#8 of the Big Ten

Remember when I told you there was a story about the hat? Here's the story. After Katreena, Mom, Colin and I were done at Circus Circus we decided to take the kids over to M&M World and the Coke Store. M&M World is 4 stories of nothing (NOTHING) but M&M swag, trinkets, and items that have M&M on them, in them, and are about them. It is amazing all in itself. If you are a fan or know a fan and need something special, go there. Well worth the trouble.

Anyway, on the first floor, off the strip, Colin spies the hat he has on in the picture. His favorite color is blue and so he wanted a blue hat. They had one for each color of M&M character (green - the only girl, blue, yellow, and red). All were cute but when Colin put on the blue hat and I saw how it brought out his eyes, I couldn't resist it. I didn't care how much it cost, we were gonna get it. Now, I knew we had several more floors to go and a lot more to see, and we had already promised the kids we would get them M&Ms so I held off on paying for the hat and just let him wear it with tag and all. Cute really.

So we make our way up the stairs to the next level. More stuff. Different stuff. Anything you can imagine stuff. I scanned it quickly and told the troops to keep moving. I knew that on the next level was the little walk-through interactive display of how a M&M is made. This would be fun for the kids. We get through the "tumbling tunnel" and then through the "color barrels" and out the other end to go to the 3-D movie and we hear an alarm. Before we knew what was happening, we were being escorted through a door, down the stairs and dumped out into the alley behind the building. In the background you can still hear the alarm going off. At first I was confused. I thought it was probably a fire alarm. Then I remembered we were in Vegas. This could be a fire alarm or it could be a hostage situation, it could be terrorists, it could be a major robbery going down in one of the casinos near by, it could be a hundred other things besides a little fire.

We stood in the alley and watched everyone in the building exit. It was kinda fun in the chaos as Red M&M and Green M&M are escorted out along with every employee that works in the building. Colin and Katreena were having fun in their blissful ignorance of any emergency going down. Mom and I just waited and listened and watched. About 5 minutes later I noticed that Colin still had on the hat. Great! We've stolen the hat. Literally walked out with it on his head, tag and all. Okay, I'm human and it is my husband who yields the moral compass of our family and keeps us in the straight and narrow. I actually considered just taking the hat and moving on. I mean, they're the ones that just exited us out the building. Wasn't my fault. Ran this idea by my mother who's moral compass has apparently gotten stronger than when I was a kid and she didn't think that was a good idea. Then I thought, okay, this is a good time to teach my son commandment number 8, that we aren't supposed to steal anything. Bible's pretty clear on this one. God took the time to write it down in stone. If that doesn't seal the deal then you don't have a moral compass at all. Okay, we'll go back in and pay for the hat.

Turns out it was just a fire drill with no fire. I don't know if it was on purpose or accident. Looked accidental by the employees' faces. So we went back around to the front. We did floor one and two and three again. We finally saw the movie and then went the fourth floor where the M&M NASCAR car is and had a good time. The kids loved going through the tumbling tunnel again. We got the M&Ms promised to the kids and I paid for the hat. Walked out, this time on my own, with a clear conscience.