The top of the world

So as promised, here is some video of Jared's birthday adventures on top of the stratosphere. He has been looking forward to this for a very long time. I told him he could bring one friend with him. He went through many, many kids before Andrew on our soccer team agreed to go with him. I called and found out that you have to be sixteen in order to go up there all by yourself. Bad news for me, as I had hoped to just drop them off. Marion said he would rather stay home with Diana and her two friends, so I was the lucky parent elected to go. For any of you unaware, I do not like heights. I was fairly sure that I did not want to go up to the top, but it is amazing what a mother will do for her child. So I went. The other good thing was that I was reading a great book and knew that I would have something to keep me busy. Here is a picture of me right before we made our way to the elevator. There was a rather long line to the elevator. While waiting in this line, there was a video playing telling us about the rides at the top. This video assured me not to worry there was a comprehensive safety plan in place and that emergency professionals were on duty 24 hours a day. Instead of reassuring me, this did just the opposite. If there was nothing to worry about, why have all these precautions. My stomach was beginning to do somersaults.

Finally it was our turn. I liked the elevator because we could not see out the windows when we went up. Much to my surprise, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe I am not as afraid of heights anymore. Its either that, or I was distracted by my desire to take pictures and videos to properly document the festivities for my blog. I'm thinking this is a good thing. There are three different rides. The big shot, which shoots you up 160 ft in the air. The x-scream which is a teeter totter thing. And Lastly Insanity (here's a ride name to inspire confidence) where you sit in a seat and are swung out over the ground and spun around. You will be able to see it better in the video. I was extremely happy that they did not try to insist that I had to ride the rides. That would have been a deal breaker for me. No way, no how would I have gone on any of those rides. Not even for a million dollars. This is keeping me from going on the Amazing Race, that my lack of physical stamina. Jared loved all the rides and since he had an unlimited pass, he went on each ride about seven times. It was actually very pretty up there. I guess anything can look pretty from a far enough distance. So it was a good birthday celebration for him. I liked this better than taking seven 13 year old boys bowling, which is what we did last year. So now I can say that I have actually participated in some of the Vegas life.