Our Easter Vacation

...was spent in Fabulous LAS VEGAS!

Our Home away from home, for the week ~

The Hip HARD ROCK HOTEL

On our 1st night we had tickets for a dinner show at the EXCALIBUR...

(Jared, at age 17, reports that the show is as great as he remembers from when he was 5)

DAY 1 was the BODIES exhibit @ the Luxor, 

followed by the SHARKS at Mandalay Bay~

DAY 2  began with breakfast at the local pancake house

with a little zip over to a scrap booking store 

(my family tolerates me!)

Next we went to MGM for The CSI EXPERIENCE ~

& then, onto CAESAR'S PALACE
for a stroll through The Forum Shops ~

& last but not least,
we ate dinner @ Joe's Stone Crab...

YUM!

DAY 3  Started out with crepes @ PARIS...

Oh La La!

and a trip to the PINBALL HALL OF FAME,

which is a museum, of sorts, with great old vintage machines

(over 4oo in the collection)

having way more fun with a roll of quarters,

than you can have in a casino ~

Back to our hotel, for an afternoon of swim & sun by the pools ~

Yep...that's my kids 
in the sky high pool that looks like a fish tank!

 Louis & I slipped into THE PINK TACO 

for happy hour margaritas,

while the kids got cleaned up for our night time plans...

Here they are @ the indescribably fun

BLUE MAN GROUP show in THE VENETIAN.

So, the next day it was time to load up the car 

& head on home...

But wait...there's more!

We drove to HOOVER DAM to catch a tour!

What an amazing architectural feat this is to see.

 and then, finally, one last stop...

All that, packed into 5 days!

And I only paused once to put a single $1 into a slot machine

Which it promptly swallowed

(but I think Louis managed a little gambling, while the kids & I were asleep)