Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Viva Las Vegas!

Oh how I love getting home from vacation and having one more day off to get my life back in order and of course to FINALLY have some solid blogging time after being on the road for the past couple of weeks. After sleeping in this morning I went for a nice long run, took a nice, long, hot shower and am now sitting at the kitchen table with the windows open listening to the water from the fountain in the side yard and sipping some chai tea and just relishing all the fun new memories that were created this weekend with the F4L (stands for Friends for Life---the term we coined for our high school girl group during our senior year---we are such dorks, I know, but I love us! Our families and college friends now know us as this :)- they even refer to us as the F4L now...he he.)

So yes, I just got back from a weekend in Sin City with my best girl friends in all the world and as expected, we had the time of our lives. We've been getting together every year now since we graduated from high school (that makes 9 years now!). Our usual vacation destination is Catalina--the F4L mecca if you will. We made our first trip to Catalina the summer after we graduated and have been faithfully getting together each year since, usually in the same destination, but this year we decided it was time for a change. So we booked two rooms (yes just two rooms for 11 girls, we joked that maybe next year we'll be able to afford 3 rooms, but quickly decided that it wouldn't be nearly as fun to have more rooms because we like the big sleepover feel and getting ready all together) at the Paris and painted the town red for a couple of nights.

I won't get into the nitty gritty details of our Vegas escapades, but I will tell you that we laughed until our stomachs hurt (I think I pulled a muscle in my stomach from laughing so hard), we partied like VIP rock stars until the wee hours of the morning, we had our very own VIP table with a platform that you better believe we danced on, we shopped, we ate, we laughed some more, we sat by the pool, we gambled, we wore dresses that were way too short and then we laughed some more!

I've gotta say that I feel so blessed to have such a strong, intelligent and beautiful group of women to share life with and I love the way that our bond has grown stronger over the years. We have seen each other through high school drama, the college years, a multitude of good and bad relationships with boys, family etc, marriage and most recently motherhood and I can't wait to share the rest of life's stages with these women. They are an endless source of joy and inspiration for me and I thank my lucky starts that I get to call them friends!

Here are some pics of our trip!

Ten of us, we're missing Jenny and it's a bit blurry but it's the best one I got of us.













A toast to the F4L!

Just hanging out and getting ready.

In the cluub he he.

Heading into Prive with our pre-party hotel drinks :).

The Water Show at the Belaggio.

One end of the table.

Our fav dining experience at Sushi Samba - A Japanese, Brazillian, Peruvian Fusion restaurant. What a fun combo of cultures!

Amber and her meat skewers.


Whit's Veggie Tempura.

Rana's Oysters at Sushi Samba.

Group pic at the Venetian.

Pretty display in the Palazzo.

Whoa little blurry shot of the Eiffel Tower.

Rackin up the dough at the Roulette table. I won $20!

3 comments:

comfy cozy said...

Oooh, Sarah! What fun! And how special is it that you have that many F4L?!! That's so awesome and I love the fact that you all still make one another a priority by creating the time every year to hang together. So, I see that what happens in Vegas, stays in vegas?! :)

I've been once before and the highlight was the Celine Dion concert. The Bellagio fountains are amazing, huh?!

I'm glad you girls painted the town red and you looked positively adorable doing so!

Pipas para la paz said...

cute "short" dresses sarah, they really were short!! i love you lady, looks like a really fun trip!! woo woo to the F4L

Tanner Blake's Blog for school. said...

WOW! How fun!!! I just love your girls group getaway!!! What a special bond you all share and it really is so awesome that you still get together every year!

I loved seeing you get "wiiild" in Vegas and the F4L (try saying that 3 times fast) living it up with the v.i.p. treatment!!!

I went to Vegas once on a bacherlorette weekend and we saw Mama Mia and wore some sassy clothes!