VEGAS!!

Jeff's birthday was coming up. His 30th. His birthday list was well, pathetic. And with all the rain and cold we've been having, I was ready for some sun. So I surprised him to a trip to Vegas! I gave it to him on his birthday, and we left 12 days later! :) 

My wonderful parents took the kids for three days so we could go relax, and play in the sun!  We left early Sunday morning. And since we got there so early, we couldn't check in for a few hours. We wandered the some hotels around us until we could check in.

Here we are with our hotel - The Excalibur - behind us.

When we finally got checked into our room, I went straight over to the window to check out our view from the 23rd floor and this is what I saw:

I couldn't WAIT to get my buns down there!

So we settled quickly, and took off for the strip. Here we are in front of the Paris. I think Vegas is awesome, cause there's so much to do and see.

Jeff has been to Vegas several times, and has never seen the fountains at The Bellagio. So that was first on our list. My Aunt Jan just happened to be in Vegas the same time as us, with a friend, so we met up with them at the Bellagio.

If you've never seen this water show - it is AMAZING! They synchronize the water with the music, and it is truly magical! :)

 Here are my feet. Yes, I know you've been dying for a pic like that. It was sooooo nice to be able to lay out in the beautiful sunny weather!

Ahhh the botanical gardens at the Bellagio... Simply breathtaking.

 

My dad took this picture while we did Skype with the kids.

Oh how we missed those kids. But they were in very good hands with Grandma & Grandpa!

Jeff found this Brazilian buffet. It was AWESOME! Everything was sooo good. And they even had Guarana - a drink from Brazil. Jeff was very happy! :)

This picture really doesn't need a caption, does it? Just a bunch of pretty ladies.

The thing I love about all the hotels in Vegas, is the details they put into everything. This was a ceiling decorated with flowers and I couldn't keep my eyes off it! Then below is the Cosmopolitan hotel. We haven't ever been in there. It was really nice. The theme was Chandeliers. So everything was decorated like a chandelier. Pretty amazing.

Okay. And now for one of my favorite parts of the trip. MESA GRILL!!! For those who doesn't know, this is one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. And in times past, I've wanted to go there, but it was a little too spendy. I am not one that likes to spend a lot of money on food. So when we came this time, That was one thing I was looking forward to, was spending more on food then we regularly would. We decided to go there for lunch on our last day there.

Everything was amazing. Even the bread basket. Every detail - perfect, delicious, flavorful, magic.

I ordered the Ancho Chile-Honey Glazed Salmon and Jeff ordered the New Mexican Spiced Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. I could seriously go on and on about every detail of the dish, but i won't bore you. Just take my word for it. If you go to Vegas, this place is a MUST!

There was a couple sitting pretty close to us, and we could hear everything they were saying. While they were almost done with their meal, the guy said, "well I definitely won't be making fun of Bobby Flay anymore." My eyes got really big and I looked up at Jeff. The girl then says, "I know, me neither. This is so good!" Then they were saying different shows Bobby Flay is in, and how stupid it was. I wanted to say something to them so bad! Hello?!?! he must be awesome if he's on ALL of those shows, and has his own restaurants!! But whatever. I think he's amazing, and his food is amazing, if not better than he is! :)

The trip was awesome. I'm so glad we got to do this! The weather couldn't have been better, and my travel partner wasn't too bad either! ;)  Thanks hunny for a wonderful time!

The Hunger Games and reading in general...

A few months ago in probably January, my sisters were talking about this book. Allison had read all of them, and was talking me into reading them. I said no. I don't read. (I CAN read, I just don't like to) Then Tracey started reading it. So I decided to find out what this so called, AMAZING book was about. I looked up on Amazon, and read reviews. Then I watched the trailer for the movie. I was flabbergasted. Yep.

I texted Allie and asked her what the heck this movie was about. She just kept saying, don't read anymore reviews, JUST READ THE BOOK! So I did. And i really couldn't put it down. I was shocked. Really, just shocked at how into a BOOK I was! :)

Finished that one in about a month... Took me awhile to get into it. Finished Mockingjay in 3 days, and read Catching Fire in about a week. (I really did NOT like the third one.)

Can I just say how proud I am for finishing three books in less than two months?? That's more than I've read in the past 10 years! I loved it, and now I'm so excited about reading! :) Any recommendations?!

Okay, back to The Hunger Games. So I was pretty excited to see the movie, pretty excited? no... ECSTATIC!

I talked my friend, Mary into reading the books, and she finished all three of them in like two weeks! So we bought our tickets a week in advance for the midnight showing. We waited in line for about two hours, then they let us in to wait another two hours in our seats (which we were grateful for, since it was freeeeeezing outside).

Here we are, with our matching shirts of course, waiting for the movie to start.

Besides the room FULL of teeny-boppers, the night was perfect! It was sooooo fun! And the movie was AWESOME!

Now that I've seen the movie two times, I'm kinda wishing that I hadn't read the book first. They just left out so many of my favorite parts. And I know that happens with books to movies... but this is the first time I'm experiencing this type of thing, so go easy on me! :)

And I must say I need to say I'm sorry to all those Twilight people that were(/are?) so obsessed with the books and movies, and Jacob lovers. Because that night, I knew what you guys felt like. I wish I had done a Katniss braid and brought some district 11 bread to eat during the movie. :)