Life Before, During and After Vegas

A couple weeks back, I took a trip home to Seattle for a few days to see both my sisters graduate from The University of Washington. To say I was proud, is an understatement. It was one heck of a rough ride to even get to Seattle in the first place with horribly turbulent flights through Denver and delays from a nasty storm. I didn't get in to Seattle till almost 2am. Dad was the only one still awake to pick me up from the airport & take me home - I of course in no way expected my family to still be awake that late at night. Kati groggily said "Welcome Home" as I crawled into bed with her and proceeded to pass out.

Then Saturday & Sunday was pretty much a blur! Two days of graduation at the U and back to back hours of sitting through speeches...but you know what? It was completely worth it! Every minute of sitting, flying & spending :-) My mom has some great photos on her camera from the graduations that I hope to get copies of soon, so I can post them here (hint, hint, Kati!).

The 3 days of running from place to place was a complete blur and then finally Kris, Kati & I boarded an early morning flight on Tuesday for Vegas!~ We were quite worn out and slept for 16 hours with an hour break sometime during the middle of the night. But seriously, that was the expectation all along - sleep, relax, sit by the pool and read. And we even squeezed in a Cirque Soliel Elvis show and some great meals! It was truly a lot of fun and very restful - and our room was as amazing as I had hoped it to be.

We did see a few nearby hotels, but seriously it took SO long just to walk to one hotel it would have taken the entire week to see all of it and it was EXHAUSTING and HOT going from hotel to hotel. The ones we did see were all very cool, but I would highly recommend people be allowed to rent golf carts to get from hotel to hotel and they should also install those moving sidewalks like they have in airports - boy would that ever help! My favorite hotel by far was probably the Wynn ~ ah-mazing. If Jason and I ever go to Vegas together, I would definitely want to stay there with him. This atrium was in the lobby and from those trees are giant multi-colored flowered balls. It was so breathtaking.Then we found this cute little pizzeria and decided to sit outside on its patio which was surrounded by water & waterfalls. Incredible!

Here's another part of the Wynn hotel where these giant umbrellas hung over a seated lobby.

This was probably my favorite meal from the 5 days we were there. I was dying for some good Chinese food since we have hardly any here in Nashville and we found this restaurant called FIN inside the Mirage. The service was impeccable and the food was INSANELY amazing. The prices weren't too bad either (surprisingly) :-) And it was so worth every bit of indigestion afterwards!

And of course it wouldn't be Vegas without trying the slot machines. Our hotel gave us a $25 credit on the slots and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I. So. Don't. Get. It. People sat there for HOURS playing slots and for what? No way would I spend my hard-earned cash pulling a level and throwing it down the drain! As you can see, I was quite the slot-virgin, so Kris had so show me how it's done.

Two days after returning from Vegas, I was still having nightmares that I was trapped inside a casino and couldn't get out. The bells from the slots were "cha-chinging" through my mind for days - I likened to what it must be like stepping off a cruise-ship and still feeling the tilt from the waves.

I'm so glad we did this as sisters, though next time we all agree that a beach vacation with little to no distractions would be a much better option! :-) I love you sisters - congrats on your hard earned & well deserved degrees!