My family was compensated for our time and travel to this event but all opinions are 100% my own.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Las Vegas? Is it Casinos? Gambling? Drinking? I have been a local girl now for 9 1/2 years and one thing I have learned is that there is much more to Vegas than first meets the eye. In fact, I have only been to the Strip a handful of times in the entire time we have lived here. There is just so much more to Vegas that most people don’t know about.
First Friday #MoreVegas
This past weekend I had the opportunity to take my family to discover how much more Vegas has to offer for families. My family and I were invited to attend the First Friday event hosted by Verizon Wireless. First Friday is an arts and music festival held the first Friday of every month, and they have a little something for everyone. The event offers a wide variety of performing arts, live music, food and even a KidZone where kids are encouraged to try their hand at art and music.
Anytime we get to go into “town” my boys get excited but when Verizon invited us to come and try out some of the latest electronic toys, they were over the moon. We were greeted at First Friday at the Verizon tent and I soon learned that they had gone above and beyond to make this event a success for everyone involved.
One thing that I loved is that they offered a free charging station that was available to anyone who might need it. How many times have you been out and about and forgot to charge your phone before you left? This was a brilliant idea!
The rest of their tent showed off the ways that Verizon is making life easier for families and how they are now offering so many ways to use our cell phones to give us more than just phone calls. They now have products to bring peace of mind, provide entertainment and make life on-the-go a bit less chaotic. I can’t believe how much has changed since I got my first flip-phone 9 years ago. 😉
My favorite items were the Nest Home Thermostat, Belkin WeMo Insight Switch, HTC Fetch and DropCam Pro. They can all be activated and run directly from your cell phone. I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten or thought I had forgotten to unplug my curling iron or straightener! I NEED the Belkin WeMo Insight switch so I can check from my phone and turn items off while I am away. I definitely don’t want to burn my house down. And the HTC Fetch can help you find your keys from your phone, or your phone from your keys. GENIUS!
And we live where it is HOT, but when we go out-of-town I don’t like to leave the air conditioner on too low but I also don’t like to come back to a hot house. With the Nest Home Thermostat I can adjust the temperature to where I want it when I am on my way home and not only save on electricity while we are away but be welcomed home to a nice cool house. And if I am worried about what is going on at home while I am away, I can turn on the DropCam Pro to check out my house from my phone. I can see so many uses for that!
I loved being introduced to all of the new products that are making life easier and bringing peace of mind to our fast-paced lifestyles.
While I had fun checking out the latest in products that would make my life as a mom more convenient, my boys had fun with the TOYS! To say that I am amazed at what we can now do with technology would be a huge understatement. My boys had the opportunity to play with the Crayola Digitools Set and they were hooked. Crayola Digitools is a creative accessory for the iPad that allows kids to create and express themselves without the mess. Thanks to a free App you can choose from a wide variety of pictures, stamps, colors, and more to create almost anything using a paint brush, roller, spray paint tool and stamp.
We were lucky enough to get to take one home with us and it has been used constantly ever since. Even my 2 year old is hooked! You can tell he was having a great time in his Verizon shades.
My boys also tried out the Orbotiz Sphero 2 Robotic gaming balls and the Mogo Pro Power Gaming system which they were able to pair with Push2Tv from NetGear and actually play games from their phone on the big screen TV. No more need for fancy, expensive video game consoles when you can play these games directly from your phone and push them to the TV.
You can just see the concentration on his face.
We had a great time at the Verizon tent and then set off to see what else First Friday had to offer us. We headed towards the KidZone and we spotted the HUGE bins of LEGOs. I think you know where we spent the next hour or so. 🙂
The Las Vegas LEGO User Group tent was set up to allow kids the opportunity to create any thing they could imagine and then put them up for show on their display table. We made some fun LEGO baseball players. My boys even were able to find the colors of their favorite teams.
They even had DUPLO for the younger kids. Baby C was in heaven!
We also made Kazoos at the Discovery Museum tent and Rain sticks at the Star Nursery Tent.
And since it was HOT we finished off our night with the biggest snow cones I have ever seen!
What is your favorite family activity in Las Vegas away from the Strip? Visit Verizon Wireless and tell us about your favorite things to do around Las Vegas using #MoreVegas.
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