Brain on a stick...

This week, Jasmine is in a class called PowerBrainTraining.com. I don't get to be there, so don't really know what they are doing. All I get is little tidbits of information. It is supposed to be a workshop to develop both sides of the brain more fully for better/faster learning. I only heard about a couple of exercises they did: put on blindfold and eat certain foods and be able to identify the food, played certain games..one called "Mocha Cola" ... "you pick a card, put one card in the middle and whoever has "zero" cards wins." I have no idea what that means, but that is word for word how Jasmine told me about it. She made a puzzle with her friends drawn on it, and a model of her brain!!:0) She also showed me how she learned to meditate. Here is the model of her brain:

We did SO much today...

Last day... Went to the Flamingo Hotel all morning. Saw lots of flamingos, birds, and other water fowl in their Flamingo Sanctuary and Garden. Ate brunch... just a sub sandwich ... in the Flamingo food court. Not too glamorous! :) I didn't know that Bugsy Siegel had all of the upper -floor windows bullet-proofed... plus he had five "secret" escape routes. He was killed in a barrage of bullets 30 miles outside of Las Vegas in 1949. The Hilton's bought the hotel in 1970. Since it seemed we had done everything possible for the 6 and under crowd, it was off to Sam's Town in Henderson- about 15 miles from Las Vegas. Just a big casino/hotel that was supposed to have an indoor park... which it kind of did... but it was just alot of waterfalls and shops. Then we decided to go to a kid's waterpark in Henderson. When we got there, they were closed for the ONE day of the year for "maintenance". The one day that we were there!! So... we went back to Sam's Town where they have a movie theater, and saw the movie "Brave". It was cute and Jazzy really liked it. Then we just moseyed around... eating ice cream and a salad to balance it out. On the way back to the airport, we stopped at Ethel M's (Mars) candy factory and took a tour. Since it was Sunday, the factory was open, but not really running. They give out samples at the end... so Jazzy was really happy about that. It's just kind of a touristy thing to do! Made our way back to the airport where we were going up and escalator.....and a very unruly drunk guy was being handcuffed/arrested, and carried away. He was screaming, yelling, kicking anything and everyone around him as the police were dragging him away. He got away from them for a second, and almost fell over the side of the escalator on us! The cops caught him just in time. That was our excitement for the evening prior to getting on the plane home!!! Bye Las Vegas!!! See you in a few years when Jasmine is older... then we'll have a bunch of new things to do!

At the Bellagio....

Last night at the Bellagio... we saw the beautiful indoor gardens, a huge chocolate fountain, as well as the famous nightly Bellagio water fountain show. Each water performance is unique, and is performed to Italian opera-ish music. Very impressive!

Mermaids at the Silverton....

The Silverton Casino has a huge aquarium- maybe around 25 feet deep. Every few hours- "real" mermaids swim in the tank. They are actually synchronized swimmers. There are little oxygen hoses all over the floor, so they can catch a breath periodically. Sometimes they would perform with the oxygen hoses, and sometimes not. There was also a "lifeguard"... a guy in a wet suite with an oxygen tank.. just in case. You watch the mermaid (s) from under the surface of the water... and they interact with the kids... blowing kisses and bubbles at them:) Jasmine loved it. We ate dinner there... at the Johnny Rocket Diner. Not too healthy at 9 pm at night. Greasy hamburgers and fries, then it took quite awhile to get back to our hotel at the other end of the strip. It was kind of fun though, driving late at night with all the lights and sounds on the Strip. I left the window open so Jasmine could see all the lights and hear all the sounds. Got back to our hotel around 10 pm, had to read a book of course, then slept in:)

Lions, tigers, and dolphins....and Venice

This morning we went to the Mirage Hotel where the Sigfried and Roy Tigers, Lions and Dolphins are housed in the Secret Garden. They don't really have "shows" with the dolphins... but random "training sessions" for kids/adults over age 13 who have paid to be "trainer for a day". We also went into the underground viewing room to watch the dolphins playing under water. Then... across the street to the Venetian. The "streets" are water/canals with gondolas for transportation, lots of "shops" and Venetian entertainment... singers, clowns, dancers, and live statues. Jasmine had her picture taken with one of the live "statues".

Day #1 Continued.....

After M & M World, we walked across the street (no easy feat), to the New York- New York hotel. The entire hotel is a replica of everything New York... the streets, the architecture, even a Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor in front of the hotel. We walked around, had ice cream, and went to Coney Island.... which is the entire upstairs of the hotel... complete with rides, arcades, and the Coney Island fortune teller! Here are some photos of New York and Coney Island:

Fun Day #1 in Las Vegas...

Everything went smoothly.. other than flying on Delta Airlines.... got the rental car, and had some time to kill prior to checking into our hotel... the Blackstone, which is not directly on Las Vegas Blvd.... the Strip,.. but a mile or so off the main drag where it is slightly quieter. ____________________________________________________ So, we parked the car at the MGM Grande and started walking thru the hotel looking for the Lion Exhibit, only to find out that the lions are no longer there:(, as they are doing a renovation of the MGM and creating a new "image". Kind of wish they would have removed that part off of their website:((( We wanted to see the lions because they are the direct descendants of the original MGM lion... oh well....so, we started walking down the strip and came to the 4-story M & M World... a huge touristy store with nothing but every possible item relating to M & M's. I told Jasmine that she could buy only one item.. and of course.. she went to this big wall full of different colored M & M's and mixed them all in a bag... which is what you are supposed to do. She had her choice of earrings, necklaces, clothes... or many other things.... and of course, she chose the big M & M wall!!! Next, we went to a 3-D M & M movie inside the store. I figured it was all Jazzy was going to get for Vision Therapy for the day:)) When I asked her if she could see people, etc popping out at her, at first she said "No", then she said "Yes", ... so I think she did... but maybe not as much as other people do. ______________________________________________________ Hello Kitty was on the side walk, and of course .. we had to have a picture taken with her.... _________________________________________________________A fiasco: trying to find our car. We walked around every entrance to the MGM that we could find.... looking for our car. We spent over an hour just walking, and both of us were getting very tired. We finally had to ask one of the bell guys to drive us around to find it. That one hotel is bigger than all of the terminals of the Las Vegas Airport put together. I am really not exaggerating!!! ___________________________________________________________ Finally made it back to the hotel and to dinner at PF Chang's China Bistro... only because it was across the street from our hotel. We had other plans for tonight... but there is NO WAY we are doing anything. We are way too tired.