Let me start by saying that my wife is the BEST!!! She managed to surprise me for my birthday and arranged for us and the kids to take our end-of-summer vacation this year in Las Vegas. You could imagine my surprise... (my birthday's not till December). Having never been out to Vegas, I was thrilled to hear that she (along with my brothers) coordinated the entire trip to surprise me. What a challenge it must have been to keep this big surprise under wraps since June when all the planning began. Well, we packed our bags, grabbed the kids, and off to the airport we went. With Hurricane Irene at our heels, we were fortunate to leave the east coast as we did (not of course without a bit of confusion) - our flight was rerouted and we picked up a connecting flight in Detroit later in the day. After a long and exhausting day of travel we finally got to the Mirage and went up the elevator to our room. I put the key in the door, opened it and was greeted with a BIG SURPRISE by my two brothers, their wives, all my nieces and nephews, my aunt, my favorite cousin in the world and even my mom & dad. I was quite overwhelmed to say the very least. The hotel room was decorated with balloons and streamers. I later found out that one of my brothers was rerouted through Dallas to get to Vegas - and my parents, aunt & cousin flew into Salt Lake City then drove five hours to Vegas with only seconds to spare before I arrived at the hotel. Everything worked out so perfectly!! What a terrific surprise :-)!!

For a first-timer in Las Vegas, all I can say is.. WOW!! It's everything I've heard about it and a whole lot more. We walked as much of the strip as we could and ducked in and out of as many casinos as you could imagine. I was in chip paradise! We went into just about every casino from the Mandalay Bay up to the Wynn, grabbing chips as we zig-zagged onto both sides of the street. We took a cab up to Old Vegas (Downtown) and also took little side journeys to Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam. Man, there's a lot of country out there once you leave the east coast!! My brother persuaded me to head up to the 51st floor of Rio, to the Voodoo Lounge (I'm terrified of heights). Once out on the roof of the Rio, I got a glimpse of Las Vegas illuminated with flashing lights, neon and moonlight that I'll never forget. Absolutely beautiful!

It's a trip I'll remember forever, spent with all of the most special people in my life. We saw so many places that I have only heard about (mostly from you guys :-) Honestly, of all the places we saw and things we did, one of my favorite places of all was a small little casino on the strip called O'Sheas. What a fun little place with a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. Absolutely loved it!

I wish I had been able to go when the chip convention was in town, but heck - there's always next year!

Here are just a few of the many "souvenirs" I brought back to help me remember our trip and everything I love about Las Vegas:

Sorry if the story was long and painfully boring. I just still can't believe that I was in Las Vegas!
We had an amazing time, took about a million pictures and walked away with a bunch of C H I P S !! :-)