Jeff and I decided that we needed a weekend away. We recruited my sister Shelly and her husband to babysit, booked our timeshare on the strip, cashed in all the coins we'd been saving, and were off for a few days of frugal fun. :) Yes, I know that frugal and Vegas don't really go together, but we wanted to give it a try! We figured that at the very least we could sit by the pool for a couple days and just relax.
We hit zero traffic, bypassed state line (where I would generally stop and want to shop), and was in Vegas by lunchtime.
Our room was beautiful and overlooked the amazing pool at the Flamingo. Why I didn't take a picture of the view, I don't know.
It was 140 degrees outside the whole time! Okay, well maybe that's a little bit of an
exaggeration... it was literally 113 during the day, and 103 at night... it was hot! Knowing that I would look like a sweaty mess in all future pictures, I made sure to snap one showing that I attempted to look good at the beginning of the day.
Jeff has a way of making odd faces to screw up my pictures! It is possible that it's because it was my 15th attempt to snap a picture where my eyes were open, my double chin was hidden, or my smile wasn't weird... I guess I can't blame him too much ;)
Ah, a decent one :)
Our one splurge of the trip was lunch at Bobby Flays restaurant Mesa Grill... it was A.MA.Z.I.N.G. We chose lunch instead of dinner to save money though... lunch was a third of the cost of dinner! I wanted to eat there for every meal... but Jeff insisted it would NOT be the most frugal thing to do. He was right.
In keeping with our frugal theme, we were offered a free limo ride up the strip and $70 to gamble with (in exchange for a one hour owner Q and A) we figured free was good so why not? They gave us free snacks and drinks, we chatted with a nice man, learned some new tricks to maximize our timeshare, and got paid for it! The limo driver took us from the Hilton on the strip over to the Las Vegas Hilton so we could use our casino voucher. We handed the cashier our tickets, she handed us a $70 voucher, then we cashed out and left!
Gotta love a free limo ride :)
From there, we hopped on the monorail (our first time on it) got off at the Harrah's stop, and walked to the Wynn. It was a hot walk, but not unbearable... I think it was only 109 at this point!
When we got to the Wynn they gave us each $10 to gamble with... luck was on our side a little because Jeff won $30... so we cashed out and stopped gambling! We participated in a free slot tournament (and were 2 seats away from the lady that won $500) and then headed out for a walk back towards our hotel.
After a disappointing dinner buffet at the Flamingo, we made a simple complaint and was offered our money back (so a free dinner... very frugal). We decided to walk to some of the hotel nightlife (the Bellagio fountain, some Karaoke, and a piano bar) but on the way we swung by Planet Hollywood... that $70 we acquired earlier was burning a hole in my pocket! I sat down at the Wheel of Fortune slots, took out a $10 bill and put it in. I accidently hit the button for a max bid... the wheels started spinning... I freaked out "no! I didn't mean to do that!" and what do you know... I won $40! So we cashed out. :)
The piano bar was great (except for the cigar smoke being blown in our faces) so after a couple of hours we headed back out onto the strip.
We had so much fun and it was sad to leave... but any more time there and we would have had to change our theme from frugal to broke.
And this year was no different... I wanted them to be something that fit together. After much debate, I came up with a doctor, nurse, patient combo. Kinsie was the doctor, Kourtney was the nurse, and Kaitlin was the patient who'd be struck by lightning. A week before Halloween we went to the school Family Night... filled with games and treats and costumes... and it's a good thing we did... because Kaitlin and I were both sick on Halloween and missed out! I must say I'm pretty proud of how they looked this year as well... especially considering that I spent a total of $30 for all 3 costumes! I bought fabric and Jeff's mom sewed the scrubs for us, and then we made Kaitlin's costume ourselves. Which means I was extra bummed when Kaitlin wasn't able to dress up on Halloween and we missed out on 2 parties :(
