This really has just been the best summer of our lives. We had so many wonderful adventures with our amazing children, and with our dearest friends, and while I wouldn’t call the last couple months “relaxing”, I WILL say that we’re completely energized for the crazy-busy fall season ahead. We have been incredibly blessed in 2013, and we’re so grateful for the memories we’ve made recently.

Last week, we went to Las Vegas with our best friends, for the second annual “Tiger Snooze” trip. (Excuse the completely-relevant “Hangover” reference). TigerSnoozeDoubleDown, if you’re into hashtag speak. The trip was so completely wonderful… hilarious & jam-packed & exciting & chill all at the same time. Mack and I aren’t the kind of people who have always been surrounded by a circle of friends, so we never for a second take for granted the amazing group of people we find in our lives at this moment. You people… you’re just the best.

It was a gorgeous week to be in Nevada, with big puffy clouds and a nice breeze. We never once felt like we were melting our faces off, which is way better than I was anticipating! This year, we didn’t do any sort of big elaborate styled shoot… it was a purely personal trip. So if you’re not into personal posts here on the blog, it won’t offend me at all if you move right on past this entry. But if you like Las Vegas, or, ya know, random McG adventures, this should be right up your alley. 🙂

We started the trip with our friends Meg & Eric, who are regulars here on the ole blog. Because Mack is SUCH a baller, he made sure we had a limo to pick us up at the airport. We were just a TINY bit excited. 🙂

Meg had never been to Vegas, so we took great pleasure in introducing her to all our favorite sights. Much of that first day was spent like this… heads back, mouths gaping at something beautiful, like the lobby ceiling in the Bellagio.

Our buddies the Bergs met us later Monday evening, and we all went to dinner at Prime at the Bellagio. SUPER yum, and we had a wonderful view of the fountain show during dinner.

I feel like this is a good place to say that many of the pictures in this blog post were taken with our new camera, the Fuji x-100s. We’re still figuring out it’s quirks, but it’s a great little “walking around” camera, and so much easier to lug around than one of our big work kits. I’m excited to have this for future travels, and a different view point during sessions & weddings.

Ooooh, another thing I’ll mention. Mlife, and myVegas.

So, there’s this Facebook game called myVegas. I’d never played a FB game in my life before this summer, but we heard from a friend that this slot machine game gave “loyalty point” rewards that you could earn by just playing a little every day, and cash in for real stuff in Vegas. So the entire group of 8 of us played the game for the last few months, and holy COW, did it pay off!

We used our loyalty points for comped rooms, lots of food & drinks, pool day… so much. This easily saved us hundreds & hundreds of dollars. All just for playing a slot game on FB that’s pretty fun & addictive anyway!

So if you’ve got a Vegas trip planned in the next year or two, message me, and I’ll explain how to get fixed up on the myVegas game. It’s totally worth it. 🙂 Thanks Mlife!

Day 2 was all about exploring, and we started pretty early. Meg & I thoroughly embraced Vegas on Tuesday… and thoroughly entertained the rest of our group, apparently. 🙂

There was construction going on at the Minus 5 ice bar in our hotel, but luckily, it was completed in time for us to check it out later in the week. SO interesting watching the bar & rooms be carved right in front of our faces!

This is by far the luckiest trip I’ve ever had in Vegas. I did well on slots, and did REALLY well playing craps the last day. The unluckier members of our group preferred just to cheer me on, rather than feeding the machines themselves.

This is where daytime pictures of Meg & I stop here on the blog… yeah, that’s us randomly running through the quad in front of Caesar’s Palace. It got weird. 🙂

Tuesday afternoon, Jeremy & Christy arrived! YAY! The Wolf Pack was complete! We celebrated by getting all dolled up and walking over to the Flamingo for an old-school Vegas show. We saw X-Burlesque, and while it’s definitely not for the faint of heart, we LOVED it. A fantastic time.

On Wednesday, all 8 of us chipped in and got a luxury cabana at the pool. It came with a waitress & a hefty food and beverage credit, so we spent allllll day out there. I really am quite disappointed that we didn’t get a group photo in front of the cabana, but at the same time, I’m so glad we scheduled in this lazy day. We all felt revived by some poolside naps & lots of vitamin D.

Oh, and we also did a little mini-shoot of Meg. She found this spectacular pink sequined bikini the day before at New York New York, and we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a very-Vegas Girls on Film session. Here’s a little sneak peek, but you should totally hop over to the Girls on Film blog to see the final product.

Wednesday night, we hoofed it waaaay down the strip to eat dinner at the Venetian, and were completely caught off guard by how empty the place seemed. That is, until we saw that the canals were being drained for maintenance. 🙁 such a bummer! Our dinner at Table 10, Emeril’s new American restaurant, was absolutely delicious, though. Totally worth the trek.

Thursday was Christy’s birthday, so we celebrated in proper grown-up fashion… the arcade! We spent a few hours in the “Fun Dungeon” at Excalibur, and had such a blast. I love that place.

Mack & Jeremy’s epic Guitar Hero wars were a highlight of the day, fo sho.

With her lots & lots of birthday tickets, Christy bought a proper princess hat & everyone got mustaches.

Thursday night, we had dinner at Diablo’s Cantina, and enjoyed drinks & Dominican Cigars on the upstairs patio afterwards. It was such a beautiful night in Vegas.

After we got properly sweaty at Diablo’s, we headed back downstairs to the ice bar! Minus 5 was SOOOOO fun! We snagged a little private room, and lounged on fur-covered ice blocks, and drank out of ice glasses, and danced with a big penguin. PERFECT birthday party for our Christy.

It was really important to me to have a few good pictures with my girls on this trip because, well, these girls are really important to me. I met all of them in the same three month span in the fall of 2009, and it seems crazy that they’ve only been in my life for 4 years. I could not possibly be more grateful for these women. They are absolutely precious to me, and I’m so glad I have these partners in adventure!

Thanks to Mack for taking the photos, Kevin for lighting, and Eric & Jeremy for crowd control! 🙂

A few couple’s pictures on the strip…

My Wolf Pack!

We love you, friends. We’re already counting down ’til TigerSnoozeTripleShot in 2014, and planning more adventures between now & then. 🙂

Blogstalkers, you’ve been so awesome this summer. We know it can be hard to stick with a wedding photography blog when we’re not, ya know, shooting weddings. But busy season is officially upon us, and we’re about to start hitting you straight in the eyeballs with lots of pretty on the REG. Starting Friday with a gorgeous Pakistani bride & groom session. See you then!