I went to Vegas...

and I survived!!
Not only did I survive, but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip!! (Aside from my mini internal meltdown the first night. I missed my kids, I missed my home and had a small panic attack. It ended and I moved on to enjoy the whole trip, and lived to tell about it!!)

We left Wednesday, August 19th. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:35 and today's standards calls for a 2 hour window pre flight to get through security and situated at your gate. That didn't happen, we were running late (typical style of my husband, I, however like to be prompt so I can relax. Being late is something I have come to accept when I am with him though!) we made it to the gate with 10 minutes to spare, I popped a 10 mg tranquilizer to calm my jitters and we boarded. The flight, for being over three hours went incredibly fast and we were there! Las Vegas baby!! I was euphoric when we landed. Ironically speaking as nervous as I was to leave home, I truly LOVE flying! Nothing compares to the beautiful sights you see from that small window of the plane.
I found it quite amusing that the minute you step off the plane, you are greeted with slot machines!! Only in Vegas! We went to retrieve our luggage and headed to pick up our rental car. (A convertible Mustang).
OOH! Side note, I had a blast doing the most simple thing...riding the monorail shuttle from the parking lot at the airport to our terminal. Weird, I know, but it was fun :)

Picked up the car, headed to THE hotel of all hotels! I am telling you, if ever you get the chance to stay at this hotel, DO IT! Don't hesitate. Where did we stay? The Venetian! It is "staged" (rather well I might add) to feel like Italy. There are gondolas, there are beautiful painted ceilings, there are fountains, there is marble and gold and, and, and. There is no detail left behind and it was BREATHTAKING! I can't say enough. I was walking through just trying to soak up the beauty as well as snapping every picture I could to capture the beauty.
We entered our room and got situated and then without batting an eye, left the room to explore the town that has such a reputation! I can't recall detail for detail the way our days played out, but during our time there, we ate incredible (tasteful as well as expensive) food, shopped in great stores, walked, talked, took a gondola ride (ROMANTIC! ROMANTIC! FABULOUS! LOVED IT!) visited Madame Tussuad's, watched a Pirate show at Treasure Island, the amazing fountain water show at the Bellagio, visited with some fabulous friends that came in from Arizona to enjoy a few days with us and I learned how to play Craps. What a fun time! We even situated ourselves at an Oxygen bar. The homeopathic way to get a little boost on no sleep and jet lag :)
Friday came, the day to leave. Our trip was not long enough, yet it was long enough to ache for my children. As the hours passed, and the more children I saw, I literally melted each time missing them! We missed our scheduled flight (did I mention Al is always late, well, this time he doesn't get full blame, we were both completely wrapped up in our fun times that we both submitted to being irresponsible about watching the time!) but were able to make a flight two hours later. We checked our bags and headed through security. Al realized a bit too late that he had forgotten to take his knife off his belt (he's an electrician, he uses it to cut wires and is in full habit of clipping it on his belt as he gets dressed in the morning) he thought by chance, sheer luck if you will, that he would slide through security with no issue. NOT THE CASE. He was flagged and long story short, had a report filed. Just call him Mr. Terrorist himself :/
We flew home, as night fell. Making the sights from that little window on the plane even more beautiful. We landed safe and sound, came home and went to bed with sweet memories of an amazing trip!