Vegas Baby!...Money Money Money!!!

Well...where do I begin. Dani and I just returned from a nice long weekend in Las Vegas. It was my mother's 75th birthday celebration and my brothers and sisters from around the country all met in Vegas for this celebration. It was nice because we each pitched in to pay for my mother's trip and fun.

We arrived on Friday afternoon so that we could attend the Jonny Lang concert at the Hard Rock Casino. One our way there, we decided to stretch our legs when we reaced the Hoover Dam. It was definitely awe inspiring.

After being disappointed when we found out the concert had been "postponed", we decided to get some dinner and then do a little gambling at our favorite casino...The Riveria. We have a favorite slot machine pair "Mad Money Martians" in that casino and we sat down to enjoy some time there. This game is fun because if you land on a bonus UFO in the third slot spot...you get bonus payout. Anyway...we were sitting on our first $20 each and then the unexpected happened. I hit a 10x - 7 - 10x on my machine and the payout was 5000 credits (quarters)...so we didn't want to get too excited, but it looked as if I had just hit for $1,250.00. Sure enough, it was what we thought and we took a few pictures and the following video for posterity sake.

So...just like that, we were up big on slots. We ended the night on that note and couldn't wait to see my family the next day to let them know...lol!

On Saturday, the rest of my family arrived and we all met up for a bit here and there. In the evening, we went to Freemont Street (which is the original strip in Vegas). They have done some really neat things to compete with the new strip...like build an arched screen over the street for music shows. The street itself is no longer open to traffic and is filled with all sorts of neat booths and vendors.

Dani and I spent most of Sunday alone with my mother. It was really nice to get that time alone to gamble (just a little) and we even treated my mother to a gondola ride in the Venician. The guy sang Happy Birthday to my mother in Italian and she gave a little smile...which was nice to see. She clearly had a great time with us and really took to Dani...can anyone blame her...Dani is amazing! (sorry babe...had to get that in there).

Sunday night the entire clan got together for dinner and it was fun. We shared old pictures, stories, and memories in general. I think Dani liked hearing about the "old days" when I was a young boy causing trouble for my parents...lol. There were even old photos (thanks Ray) of me so Dani was able to see how I dressed back in the day...she got a kick out of it and I got a little playful razzing as well (it's only fair since I have made plenty of big hair comments).

In all, it was a great trip. It was nice to see my entire family since my father's funeral was the last time we were all together like that. Nice to be together for a more enjoyable reason. I know my mother had a great time and I enjoyed spending that time with Dani and my family together.