Having lived overseas for a number of years and having actually had the opportunity to see the REAL Paris in person.....this is one of my favorite hotels down in Vegas. I actually think they did a pretty good job of replicating it. (Xavier even agrees! And he's the 'expert' Frenchman! LOL) Of course....nothing can truly compare to being at the REAL Eiffel Tower in person!! That was an experience and memories that I will NEVER forget!! :)
These next few shots were taken of the famous Las Vegas strip from the very top of the Eiffel Tower.
Still more to come.....
Matt and I had the privilege of having my little sister, Tammy, come to stay with us for 2 weeks for a very enjoyable visit in November. She flew in from South Carolina on Saturday afternoon, October 31, 2009. Besides the fact that Tammy just wanted to come visit, there were ulterior motives in this trip. :)
Tammy had met a guy from France (where he currently still lives for a couple more weeks) online and they had been chatting for quite some time, since February of 2009. Over the course of the 9 months they had been chatting, they had become pretty close. Tammy had been sharing the Gospel with Xavier as much as possible over the internet and she had helped him through some tough times, such as losing his father to cancer. They finally decided that it was time that they meet in person so I suggested that Tammy and Xavier both come here to visit Matt and I for a couple weeks so that I could keep an eye on them and make sure Tammy was safe, etc. Plus, since Tammy had been trying to share the Gospel with Xavier, I figured.....what better place to do missionary work but in the Heart of it all, right!?
Other family members were not as excited about the 2 of them meeting and were actually pretty scared about the whole thing, which is totally understandable! I will admit that I was pretty nervous, too, but I had prayed about it and felt that we were doing the right thing. I knew that Tammy and Xavier were going to meet regardless, and this way I felt it could be done in a safer manner. Tammy and I were able to grow closer in our conversations about the matter and I felt comfortable that Tammy had also prayed about it and felt strongly that she needed to meet him in person. I didn't feel that it was my place to dispute her answers to prayers and, due to my own feelings when praying about it, we went forward with planning the trip.
Tammy came a few days before, and then Xavier flew into Salt Lake City from France on the evening of Monday, November 2. The poor guy was EXHAUSTED, to say the least, from traveling so many hours. Right away, I could see that he was a pretty quiet, but genuine person. He was as nervous about meeting us as we were about meeting him, too! We took him home that night, had some dinner together, and then we all went to bed pretty early so that he could get some much needed rest. We were also planning to get up early the next morning to head down to Las Vegas for a couple days.....just to get out of town and do something fun/different. I'm not a real huge fan of Las Vegas....I can only spend 2 or 3 days and then I'm good for a while....but it was much needed just to get out of town for a couple days. And taking 2 people who are not familiar with Las Vegas at all made it even more fun.
We got up early on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 and drove down to Las Vegas. It was a lot of fun to watch Xavier soaking everything in and just watching out the window the whole drive down. It was a really great way for him to see a lot of Utah! Once in Vegas, we stayed at the Luxor Hotel and had a great time. The following are some pictures that we took the night that we got down there (11/03/2009) and went out to walk the strip:
To Be Continued.......
