About 6 years ago Bill took Lex to see a Cirque de Soliel show. After the show they talked about how cool it was and Lex says, “Yeah but the REALLY cool ones are in Las Vegas, Will you take me to Vegas for my 21st birthday?” Of course Bill being the accommodating person he is and not thinking she would ever remember such a thing he says, “Sure” and so begins my tale. Approximately 6 months ago Lex and I sat down to discuss what types of things we could do in Vegas if we were to go for her birthday. There would have to be a Cirque de Soliel but which one? What else would we do? Where would we go? I love planning things so I latched on to this with a vengeance.
People have been known to tell me that I over-do things. I probably do but in the end as long as I can afford it, does it harm anyone? No. I cannot have children of my own and having Lex (21) and Adam (24) I missed out on a lot of birthdays. I guess this past week I was trying to make up for lost time.
I planned to have t-shirts printed but after finding out they would cost $30 each from a printer we decided to go for Iron-ons. The color of the shirt was the next question. Lex’s favorite drink is an Appletini and so when I saw the lime green shirts I was tickled… green. 
I also knew from my years at WizKids that this color would stand out in the sea of black and blue that too many people wear. Upon gathering Tuesday morning I made sure everyone (except apparently Adam) had a shirt. Due to a hiccup we had a slight change in accompaniments. 3 of our party were unable to attend due to various reasons and so a last minute another friend agreed to come along. The list of attendees and their association follows:
Me (Pseudo-Step-Mom and organizer)
Bill (Father and all around goof-ball)
Anne (Mother and excellent slot player)
Adam (Son and Pseudo-family-photographer)
Jolene (Adam’s special someone)
Harvey (Lex’s good friend and conservative craps player)
Alexa (a.k.a. Lex THE Birthday Girl)
We all met at the house Tuesday morning (early… way too early) and got into our own private Shuttle to the Airport. I had bought Lex a special hat for her to wear for the big day. It was a hit in the airport, on the plane, in the shuttle, walking along the strip later, but I digress. We got on the plane at a little after 10am and we had lift-off. As we read the in-flight magazine Lex made the decision she wanted to have a drink with breakfast. She decided on a Jack and Coke. 
This was her first legal drink. We all were excited and took lots (LOTS) of pictures. Upon arriving in Vegas we got a shuttle to our hotel (Harrah’s).
Harvey had to fly out from Portland so he arrived a few hours after we did. We tried to hide his bus ticket but were too obvious about our stealthiness that someone else stole it before Harvey arrived. He still managed to buy his own ticket and get to the hotel. We started the evening by having dinner at Toby Keith’s Bar & Grill. Instead of a special cake you got a free round of birthday shots. With alcohol in our systems we ordered dinner and Lex got to pass out some oddities I had picked out to embarrass all of us and not just THE Birthday Girl.
After dinner we decided to meander along the strip. It was a week night and so traffic was lighter than usual. We stopped at one of the drink stops along the strip and bought a few pilsners with some mixed frozen drinks and set off. We spent the evening at the Bellagio fountains in awe of their well… awesomeness. Hehe
Lex had her picture taken with a few “celebrities” and as we were walking back to the hotel everyone kept shouting Happy Birthday! This could have had something to do with the 18 inch tall bright pink birthday cake hat she was wearing or the BRIGHT green t-shirts the whole group was wearing that said “Happy 21st Birthday, Alexa” on the back.
Don’t forget to check out our photo page for more pictures. More to come.
