Las Vegas Recap

Justin and I spent 4 days in Las Vegas to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Justin's mom and dad graciously offered to use their vacation to come and stay with Spencer and Madison, so we could take this trip (love to you both)! Justin and I never had a honeymoon unless you count moving to South Dakota from Iowa in a Ford Escort station wagon pulling a U-Haul that wouldn't go faster than 50 mph. This was a big deal for us and it was hard to leave the kids.
We arrived on Monday evening and checked into New York New York hotel. The hotel was fabulous and was set up to look just like the streets of New York. Loved it!

Our room was on the 22nd floor to the left of the guitar strings. That evening we just walked down the strip and watched the fountain show at the Bellagio, very cool.

On Tuesday we went to Mandalay Bay to the Shark Reef Aquarium and visited the Luxor hotel. We changed for dinner and went to PF Chang's. My feet were hurting pretty bad at this point because we had walked quite a ways and I had NEW flip flop sandals on. We stopped by the Treasure Island show (horrible, not worth the effort to stand there) and I bought some band aids--the most expensive band aids ever purchased! They offered some relief, but not much. We still had to get to the Venetian for the Phantom of the Opera show, so we took the monorail, still more walking. We saw the show and I have to say it was AMAZING. Fabulous theater, fabulous singers/actors, WOW! We got back to the hotel and soaked my feet - OUCH!

On Wednesday we decided to head out and look at the hotels. We went to Cesars Palace, which was great. Loved the fountains, throughout the hotel and mall. We shared cheesecake and The Cheesecake Factory and headed to Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon. Justin played blackjack and I played the penny slots - whoohoo, I know. Justin did well, he didn't loose anything. Justin was really sweet and put up with me complaining about the smoke and my feet hurting.

We walked through the Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio, very cool and FREE - you gotta love that! We finally got to see the Cirque Du Soleil "O" show. There is no way to explain this show except that it celebrates the artists love for earth, wind, fire and water. The show is an engineering masterpiece and Justin enjoyed watching it both for the engineering aspects as well as just for entertainment. It was wonderful! Justin was great and we got a cap ride back to the hotel so I didn't have to walk - gotta love him for that!

On Thursday morning we road the Manhattan Express roller coaster at New York New York. Happy anniversary to us! Justin loved it and I have decided I am too old for roller coasters. We headed back to the Luxor to the Titanic artifact exhibit. I don't have enough room to go into details about this show. This was creepy, amazing, sad and downright breathtaking. This exhibit will be there for the next 10 years. If you are in Vegas, this is a must see!

It was time to shop! We headed to the m&m store and I had an absolute blast buying things to bring home. I LOVED the wall full of m&m tubes of various colors. My favorite has to be the sky blue m&ms. We also shopped at the Coca Cola store and of course the Hard Rock Cafe.

After shopping we both agreed we were pooped and ready to go home. We ended the evening at the New York Bar at Times Square with the dueling piano players who played 80's and 90's requests only. FABULOUS, A MUST SEE.

We left Friday morning and we were both ready for real food, our kiddos and our own beds.

We had a great time, enjoyed time together and came home with money - HA!