hey, you guys ready to let the dogs out?

A couple weeks ago my four wonderful siblings and I enjoyed a weekend in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. We all lead such busy lives and rarely get to spend quality time together. It was, simply put, amazing.

Now matter how you view it: "Sin City," "City of Lost Wages," or just a simple vacation-- it's got something for everyone. I used to think that Las Vegas was purely synonymous with gambling. All the stories I ever heard from people were about winning or losing large sums of money. But while gambling is certainly worth mentioning, I quickly came to realize that there's much more to it than that. Las Vegas has grown to be not only just a little mecca of sin but a second Disney World-- for adults! I will spare you all of the finite details of our trip but I'll recap each day with a brief summary. Enjoy!Friday: Adam, Jenny, Kris and I were the last to arrive. We flew in a little after 10pm. This was definitely the way to go; less people and a quick trip to the hotel. Once we got to NewYork NewYork we had time to quickly drop our bags off and then it was time to hit the town. After a quick deliberation we decided to walk down the strip until we found a 'cheap' casino, i.e. one that had $5 blackjack tables. After all, how would our vacation be complete if we didn't contribute to the city's biggest industry? But after walking for over an hour, about half of us decided to head back to the hotel. Call us boring if you'd like, but we wanted to make sure we had enough steam for the following day and night. From what I hear, the rest of that night panned out pretty good. They made their way to the Imperial Palace and gambled until about 5am.

Saturday: On Saturday morning we stayed pretty close to the hotel. Since the guys had to leave for golf at 1pm, all we really had time for was a quick tour of the adjacent hotels. Kris and I made our way to the Excalibur and then quickly walked through the Luxor before heading back toward NYNY. When the guys left, the girls laid poolside all afternoon while sipping margaritas and reading magazines. At around 5pm we decided to hit the strip. Because we didn't expect the guys back until around 10pm, we took our time walking toward our dinner destination. We shopped at the m&m store and turned down several porn offers before eventually making our way to CaboWabo- a delicious Cantina restaurant located at Planet Hollywood- and at around 10pm the guys arrived and we all enjoyed dinner together. After dinner we made quite the jaunt back to our hotel. The walk was long but it didn't seem to bother anyone since we were all having such a good time. I had to give my sister the shirt off of my back because she had some allergic reaction and came down with a 'weepy eye'. Once we were back at the hotel the girls decided to hit the dance floor. We made our way into the club located right at our hotel- Rok Vegas. I had a good time letting loose and shakin' it with my sister-in-laws. After that, it was off to bed for me.

Sunday: We had decided the night before that on Sunday we wanted to take a "foot tour" and explore the hotels on the opposite end of the strip. But before that, the guys decided to play a poker tournament at the Excalibur (which, by the way, my Kris placed 4th in). My sister and I played some slots for a little while. This was fun because I won close to $50 on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine! I decided not to press my luck and instead decided to quit while I was ahead. Miranda, Jenny, Tyler, Sarah and I started our foot tour off by checking out the lions at MGM Grand and then hopping on the monorail. We got off at Harrah's and walked down to the Venetian where we checked out the fancy gondola. By this time Kris finished kicking butt at poker and met us. Then we walked across the street to Caesar's Palace and wandered around there for a while. Next we hit the Belagio and saw some fancy glass-blown art. After our foot tour we were pretty beat so caught a cab back to the hotel. We decided to have dinner as a group in the Freemont area. It was neat to see the older more traditional part of town. After a couple hours of exploring Freemont it was time to head back to the strip. I went to bed pretty early because our flight was at some ungodly hour.

Monday: Back to reality.

Once all was said and done, I realized how lucky I am to be surrounded by such a loving, supportive family. Being the youngest of five hasn't always been easy, but over the years I have come to realize that I'll always be the baby and that I'll always be looked out for. So when my siblings all agreed to spend the weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate my twenty first birthday, I can't say I was all that surprised. But it far surpassed all of my expectations and turned out to be one of the best vacations of my life. I definitely couldn't have asked for more special way to celebrate this milestone than with my wonderful siblings. Miranda, Zach, Adam and Tyler-- thanks for being the best older siblings a girl could ask for. Shawn, Heidi, and Sarah-- thanks for being part of our family. To all of you-- thanks for coming to my birthday party in fabulous Las Vegas! I can't wait to do it again.