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!