41 Hours in Vegas

Right after Christmas this past year, my old roommate Lindsay shared the news that she was getting married, and asked if Tyler could serve as her ringbearer. My first reaction was, "What? No way! Girls' trip to Vegas!" Then the mother side of me kicked in and I realized what an honor it would be to have Tyler be a part of her wedding. Good thing, because there's no sense having a girls' trip to Vegas while pregnant.

Many months have gone by. In May, we spoke to Tyler's dance teacher to see how she got him to behave so well during his dance recital, so we could use her techniques to prepare him for the wedding. Her answer was, "Just tell him that regardless of his emotions, he needs to focus on his body and what his body needs to do. If he wants to cry he can cry, but he needs to stand straight and look this direction, and move his right foot. Keep telling him what he needs to make his body do." That advice came in handy.

We ordered the official attire from Amazon, a grey suit, including vest, pants, jacket, tie, and a white dress shirt. When we had Tyler try it on, he was okay with it until we put the tie on, and then when I tried to take a picture to send to Lindz, he had a meltdown. Hmmm. Well, it was pretty hot in his bedroom. We chalked it up to heat.

We showed Tyler pictures of a few of the more economical hotels (casinos) in close proximity to the wedding venue. Lindz was staying at New York, New York, but given we would be flying directly to the real New York, New York from Vegas, and given that locale isn't particularly kid-friendly, we gave Tyler the option to stay elsewhere. He picked the castle. Excalibur. Awesome - I think it was the absolute cheapest casino in that location. Who wouldn't want to stay in a castle? Based on reviews, I upgraded to the remodeled - "contemporary tower rooms." I didn't request any particular view or floor, just made sure to get an updated room because they supposedly would not reek of tobacco. Well worth the upgrade, and even with the upgrade, was still one of the cheapest rooms on the strip!

So with me at 33 weeks and 6 days pregnant, we flew to Las Vegas. Quick, easy flight. 

We would be in Las Vegas for less than 48 hours. 41, to be exact. Just before take-off, I tried to play a last prank on the bride by sending this photo of Tyler from a face plant one week prior.

Your ring bearer, in all his beauty. You can fix this, right?

 — with Lindsay Peters and Tyson Keith.

She didn't fall for it. D'oh! 

It felt so strange to be flying to Vegas while still sober. Normally, a trip to Vegas warrants drinks even before the flight, or at least a Bloody Mary on the plane! Tyson didn't drink either. The realization that we wouldn't be gambling - Tyler wouldn't be allowed on the floor - set in. And how much fun could I possibly be should a bachelorette party be in the works?

We landed at 11:25am. Funny enough, on the plane, we ran into Rigel and Stephanie, also headed to the wedding. (Rigel is one of the people with whom I used to go paintballing, scuba diving, on trips to beach, etc.) As soon as we got into a cab, we checked in with Lindsay, who informed us we did not have a rehearsal to attend, and dinner was scheduled for 6pm. 5.5 hours of free time? SWEET!

(Google Images)

We booked it to the hotel, dropped our bags off in storage, ran interference against the timeshare vultures, bought tickets to Excalibur's "Tournament of the Kings" show, then headed to the Shark Reef Exhibit at Mandalay Bay. Tyler loved riding the tram, and was having so much fun at the exhibit that he decided to go through it twice. He touched a stingray, loved the jellyfish tank, and of course, was so excited to see the sharks. 

We returned to the hotel for Tyler to take a nap so he could make it politely through dinner and stay awake for the show. We woke him up at 5:30 and made it to dinner by 6:10pm - walking across the bridge to New York, New York, then crossing the bridge to MGM, and walking all the way through that casino to find the restaurant, Emeril's Seafood. I was excited for Tyson to get to eat good seafood, something we don't get in Tucson. 

(Photo by Lindz)

Lindsay introduced herself to Tyler and did a great job be-friending him. Sarah, the flower girl, daughter of Lisa (Lindsay's sister, and my former co-worker from my American Lung Association days) and Gene (my former running partner from my pre-Tyler days) was interested in playing video games with Tyler, so she sat with us for dinner, sitting between Rigel and Tyson, with Gene often dropping by. It also happened to be Gene's birthday. When the server brought Gene a dessert with a lit candle on top, Gene surprised everyone by wrapping his arms around the server's waist and giving him a hug. The next time the server dropped off a drink for Gene, he stayed more than arms length away and dashed off before he could get touched again. He was also picking food off of Rigel's plate when Rigel wasn't looking. Hilarious. It was great to see Lindsay's mom, stepdad, dad, and sister again, and to briefly meet Brett's friends. At 7:45 we dashed back to Excalibur for Tournament of the Kings - doors opened at 8pm and the show started at 8:30.

We were seated in the back row since we weren't partaking in the dinner. Good call - we saved $50 and the dinner looked unappetizing anyway. Tyler's seen a joust before, at the Renaissance Festival, but this show included audience participation and pyrotechnics. We sat in the Russia section, cheered for the Russian knight, who was a strong night, but not a very good sport, kicking his enemies when they were down and the like. But he did help save the day. So we kept cheering for him, but periodically would hear Tyler exclaim, "Ooh, that's not very nice!" I don't think I've ever seen Tyler so enthralled, so happy. 

We got back to our room a little after 10pm and got Tyler to fall asleep by 10:30. We woke up at 7am and made it to MGM for a breakfast buffet by 7:30. We got back to Excalibur by 8:15 and heard from Lindsay that we needed to be at the Aria Wedding Chapel by 1:30pm. Alright, 5 more hours of free time! We quickly dressed for the swimming pool. At one point, while Tyson and I were dressing/brushing teeth in the bathroom, I overheard Tyler talking. It sounded like an imaginary phone conversation, like he was playing with my phone. I heard him say, "Then we're going to the big pool, it has a water slide!" I came out of the bathroom and discovered him holding the hotel phone, and heard him say, "My mommy and my daddy? They're just getting dressed." I asked, "Tyler, are you talking to a real person, or are you pretending?" "I'm talking to a lady. Bye!" And he hung up the phone. I asked him not to make any more calls, and let Tyson know Tyler had just called someone. Two minutes later, we heard a loud knock on our door. I cautiously opened the door and the first thing I saw was a gold, star-shaped badge. Hotel security! Two officers! Turned out, he had called the dispatch number, and they didn't believe him when he told them we were there. They thought we'd left him all alone in the room! I texted this incident to the bride, she said it was the first thing to make her laugh all day. 

We got to the pool a little before 9am. The water slide pool didn't open until 10. We thought we'd just stay for an hour, but decided to stay longer in case Tyler would be allowed to go down the slide.  Sure enough, the wait was worth it, the lifeguard permitted one of us to be in the water at the bottom of the slide to help Tyler if he got too tired to swim to the side. Tyson quickly figured out that sending Tyler down the slide face first, instead of feet first, actually was better for him - this allowed him to enter the water in the correct position for swimming, instead of having to change direction in a current. Tyler must have gone down that slide 30 times. He was so happy! At 10:45, we told him he could go down it 5 more times. He then proved to us that he really does understand math, including subtraction - after each turn, he would tell me what number of turn he was about to take, and how many turns he had left. So cool! 

We went back to our room, greeting our favorite security guard along the way, and got Tyler down for a nap by 11:30. We got ready for the wedding, the woke Tyler up at 12:30 to get him ready. Even though the hotel room was cool, he flipped out about wearing the suit. We didn't even try to make him wear the tie, and hadn't put on the vest or jacket yet. He was just upset about the white dress shirt, pants, and shoes. Brutal. Although our intent was to leave the hotel by 12:45, we didn't get out until 1:15. The cab driver then said he didn't know where the Aria chapel was, and wanted to drop us off at the main entrance.  We'd been warned against this. I discovered I didn't have any phone numbers other than the bride's in my phone. Fortunately, when I called, her sister answered, and gave us directions to the chapel entrance.

Tyler still wasn't happy when we entered the bridal suite. I was able to coax him into his vest and jacket, Lindsay agreed with skipping the tie, but Tyler refused to take a picture with her. He likes pool, and I heard there was a pool table in the groom's suite, so I sent him there to be with Tyson. The groom tried to rope me into pinning on the boutenierres. I couldn't figure it out - with Tyler crying and clinging to me, and me being awkward anyway, but I did track down an employee who agreed to help.  I returned to the bridal suite, then after a few minutes, went to sit in the chapel.

Tyson soon joined me, and assured me Tyler was doing okay. A few minutes later, Tyler and Sarah walked down the aisle. When Tyler saw us, he tried to sit down with us, and Tyson had to coax him to continue towards the front. Sarah went and sat with her mom right away, so Tyler was left standing up there with the minister and the groom, with a look of sheer terror on his face. The expression soon changed to one of utter disgust. Akin to my nephew Cole's face when he realizes he is eating marmalade.  

(Photo by Lisa)

The beautiful bride soon walked down the aisle, and faced the groom. Tyler stood at a funny angle, continuing to make his discontent known via his facial expressions. Eventually, however, he relaxed enough to start playing with the rings, making them sparkle in the light. The ceremony was beautiful, full of emotion and nervousness, and was soon over, allowing Tyler to escape. Then he learned that he had to rejoin the party for photographs. Brutal. He started off crying, but made it through. 

After photos, we helped him change into black jeans and a black plaid shirt.  Instantly his mood improved. Following the directions of the casino staff, we made our way towards the reception via taxi,feeling a little concerned since neither the concierge nor the taxi driver was familiar with the restaurant.  At the mall, we found no listing on the kiosks for the restaurant. Eventually, we asked a security guard, who said he "thought" it was through the Neiman Marcus store. We made our way to and through that store, and found familiar faces - Brett's friends, standing in front of double doors. Success!!! Except, they informed us, the restaurant was closed. Just then, Lindsay called me, sounding exhausted. She let me know the wedding coordinator made a mistake, and that the reception was set up at the wrong venue. We needed to go to the same restaurant, but in Summerlin, just outside of Vegas. And could I try to help get the word out to other guests? 

Heartbroken for her, we waited a few minutes, trying to talk the people around us into splitting cabs to get there. The guys were going, no problem. The next cab driver was uncertain about where we were going, but eventually we found the venue. Hooray! And there were guests there! Hooray! and the bride and groom and her mom.  We met some great people and had a blast. Meanwhile, the wedding coordinator eventually came through on return transportation, arranging a party bus to take us all back to New York, New York. We are the best parents ever. To think, we took Tyler to his first beer festival at 5 months of age, and by 4 1/2, took him on his first party bus, complete with a dancing pole!

By the time we got back to New York, New York, we had less than 7 hours until we had to be at the aiport. We did the responsible thing and took Tyler back to our room, Tyson hunted down dinner for us while I got Tyler ready for bed. Tyler ate dinner in bed while we packed, and we slept from 11:30pm until 3:30am, waking Tyler up at 3:45, and leaving the hotel by 4am to catch a 6am flight to New York.

We had such an awesome time in Vegas! Who knew Vegas could be that much fun for a four year old child, an exhausted dad, and a pregnant mom!