We’re here!
Left Madison on a 2:40 pm flight.
Watched the U.S. game on our phones… Yay, big win!
Bye beautiful Madison, city of lakes!
Hello desert land.. arriving to Phoenix.
Boo, flight delay…. 6 pm flight pushed back to almost 7:30. 
Boys had Chick Fil A:
The rest of us shared chicken quesadillas and beer (Arnold Palmer for me).
Finally time to fly…
We’re here! ~8:40 pm.
Big snafu with the rental car, though. So annoying and added a bunch of time. Short version- rented through Alamo, turns out Alamo is a partner company with Enterprise. We currently have a claim open with Enterprise to repair hail damage from when Ivan’s car was in the shop and his rental car was hit with hail during a big storm. Everything is being taken care of BUT apparently if you have any open claim with the company they put you on a “do not rent” list until the claim is complete! So we couldn’t pick up our rental. Would have been nice for them to tell us that before we freaking got here!! Fortunately we were able to just walk up to a different company (Dollar) and got the same car (a Toyota Sienna) for $200 cheaper! (Originally going to be $950 for our days, this was only $750 for 9 nights!)
Finally on our way… first stop!! The famous sign. 🙂 Love!
Dropped our stuff at random Days Inn we are crashing at for one night near the airport/strip (got 2 rooms for $80 total with Expedia rewards points). Fancy?? Nope! Clean, comfortable, perfectly functional, free parking for one night to sleep? Yep!! Main objective was just to get here Friday night so we could have the full day Saturday.
Walked to strip. Super late already but couldn’t resist – boys sooooo excited to see the strip!! They are digging this trip so far!!! (My first time to Vegas was at their same age and I absolutely LOVED- I think this is perfect timing.)
Walk was borderline too far for how late it was but oh well.. we survived! 🤣
Brew Dog on strip by MGM Grand. The boys loved this place! The rooftop is super cool.
They weren’t serving food anymore after 11 so we had just beers /lemonade for boys then grabbed some snacks at ABC store afterwards, ha. I walked down the strip eating a pepperoni and mozzarella + crackers box at midnight. 😆
Back to hotel LATE and crashed at nearly 1 am, omg!! Party people in the house. 🤪
Now this morning! Nice little continental breakfast! A little bleary eyed but no hay problema.
All showered and ready to head out. Beautiful day!!
Next stop, Valley of Fire State Park, then on to Zion!! 😎😎
Hasta mañana! 🙂
GRATEFUL KAE 
Wow the car situation sounds awful! You’d think they would let you know that when you made the reservation! I am glad you got another car easily for less! Phew! It’s hard to know what car companies are associated with each other as there are so many brand associations for rental cars!
Sounds like a great first night. What a late night with the time change! I did not even get a chance to walk the strip when I was in Vegas for my work conference this past January. Every minute is pretty scheduled for us and I am not great at late nights so didn’t go out after our evening celebrations/plans.
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Sorry to hear about the flight delay and the car rental incident. So annoying but at least you got 200 cheaper.
I’ve never been in Las Vegas. Look forward to follow along.
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Oh, that car situation is frustrating! I’m glad you were able to find another car AND that it was cheaper. Take that, Alamo!
I’ve never been to Las Vegas and I think it would be overwhelming for me, but I don’t doubt your boys loved it!
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WHAT, how did I miss all these posts??? I can’t wait to read them all (I think you’re already up to Day 4). That is SUPER ANNOYING about the car rental- yes, they could have told you that ahead of time!!! Obviously you didn’t let it put a damper on your vacation. You guys psrtied it up the first night! And that was with a time change, right? I’m thinking Nevada is an hour behind the midwest.
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