The Las Vegas Birthday Extravaganza!

I’m back! And I didn’t spend my entire savings! Yay me! Seriously, y’all, if you need an idea for celebrating your 30th birthday, may I suggest finding four of the best, funniest, prettiest, most fabulous people you know and then going to Las Vegas with them? It will be the best time ever!

We all took bazillions of photos (mostly with our phones) and in approximately 90% of them we have flashbulb zombie eyes. But we are really pretty zombies, so it’s all good. Since my brain is still in the pacific time zone and I can barely formulate sentences, I decided the easiest way to tell our story is through a good old iPhone dump. So here, in no particular order, is our trip to Las Vegas.

Man, oh, man, did we have a good time! Thanks to Abbie for planning the whole thing, and to all the other girls (I’m talking to you, Hayley, Kristi and Theresa) for coming and giving me a birthday I will never forget. Awesome, just awesome.

Some things we did, and would totally recommend:

– Dinner at Lavo at the Venetian Hotel (where we stayed). Get the fried oreos. JUST DO IT!

– Dancing at Tao (also at the Venetian). Since we went to Lavo for dinner (and the Lavo club is closed Thursday nights) we received free entrance and wristbands for free drinks from 10:30 to midnight. We also got a free VIP table for an hour. Be sure to tip your bartenders, even though you’re not paying for drinks. We were the ONLY PEOPLE who tipped our bartender (which is super sad) and she gave us special treatment all night because of it. Tip generously…remember the drinks are free!

– Breakfast at Morel’s Steakhouse

– Shopping at Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Outlets (the Kate Spade outlet was incredible!)

– Catching a performance of the Cirque du Soliel Beatles Love show. I totally cried, it was beautiful!

– Dinner at Stack in the Mirage Hotel. Order the “hot rocks” appetizer, which is tenderloin that you cook yourself on hot rocks at your table.

– Walking down the strip and drinking rum slushies that you pick up along the way. Bonus for ordering the giant cup and using it to build glorious arm muscles.

– Rent a cabana at the Encore Hotel. This was generously given to us by Miss Abbie’s father-in-law (he’s the lone guy in the photos above), and we had such a blast! We chose to stay on the family side instead of the beach side, to avoid the crowds of yucky drunk dudes. Napping in the cabana is recommended.

– Watching football at Lagasse’s Stadium, where you can bet on games and watch in total luxury. Most of the girls are K-Staters and Abbie’s father-in-law went to Oklahoma University, so we went to watch the KSU/OU football game on Saturday night. It was super fun (and it helped that K-State won!).

– We ended up swinging by the club Hyde at the Bellagio Hotel and it was a trip highlight. We were lucky enough to have a buddy from high school working there and she hooked us up (Thanks, Kelly! You rule!). We sat overlooking the Bellagio fountains and enjoyed a few drinks while catching up. Good stuff.

– Our last stop of the Las Vegas Extravaganza was the club Bank at the Bellagio. Abbie’s awesome father-in-law treated us to a night we won’t soon forget, with a private table, drink service and lots of room to boogie down. We just kept looking at each other and saying “Is this real life?” It was totally amazing.