Viva Las Vegas!

Well, we made it back!  We have been on the road for about two weeks.  After Vegas, we came home for a day and then headed to Norman for Dr. Brett to take out all four of Nick's wisdom teeth.  I asked Nick if he ever thought his college roommate/fraternity brother would perform oral surgery on him.  Nick (while in a drug induced state) said, "Well, yes, I always aspired to this. I am sure Brett did too."  After Norman we made the trek to the Texas Hill Country for a very sad a event.  If you all (sweet friends) are reading this; we love you all.  You are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. I am constantly reminded how blessed Nick and I are and I am ever so thankful for God and his blessings.

We had the best time in Vegas.  Nick and I are fortunate that we have been on several vacations together and I can honestly say, I LOVE VEGAS!  We were there for five days and I did not want to leave! Well, I did in a way, I was ready to see my Allison, but still we had a great time!  I think we walked ten miles a day!  Nick gambled (and won), I shopped (and won) and we both ate very well!  What a great time.  If you have not been to Vegas...GO!  I had no idea, honestly no idea how incredible it truly is.  We arrived in Vegas on a Friday morning around 11:00.  Even leaving the airport was fun! The strip is amazing!  The first day we ate and went sight seeing!  What amazing things to see!  Here we are at our first meal in Vegas at the Grand Lux Cafe in the Palazzo.

Here we are in the Venetian with this cute little Humpty Dumpty Guy!  We had to take pictures with touristy type things since it was my first time there!

The Palazzo had a huge tiger in the lobby!

I made it to Caesar's Forum Shops to see the Fountain show (and to do a little shopping damage)!  How wonderful!

I also had to take a picture with Elvis.  Number one:  when you are in Vegas, you have to see Elvis at least once!  Number two:  my great Uncle Marvin wrote, "Viva Las Vegas!"  Now if that is not an Elvis connection, I don't know what is!

We made it to the Bellagio our first night there to see their breathtaking gardens.  They change the gardens every month or so.  They were celebrating the Chinese New Year this time.

So all the tigers....I am going to just go ahead and admit my ignorance on this one.  I said to Nick, "I wonder why there are so many tigers around Vegas?  Maybe it is the success of the movie, "The Hangover"?  There was a tiger in that!"  Our friends said, "No Kelly, it is the Chinese New Year and it is the Year of the Tiger."  Oh!  Explains so much!
The ceiling at the Bellagio is a Dale Chihuly.  It is a gorgeous piece of glass art work!

Perhaps the most beautiful thing on the strip is the Fountains of Bellagio.  It was absolutely stunning!  I think it was my favorite part of the whole trip.  My heart melted when I saw the fountains dance to Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin!

Nick and I chose sushi as our meal for our first night in Vegas.  We ate at Ah Sin at the Paris Las Vegas and enjoyed the beautiful scenery around us!

Our next full day started bright and early!  We left our hotel, Harrahs Las Vegas, and hopped on the monorail to go down to the other end of the strip so I could see it all!

We started at The MGM Grand Hotel and just worked our way down.  Here are some pretty impressive pictures of the incredible strip!
The Luxor:

New York, New York (now hum a little Jay-Z in your head!):

Here are some beautiful cakes at Aria in the new City Center:

While in City Center, we walked through their amazing mall.  They had a Mikimoto store there.  Now if you know me well, you know I LOVE pearls!  They are my very favorite and I am proud to say that I own three gorgeous strands of pearls along with several other pieces.  But the king of pearls is Mikimoto.  I never thought I would ever be able to go into a store because there are so few of them in the United States.  There are only four to be exact and one of the four is in the City Center Mall!  A very kind lady worked there and  practically insisted that I try on a strand of rare gold pearls. Well I did.  Now I am in love with them.  Maybe if we win the lottery (or really, really, really big on our next trip to Vegas)  I can have them!  They were AMAZING! It's always great to have a goal in life!

The Wynn:

On to the Palazzo again!

And back to the Venitian Mall...

The shopping in Vegas is wonderful.  I had a great time looking at everything under the sun!  There is truly something for everybody!

Nick and I had several people tell us to see a show in Vegas.  Honestly, there were not too many shows that truly appealed to either one of us.  I did however find something I wanted to see...The Pussycat Dolls!  They have a show they perform in their lounge attached to PURE Nightclub in Caesars Palace.  Nick and I decided we could kill two birds with one stone with this one...we could see a show and get the Vegas night club experience I so desired to try!  I don't even like nightclubs; I just like the idea of getting dressed up and seeing celebrities in nightclubs!
We actually had a great experience.  We arrived at Caesar's a bit early and for some unknown reason, the bouncer brought us in VIP and free of charge...how lucky is that?! Talk about feeling "A-list!"  And lucky for me, they had "celebrity" party hosts at the club  (and I do use the term, "celebrity" very loosely).  The Salahi's aka "The White House Party Crashers"  were there!  OK, OK, so a little "D-List,"  but it was somebody!

Here's a blurry picture I took with my camera phone:

Here are some pictures of PURE.  Nick and I actually had a great time there!

One amazing thing about PURE was the rooftop view!  We went on the roof and gazed over the entire Las Vegas strip!

And of course the highlight of the evening...The Pussycat Dolls!

They are extremely talented and really fun to watch!  The lounge is very small so one is right in the middle of it all! They are just a burlesque show, so they are not too crazy (and yes, they keep their clothes ON).  They have a fairly interesting history which you can read about here. Several celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Tori Spelling, Kim Kardashian and many others have performed with the Las Vegas Pussycat Dolls.  After their performance, they come mingle.  I got to meet one!

The next morning, Nick and I went to brunch at Serendipity 3.  I will be honest with you, I have been dying to eat at a Serendipity for ten years now.  All because of this precious movie...

I finally got my wish!  Here is Nick's brunch....

And my brunch...

And of course, the FAMOUS Frozen Hot Chocolate!!

We celebrated our last night in Vegas at Carnevino, Mario Batali's newest restaurant.  We had a beautiful meal with our sweet friends and enjoyed every scrumptious bite!  After dinner, we had to pull a little Clark Griswald and head downtown.  The downtown lights show in Vegas is spectacular and well worth the trip down the strip!

I know I probably left out a ton of our fun moments, but I think you get the idea!  I am so thankful I had the opportunity to go!  I love VEGAS! And if you have not been...GO!

PS  I apologize for my blog hiatus.  Things have been crazy here, but I am back and ready to bore you with multiple entries of our life and happenings. And of course post about our GROWING GIRL!
Happy Thursday and stay warm.  Our blizzard warnings are OUT OF CONTROL!