So, Bentley and I called Great Grandma Altman about a week before we were going to fly south. When Grandma asked him what we were going to do, he told her that he "was going to get a tattoo with daddy and play lots of games!" It was an unexpected response from the 5 year old, I have to say.
Nevertheless, he held true to that promise on the first day. We flew overnight to Las Vegas - with the opportunity to arrive almost an hour early at SeaTac, sometime around 4AM, and get upgraded to first class for the Las Vegas flight (Bentley slept that flight). Bentley really started his adventure to Las Vegas by picking the rental car. "We can't get a white one. I don't like white cars." (This became important later). "Dad, do you want the blue car? It's not very fancy. You might like it." Eventually he settled on the red "sports car" (a dodge challenger), and we were on our way.
Apparently, he was a little photobug as we drove down the Strip. I've never stopped to take a picture at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, and Bentley said we didn't need to. Little did I know, he had snapped a great shot from inside the car.
Just after the Welcome sign, I pointed out the Mandalay Bay hotel - where we would go to see the Sharks sometime during the week.
We headed out to Grandpa Tim's house after checking out the monster buildings - and Bentley was quick on to the question of "what do we get to do now?" He had a lot of things to do in his head - and really was dwelling on the sharks - but got distracted. How?
Yard work, of course! (It was Bentley's idea, as soon as he saw the rake and broom in the garage).
Of course, we were short on food and long on hungry, so we had to go to the grocery store. You might not know this, but Bentley has a thing about grocery lists. He loves to write them. And he's really good! But he needs a lot of help... so our writing and shopping experience took a little longer than the very-tired-and-hungry 5 year old thought it should take.
We got home, and Bentley was very worried that there would be no time for an adventure.
Things started to go downhill fast.
He became emphatic about wanting to go to the sharks.
About not wanting to be with me.
About wanting to see Mommy.
Yelling for Mommy to come out of hiding. (She had to be there somewhere)
Realizing that Mommy was not going to rescue him, and calling her on the phone.
And finally, breaking down.
How do you get a very sad kid to cheer up? Ask him what he wants to do next AND DO IT.
So, what did he want to do? For me to get him a tattoo and take him to the sharks.
Apparently, he had this all thought out before we left home. Step 1 - grab Shark rub-on tattoos from Santa. Step 2 - put on when we get to Las Vegas so they are there the whole trip. Step 3 - Go see Sharks. Step 4 - Sleep and Sleep some more.
Well then, we put on that Great White Shark tattoo and headed down to the aquarium!
It was AMAZING!
Bentley got in free, went through the whole set of exhibits twice, and took probably more than 100 pictures. We were probably there for 2 hours. I'll let the pictures that Bentley took (a small fraction of them!) tell the rest of the story, but we did get to see lizards, a crocodile, a Komodo Dragon, and a lot of Sharks.
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