I’m feeling rather uninspiring when it comes to writing after a long and wonderful visit with my mother, both in Las Vegas and my own home.  So to sum it up, I desperately needed this trip for so many reasons, but I’m happy to be back to…normal?  A more systematic routine anyway.  Here are some of the highlights.

Eating breakfast at the world famous Hash House (featured on Man vs. Food).

Seeing Cirque du Soleil’s Love.  This was my favorite Cirque show so far.  I’ve also seen Mystere and Viva Elvis.  This one struck a major chord with the dancer in me.

Jean Phillipe at the Bellagio.  The best desserts ever!  You can tell how in love I was.

New York New York’s roller coaster.  I rode twice.  By myself.  Don’t feel sorry for me; as you can see I didn’t care.

My mom’s friend John Salvatore was in Jersey Boys, so not only did we get REALLY good seats for a great price, but we got to go back stage afterwards.  I think the usher that reprimanded me for having a camera out wasn’t on such a power trip after he saw this.

75 degrees {sigh}.  Enough said.

Wow.  All I can say is…wow!  This is an incredible exhibit if you ever get a chance to see it.  It is especially exciting if you can recite lines to the movie while you’re walking through replications of parts of the ship like the steerage hallway or the grand staircase.  Maybe I’m the only one who does that.

We walked.  A LOT.  We did zero gambling but we did walk through every. single. casino on the strip in order to get to where we needed to go.

Bellagio fountain of course.

And finally…

Yes.  This did happen.

I have no words for this experience.  Well, I do because I always have words.  But nothing that would do it justice.  It was a feeling similar to what I felt when I first fell in love with my husband but couldn’t tell him yet.  Its just this warm feeling that hovers there and there is nothing you can do about it but just laugh or cry or take a deep breath.

We were actually supposed to be at the Pentatonix concert that night, but after seeing the Titanic exhibit we felt compelled to stop by the House of Blues to ask them where our “seats” were.  The man at the ticket counter looked apologetic as he explained that we probably should have called the box office and asked them about our tickets before we paid for them.  Apparently we were going to have a terrible experience (we had tickets for standing room only on the 3rd balcony).

The next day we decided to take a VERY long walk back to the north end of the strip (we were staying at the south end) just so I could get a refund on a shirt that I was overcharged for.  Right next to Fashion show mall was a half price ticket counter.  Seeing it sparked a conversation about how great it would have been to see the Celine Dion concert.  But my mom had looked at tickets prior to our visit and they were $250, so it wasn’t even a thought.

I suggested that maybe we just stop by the half price counter just to check, to which she responded “Its the biggest show in Vegas, there’s no way they sell tickets for half price”.  But I convinced her, as I’ve been known to do.

That night we sat in the 11th row orchestra seats at the Colosseum ($250 seats) for $98!  Ohhh, what a night.

And then we returned home.  It was a surprisingly balmy 35 degrees as we exited the airport, which quickly turned into a blizzard that gave us 8 inches of snow.  But I had a half dozen excited, smiling faces to come home to.  We had a nice weekend with my grandma and aunt, watching Frozen (fittingly) and taking Jade to basketball and play practice.

If you were one of the ones who was with me the last week — missed you Daryn 😦 —  you know that even when all the stars align to your advantage there is still room for stress.  Sorry for that.  But those are the moments that “get you from one happy snap shot to the next“, right?  So grateful for an incredible family to share these memories with, and for an extremely patient and supportive husband for staying home with 4 little kids!