Viva Las VEGAS!

My bestie Krista and I decided to take our annual trip to Vegas this year and include the hubbies. We booked our trip back in February and I swear I have been counting down the days ever since! It has been about 7 years since the last time we paid Vegas a visit. I most certainly have been looking forward to some time away.

Prepare for picture overload. I am sure most of you don't really care about some of the info I post (like where we ate) but it is a reference point for me for when we go back.

Day 1

We left the kiddos with my mom and dad and headed down to SLC to meet up with Krista and Rick and catch our flight. I think one would want their Vegas trip to start out lucky. We checked our bags, cleared security, and a few minutes later got a text telling us our flight was cancelled!

At first I thought it was a bad luck sign. However, after a long time (5 hrs to be precise) of sitting in the airport waiting for our new flight and thinking about it, I realized we were actually pretty lucky. It isn't very often that we fly without children in tow. How lucky is it that the one time our flight was cancelled and we had sit in the airport forever that we had NO kids?!?! I think that is lucky! Chasing kids around an airport for 5 hours would have kicked my butt!

Krista, Rick, and Victor FINALLY ready to board our flight!

We stayed at the fabulous Four Seasons and our room and service were suburb. It is on the top four floors of the Mandalay Bay. It is a totally separate hotel, we had our own lobby, restaurants, spa, gym, restaurants, elevators, pool, and what I called the "Batman Secret Entrance" from Mandalay Bay. It was a non gaming hotel, which was very nice to not hear the sound of slot machines and smell of smoke all of the time. And even though everything from the Four Seasons was private, we still had access to all of the Mandalay Bay amenities as well. I will never stay anywhere else in Vegas after staying here.

We got checked in an headed over to the Luxor and ate some dinner at T&T. It was pretty good, better than I was anticipating. After that we walked, and walked, and walked the strip some more checking out shops and casinos.

My and my honey at the south end of the strip.

Vic at the water show outside of the Bellagio. So much fun! I wish the show was longer.

We stopped at Serendipity outside Caesar's Palace and got some yummy cold treats. We had the peanut butter frozen hot chocolate which I thought was pretty dang good! It took a minute to get used to the consistency, but still yummy none the less. Krista's wonderful display of ice cream looked fantastic but tasted like it had freezer burn, bummer!

I am not sure about a beeper, but we did have a sig on our cell phone inside of Caesar's Palace. hee hee Forgive my Hangover humor, I love that show! There were several lines recited from that movie. Unfortunately Krista and Rick had not seen it, but Victor and I sure were laughing at our own humor!

New York New York!

Day 2

I am sure everyone just loves me for this one. We started day 2 at 7:30 am on the treadmill! If I am going to indulge in some yummy calorie packed goodness I had to do something to work it off! After the workout we had a great breakfast at the Verandah in our hotel sitting poolside and just relaxing.

After that it was all pool! We went over to the Mandalay Bay wave pool and lazy river and soaked up some sun. It was so nice to sit and relax! The boys were like kids in a candy shop (especially cute little Rick) out in the water.

Krista looking super hot at the "beach".

My little stud muffin' looking mighty fine as well after playing hard in the wave pool.

Ha ha. This one is a bit of an inside joke. It was difficult for us to get away during any other part of the year because we have so much going on. When Krista and I were deciding on dates I promised her that if we went during the summer heat I would fan her everywhere we went. I saw this little misting fan and busted it out of my surprise bag to fan Krista. :) Yep, that is what friends are for.

Friends since kindergarten. CRAZY! Maybe we have changed a little since then?!?!

After a nice day at the pool we got cleaned up and did some shopping before we were scheduled to see Cirque Du Soleil Mystere. Krista and I were shopping away taking advantage of some good deals we found when I decided I had better check the show time. Good thing I checked, I thought it started at 7:30 and it actually started at 7!!! We hauled butt to get there on time. We tried the tram, which is a pain in the butt! We got in our seats (perfect seats on the 4th row!) and the show started 3 minutes later! Whew!

Me and Vic ready to head to the show!

Krista and I enjoying the lovely (ha ha avoid this thing if you ever got to Vegas) tram.

The show was spectacular! It is amazing what people can do. We all really enjoyed it and wished we had bought tickets for all of the Cirque Du Soleil shows, KA and O. Highly recommend this show.

The gang after Mystere.

We then took a stroll back down to Caesar's Palace to chow down on some delicious sushi at Hyakumi. Sooooo good and I will definitely go back to this place. Krista isn't a sushi eater and she ordered some other stuff that was yummy too. (And I swear Scott Folley was sitting next to us!)

I get hungry just looking at it!

After sushi we decided Cold Stone sounded good. We got lost in some casinos trying to make our way back to ride the tram. We got to Cold Stone and there was 4 people in line with the line roped off behind them. They wouldn't serve us :( and said they were closed. That was almost worse than getting there and having it closed with no line at all!

Over the River & Through the Woods

We made a trip down to my parent's house, AKA by my children "The Greatest Place on Earth". They just love Gram & Poppa's house. But on this particular trip it was even more anticipated because they would get to see all of their cousins too! Even my sister's family from Houston was going to be there!

Only at Gram & Poppa's can you play on a riding lawn mower!

LOTS of kid!

There was lots of playing, running, laughing, and most importantly tons of good food! We were all able to celebrate Father's Day together and even go to church as one BIG family!

Conner and his cousin Nathaniel ready for church. They told me they were the guys from Men in Black.

One crowning moment for the weekend was that my entire family was able to get together, ALL of us, for a family picture! We haven't been able to pull that off for about 6 years!

The whole fam!

My parents and brothers and sisters

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Simple Summer Pleasures

My kids get so excited when they hear the ice cream man! I must admit, I grew up in a small town and we didn't have an ice cream man. I get just as excited as the kids do! They always come running and the little ones will say, "You hear dat (that)? It the ice cream man!!! Need monies please!"

There is nothing like joy of picking out an ice cream on a hot day. Especially when there is such urgency to find your money and catch him before he is on to the next neighborhood.

Zack missed out on chasing down the ice cream truck. He fell asleep watching Shreck. But Conner and Mason didn't let him miss out entirely. They picked out an ice cream for him to enjoy and put in the freezer for when he woke up.

It's funny how a little bit of ice cream can provide so much happiness and memories of summer.

HAM

This is my little ham. Mason cracks me up. He has so much energy and is full of life. So much that he feels he needs to get up at 5 am every morning. How sad is that if he ever makes it to 6 am that is sleeping in for us! I have big dreams of making it to 7 am one day. Cross your fingers and toes, say a prayer, throw some salt, whatever it takes to send some good sleeping vibes our way!
Although Mason has been potty trained and accident free for weeks now, he still runs around and requests a high five from everyone every time he goes to the potty. Silly boy.

Mason and Zack love the Toy Story movies, they run around saying "Way to go Idaho!" all of the time. We are looking forward the release of Toy Story 3.

I just love my boys!

Memorial Day

I wish that Memorial Day marked the beginning of summer for us. However, I don't really view the start of summer until Conner's last day of school. Poor kid had to go back for a few more days this week until he is done.

I am not sure what he looks more forward to at the end of the school year, his last day or field day. He loves field day and gets so excited. His class combined with the other two 4th grade classes at his school and then three other 4th grade classes from a different elementary. Conner did great and was pleased to come away with three ribbons from a few races they had.

Conner also had a big awards ceremony at school today. He came home with a "Mr. P.E." award. He was cute and I think he was a little embarrassed to have to walk in front of his entire school to retrieve his award (he is so shy!). He loves P.E. more than anything and even broke a few school records this year in fitness tests. Way to Conner!

Memorial weekend came and poor Victor was swamped with patients at work and I knew there was little to no chance of actually doing something. My Dad was off on a fishing trip in Portland. So I managed to talk my Mom into coming back up! I am sooo glad that she came! Well, not even half as happy as the boys are to see their Grammie! Thanks so much for spending the weekend with us Mom!

We took the boys to the zoo and they were very excited to go. We had great weather and it was fun to see all of the animals. The boy's favorites were the lions and giraffes. Naturally Mason said his favorite were the elephants. Funny thing is that we have a smaller (but still fantastic) zoo and the only elephants were metal ones!

We ate lots and lots and lots of good food, stayed up to late watching new movies, tried a few new desert recipes (Coca-Cola cake YUM), and Victor even managed a few moments at home to keep the boys under control while my Mom and I did some MORE shopping!

And what Memorial Day would be complete without a BBQ? We went over to our fun friend's house and stuffed our bellies with some more wonderful food. I think I am seeing a theme for our weekend!

Dave manning the grill.

Memorial Day also gave us a little time to reflect on our time in the military. I would like to extend a huge heartfelt "Thank You!" to those who have served, are serving, or will serve our country. We are eternally grateful to those who gave their lives defending our freedoms, especially Victor's Ranger buddies Pat Tillman and Jay Blessing.