We'e making a trip with 3 families around July 4 to see the Grand Canyon and parts of S. Utah. Our flights are in and out of Vegas. We'll be traveling with kids ages 10-14. We need some recommendations on where to stay for 2 nights at the beginning and 2 nights at the end of our trip (we'd like to stay at different hotels for each leg of the trip). Due to price and availability we've narrowed it down to Circus circus (I know, yuck, but the kids have heard it's wonderful); Excaliber; MGM Grand and the Flamingo.

If these are your final choices, I would take Excalibur and MGM Grand.
Have a great trip!

I'd say Excalibur or the Flamingo for the pool factor.

Flamingo for the pool gardens and visit Circus Circus for the kids activity area. The pool garden is kind of an oasis away from the adult focus of LV. Flamingo is offering $55 rooms midweek with discounts on buffet and spa. Not available July 4, many places will be booked already especially for low rates. There is a newspaper article on pools on the LA Times website and I think you can get that same info on www.vegas.com.

Just went to Vegas, stayed at MGM. Decent for the price. We went to Circus Circus to check out the game thing they have there (can't remember what it is called...Adventuredome??) and even my 11 year old daughter commented on how run down the hotel was. Carpet was filthy, it was pretty tired looking. Not sure of the rooms, but if anything like the public areas, can't be good. Adventuredome was kind of gross also, and lots of the games were broken. We had WAY more fun at the GameWorks (near the MGM) than at Adventuredome. MGM is certainly not the RITZ, but WAY better than Circus. We were at Excaliber for the jousting show, and that looked pretty good in the public areas, again not sure of the rooms. Of your choices, I would rule out Circus for sure. Have fun!