Christmas 2014: Vegas Adventure!

Ever gone to the desert for Christmas?  I have!

This past Christmas was spent in Arizona with my mom, stepdad and brother.  We opened presents on Christmas Eve, then packed up our bags and headed on the road for Vegas!

Don't get us wrong here: we still had a lovely Christmas dinner the night before, and spent lots of family time hiking and such... and road tripping.  But Jhet and I had never been to Las Vegas before so we were quite excited!

Jhet passed out in the back seat

We got to stop and see some of the Joshua trees that grow along the road between Arizona and Nevada.  Gilbert decided to photobomb this pic!

As you all probably know, you aren't allowed to take pictures in the casino gaming areas, so I didn't take my camera around a lot.  Gilby and I snagged this one in the Golden Nugget.

Even the Walgreens had kitschy Vegas garb! 

We had a flippin' blast, and Jhet won enough money to buy himself a pair of nice Oakleys.  I kinda just evened out.  Gilbert and I played the penny slots a bunch and all of us enjoyed some games of Craps.

On the way home Bill offered to take us to see the Hoover Dam, so we made a pit stop there and got some really great photos and a cool U.S. place checked off our list.

Waiting to see the Hoover Dam

Apparently we weren't the only ones with the idea to come see the Dam that day, because we were in line with other cars for at least an hour and a half!  Worth it though.

The Bridge we were all standing on that looks over the dam

That last one is my favorite shot of the dam.  The water level is a lot lower than I thought it would be.  So neat to be able to see so many man-made wonders in a weekend (Vegas included)!