Dear Laura,
Thank you so much for sending me your “flat self”, although I would love to have seen you in person! You did a great job on the drawing and likeness. I am so sorry it took me so long to return the pictures and letter, but I hope you will still enjoy sharing the pictures of you in Las Vegas with your class.
First, I took you to your cousin’s mattress store. Sim was so excited to let you jump on all the mattresses. Then he placed you on his favorite bed with some cute teddy bears. He loves you tons and hopes when you come to Las Vegas you will come see him at work.
Then we took you to the movies at the Palms Casino. We love to go the movies on the weekend. After the movie, we went to the most famous spot in Las Vegas, the Las Vegas welcome sign. It was a windy night, but there were still tons of people waiting in line to get their picture taken in front of that sign. Uncle Don, Alex, Andy, and I enjoyed posing with you. We think the crowds wondered why you were so thin and little.
The next morning we went to church. We thought we would take you along because we all had to give talks. Alex spoke on gratitude and mentioned how thankful he is for our family. We are so happy you are in our family. We love you so much! Uncle Don took a picture of you and me in front of the church.
Next, we decided to take you to the desert. Las Vegas is located in the middle of a very large desert. There has been a drought going on here for years so we all have to be careful about how much water we use. There are lots of bushes and shrubs here that don’t need much water. We took your picture next to a cactus which is a large bush that is full of prickly-type branches.
Some people think Las Vegas only has casinos, so we thought we should bring you up to Red Rock Canyon and Calico Basin where people love to hike and climb rocks. Alex and Andy brought you all the way up a huge rock mountain. (Since your “flat self” was as light as a feather.) It was a scary climb, but they took great care of you. Andy did slip and scraped his arm pretty bad. Next time, he will wear a sweat shirt. They left when it was still light, but on the way back down it got really dark. They were brave hikers and they say you didn’t complain at all.
Lastly, I took you to work to meet my class of fifth graders at Alexander Dawson School. I teach them math and science. Right now we are studying fractions in math and chemistry in science. You posed for a picture with my students in front of our very own Dawson bear.
I will be sad to you send you back to Utah today. I am going to make a copy of your “flat self” on my copy machine and keep it in my classroom. My students are big fans of Flat Stanely, and I have enjoyed telling them all about my very special and sweet niece, Laura Nuttall. I hope we get to see each other very soon. I love you so very much and can’t wait to take your real self to all the places we went with your “flat self” someday soon. Until then, keep working hard in school to learn all you can.
All my love and hugs,
Aunt Cheri
