To say I had the time of my life would be an understatement.  My #SquadTrip2k18 started with a long plane ride across the West with two of my friends, landing in the desert surrounded by tackiness. By far the best part of the trip was reuniting with everyone and getting to hang out the crew that hasn’t all been together since we graduated in May. What lied ahead no one truly knew, but it was definitely going to be wild.

After all of the friendship hugs, we separated into our rooms to prepare for the weekend ahead. I was in Room C with my gals, and we had an epic pregame planned. We decided to take the first night of pregames and get aggressive with our decorations. Coincidentally we all ended up at the Walgreens across the street for our drink and snack purchases, so we had to be sneaky as to not reveal what everyone’s plans were. My team regrouped, got ready, and started decorating. We got a little carried away, and well the pictures speak for itself…

The pregame was so much fun and it was amazing to have everyone together. The all black theme made for some great pictures as well. When we arrived to Hakkasan, our chosen location for the night aka we found a promoter who could get us in for free. We were the recipients of many stares since it was such a huge crew. Hakkasan was ok. We had a few issues, like a phone getting stolen and creepy aggressors. It wasn’t our best night out, but it was nice to have everyone together and we were excited for the next day.

Room C woke up at 7 am because we forgot to close our blinds, and we were off to get Sarah a new phone. Little did we know that this would be one of the funniest parts of the trip. The guy at Walgreens was hilarious and was telling her to enjoy her new phone, a luxury flip phone that was definitely designed with discreet drug deals in mind. Once the phone situation was handled we were off to a ridiculous buffet filled with every food imaginable, followed by strolling the Strip. The first thing we learned that day was that a group of 10 girls can go wherever they want. We were essentially being chased down the strip with promoters asking us to come to their club, and each one had a better offer than the next. We took all of that in while looking at the tacky tourists and the elegant hotels. We became tacky tourists ourselves shortly thereafter with our yard drinks and visors. If the pack wasn’t obvious before, the visors did the trick.

We decided on the lovely combination of Dillon Francis and Alesso at the Wynn that night for our activities, and everyone was excited. We returned from the strip and took naps, got ready, and headed out to dinner. I went to Dry Bar to attempt a Kardashian sleek look, and my girl Leslie did the job. It was even a Kardashian dinner, the restaurant was so loud and dark that no one could hear or see each other and ended up their phones. The food was delicious though and we were less hungover from our yards after that.

After a lovely pregame in Room A’s art gallery, we headed out to Encore Beach Club for the first portion of the night. We had a table with free champagne which was quickly consumed then we made our way to the dance floor. Dillon Francis was incredible. We were front row and it was such fun music, everyone was pumped for the rest of the weekend once it was over. We ended up skipping Alesso since everyone’s feet hurt, and we went back the Cosmo for a good nights rest before the next DJ day.

DJ Snake was so so good. I’ve been waiting quite some time to see him and it was so great. He didn’t go on until 3:45 pm so we had plenty of time at encore the rest of the event beforehand. It was so fun to be outside in the pool and enjoying a somewhat sunny day. DJ Snake played till the crowd dwindled down to just me, my three friends, and 5 random guys. At one point he yelled out “Guys I’m sorry I’m so fucking tired” which I died at but also was impressed he kept going. It was a total blast and he acknowledged me not once but twice so I can die happy now.

Our group was a little shambly after the party and got ready to go out very slowly. Everyone was tired and it was hard to rally, but we made it out and saw Zedd at Omnia. Omnia was a true Vegas club, massive and crowded. It was fun, but I was done pretty early and my feet were giving out on me. I went back to the hotel with a friend and we realized that Diplo was playing at Encore the following day and we absolutely needed to be there.

We woke up the next day after much more rest and got 8/10 of us on board to go to Diplo at Encore. We calculated that of the 4 days we were in Vegas we went to Encore 4 times. Next time we plan to stay at Encore lol. But back to Diplo, he was the best of them all. It was bittersweet as it was the last day of Encore fun, but he had the best set and truly pumped up the crowd. It was so great and I’m happy we were able to maximize our Encore time.

We went to Nobu that night for dinner which was fabulous- and expensive. Everyone enjoyed all of the food and then we separated for our respective Cirque de Soleil shows. My group saw Zumanity so naturally we titled ourselves the ZuCrew. It was quite the show and perfect for Vegas, but all of the flexibility these people have is insane. We went back to the hotel and got ready to go out to XS for Jauz. Everyone was exhausted but we were happy to see XS since it has such a reputation. We did a little light gambling after then returned to the hotel for a 2 hour nap before our flights took off.

The plane ride home was easy since I slept the whole way through, but I was so sad once I got back. It was amazing to have the entire squad together again, and I missed all of the Vegas shenanigans, specifically Encore, so much. It was a weekend I will never forget and I am so excited that my friends continue to be  spontaneous and fun- they’re coming to Chicago in less than 2 months!