Right before Labor Day weekend, my mom and sister flew to San Diego so that Logan and I could take a little road trip to Las Vegas! As I’m sure I’ve said before, I am beyond blessed to have such wonderful family that drops everything for me at the drop of a hat. I’m pretty sure it’s because of Easton, but either way, I’ll take it!

Logan has been to Vegas before but I had never been; I was a Vegas Virgin! I was excited to see all that was Vegas but I was more excited to spend some time with just the two of us. So as to not drive my husband picture crazy I decided to leave my beloved camera at home and just bring along my point and shoot. Plus, I was definitely planning on down sizing my purse and there was no way that baby was gonna fit in a clutch!

I had a list of things I wanted to do while we were there, but for anyone that has been to Vegas before, you know there’s no way you’re going to be able to do it all. So I had to prioritize. The first night we were there we walked next door to the old Circus Circus casino and hotel and put our names on the waiting list for The Steak House, per my sisters request. While we were waiting we decided to try our hand at roulette. I have never gambled before and have never had a burning desire to, but being that we were in Vegas I knew I had to “do as the people do.” Lucky for me, since the casino was so old, it was not crowded at all. We sat right down at an empty table and learned all about roulette from the nicest dealer. We each started with $20 worth of chips (high rollers right here) and within 10 minutes I had accumulated all of Logan’s stack and more! I quit while I was ahead and since our table was ready but I had such a blast- as I’m sure anyone does when they’re gambling and winning. I owe my success to our wonderful dealer and my lucky guessing of numbers. 🙂

Then it was off to enjoy one of the best steak dinners I’ve ever had, for a fraction of the cost of what we would have paid anywhere else along the strip. Thank you, sister!

The next day, after sleeping in, we braved the heat and burned some calories walking the strip. In and out, in and out, we went from one hotel/casino to the next. We didn’t get to see all of the hotels but of the ones that we did see, the Venetian was my favorite. It was so romantic and dreamy with the clouds on the ceilings and the gondola rides going up and down the canals. As for the shopping, well, we did a lot of it by window.

That evening, after cooling off and taking a long nap, we headed back out to wander the strip until our 2200 showing of the famous Cirque Du Soleil show, ‘O’! We made sure to see the Bellagio fountains before heading inside. I’ll call this the pre-show performance to ‘O’.  It was really awesome to watch. It didn’t hurt either that one of the songs the fountain performed to was by Celine Dion. Score!

After the opening act, it was time to head inside the Bellagio for ‘O’! This was #1 on my to-do list here and I may have squealed a little bit when we sat down. Let me just say with all of the enthusiasm that I can muster, THIS SHOW WAS AMAZING! Or as some call it, liquid magic. The 1.5 million gallon pool can be deep enough for a high diver to dive into and then move up to allow people to walk on top of it. It was truly amazing.

My favorite act was called the “russian swing” where aerialists would propel themselves high into the air and perform flips before landing in the water. They had one huge swing in the middle of the pool and then two smaller swings on each side.

Our seats were so close we could feel a few splashes at times. My only complaint, if you could call it that, is that sometimes there was so much amazing stuff to look at that I didn’t know where to look! I kept looking from one side of the stage to the next hoping not to miss anything. The show was 90 minutes long and I was so sad when it ended. Fear not, I will be back ‘O’! I can’t wait to take Easton to this once he gets a little older. If you only have one night in Vegas I highly recommend going to see this show!

The next day, after I got over my ‘O’ hangover, we got smart and decided to hang by the pool during the heat of the day and head out exploring once it started cooling off. August probably wasn’t the best time to visit Vegas but when the babysitters come, you go! We talked to a local who told us it’s usually 120° in August! And we thought 101° was bad! Sheesh! Pack your moisturizers people!

Our first stop was to ride the roller coaster inside the New York New York hotel and casino. We waited a few extra minutes to sit in the front row and I’m glad we did. Not too shabby of a roller coaster!

Then it was back down the other side of the strip to walk off our lunch and check out the casinos and hotels. I should have worn a pedometer, I’m sure I walked the equivalency of California to Florida at least.

We headed back to our hotel at the North end of the strip and relaxed before getting ready to head out for our last night in Vegas. Our first stop was to the High Roller, which is the worlds tallest observation wheel. You ride in this large bubble which can hold up to 40 people. Here’s a photo from their website.

It was definitely the best view of the strip and we even got to see the Bellagio fountains perform while we were up there. This Vegas activity is perfect for the whole family.

Here’s a silly green screen image we had to purchase from our High Roller experience. I’m such a sucker…

After the High Roller we walked over to eat dinner at Joe’s Seafood, where we ate some amazing stone crab! We probably could have rolled our stuffed selves home but we carried on since it was our last night in Vegas and went to Caesar’s to do a little more gambling. It was the Friday night right before a major holiday weekend and it was packed! I knew I wanted to play some slots since my mom had given me $20 in quarters before we left so we went out in search of the quarter slots. Much to my dismay, they do not exist! Only cash now I was informed, so I traded in my shiny quarters for some green. I put my $20 in the Lord of the Rings machine (another request from my sister) and tried to find out which button to push. A minute later my $2o dwindled down to $15 and I was mad! I had no idea what I was even doing. So I cashed out and found an old school pull machine where I quickly proceeded to lose the rest of my money. Boo. Slots suck. So we went out in search of a roulette table since I had such luck on it our first night. After 10 minutes of trying to even find room at a table, I finally joined in and 10 minutes later I was all out of money and ready to go home. Why didn’t someone tell me that gambling isn’t any fun unless you’re winning? I seriously don’t know how people gamble, sure it was fun when I was winning but boy did it make me mad when I lost! I work too darn hard to watch some woman just swipe it away from me! Then I just start thinking about everything I could have bought with that money and it just goes down hill from there… haha! So these two tired parents dragged their butts home but not before catching the Volcano go off at the Mirage. Even though we didn’t win big, I’d say our last night in Vegas was a success.

On our way back home the next morning, we drove through Fremont St. which is the second most popular street in Vegas besides the strip. It is sometimes referred to as the old Las Vegas and definitely would require an entire day of sight seeing all to it’s self. Maybe next time…

I don’t know if we’re your typical Vegas party goers, (as I’m sure Logan’s time here before we met was way different then this trip), I can definitely say we had a blast and would love to go back. There’s always more to see and I’d love to watch every show that Cirque Du Soleil does. And maybe see Britney Spears or the Thunder from Down Under. Ladies? Anyone?

If we did go back, we wouldn’t go in August and we would stay at a hotel closer to the middle of the strip. We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club and it was allllll the way down on the North end of the strip. We walked the long walk down to the middle of the strip once and then ended up taking a taxi from then on.  It was a nice hotel, just too far to walk. And walking in the Vegas heat with a hundred homeless people asking for money every few feet gets old quick. Seriously, these people were crazy. One guy was with his friends holding up a sign that said, “Kick me in the balls for $20”. Only in Vegas!

We thoroughly enjoyed our 4 days away from being mom and dad and just got to be ‘us’ for a while. It was so nice getting to spend time together and enjoy a quiet relaxing meal. I really think that’s doubly important once you have kids. We were thrilled to see Easton though when we returned home and he was excited to show us all that he learned while Grandma and KiKi were in charge. I’m not sure who had more fun, us or them. Thanks again you guys for coming and watching him, we really appreciated it!

Ok, so what did we miss? Is there anything that you would say is a ‘must-do’ while in Vegas?