Viva Las Vegas!

Things have been pretty busy in the Hanlin household lately, with school, work, shows, training, etc. Often when things get hectic, I like to look ahead to the next "event", which usually consists of visiting with family, a vacation, or even the next time I get to sleep in.  Most recently, our "looking forward to" occasion was a weekend trip to Las Vegas with the Hanlins.  Man, did I have a count down going!  Although we love Arkansas and what we're doing here, we were just in need of a break.  So really early in the morning on Friday, April 1st (no joke) we flew out to Las Vegas, Nevada to meet up with Sandy, Phil, Leslie and her boyfriend Josh to celebrate Leslie's 21st birthday.  We stayed in the Venetian hotel (so big, they gave out maps of the hotel so people wouldn't get lost), and the picture at the top is the view from our room. Gorgeous!  Friday we ate lunch and saw Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum.  Found our man Paul hanging out in the Racing section (as shown) and we took pictures with celebrities we approved or disapproved of, for various reasons.

We walked around, laid out in the sun (after the cold and rain we had in Arkansas in the last few weeks, I was in love with sun!) hung out and went out for a delicious sushi dinner in the Bellagio at a restaurant called Yellowfin.  Then we saw Cirque du Soleil's "O".  Jared and I both watched with our mouths hanging open pretty much the whole time.  It was amazing.  Saturday, we got lunch at Serendipity 3, caught the Bellagio fountains, and did enough walking on the Strip to persuade the group to stay in the hotel the rest of the night.  Had another great dinner and watched UK lose to UConn (first time sports betting, Jared lost $30, Josh won near $140).  We played a little blackjack and heard that Jared's dad won $1000 on a slot machine.  Jared's mom hit a hot streak on a machine and regained some of her losses.  Apparently 5 watermelons gets you $20 (as pictured). Get 'em Sandy!! So after much fun, walking around, sunshine,

food and entertainment, we tried to go to bed just a little early since we were getting up at 3:30am to make our flight.  We made it back to Arkansas in time for lunch, and when we got home I took my place on the couch with the cat to nap, while Jared went to rehearsal.  Alright Hanlins, so how much longer until Daufuskie? Can't wait.