stayed at the Luxor hotel where everything was Egyptian themed. The hotel itself was the shape of a pyramid. We ended up staying at the towers which had a great view of the pyramid.

 You can't see it very well, but this how the pyramid looks when it's lit up

 This is how it looks when it's daytime

 The hotel rooms from inside the pyramid

 The hieroglyphic writings

We ate at a buffet located at Mandalay Bay. The food was yummy. We really enjoyed the crab legs and steak that was served there. The next day we ate another buffet that was really good. I really liked their Chinese food.

On Monday night, we got the opportunity to watch "The Tournament of Kings." It's where we get to eat dinner with our hands and watch people sword fight and joust at each other. We decided to root for the "bad guy" of the show. He was called the Dragon King. He used a flame thrower as a weapon. You could feel the heat of the fire on your face. Nothing like a good dinner and a show. ;) I was astounded by the performers! It was amazing what they could do. All I can say is, they have a lot of guts to perform some risky moves. Here are some pictures before and after the show:

Not very good pictures, but this is the round table that they placed in the center of the stage

Part of the stage set

  This guy doesn't look like my husband, does it? ;) I thought this guy was so awesome! I had to get a picture with him.

We headed towards the Bellagio and watched the fountains. It was a pretty cool sight to see.

It's a crazy angle, but here is where the fountains took place before the show

 This was the best picture I could get of the fountains, but I like it. :)

After the fountain show, we got a chance to go up the Eiffel Tower in the Paris casino. It's about half of the size of the real Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. The one in Las Vegas was still pretty tall, so I can only imagine what the real Eiffel Tower is like. When we got to the top, this is what we saw:

 We, of course, had to get a picture of ourselves. ;)

We saw the most incredible view from about 400 feet up the tower! I loved seeing the whole city of Vegas from where we stood. It was so beautiful or as the French say, "belle."

Tuesday, we did some sight-seeing around Vegas and a whole lot of walking. All I can say is, I am glad I wore tennis shoes that day. We took some pictures that I felt were some of our highlights from our trip to Vegas.

 The New York, New York

 The Excalibur

Eventually, we took a monorail to get around Vegas. We came across the Venetian where we enjoyed gelato ice cream. When we finished our ice cream, we took a romantic ride on the Gondola.What made it really special was when there was a gondolier that steered the boat and sang a song for us. It felt like we were actually in Venice riding on the river.  

The Gondola

 Blurry picture, but I still think it's really special. :)

 The Shopping Malls at Venice

After a while of walking, we decided to rest somewhere and came across giant chocolate fountain. It had to have been the biggest chocolate fountain I have ever seen. I felt like Charlie in the chocolate factory!

Collin and I received two pairs of free tickets to see the shark tank in Mandalay Bay and the Titanic Exhibition in the Luxor. We chose to go to the shark tank first. We got to see all kinds of creatures like the komodo dragon and the piranha. We even got to pet sting rays (with one finger of course.) 

 Komodo Dragon, just chillin'

 Piranha

   From the Shark Tank

 

We received tickets to get a discount on any restaurant we wanted to go to in the Luxor. We picked Rice and Company, which is a sushi place in the casino. The sushi was so delicious! I hadn't had sushi like that in a long time! My sushi craving was satisfied and most of all, we barely spent anything out of pocket. 

After dinner, we went to the Titanic Exhibition. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I can tell you what we saw. There were many artifacts displayed that people have found from the sunken ship itself. We also saw recreations of the first and third class bedrooms, docks, and the grand staircase. It all felt so realistic, as if you were on the Titanic itself. I was completely intrigued by everything that I saw. Titanic has always been something I have been fascinated about, so it was a cool experience for me. I still can't believe that the ship has now been underwater for 102 years! It's so sad that the majority of the people did not make it out alive. We will forever remember the Ship of Dreams and all those that lost their lives on April 15th, 1912.

Shortly after the exhibition, we drove down and stayed in St. George for the night. The next day, we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the St. George temple. We walked around and took a few pictures.

 There was a wedding going on that day, so that's why you see a group of people gathered together.

 It was one of the oldest temples ever built. Commenced on November 9th, 1871. Dedicated on April 6th, 1877

We arrived in Bryce National Park a few hours later. This was probably my favorite part of the trip. We got to see the most breath-taking views! I got carried away with pictures, but I don't care. :) Take a look:

 Sign Pictures :)

 There was a raven just hanging around the sign. Collin looks so funny. Haha.

 So Picturesque!!

 I loved the cloud formation in this picture

 You can't see it very well, but there is a rock to the very right that looks like a sunken ship

  Thor's Hammer

It was a photographer's dream! I was in Heaven. I had never been so blown by such a spectacular view. When it was time to leave, I was almost sad, because we had such a great time. If there is one thing that I learned from this trip is to always spend time with your loved ones and never take it for granted. I savored every moment of this trip, especially when it was with my sweet, wonderful husband.