A couple of days ago I mentioned the website http://www.worksheetworks.com/  the kids and I have been having more fun with it so I thought I would show you the cute little copy work they did practicing their Awana verses this week.

My 7 year olds Awana verse.

My 4 year olds Awana verse

Both my 7 and my 4 year old can’t get enough of this site!  I was thinking this might be a fun way for them to write letters to some of their friends in Las Vegas. They can tell me what to type and then they can do the copy work to make them personal.  I can’t believe this is FREE! YAY!

The words of this song have been singing in my heart since Saturday night at church. I wake and the words are already whirling around in my thoughts. Thank-you, Sherinne, for being faithful and leading us into the presence of God...

As morning dawns and evening fades
You in- spire songs of praise
That rise from earth to touch Your heart and glorify Your Name

CHORUS
Your Name is a strong and mighty tow- er
Your Name is a shelter like no oth- er
Your Name, let the nations sing it loud- er
'Cause nothing has the pow- er to save
But Your Name

Jesus, in Your Name we pray
Come and fill our hearts today
Lord, give us strength to live for You and glorify Your Name

Thank you, Paul Baloche for this beautiful melody and for the simplicity of words that are powerful enough to penetrate deep into my soul.

If I could tally up the emotion that best describes this summer I would give you the word "freedom".  I've had a great sense of freedom as we unleased from the tether of home to head down the Oregon Coast to San Diego on our holidays. And, although we came back to be plunged headfirst into end of school "stuff", the rest of the summer had alloted me the same privilege of being able to head out the door on a whim.

I've spent hours just walking for miles and miles. I've begun new friendships, and rekindled ones that had fizzled out. I've bumped into people who I haven't seen for years and wondered at the timing and the reason behind these strange encounters.  Hearts laid bare in a parking lot by Save-On Foods. I've touched bases with friends who will always be friends. The kind of friends that have become knit into the fabric of my being, who's lives have intimately changed the way I do life, and who have walked with me while the walls around my safe places where being shifted and torn down. These kinds of friends fill your cup until it 'runneth over' as the sweet old King James says.

I've had time to putter in my garden, pruning flowers for hours under an easy sun that fills my heart with joy and warms me to my bones. I've had time to think about God and soak in the light of His gaze. I've felt the direction of my life shifting, not ground-shaking shifting but  a subtle shift that isn't really clear or meaningful to me yet.

I feel rested in my spirit. Happy that I haven't even flipped the calendar to August yet. Excited that there are lots of days left in which to continue revelling in freedom, and filling my well until it's overflowing. I'm not so overwhelmed by thoughts of what the new school year will hold. I think I'm finally beginning to learn what it means to trust God. Trust Him not only for the salvation of my soul, or the uncertainty of the future, but for the details of my days, the inconsequential things that mean nothing to anybody else but me and Him. And, He takes care of them.

This is part 2.  Click HERE to read part 1.

Circus Circus Circus Acts **** This we LOVED! Another great freebie!  Every 15 minutes there are circus acts in the big top.  My kids could stay all day.  There are also inexpensive midway games and many of them guarantee your child will win a stuffed animal. (I can’t even tell you how many of these I gave to Goodwill when we moved!  LOL) 

Fountains at Caesars Palace (In Forum Shops underground shopping area.) ** This is something to see if you happen to be in the Forum Shops when the show happens.  It is VERY loud and hard to understand.  (My daughter was terrified of this too! LOL)  I could live without seeing it.  But, it is free. 

Aquarium at Ceasars Palace ** There is a big aquarium you can look at for free.  It’s pretty.  There is also a free tour of how they take care of the aquarium.  You get to go “back stage” and see all the equipment.  It’s pretty interesting and again, it’s free!  LOL  I wouldn’t make a special effort to do this unless you have a budding Marine Biologist in the family.

Leid Children's Museum **** Finally something that is BIG in Las Vegas!  LOL  This we LOVED!  We  had a season pass to the museum and went frequently.  They have all kinds of fun stuff for kids.  A stage with costumes, a grocery store, banks and fire dept.  There is a display of old neon signs.  (Which is pretty cool.)  There is an awesome section for the little ones where they a can mine silver. (Pretend silver of course.)  There are arts and crafts, a karaoke room, a place where kids can play basketball in a wheel chair, lots of science related exhibits.  Plan to be there ALL DAY.  Pack your own lunch.  There is no where to eat nearby.  It is closed on Mondays.  Also, sadly it is not in a good part of town.  It is very near the skid row section of Las Vegas.  It is attached to the Public Library and a lot of sketchy characters hang out outside.  Once your inside it’s great, but keep a close eye on your kids coming and going.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum *** This is pretty nice.  Once again, it’s small.  But, if your kids like dinosaurs they have animated ones.  There is also a cool open tank of sharks you can view. It is across the street from the Lied Museum. This will take about 3 hours to see it all.

Star Trek Experience **** We never made it to the Star Trek Experience because it was too expensive.  BUT, we did eat at Quarks Bar & Restaurant a couple times.  It was FUN!  If you like Star Trek I recommend eating here! There are very realistic characters who come around to the tables.  I about fainted when I came out of the restroom and encountered a Borg!  LOL  The one time we took the kids a Klingon came to our table and scared my daughter to death!  LOL  When my daughter dove under the table the Klingon totally stayed in character and chastised my husband and I “Did you not warn your young earthling that there would be Klingons here?!”  LOL  (Can you see a theme by now of my daughter being completely terrified of the strip!  LOL) We also got a good laugh when the Quark tried to get us to pay by leaving one of our children with him!  LOL

Ethel M Chocolate Factory **** I am giving this 4 stars but I am also saying this is four stars only at Christmas time!  The actually chocolate factory tour is pretty lame.  It is self guided and only takes a few minutes.  Plus they only give you one piece of chocolate for visiting!  LOL  BUT, in the month of December they decorate the cactus garden that is out front with thousands of lights.  It is truly beautiful and was our favorite Christmas thing to do in Las Vegas. You can see pictures from one of our visits HERE. 

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area  **** (Winter only)  This is a wonderful beautiful place that you will hardly be able to believe is right outside Las Vegas!  You will feel a world away from the strip!  If you enjoy hiking there are a lot of great trails.  Ask at the visitor center how to hike to the waterfall.  (It’s dry in the Summer.  Feb. is the perfect month to go see it.) This was a favorite hang out stop for our family. Click here to see my post about a field trip we took to Red Rock. 

Bonnie Springs *** (Winter only) If you are looking for good old fashion fun this is the place!  LOL  (I am talking as hokie as you can get!)  My kids liked it. There is a train to ride, a couple of old west shows and some shops.  The best part is the petting zoo. You can get very up close and personal with the animals. Makes for a fun day!  It’s about 25 minutes from the strip.

Freemont Street Experience *** This is fun to go to at night.  They boast the world’s largest TV!  LOL  There are shows on the hour and you will be amazed.  Go to the website and see what is playing when.  Some are more family friendly than others!  Mermaids is a bar/casino on Fremont Street where you can get .99 cent fried Twinkies and Oreos!  (Don't take the kids inside. Mom stands outside with the kids and dad goes in for treats! LOL) This was another big night out for us when we lived in Las Vegas. The shows are free of course! 

Don't Sees!

Pirate Show at Treasure Island – The pirate show is no longer kid friendly. It is suppose to be sexy, I thought it was really lame.  Yes, my husband and I went and saw it right before we left.  I wanted to know what all the hoopla was about. I couldn’t believe all these people waste their time seeing something so stupid!

Excalibur - While there is nothing really wrong with Excalibur, there isn't really much there for kids.  We went to the buffet a couple times and I was always disappointed that a building that looked so cartoonish had so little for kids. The best part is what you can see from the car driving by, the building!

 Okay, with all this said I just want to warn to be on guard the whole time you are in Las Vegas with your kids.  I would warn them ahead of time that there will be times you are just going to tell them to close their eyes and they need to obey.  You need to be vigilant to do things like distracting the kids as you drive passed certain billboards and turning over placemats that have half nude women on them.  (Been there done that!) Even as I was preparing this post I was amazed how many hiney’s and how much cleavage I was exposed to just looking at Las Vegas websites.  I am already forgetting how prominent that atmosphere is in Las Vegas!  (Thank God!)

Whew, that is enough for now!  Tomorrow I will try to post on our favorite places to eat in Las Vegas.

"Hey Jamin! My family and I will be going to Las Vegas for one week next week and I was just wondering of you could tell me where are the “must see” stops there. And I don’t necessarily mean the big tourist attractions but the places that only the locals know about, you know what I mean?

I have 4 children ages 8, 7, 5, and 3 so I definitely need something kid friendly.

Anyway I would greatly appreciate any advice you could give.

Sincerely,         

Eva "

There is a saying that "Every 5 years the whole world passes through Las Vegas." Having lived there for 4 years I can honestly say I believe that is true! Not only does Las Vegas host conventions for EVERYONE, (I will never forget the time we were eating out at a buffet and there was a HUGE group of Southern Baptist Pastors eating there that were in Las Vegas for a convention.  LOL) also if you want to go to California from just about anywhere in the USA, your probably going to pass through Las Vegas.

Since we lived in Las Vegas for 4 years I have answered this question more that a few times!  LOL  So instead of just emailing Eva with my response I thought I would put it here too.

Kid friendly things to do in Las Vegas? Yes, they do exist.  But, I first a warning.  The Las Vegas strip as a whole is NOT a kid friendly place.  My best advice for manuvering the strip with kids is do not walk anywhere on the street!  Yes, I know the strip is designed to be walked.  It is also designed to look like everything is really close, while being a much longer walk that it looks like!  I have nothing against walking, But, the problem with it in Las Vegas is exposure to pornography.  I am not just talking about the posters and billboards that are everywhere on the strip.  Most of them are a very strong R-rating.  What I am warning you about are the call girl cards that are aggressively passed out on the strip.  You see prostitution is illegal in Clark County where Las Vegas is located.  But, there is not law against passing out advertisement for the brothels in ajoining counties. So, everywhere you go there are aggressive men and women passing out what look like fancy trading cards with the most disgusting pornography on them you can imagine.  People take them and then drop them.  So they are all over the street. If the card pushers aren't busy with people they stick them in fences and on poles and etc.  I am telling you if you walk the street there will be NO avoiding seeing this!  So you have been warned! (BTW, the parking is all free on the strip.)

Okay,now that I have sternly warned you :^) here are some things we enjoyed doing with our kids in Las Vegas:

I am going to use a star rating systems. 

**** = highly recommend

*** = recommend

** = go if it interests you.

* = It is kid friendly

Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay **** - This is a very nice aquarium and we went there many times while we were in Las Vegas.  It is not huge, but you can go through at your own pace.  Our favorite part was the touch pools where you can touch all kids of cool sea creatures.  I also like this one because you can park right outside the door and never see a slot machine!  Check the map online to find the best parking. Here is a post about one of our visits to the aquarium.

The Lion Habitat at MGM *** - This is very fun for the kids.  It is also small, but it’s free so who can complain!  LOL  It is smack dab in the middle of the casino, so there is no avoiding the slot machines and smoke on this one. I HIGHLY recommend you valet park for this one.  (It’s free too.)  The walk from the MGM parking to the Lion Habitat is at least 100 miles!  LOL  It’s uphill both ways too!  You have been warned… VALET PARK!  If your hungry there is a Rainforest Café right by the Habitat.  Also, once you finish this you are going to want to head on over to M&M World.  (Your almost there!)

M&M World **** - This is a very fun place.  But, warn your children up front that you are NOT buying M&M’s.  They charge something like $10.00 a pound for them!  They do however have a really cute 3D show for the kids.  My kids loved it and we went several times. When you leave the Lion Habitat you can go out the front doors and make a right.  M&M World is just about a block away.  I know this breaks my don’t walk rule, but I have never seen porn pushers on this section of the strip.  There is no other parking for M&M World.

Conservatory at Bellagio **** This was by far our favorite thing to do in Las Vegas! I can’t even count the number of times we went to Bellagio.  This is a beautiful indoor garden that they change out 4 times a year.  Each exhibit is more mind boggling than the one before and it’s FREE!  They have easy free parking where you can get in and out without seeing the casino.  After you see the conservatory you have to head over to see the chocolate fountain! Take the side exit from the exhibit and go right you’ll come upon the chocolate fountain.  After the chocolate fountain you HAVE to go see the BIG fountains outside! Here is my post about one of our visits to the Bellagio

Fountains at Bellagio **** As far as I am concerned this dancing water is the biggest star in Las Vegas! It is so beautiful! It is all synchronized to music and it is a real delight.  Our big day out in Las Vegas was to go see the Conservatory, then the chocolate fountains  topped off with the fountain.  It’s all FREE!  Oh, and a lot of the shows are set to Christian music.  Go figure?  LOL Click HERE to see the fountains on U-Tube.

King Tut Exhibit at Luxor **** This is another awesome must see in my book!  I could tell you all about it, but I have already blogged about it complete with pictures here.

Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage ***  This is pretty nice, we especially like the Dolphins there.  Again, it is pretty small and won’t take long to go through.  I would avoid it in the summer because it’s outside in the middle of the casino and it is HOT even in the winter.  I never went except in February and it was SO hot then I cannot imagine summer out there! (This is the place that inspired my Dolphins in the Desert post!)

Volcano at the Mirage **** This is another fun free thing to see.  If you want to add a free tram ride you can park at Treasure Island and take the free tram over.  That was another fun family night out while we lived in Las Vegas.  LOL  My daughter was terrified of the volcano from the time we moved there. She wanted so badly not to be afraid of it.  She would beg us to take her and tell us she wouldn’t be afraid  if we took her again.  Every time as soon as the volcano would go off she would start screaming! LOL  What a funny memory!

Circus Circus Adventure Dome ** We only went here once and it was fun.  Again, it seems small to me for the money.  Having been to Disneyland a zillion times my kids were not impressed with the rides.  You can walk through without paying to decide it you want to pay the money.  You can either pay by the ride or get wrist bands.  We did have  blast when we went because it was my rent-a-kids birthday party and we ALWAYS have fun with him!

For some reason I am having trouble with my posts getting messed up if they are too long. So I am ending here and will post the rest tomorrow. :^)