Wave pool

I have to add this one, too. We picked Mandalay Bay for the pool - for the sandy beach and the lazy river they have there...which is incredible. If you go to Vegas and like the pool scene, I HIGHLY recommend it.
Anyway - we picked that hotel just for the lazy river and all, and the boys rarely went in it. Mandalay Bay has this wave pool that never stops - it has giant waves about every 4 minutes or so. John was just tall enough to be in there - in fact, the lifeguards put a wristband on him so that he wouldn't get measured over and over - and both kids LOVED it in there. We got to the pool at 10 AM and left at 5:00 only because there was lightning in the distance and the guards made everyone get out of the pool. The boys went on the lazy river about 3 times and explored the other pools a little bit, but I'm sure they spent at least 4 hours in that wave pool. Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Starbucks loophole

Okay, so we've got these friends, Paul and Nellie, and they ROCK! They are our youngest son's Godparents, just because they are so cool. Long story - another time...back to Starbucks.

So yesterday, we were in Vegas, gambling at the Monte Carlo - we'd just eaten this huge steak dinner at "Brand." Which sounds like a cool place, right? They had velvet on the walls in the bathroom stalls - is that sanitary? Seriously?

Anyway - so we've just eaten this huge meal with 9 dollar side dishes - who has two thumbs and just paid 9 dollars for a baked potato? This gal! I digress... We've just eaten this huge meal and we're all, "I'm stuffed and sleepy" so we go to the Starbucks. Nellie and I order normal drinks, but Paul ordered a triple shot of expresso. WELL, that would be, like, 8 dollars or something crazy, but here's the thing. Paul and Nellie can get away with anything... Paul instead orders some kind of blended drink that comes with 2 shots of expresso, then adds an extra 3 shots, and tells them, "hold the milk, hold the ice." Bam. 5 shots of expresso for like, 4 bucks. Genius.

Oh, and then - Nellie wants to learn craps, but the only tables open at 1 am are 10 dollar minimums. That's too much for us - just learning and all, so Nellie sweet talks the guys into letting us play for $5 instead. Who else could get that to happen??? I don't know. We had a really cool guy named Ricardo - who should have retired a few years ago and has the age spots to show for it - He blew kisses on our dice for me every time I threw. Uh, yeah...I lost $200 in about an hour and so we hit McDonalds.

Have you ever stood outside of a Vegas McDonalds at 5AM waiting for it to open so you can get breakfast? Yeah- a first for me, and I'm not proud of it. But the OJ was really good!