Vegas Baby!

Last weekend we packed up and headed to Vegas for a long weekend. We started talking about this trip at the beginning of the summer when Matt and his buddy Nick heard about the Rock 'n Roll marathon / half marathon and thought it would be cool to run (the half that is). Matt mentioned it to Brian who said he had never been and wanted to go - and Brian mentioned it to Ethan who loves Vegas. Next thing I know we are having a Vegas planning party/spaghetti dinner at the house buying plane tickets and booking a hotel. Several months went by after the dinner and while at the time December seemed so far away, it snuck right up on us. I will admit it was not the easiest to fit in Vegas right after traveling for Thanksgiving - but the trip turned out to be perfect!!!! Something I think the 5 of us would consider doing again next year. 

Our hotel room was unbelievable. We fit the 5 of us in a 3 room suite! The common area had an 8 foot projector screen that came down. It was hard for the boys to leave the Packer game and get ready for their run. 

The common room. There were flat screen TVs in the bathrooms - my getting ready process seemed to take much longer with the distraction of a TV from the shower!

 We arrived about 9:30pm Friday night and immediately got food. By the time we finished eating it was already almost midnight. Brian, Ethan and I being the old folks that we are went to bed. Matt and Nick went out on the strip. It was Matt's first time in Vegas as well and he loved it! I don't think they came home until 5:30am!

Realizing that none of us packed appropriately. It. was. freezing.

Paris

 The next morning - well not really morning - day, when everyone was finally up we walked up and down the strip looking for someplace that was still serving breakfast. No luck. We settled on a french restaurant outside of the Paris casino. They had a make your own bloody mary bar which I think sold half the group. That and there was no wait!

Matt's bloody mary - the olives were for me!

 After fueling up we went towards the end of the strip to the Venetian convention center to pick up Matt and Nick's packets. They had tons of vendors so we spent about 2 hours walking around looking at running/health stuff. 

Re-filling out his form!

Goofing off at the convention center. 

Dinner was at the new casino, the cosmopolitan. We were told they had the best buffet - it was pretty tasty. Brian and I were super excited about the crab leg station. Not as good as peg legs though!

Round 1

Round 2 - yes I probably did gain 5 pounds at the buffets...lol!

Ethan's dessert plate

 After dinner we went to the 10:30pm showing of the Blue Man Group. Matt had seen them once before in Chicago and loved it. It was a fun show. My first time in Vegas I went to the Celine Dion concert and LOVED IT...not surprisingly, none of the guys wanted to see her concert! I guess Blue Man Group was a happy medium.

Matt got us tickets in the splash zone - we were in row 6. No one got splashed though!

 Sunday was the day of the race. The Vegas Rock 'n Roll is a night-time marathon and apparently the largest nighttime run in the world. Between the half and full they had 44,000 people running. It was incredible. 

Matt went all out shaving his beard into a fu-man-chu (spelling?!?)

So proud of him!!!

 After two nights of living it up in Vegas they both completed the 12.6 miles. Matt said it was his favorite run. It almost made me want to get into running. The strip at night just has so much energy and is so lit up. They had bands about every 3 blocks, and the bellagio fountains were going off almost the entire time!

Monday we slept in, gambled a bit more, and ate at two more buffets before heading back to the airport. We even got an upclose showing of the water show. There was no way I was missing the fountain experience. I think the Bellagio fountains might be my favorite thing to see in Vegas. Sad? Maybe!

At the airport headed home. Tired and happy!

All in all it was a great trip. It is so fun to travel with friends - especially when everyone is so easy going! Here's to hoping for a second annual trip next year!!!!