Good-bye my friend...

....until we meet again!

I am the type of person that when I go somewhere once,

I don't want to go back.

I like to spend my time and money on new places and spaces.

But I have to say, after our Vegas trip, I am ready to return again!

Any takers?!?!

On the way to the airport,

I snapped a picture of Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas.

We have a Hofbrauhaus in Newport,

and I would like to visit the one in Vegas

on our next adventure.

When we arrived in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport,

this little guy was waiting for us!

Gotta love Charlie O'Connor!

Melissa, Charlie, and Kevin

Keith, Charlie, and Me

Isn't this precious!

 Once we were home,

we quickly picked up Maddy from my parent's house.

When we brought her home,

she immediately looked like this:

Apparently we weren't the only ones having fun the past 4 days!

Thank you to Savannah, Kevin, Melissa, and Kevin

for making this an excellent first trip to Vegas.

It definitely won't be our last!

Las Vegas, Day 3

After a late night,

we woke up relatively early (for Vegas!)

and dined at our hotel buffet for breakfast (or was it lunch?!?!).

Keith made his very own

"Build-a-burger" 

and it was monstrous!

After our meal,

we headed back out to the pool for a few hours.

When we were finished at the pool,

we walked around our hotel casino and found this!

Chairs that looked like booties! haha

I like to say that Melissa got a little sunburned at the pool!

hehe

In the evening, we wanted to watch

the free pirate show that takes place

outside of our hotel every night.

We had missed it the first few nights and 

were so excited to have the opportunity to see it.

Unfortunately, after the show started

they were having audio issues and had to cancel it.

We went back later in the evening for the next show,

and it was canceled due to high winds.

I guess this is all we were meant to see!

We walked the strip one last time.

Excalibur

MGM

New York, New York

We felt like we were in the movie
Honey I Shrunk the Kids!

Reminiscing about our Messerson Family Reunion last
summer in St. Louis when we visited the Budweiser facility.

We continued walking the strip back to our hotel,

and then called it an early night since we had early flights in the morning.

Sleep well Las Vegas!

Las Vegas, Day 2

Waking up with a headache is no fun,

but it is the sign of a great night in Vegas.

Popping in some Advil, we headed

to Bill's for breakfast 

(or was it lunch time by that time?!)

People who say you lose track of what day

and time it is in Vegas are correct.

I didn't see a clock or calendar anywhere!

Notice Keith's Bloody Mary--starting early!

Wow we look rough this morning! haha

After another yummy meal, the girls headed to the pool

while the boys went gambling.

A view of our hotel from the pool

For some reason I didn't take a picture of our pool,
so I took this one from Google Images...thank you Google!

After an excellent day catching up on girl talk,

we met back up with the guys.

From this image, I think you can tell that they

had a fabulous time gambling!

This is Kevin in a table in our hotel!

On tonight's agenda: Old Vegas

Really cool light show they perform every hour--
I was so excited that the first show was dedicated to
Bon Jovi!!

We found a friend! Patti worked with Melissa and
I at Sharpsburg. She now is at the Middle School.
So wonderful seeing her!

Look at that boot!

 The Golden Nugget hotel in Las Vegas has a scrumptious

buffet that we ate at for dinner.  It was pretty cheap

and the food was amazing!

This picture is of the Golden Nugget's hotel pool.

It has an aquarium in the middle of it complete with sharks

and a water slide that runs through it!

So cool!

Notice the shark right by my head?!?!

The tube through the middle is the water slide

When we came back from Old Vegas,

we decided it was time for more gambling!

At this point in the trip, I had not touched a slot machine.

So I thought I would give it a whirl at Casino Royale

(with Keith's money of course!). ;)

Keith and I ended up winning a little,

and were the last ones to head back to the hotel.

On our way, we noticed that the sun was coming up on this side of the strip.

The other side of the strip where the sun isn't up yet

Here is our alarm clock right before heading to bed

What a terrific 2nd day in Las Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas!

To celebrate the end of a challenging school year, completing my first marathon, and just for the fun of it, 

the Messers packed their bags and flew to Las Vegas.

We were very lucky to share this trip with two of our 

favorite couple friends

Kevin & Melissa, and Kevin & Savannah.

Our trip began with my step-dad, Troy,

picking us up at 7:15 A.M.  We quickly swung

by Melissa and Kevin's house,

kissed their handsome boys good-bye,

and started our journey to the airport.

On our way, we received a police escort!

We have no idea why we were driving down the 

highway at 15 mph, but we were hoping they would speed it up!

We finally got impatient, took an exit off of the highway,

and entered the highway at another location before the police got there.

Melissa and I in our seats about to take off!

The Grand Canyon

About 4 hours later,

we were in Las Vegas ready to party!

Since we couldn't check into our hotel yet,

Kevin, Melissa, Keith, and I began walking the strip

while we waited for Kevin & Savannah to arrive.

One of our first stops: delicious Margaritaville!

After a very filling lunch, we continued walking the strip,

and then headed back to our hotel to check-in.

I'm not going to lie, at this point I was in need of a nap!

Which I took, in our spacious king bed. :)

Later, Kevin and Savannah arrived and we headed out on the town again.

Picture outside of our hotel

Take 2

Believe it or not, our dinner choice for the night--Denny's!

haha

Everyone asks us why we went to Vegas and ate at Denny's.

but like Bob Barker would say,

the price was right!

After we were the shining stars in Denny's 

(why was everyone staring at us, I wonder?)

we danced to some good ol' country music

at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill Las Vegas.

Then, we went back to our hotel bar, Gilley's.

Gilley's is a western restaurant and bar that was

holding a bikini bull riding contest this evening.

It was quite interesting, to say the least!

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of "Delores"--

our fabulous waitress throughout the trip 

(yes, we visited Gilley's MANY times).

Her name really isn't Delores, 

but it is the name Kevin O'Connor gave

her and it stuck.

Now, I am having trouble

remembering her real name!!

At 2:30 A.M. Vegas time, 5:30 Cincinnati time,

(minus my small nap we had been up for 24 hours!)

Keith and I hit the hay ready for a full adventure tomorrow!