I went to Las Vegas! But not recently…six months ago back in September. That was a super, crazy busy time for our family and for JFP, so I didn’t blog about it right away. Actually, I had planned on blogging about our trip before the end of 2012, but obviously that didn’t happen. I’ve been thinking about putting together a strict blogging schedule for my weeks and I think it’s finally time to start doing that! No more blogging about things six months later! Anyways…

Brian and I went to Las Vegas in September for his work…for the mine expo. It was our first time in Las Vegas and I was excited that we got to experience that together. I wish Brian wouldn’t have had to work as much as he did while we were there, but thankfully, one of his co-worker’s wives was available to hang out and explore the city with me. I actually really enjoyed Las Vegas and hope we’ll go back in the near future. Of course the naked ladies on the sides of buses, the constant large crowds of people and the super high-end, I-could-never-afford stores weren’t to my liking, but the food options, affordable shopping, elaborate hotels, endless activities, and reasons to wear fun dresses were all very enjoyable! So if you’re thinking about going to Vegas sometime soon, consider this post for you!

(This is a long post, but hey, there’s a lot to see in Vegas!)

So much sparkle and over-the-top-ness in this city…

We stayed at Planet Hollywood. It’s on the strip, across the street from the Bellagio and has the Miracle Mile Shops in the bottom floor. I’d definitely recommend it!

Inside The Cosmopolitan hotel…

I was a total creeper for about five whole minutes waiting for this guy to shut his eyes so I could snap this picture!

Time for the Paris hotel! I was especially excited about this one…

I wonder if they heard the sound of my shutter??

Time for the Bellagio! It was definitely my favorite hotel…so grand and so impressive!

Brian says if the store only has a few things on their shelves, we can’t afford it! Here was one of those stores…

The Bellagio lobby! Grand and impressive, right??

I only caught one full show of the Bellagio fountains…

Caesar’s Palace and the Forum Shops!

You literally see a little bit of everything in Vegas…including pink window elephants!

The biggest H&M store in the US is in the Forum Shops! Pretty sure Katie and I spent over an hour in there and I only walked out with one sweater!

The Venetian! One of our best meals was had here at Tao, an Asian-fusion restaurant that we highly recommend!

There’s also some nice shops inside the Venetian…including It’s Sugar!

The famous gondolas in Vegas! I rode one of these with my grandma while in Venice, Italy almost 12 years ago.

Katie and I eventually explored the other end of the strip…

New York, New York was our first stop! The first floor is built to replicate New York City…

We rode the roller coaster and screamed like a bunch of girls the whole time!

This is appropriate for Vegas. Like I said, you literally see a little bit of everything…

And here’s a few from my point-and-shoot…

After a few recommendations, we ate at the famous Serendipity restaurant. I eventually had some of their even more famous frozen hot chocolate and it was amazing! If you don’t eat at Serendipity, you should at least have a frozen hot chocolate!

See, stores that I’ll never be able to afford…

Yeah Steelers!!!

I was soooo tempted to get Ally some sparkly Toms!

Can you tell how excited Brian was that I was stopping every few minutes to take pictures?? 😉

Bumblebee!!!

Two of the best dancers I’ve ever seen…

Snapped for some photog inspiration. 🙂

Yay! Finally a picture of Brian and I!

If you’re ever in Vegas, you MUST eat at Hash House A Go Go! We had our best meal of the week at this restaurant and would HIGHLY recommend going for breakfast. And yes, that’s a pancake too big for the plate in front of Brian…

I was able to walk around the mine expo with Brian for a bit. It was good to see what he had been doing all week…

The impressive Caterpillar exhibit. Apparently it took four months and millions of dollars to put together…

The size of the equipment was beyond impressive…it was mind-boggling!

And our last Vegas activity…Cirque du Soleil….an activity we highly recommend! When we were in Vegas, there were 6+ different Cirque shows, so it was hard not to go to one. Definitely unlike anything we’ve seen before…

Vegas isn’t for everyone, but like I said above, I really enjoyed it. We didn’t do any gambling, but still enjoyed hanging out in the casino and exploring the different hotel atmospheres. The food and shopping is phenomenal and the activities are endless and unique. There is so much we didn’t get to do, so I really hope we get to go back sometime in the near future. Thanks for taking me along, honey. 🙂