Las Vegas 2013

I returned from Vegas yesterday afternoon.  The return trip is always tough because it is a buzzkill to be done with a fun vacation and also because on the way there the time zones jump back two hours so you arrive an hour after you leave and on the way home you have to go ahead two hours so, for example, my plane left (it was actually half an hour late) at 8:30 a.m. and I didn't leave the airport until 1 p.m.  Then, although I was excited to see him, I had to spend the afternoon with Ben who had already had a nap at his babysitter's house and had no consideration for the fact that I was exhausted and had four hours of sleep the night before. Babies!  When will they learn?  I feel much better today, though.  That crazy place seems so far away, with all the action just carrying on, day after day. 

The same as every year, this year it was very hot.  As in, highs of 110 degrees hot.  It was extreme but felt pretty good in moderation, especially after the sun went down at night.  I did pretty well at avoiding sunburn even though we spent all afternoon at the pool on Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday we had a cabana at the pool so I had some shade.  It also had an unlimited supply of free water, which is a hard commodity to come by in Vegas.  There is not a drinking fountain to be found but there is a plentiful supply of $4.00 bottled water anywhere you go.  I made sure to get a free one whenever I played the slots. 

No one brought a real camera this year and instead we all used our phones to take pictures and sent them around.  These are not really in any order. 

I took this when we were eating on the roof at Margaritaville. 

 

Here is a view of our hotel of choice!  Bally's is not the fanciest or newest but it is affordable and has a decent pool and restaurants.  It doesn't have the over the top themes that the other hotels have but we still like it.  It is connected to "Paris" through an interior walkway lined with shops and restaurants so we spent a lot of time there too. 

 

On Friday night I won some money!  I started with $20!  That is always a good way to start a trip!  I won close to the same on Saturday night.  It's not much to some but it was pretty helpful for my trip! 

 

This was the view from our room. 

On Saturday we went to the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show.  It was pretty amazing.  Those are some talented acrobats!  The music was good too. 

Here we are in the casino at Bally's.  (Me, my cousins, my sister, and a friend who was my cousin's college roommate).  The picture looks a bit distorted! 

Here we are at the pool on Saturday.  I was pretty self conscious about looking pregnant.  I tried to hide it but you can tell now for sure.  I did see some other pregnant women here and there but I would have felt better if I just looked obvious and not just thick in the middle.  There are so many cute young girls walking around everywhere you look and I had to remind myself that there are also lots of not so young, not so perfect women of all ages and sizes in Vegas.  It is a mass of humanity and most people don't really care about what anyone else looks like. 

 

Here we are out walking after the Beatles show.  It was about 99 degrees out in the dark and I am wearing that cardigan to hide the angry red streak of sunburn on my back from a mediocre sunblock application at the pool.  The sun and I have always had a rough relationship.  I love it, it wants to destroy me...

 

On Sunday we went shopping and got a limo instead of a few cabs.  The hotel guys said it would cost the same.  Aren't we fancy!  We were back in the cabs for the way home though!  We saw the Bellagio water show, which we had all seen before but it is a fun Vegas experience.  We ate in a traditional Las Vegas dining room at the Bellagio with the grandmothers for our last dinner on Sunday night.  It went way too fast, like all vacations do.  I'm already looking forward to next time!