Vegas, baby!!

A few months ago, at one of Casey's work meetings, there was a raffle for a free 5 day trip to Las Vegas, and guess who got to go?? Yup! We were so very excited and had been looking forward to this every day since. We were also SO excited to take our first trip without the kids. (Not that we don't love our beautiful children, but sometimes you just need a break, ya know?) We stayed at the Treasure Island. Neither Casey or I had ever been to Vegas, (although I've driven through it a million times) so everything was new to us. I was thrilled to not have to cook the whole week and eat out every meal. I love eating out!! And we ate some good food! I came back feeling very fat. Although, I don't think I've ever walked as much as we did each day. So much to do! So many people told us of things to see and do there, but even with 5 days, we still didn't have time for it all. I captured some pictures of the things we did get to do and see.

This is right outside our hotel in front of the Treasure Island pirate boat. Each night they had a show out here. I hear it used to be all pirates (which makes sense because it is a pirate boat, right?) but now it is just a bunch of half-naked girls running around trying to be funny. However, they drew quite a crowd. I can't imagine why..... There was a show put on by the Cirque du Soliel (I think I spelled that right) "Mystere" at our hotel that we went to see the first night. It was amazing! The dancers did every kind of acrobatic thing you could think of. Much of the show was high up in the air, where they flipped and jumped from person to person. It was unbelievable.Almost everyone we spoke to mentioned the "dancing water" show at the Bellagio, and let me say, it is so cool!! I loved watching it. It was even prettier at night. It's amazing how high they can get the water to shoot. It was higher than the Bellagio.

This is right outside the Luxor hotel (the one shaped like a pyramid). We saw a Criss Angel show here. Anyone who's ever seen him on TV knows he a pretty unbelieveable magician, so we were really looking forward to it. Unfortunately we did not know it wasn't a magic show. It was more a look into "his twisted mind" (that was literally the description of it). And let me say, he has a very "twisted" mind. I think there was a story line to it. I'm not sure what it was, though. I think only those high on drugs could follow it. It was very dark and pretty disturbing at some parts. I know I wasn't the only one who thought so. I looked around at all the people and everyone had a look on their face like "what the @#$% is this??" So that was a bummer...

At the MGM Grand, there is a lion exhibit. That was fun to see. I sent a picture of it on my phone to Caiden and now he thinks I've seen the REAL Lion King. Yes, I'm very cool. There is a tunnel where the top is glass and at one point both the male and female lion were sitting on the top. That was pretty fun to see. One of them was chewing on a bone and man, their teeth are HUGE!

This is at the top of the Stratosphere, which was also very fun. We weren't brave enough at the time to ride the rides on the top and now I totally regret it. (I don't think Casey does. Heights are not his friend.) But I want to go back someday and ride it. The tallest point of one of the rides puts you 1150 feet from the ground. FUN!...and maybe a little scary too. It was just as enjoyable to watch the people on the rides completely freak out.

This is a picture of me with one of the dancers from STOMP OUT LOUD, (another show we saw) at the Planet Hollywood. This was my favorite thing in Vegas by far! They were so fun and entertaining, and pretty funny too. There is no music at all in the show. They create their own music by banging around on all different kinds of objects (like garbage can lids and plastic bags and brooms) and dancing to it. It was so cool! I will never sweep my floors or take out the trash the same way again...

At the Mandalay Bay, there is an Aquarium and I touched the sting rays! Very slimy. This is one where I wished my kids had been with me. Caiden and Paige would have loved it.

And, of course, how can you go to Vegas without a little bit of gambling? Just a little. Our hotel gave us $20 to start out with and I must say it is very fun to gamble with someone else's money, rather than your own. But Casey got lucky right away and won about 80 bucks. I got a little here and there. We ended up walking away when we got down to 50 bucks. We were having so much fun and it was so easy to say, "Okay, just 5 more dollars, just 5 more." I definitely can see how people lose TONS of money when they go to Vegas. But not us! We came home $50 richer. Ha!Ha!Ha!