Vegas, Baby!

Hi!  Did y'all miss us?!  Please forgive our lack of posting!  With Christmas, the New Year, and the National Championship (yes, that IS a holiday for us!), life has been pretty much non-stop!  But, we are BACK, and we've got lots of catching up to do! 

I'm going to start before Christmas and tell y'all all about my Vegas vacation!  I guess what happens in Vegas isn't going to stay in Vegas... ha. ha. ha.  I wish I could insert that clever drum riff they play for a bad joke!

Anyway - let's get right to it.  Hawkins was lucky enough to have to go to Vegas for work.  Normally, he gets sent to Tuscon, Saint Louis, etc.  We've been hearing other people talk about their sweet TDY's (Air Force speak for business trip) since he's been active duty.  Well nearly 3 years in and that finally paid off!  Our hotel room was covered since he was working, and my super nice, high flying, always traveling dad hooked me up with some frequent flier miles!  You don't go to Vegas much cheaper than that!

Hawkins went out a few days earlier than me because of work.  I got out there on a Tuesday night.  Here are the views from our room on the 54th floor of the Hilton Elara:

If you're looking for a place to stay in Vegas, I would HIGHLY recommend it.  We were right on the Strip, connected to the Miracle Mile Shops, and paid (well the Air Force paid) way less since there isn't a casino in the hotel.  Well wouldn't you know walking through the Miracle Mile leads you to Planet Hollywood!  And you're ab 3 minutes away from 10 casinos... so save some money! The room was huge and super fancy!  Hello push button blinds on floor to ceiling windows!

Hawkins only worked the morning on Wednesday, so we spent the day touring around town.  I hadn't been to Vegas since I was a teenager (I know... I know I look to young to be describing "back in the day" events... hahaha), so it was fun to see everything again.  But most importantly... FIRST STOP OF THE DAY!

I love In N Out Burger!  I almost cried tears of joy eating that delicious burger, animal style, with well done fries.  I would easily pay $100 for one right this second!  I even had a fantastic picture of the deliciousness... until I accidentally restored my new iPhone to my old iPhone's last back up in April.  That was awesome... and another story entirely.  Now to get back on track... after stuffing myself silly, we went to our next stop!

Y'all had to know that was coming :)  The famous Las Vegas sign!  We happened to go on 12-12-12, so you wouldn't believe how many wedding parties were there!  I promise, at least 10 came up in the 15 min or so that we were there.  

Don't worry, we didn't leave yet! 

We drove around for a bit and got some pictures of the must sees for me!

Planet Hollywood

Caesar's Palace (I really wish we could've seen Shania!)

The Sahara

The Palazzo

The Pawn Start pawn shop.  The line to get in was CRAZY!

Gucci (one of about 10 we saw)

Caesar was wearing a cowboy hat to celebrate the National Finals Rodeo in town

Mandalay Bay

The Luxor

New York New York

Little White Chapel (aka Britney Spears' wedding venue of choice)

I really enjoyed driving around and seeing everything!  We had a great time in Vegas at night, too!

Treasure Island

View from the Palazzo

The Bellagio Fountains

The Mirage Volcano show

The Paris

The Mirage

Bellagio Fountains

Caesar's Palace

The Bellagio

The Venetian & The Palazzo

While we were in town, we saw Manheim Steamroller's Christmas Show at the Venetian.  It was great!  Afterwards, we walked around, shopped, and took in the sights!

Inside the Venetian (or the Palazzo... who can keep that all straight?!)

I can't remember..... hmmm... any ideas?

Inside the Venetian

Inside the Venetian

Loving the houndstooth Manolo's at Barneys New York

Talk about some high end stores!  I just admired and kept walking...

We wrapped up our trip with a trip to the Hoover Dam!

New bridge for traffic (You can still drive over the dam, but traffic is MUCH lighter so they say)

Lake Meade

The Dam is GIGANTIC!

Inside the Dam Power Plant Tour haha

View of Lake Meade 

In Arizona & Mountain Time

We also walked across the huge, new bridge they built looking over the Hoover Dam.  Of course, those pictures disappeared when I restored my phone (see above... and yes, I'm REALLY angry as I just realized those were still on there as I posted to add to the blog..........).  Thankfully we still have lots of good ones! 

We had a great time in Vegas and only lost a little bit of money :)  I hope y'all enjoyed seeing our trip!