Las Vegas 2010- Happy Anniversary!

 

When we got married five years ago we joked about flying away to Vegas and eloping.  Elvis' Wise Men Say Only Fools Rush In was our wedding song and our story as well.  We thought being married by Elvis would be awesome!  But I was also serving a church as a pastor and we obviously believed that being married in the church was very important as well.  We promised that for our five year anniversary that we would get married by Elvis.

 

We stayed in the Hotel Paris. I've never been to Vegas and so I didn't really understand how it all worked. Paris was a huge hotel set up to look and feel like Paris, complete with HUGE Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. The inside looked like Paris streets, there were creperies and Cafe's and everything looked French. It was so neat to see all of this! Each hotel had a different theme and was done up so amazingly in that way. MGM had a lion habitat, Mandalay Bay had a shark environment, Circus Circus had a theme park, the Venetian had gondola rides through the shopping area. It was really fun to see the different hotels!

Our first day we just walked up and down the strip and looked at things. We came back to our hotel and found a little place called Napoleon's and it was a Piano Bar with Dueling Pianos. We settled in and stayed until they closed... it was so much fun! They played the likes of Metallica and Katy Perry on the piano! We liked it so much we ended up coming there every night.

The second morning we agreed to sit through a time share presentation in order for some free gifts.  It was long and tedious and our salesperson was AWFUL but we endured.  We walked away with a free helicopter ride and $75 gift certificate to the casino.

After that was our big wedding ceremony which was awesome and hilarious at the same time!  We were re-married at the Viva Las Vegas Chapel.

It was quite the experience!  There were two Elvises running around and a line of people on a bench getting married for real.  They would just call them in couple by couple, do a 5 minute rehearsal and a 5 minute wedding and the deal was done!  We bought a basic package which included Elvis singing our wedding song, doing the ceremony, flowers, some photos, a marriage certificate signed by Elvis and a copy of Elvis and Priscilla's wedding certificate! It was definitely a little hokey, but we really enjoyed it and could have fun because it wasn't our real wedding.

In our Elvis Glasses post wedding....

We enjoyed some time in the hotel that evening and then we had a wonderful Anniversary Meal at the Paris Eiffel Tower Restaurant which was 11 stories up the Eiffel Tower.  We sat right at the window and could watch the Bellagio hotel the entire time.  The Bellagio is known for its fountain shows and we had a perfect view.  It was a wonderful and special meal:

We took our helicopter ride after that meal which was pretty cheap, but well worth it. We got to fly over the whole strip at dusk and it was so cool!!!

We woke up really early Sunday morning and rented a car from the Hotel (all they had was a swanky cadillac with heated, cooler and massage seats!!!) and drove to the Hoover Dam and the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have never been out West and so the whole experience was fascinating to me with the different landscapes and mountains.

The Hoover Dam was very cool and HUGE! I had no idea...

We kept going about 2 hours through dirt roads, the desert, and fields of Joshua Trees to the Hulapai Indian Reservation where they opened a sky walk over the Grand Canyon in 2008. It is 4,000 feet over the canyon and full glass so you can see all the way to the bottom of the canyon. We got to see 2 different sections of the canyon, eat lunch overlooking the canyon, and do a short hike up a part of the canyon. It was absolutely breathtaking!!!!

The funny part about it was that the second part of the canyon that we went to was called Guano Point because there was a cave there that millions of bats lived in and in the early 1900's Native Americans built a cable car to get to the cave to mine the nitrogen and sell it. We felt right at home.

We headed back to Las Vegas with our chair massagers and just enjoyed the freedom of the day.

We were both completely spent and ate a quick dinner, packed, and fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up and headed to the airport... but the best part is that we bought the tickets with a generous gift of miles from Paul's dad and somehow, someway it was less miles to fly home first class than coach! We were SPOILED!!! it was so awesome to have someone filling your drink every 5 seconds and making you your choice of warm meals. I never knew!!!!

It was really the perfect getaway. We were so relaxed and happy. We love our children more than anything in the world, but when you are not needed every second of the day it is amazing to just take a deep breath and exhale. We remembered how fun and silly we used to be!!! And..we realized how old and tired we have become! It was fantastic!!!! We are so grateful to our friends and family who helped us with the kids and for all of the love and support we always get from those who love us!