Vegas!!!!! The kids are amazed by all of the hotels and Vegas as a whole. I don't think it was quite what they expected, although they really didn't know what to expect.

Our hotel room is AMAZING! We found this place by chance. We wanted to get a room at The Cosmopolitan, as we are out here for Jeff to go to the Chili Peppers show, but the place was super high-priced. We could go to Cancun for a week with our whole family, including flights for that price. So, we found a newer hotel accross the street called the Elara that is a Hilton, and we were able to book a suite prety inexpensively, The living room looks exactly like this photo, complete with kitchen, hot tub, and washer and dryer. It is similar to a time share I guess, but it is awesome, and much bigger than we expected. The windows are floor to ceiling, and give us a great view of the south strip, and part of the airport runway.

The windows have automatic shades that pull down that literally black out the entire room and the one in the living room turns into a giant projection screen, it is like being at a theatre. And, it is always nice for mom and dad to have their own private bedroom, and the kids all had plenty of room on the wrap around leather couch.

You really can't beat the price, especially during New Years, when hotel rooms go for $500-$1500 for just New Year's Eve night. When we got here to check in, I was pleasantly surprised to get an additional $100 off our room stay!

Being up on the 16th floor, we will get a great view of the fireworks on the strip. Just about all of the hotels around us will launch them, so it should be fun to kick our feet back and watch. I'm not sure what the kids and I will do on New Year's Eve, but we will probably be back in our room around 10 or 11. The strip is completely shut down to traffic mid-day, so we won't be driving out at all. Security is really tight all around Vegas, you can't even get up to our elevators without going through guards that verify your room key, and we had to have a specific tag on our truck to park in the lot on New Year's Eve night.

The look and feel of the strip is much different than 10 years ago. The buildings look a lot like any big city, with more lights and flash. With the Wynn, Encore, Aria, and other hotels transforming into large towers, it has really modified the landscape of Vegas.