DeBoer Days: Vegas Baby! (... or Vegas with Babies, more like it)

Matt and I have had countless conversations about all the things that we want to do, memories we want to make with our kids, goals we want to accomplish - you know the type of conversation. We've also had several conversations that start with, "why didn't we ever (_fill in the blank__) before we had kids?" There are several things we had on our 'to-do' list way back when we first moved to California that, for one reason or another, we never did.

Last weekend we put an end to that trend.

In a very random conversation with a 2nd grader at recess one day last week I learned that Tim Tebow was going to be in Las Vegas speaking at a church over the weekend. The idea was sparked - we should go. We don't have anything we have to do this weekend, we should go! We never do spontaneous things like this, we should go! It didn't take much to convince Matt and he quickly got to work researching 'kid-friendly' hotels. So, Saturday morning we packed up the car and the kids and headed east, through the desert, to Vegas! Neither Matt nor I have ever been to Vegas (we've been in the airport and driven through Vegas before, but we don't really count that as experiencing Vegas) so we weren't sure of what to expect, especially with 2 little kids in tow.

When we got to Vegas, we first found the church that Tebow was speaking at. At this point we thought we'd just see if we could get a little more information. We ended up staying and waiting in line for a few hours to get our magic wristbands that allowed us access to listen to Bronco Greatness. We weren't intending to stay so we weren't as prepared as I would have liked - no waters or extra snacks or fun distractions to pass the time in line with a 2 year old. But it was a beautiful day and there was a little playground so it ended up being a fairly nice time. Luke amazed us with his patience and ability to entertain himself in line for a long time!

The church's senior pastor interviewed Tebow - the man, the follower-of-Christ, not the quarterback. It was really great to hear Tebow, in person, talking about his faith, how he is blessed to use the "platform God has provided through football" to reach others for Christ.

Afterward, we found our hotel- Circus Circus - and grabbed some late dinner. Again, since we hadn't planned on hearing Tebow when we did - we were pretty much flying by the seat of our pants. We were that couple cruising the Vegas strip pushing a double stroller at 9 pm. Please don't judge. :) We walked down the strip to see the fountains at Bellagio and some of the other sights/lights of the strip. Luke was quite entertained and thrilled to be out after 'the sun went to bed'. Elin wasn't as amused but she was content in the stroller nonetheless.

The next day we walked around a bit in the daylight, saw a few circus performers at the hotel, played some carnival-type games and then headed home.

It was a bit of a whirlwind trip. Definitely not the way we had envisioned our first Vegas experience (next time we'll go sans kids) but it was a great time and wonderful memories were made!