las vegas: shops, slots, sips + stories

okay, here's the much awaited vegas post. i hope my pictures portray the fun time we had!



the five of us {my cousin, two of my aunts + my mom} went to las vegas last week for three nights for her birthday.
her refers to my cousin, nichole, who turned 21 last week.
we stayed at a fabulous hotel.

that had l-o-n-g hallways. thankfully we were close to the elevators.
we had adjoining rooms which we loved!

it allowed us to be able to tell more stories {as if we hadn't shared enough during the day} and have some sips while getting ready to go out. we had fun exchanging clothes and jewelry. what girls do best!
the first night we were there we saw a show. {watch the trailer in the link to get a glimpse.} it was in our hotel so we had a short walk there. i couldn't take pictures, so this is all you get. the three words i've picked to describe the show are AMAZING. INCREDIBLE. WEIRD. you should see it if you get the chance.
our hotel was very, very nice. i LOVED the venetian glass flowered ceiling in the lobby - so colorful and fun.

here's another view to get a better perspective.
the bellagio gardens were so pretty. we asked what the annual flower bill was, but the lady didn't know. i can only imagine!!
b is for bellagio.
ribbit ribbit.
the fountains in front of the hotel were very cool. they shot up water so high to the tunes of "luck be a lady" and "all that jazz" of which i preferred the latter of the two. it's just a fun song and the water reminded me of a chorus line of high-kicking legs. so beautiful.

i just thought this fish tail was cool. i tried to get an upclose shot but the light was not very good. i should have gotten a shot when i saw a photo shoot happening in front of it.
this was another restaurant in the bellagio. very sleek. you can't tell from this shot, but the fish tank is what i would call either an elongated circle or a rectangle with rounded corners. anyone know a descriptive word for that? there were six or so of those long slender tanks. they were filled with TONS of goldfish.

my mom and aunt sandy had fun pretending to be in paris for a little while. it was such a quaint, charming place. we did some shopping at that hotel. it had more our kind of stores where we'd actually buy something as opposed to the stores in the bellagio like prada, armani, jimmy choo, etc. which are not our kind of stores.
we hit lots of hotels over the weekend where we did what the title says "shops, slots, sips + stories". to name a few...caesars palace, new york new york, the wynn, the venetian, and harrah's.

couldn't pass up posting my aunt sandy and me with the gila monster {i think that's what it was}. ewe!
i confess. i did something in vegas that i'd never done before. i gambled. and, i had fun doing it. it was my first time and it provided some good entertainment. all of us did it, even my mom! i don't think it will be come a regular habit though.
i'm sad to say there are no more classic coin machines in vegas any more. well maybe in the old smaller casinos, but we didn't go there. since the machines are more or less electronic and work with the touch of a button, we always chose the machines with the classic pull handles! it made it much more fun.
we were intrigued by the craps table. this table was open so got a quick craps lesson by the dealers. i don't really remember what he said, but i know the pink stack of chips is worth half a million dollars! we didn't play.
we were so nervous, but finally tried a table game - roulette! i put down twenty dollars and only got up nine dollars and ended up losing ten. not bad. it was fun. my mom tried to take a picture of us playing, but got in trouble by the dealer. she informed us we couldn't take pictures that included other people in them. only our crew was allowed, so the pit boss took a group picture for us. they were very nice.
so there you go - vegas. i'm sure i could tell more, but i have to follow the first rule that is posted in the airport as you walk to baggage claim...what happens in vegas, stays in vegas.



nichole, happy birthday! we had fun celebrating your life and seeing you get free stuff along the way. ;) i had a wonderful break from mommy world and the girl time was great! thanks for a memorable trip!