Our first family vacation was sometime around 1990 to visit Las Vegas. To the city that offers no windows or clocks while participating in it’s most popular activity. We flew Southwest and we stayed at the Excalibur. My brother and I played arcades at Circus Circus, and my mother drove us all out to the desert to visit a Marshmallow Factory. Today, any mention of that Marshmallow Factory brings rounds of laughter to my entire family. Why would anyone ever want to eat pink flavored marshmallows?!
Over the years, we made a couple other trips out to Vegas, including many New Year’s Eves and my week long 21st birthday celebration, but none would prove to be as memorable or impactful as the first, the first plane ride and the first unknown city.
My last trip to Vegas was a couple weeks ago. I spent those days reconciling what the city had become to my family and I. Two of my brothers graduated from UNLV. Las Vegas is where they found their voices and figured out what they wanted out of life. Las Vegas is also where they learned to appreciate the ups, and fight through the downs of life. And during that trip, Las Vegas is where I began to open my heart and find the courage to understand what it means to love the way that God loves, and forgive the way that God forgives.
This is what I saw while walking through the familiarity of The Strip.
~AK
.jpg "New York City Wedding Photographer - Vegas04")
.jpg "New York City Wedding Photographer - Vegas13")
.jpg "New York City Wedding Photographer - Vegas01")
CONTACT ME ::: FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER ::: VISIT MY WEBSITE
Show Hide 2 comments
True. Breakfast with the characters was the best! Thanks, Mom!
Guess what LV was not the first family vacation… you forgot about all the trips we made to Mickey & Minnie’s House – Disneyland. When you were little – we use to stay at the Disneyland Hotel every year and make numerous trips back and forth to Disneyland over a 3-day period. I know you remember having breakfast with Mickey & Minnie. You loved the Mickey face pancakes