We flew to Vegas on a Sunday night on our free flights that we got with a combination of TrueBlue points and Barclaycard Arrival miles. We spent our first 3 nights in Vegas, a short distance from the main strip, at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa on Marriott Rewards points.
We started our week with a trip to the Hoover Dam. The dam was about 30 minutes from our Marriott hotel. We took the 30 minute overview tour of the dam which was perfect for my family. I think it would have gotten too boring if we had done the 2 hour tour.
It was definitely cool to see the dam and take the token photo in front of the dam with the Pat Tillman Bridge in the background (see above). Even cooler was being able to walk between 2 different time zones. The dam spans 2 states, Arizona and Nevada, whose times were an hour apart when we were there in February. 
The kids had fun walking between states and watching the times change on their phones as they crossed time zones. We also walked the length of the Pat Tillman Bridge which also spans two times. We stood next to one another in 2 different states.
We stopped at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory on our way back to the hotel. The factory really wasn’t operating so it basically was a stop at a candy store. It was not worth the stop, although my kids would disagree.
Dinner that night was at Pink Taco at the Hard Rock. My meal was my best one in Vegas. I had the salmon. Everyone else loved their food as well. The place had a fun cool vibe. Great night!
Our second day we headed back to the Hoover dam area to White Canyon in Arizona. We were going on a guided 7 mile hike through slot canyons to bathe in some hot springs. Our group consisted of my family of 5, a solo woman and a couple on their honeymoon, as well as our guide, Gary.
The trail was long, but not too tough the first half. We stopped for lunch on a beach on the Colorado River. It was a gorgeous place to stop. The kids enjoyed their packed lunch provided by Gary and had fun skipping stones in the river. (There is a technique, who knew! Gary was a pro skipper.)
After lunch we hit our highlight destination, the natural hot springs. Gary made a few trips carrying our stuff across many pools (each one getting hotter and hotter ) as we bathed in the springs. There were 3 pools in total and the last one was too hot for us to even sit in for a second. Needless to say, this whole experience was amazing. We were basically in the middle of nowhere, in a spot that you can only get to with a 3.5 mile hike and we were soaking in natural hot springs.
The hike back (it’s a loop) was a little more challenging with lots of rock scrambles. At one scramble there was supposed to be a rope (there wasn’t! ). This scramble was particularly hard, I couldn’t do it. (Everyone else could.) I needed to take an alternate (but just as scary) route that provided more places to link my hands and feet. I need to work on my upper body strength. 🙂
The hike lasted all day. We did a Trip Advisor review. You can read the review here.
We went for an early dinner to a “relatively” inexpensive steakhouse, Triple George Grill, in downtown Vegas. It was good but still too expensive, like every steakhouse in Vegas.
We walked around downtown Vegas after dinner which is like Times Square but so much worse. My boys were embarrassed in front of Rob and me as we witnessed scantily clad women dancing in the streets. Hopefully Jessie was thinking , “I hope that is never me.”
I scheduled another (much shorter) hike for our third day. This time we headed to the Calico Tanks Trail in Red Rock Canyon. This was another great and challenging hike. There were some very difficult rock scrambles but this time I did not need any alternate routes. 
The view that we ultimately climbed to was gorgeous as was all of the scenery thoroughout the entire hike.
After the hike, we did the obligatory 13 mile loop drive. There were a ton of other trails to hike and I wished we had more time. (No one else wanted to hike anymore :-)) The views along the loop were also absolutely breathtaking.
From the canyon, we headed to the Palazzo, our hotel on the strip. Remember, I got 2 nights at this hotel for free using IHG points.
Our suite at the Palazzo was huge with a bedroom area and living area. We were all very impressed. After checking in, we spent the afternoon enjoying our roomy accommodations and resting up after our 2 days of hiking.
We headed out about 5pm for the Luxor. We were off to go for dinner and to see the Criss Angel show, Believe. We had dinner at the Luxor, at Rice & Company, which was a reasonably priced Chinese restaurant. It was a perfect quick meal before our show.
As for the Chris Angel show, it was really entertaining. All of the illusions and tricks were mind-blowing. (How does he do the trick where he end up in the audience ???). The show was funny too. We WALKED back from the Luxor to our hotel, about 2 miles. We tried to stop at New York New York to ride the coaster but it was closed for maintenance :-(.
Instead, we watched the Bellagio fountain show (for the first time) and just marveled at all of the people, places and activities on the strip. My boys took a picture with one of their favorite tv characters, Walter White.
The next day, we headed (walked) to Circus Circus and got the kids unlimited bracelets for the Adventuredome Theme Park. The park is an indoor amusement park inside the hotel. Rob and I booked out of there ASAP and spent some time at Starbucks and getting really long foot massages. There is one of those footsie places right by the Adventuredome in the Circus Circus hotel. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Because the kids needed to follow up all of their rides with another ride, we headed back to downtown Vegas. Here the kids soared over Fremont Street on the Slotzilla zipline. They really enjoyed that.
That night we were off to the Bellagio for the buffet dinner, (when in Rome…). The buffet had a crazy amount of all different types of food including shrimp, crab legs, steak and tons of dessert! The buffet is $36 per person for kids and adults. Comparing that to some of the other restaurants, it’s actually pretty reasonable.
After dinner, we went to O at the Bellagio. We all absolutely loved it. Before we went, I was hesitant to get tickets because we had seen a Cirque Du Soleil in Disney a few years back and my kids just thought it was eh. But now a little older and with the water stunts added in, it was a different story. We were mesmerized and awed for 90 minutes, It was amazing!
After another Bellagio fountain show, we walked back once again (my family hates me) to our hotel, stopping to see a bunch of other hotels along the way like the Paris with the Eiffel Tower and the Mirage with the erupting volcano. We passed out in our really big suite at the Palazzo.
Our last day, we headed to the Stratosphere for some more rides, but these rides required courage and nerves of steel. Three thrill rides were at the top of the 1100 foot tower hotel. My kids went on all of them, some of them 2x. Rob and I were barely able to watch. One is pictured here. (Gulp!)
Our final afternoon we finally did not walk anywhere and instead took a 2 hour segway tour with Segway Steve in Downtown Vegas. We had never been on segways before and my kids had always asked. Before our trip, I cut a deal with the kids that if they go on the hikes 2 days in a row, in exchange we would do segways the last day. I hate to admit it, but I thought it was so much fun. We did a Trip Advisor review of the segway tour also. Read our review here. I see additional segway tours in our future….that is, as long as we get our exercise in too!