Proving Chaos Theory: Las Vegas, Baby (or, should I say, babies?)

With all deference to New York, many will say that Las Vegas is really the City that Never Sleeps. That is never more true than when you have two babies in a Las Vegas hotel room.

Several months ago Jaime and I decided that it would be fun to head to Vegas to visit Jaime's grandmother. We thought we could schedule the trip for the same weekend as the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament so I could see my alma mater BYU Cougars play a tournament game or two. As we were leaving last weekend, I decided to see if my mountain bike would fit in the back of our Honda Odyssey. To my surprise, the bike rolled right into the back of the van upright; I didn't even have to lay it down. I started to see that the Odyssey's kid-friendly exterior camouflaged what was really a hard-core cycling transport, and was sure that Lance Armstrong's Astana team probably used an Odyssey as a support vehicle. Why wouldn't they?

This trip would also provide plenty of justification for my recent purchase of a new iPhone, which I announced to Jaime (after I bought it) represented her Valentines Day gift to me. How sweet of her!

We got to Las Vegas on Friday afternoon and checked into the hotel (which I located using the iPhone's Google voice search application). We then headed to Grandma's house in Summerlin (using the iPhone's Google Maps application) for a nice dinner. The weather was beautiful, and we spent an enjoyable afternoon and evening with her. Kate was shy at first but very quickly warmed up to great-grandma, or as she called her, the "white grandma" (she now refers to her grandmothers by the color of their hair).

After dinner, Jaime took the kids back to the hotel room and I headed (once again using the GPS-powered Maps function on the iPhone) to the Thomas and Mack Center to watch the BYU Cougars play the hometown UNLV Runnin' Rebels. After using the iPhone's "Around Me" application to locate a nearby ATM, I was able to scalp a ticket at the arena for the lower bowl, but just barely -- the seat was in the second to last row of the lower bowl.

Jimmer Fredette's luck runs out in Vegas

It was a great game, but my Cougars succumbed to the home team Rebels (I'll save you my diatribe about the MWC scheduling the season-end tournament at one of the member schools' home arena every year - suffice it to say that this decision BLOWS). BYU's star point guard Jimmer Fredette had 30 points but no one else seemed to show up for this game.

During the game, I got a text from Jaime that said simply "U owe me big time." When I got back to the hotel, she explained that the two kids cried and wouldn't go to sleep for hours. The strange environment made it hard for them to sleep. Luckily they had upgraded us to a suite that had a couple of rooms, so we were able to put Davis's pack-and-play in the kitchenette. We got some fitful sleep, with Davis waking up every few hours to let out some cries for a few minutes and then fall back asleep.

The next day was more time with Grandma, and I used the iPhone's browser to scout out a nice ride out on the Mustang Trails near Red Rock Canyon. I headed out in the early afternoon and had a great ride. The scenery was gorgeous and the trail was a blast - a couple of good climbing sections with plenty of downhill fun. As you see here, the iPhone's camera took some good pictures of the scenic surroundings:

Single track heaven

Once again, Jaime stayed with the kids at Grandma's house when I went off to ride. Her sister's family had joined us in Las Vegas by this time, so she had some company, but it was great to be able to get away and do a good ride.

I'm nearly two months into my triathlon training - I'm doing the Avia Wildflower sprint triathlon on May 1, for which the cycling leg is on a mountain bike. And most of my bike training so far has been on pavement, so it was good to get some trail riding in.

We had a great visit with great grandma, and the kids were still for just long enough to get a picture (once again using the iPhone's camera):

Sydney, Kate, Davis, Grandma and Carson

The kids kept waking us up throughout the night again on Saturday night (particularly Jaime). I seemed to be able to sleep through much of it.

We arrived home on Sunday afternoon and, for the first time, were grateful for the recession, as it appeared that the traffic to and from Las Vegas was significantly down from normal levels.

We made great time and the kids were excellent in the car. Thank goodness for DVD players. (I, of course, had backup movies downloaded on the iPhone . . . )