Vegas baby, Vegas!

Casey had the whole week off between Christmas and New Years, so we took advantage of the time and went on a very short but very fun road trip to...Vegas! It was great. We left Lucy with the Willards and Owen with the Sumans. And for 24 hours we lived it up Vegas-style (minus the gambling and the other stuff, that is). We stayed at the Monte Carlo right on the strip and walking distance to all the things we wanted to do. It was freezing when we got there. Weather in the low 40s. We wore beanies and coats the whole time.
We had horrible traffic getting out of LA so we didn't check in to the hotel till 10pm. By that point, they had given away all the normal rooms (which we had booked) so they bumped up to a spa suite on one of the top floors. Fabulous! The room was perfect for having a party. A mini kitchen/bar, huge jacuzzi with a view overlooking the strip, a little couch/seating area, and great bathroom too. We didn't have a party. But we did sleep-in till 10am!
Casey checking out the view:
We were right next to the New York New York hotel. The next morning we went over and walked around. It's so cute inside. Feels just like you're in Greenwich Village. Especially since we sat "outside" and ate pizza and rootbeer. Mmmmm.
Steak anybody? The steakhouse keeps their meat in these coolers right out in the open. It was so funny looking. Casey would have loved one (medium rare)We walked and took the tram down to the Mandalay Bay hotel to check out the Shark Reef aquarium. It was very cool and we highly recommend it. We've been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium also and thought this was just as cool. We saw tons of shark, other fish, pirana (too bad we missed feeding day. that would have been cool), and turtles.
Here's a short video. Some of the rooms were tunnels, so the sharks swam right over your head. Very cool:

Just leaving the Shark Reef:
We also got off the strip and ate at Cafe Rio! Yum. We saw the movie Juno and then we got back on the road. The drive home was great (4 hours max) and we were in bed by midnight. Thank you parents for watching the kids! And hooray for short adventures.