Vegas Baby!!

On January 18th Brandon and I dropped the kids off at a friends house and headed off to Vegas. Our friends the Gleaves in our ward were going to be moving to Las Vegas and we ended up deciding to swap kids so that Brandon and I could go just for fun and then we would watch their kids and they would go to look for housing. We were so excited to be able to get away just the two of us just for a couple of days. We left Thursday morning and got home Saturday night. It was really weird leaving the kids with someone other than their grandparents but they have 2 boys and I knew our boys would be just fine with them. We dropped the boys off at about 7 and headed to the airport. Thank goodness my friend Jordan had mentioned that we should leave earlier than we were planning to because we barely made it to our plane. By the time we got on our shuttle from the parking lot to the airport we had about 30 minutes until we were going to be boarding. The security line was way longer and slower than we have been in in a long time. We thought we would have just enough time to get a breakfast sandwich at McDonalds and then get on our flight. That did not happen. We made it through security when our flight had already started boarding. So we walked very quickly to make it to the other shuttle to take us to our terminal and then speed walked all the way down to our gate which was basically the last gate. We made it right as they were starting to board C's (we were in the early B's). So we walked right up and an officer checked our boarding passes and let us on. We grabbed a seat and were ready to head to Vegas.

Our first trip together in almost 4 years!!

The lady sitting next to us told Brandon that he looked like Tom Cruise and wondered if he had ever heard that before. It was really funny! She said that she texted her friends and they didn't believe here so she took a picture and sent it to them. haha Sadly, she had gotten on after her husband and didn't see him while she was finding a seat and so they didn't get to sit together. I was sure glad me and Brandon got to sit next to each other.

Our first stop we were arrived in Vegas was getting our bag and then getting our rental car.

Brandon had gotten a convertable mustang. We were pretty excited to be rolling in something a little more fun for our trip.

Sadly, as we drove off Brandon was realizing how slow the car was compared to his. Brandon's Audi is way faster than this car and he was kind of bummed. haha It just made him realize even more how cool his car back at home is. haha

After getting our car we made a very important stop.

IN-N-OUT!!!!!

We were starving and what better way to fill an empty stomach than with an IN-N-OUT burger! :-) It was delightful and we enjoyed every bite of it!

Then we were off to go find our hotel and go explore. We were staying at the Mirage and we couldn't check in quite yet when we arrived so we parked the car and then started walking to explore the different hotels on the strip.

We made it almost to the Aria which is about 3 hotels away when we were notified that we could check into our room. So we walked back to the Mirage and got checked in and made a game plan for the rest of the day.

After checking in we decided to head down to Circus Circus to play in the Adventure Dome. By the time we got there we decided it was a little dorky and we didn't really want to spend a bunch of money on some dorky rides. So we headed out. Our next stop was going to be the New York New York coaster. Ya... that is at the complete opposite side of the strip. So we made the long trek all the way down to New York New York. We went threw basically every hotel on one side of the strip and finally made it. We were so tired of walking by the time we made it to our destination. My joints in my hips were killing me and my feet were barking at me. Brandon said that his feet were hurting him too. So we road the coaster and then had to head all the way back to the Mirage to get our car to go to dinner. haha

I was sure my body would have been just dying to sit for a while after getting a glimpse of sitting after the coaster but surprisingly I felt a little more rejuvenated. That was also the first coaster I have been on in years and I was pretty nervous. haha It was SO bumpy!!! It reminded me of one of the older roller coasters at Six Flags that would give us headaches. haha But... at least we can say we have road the Big Apple New York New York coaster.

On our way back to our hotel we stopped at the Hershey's store and the M&M world. We wanted to get the boys some M&M's from the M&M world so we made sure to stop there.

It was crazy seeing how many M&M's there were in that store. We also spent the most we have ever spent in one time on candy! haha We got the boys some personalized M&M's with a candy dispenser. We put all three of the boys names on the candies. I was so excited to give it to them. I knew they would think it was so cool that the candy had their names on them. :-)

I had to take a picture by this massive coke bottle. Sadly, we didn't even walk inside! I don't know how that slipped our minds... oh ya.... we were beat from all the walking we had done and we were hungry and still had to make it all the way back to our hotel.

We finally made it back to the hotel and got in the car to drive down to Primm to go to a buffet called "Studio B". It was the best rated buffet online. Everyone said it was the one to go to. So we figured we would try it out.

It wasn't bad for a buffet. They had really good fried green beans. haha The shrimp was nasty but their fruit was yummy. haha We were just happy to be sitting down and eating some food. It also felt so good to drink a refreshing soda. Food wise I basically ate fried green beans for dinner. haha Nothing else was that great. Brandon liked the prime rib and the pineapple was his favorite.

Dessert was not great. They had decent gelato but their other desserts were not worth the calories. I grabbed a "chocolate cake" which ended up being 95% frosting. I like frosting but not that much. haha the other treats just tasted stale. So we had our taste of gelato and then called it quits.

Then Brandon wanted to try his hand at the slots. We put 20 in and lost it all. Then put 20 more and won 50. So we won it all back plus 10 bucks. haha I was not a fan of the slots but Brandon was I think a little excited that he won 10 bucks. haha

After cashing in we headed back to the hotel to lay down and relax before going to bed.

We were seriously so beat! By joints in my hips were hurting me so bad I didn't want to move. When I looked at my watch to see how far we had walked in that one day I found that we had walked 33000 steps or 16 miles! We walked that far from close to 1 till about 6:30. We had basically speed walked the whole day. Just because we were trying to get around crowds and crazy people of the strip. It was my first time on the strip and with it being cooler than the summer would be we still saw a few scantily dresses ladies. They basically wore enough just so they were not completely naked. It was pretty insane. There were also ladies whipping guys as they walked by and men with shirts off trying to get women's attention. It was so weird to think that that is how people make a living. 

Anyways, we went to bed that night and slept so well. I don't think I moved at all that night. We got up the next morning around 8 which was 9 our body clock time. We got ready and got in the car to head over to get some breakfast. Friday was going to be our more relaxed day. We went out to breakfast, saw a movie, hit IN-N-OUT again, went go kart racing and then finished off with walking a little bit on the strip to see the belagio fountains go off and the volcano at the Mirage go off. 

The Blueberry Hill Cafe was recommended to me by my Aunt Beth. It was really yummy! WAY too much food for us. haha We decided to get our own meals which was not a good idea. haha My egg omelet was a 4 egg omelet and it came with 3 pancakes. Brandon's french toast came with 4 chunks of french toast, eggs, bacon and he got a side of hash browns. It was so... much food! haha I tried my best to eat my food and got about half of my omelet eaten and half of the pancakes. I was so full afterwards! Brandon ate just about all of his as well but we had some left over and we were both so full when we left.

After breakfast we headed over to the casino that the movie theatre was in.

While we waited we played in the arcade. Brandon wanted to play the slots again and after playing that once and loosing the 10 bucks we had won the night before we went up and played the arcade games. In my opinion it was way more fun than playing the slots. Plus we played Deal or No Deal and I told Brandon I was going to pick the case that had 75 in it. By the end when it was my case or the other case I said No Deal and my case WAS the one with 75 in it. haha It was pretty exciting.

We ended up winning enough to get some tootie fruities and a box of runts which we took into our movie.

After getting our spoils we headed over to the theatre just a few steps away and got ready to see "The Greatest Showman"

The movie did not disappoint!! It was such a great movie with such great music in it! We both left feeling uplifted because of the message and thinking that we will be buying that movie when it comes out.

After the movie we headed to grab some lunch at IN-N-Out of course and then went to go drive some go karts! 

We had a lot of fun racing around in these go karts. We got a groupon for 3 races for both of us and it was a lot of fun. 

We also got to wear these super stylish head socks! haha We looked so amazing in them that when we left I almost forgot to put it back. haha 

It was really a blast. Going almost 40 mph in these little go karts was pretty fun. Trying to take the corners pretty quick was fun too. It was our adrenaline rush for the day. haha 

After go karts we made our way back to the hotel. We walked around for a little bit more and planned on seeing the Belagio fountains go off that night and the Mirage volcano go off as well. 

The fountains were pretty cool but super short. haha We waited for quite a while for them to go off because we just missed the show we were trying to make it to. So we had to hangout a little bit for it to go off again. 

The best pictures I could get of the strip at night. haha 

After watching the fountains go off we went back to the Mirage to eat dinner at their buffet so we could have some crab. The buffet in general was disappointing. We spent 75 bucks for the 2 of us to eat there and a lot of their food was cold. I tired chicken wings that would have been pretty good if they had not been cold. Brandon tried some asian beef stuff that he said would have been good if it had not been cold. haha The pizza was descent and the warm tiny crab legs were not bad. Everything else was a big let down. We should have spent that money on going to a nice restaurant instead of a buffet for the second night in a row. We were both done with buffets after that. haha 

After our disappointing dinner we went back outside to watch the Mirage volcano go off. 

Yet again we had to wait for a while. I was excited to watch the show when it finally started and then all of a sudden a minute into it it stopped and a red light started flashing. So.... we had waited probably 20 minutes or longer and it malfunctioned. haha So we went to our room and I pulled it up on youtube and we watched it from there. haha So sad but oh well. 

Oh ya, I also took these amazing pictures of the view we had from our hotel room. Breath taking isn't it!? haha 

Pretty cool aquarium at the Mirage.

Saturday morning I woke up at around 7 and went to the bathroom and then laid back down and fell asleep again until 9. haha It was great to sleep in for one last morning before heading home. So that morning after we woke up we got ready and then walked to the Linx hotel to check out a place called "Hash House" for breakfast. Well we got there a little before 10 and there were tons of people there. People all over the hallway waiting to get in. It was probably a 2-3 hour wait to get in. So we had to leave. We didn't have much time before we had to head to the airport so we left and ended up getting a Cinnabon to share and good old McDonalds breakfast sandwiches. haha 

The Cinnabon was in a casino and it was definitely not fresh. haha The lady grabbed it from the little window and threw it in the microwave. It did not have much frosting on it and so I asked her if we could get some more frosting on it. She told me it would cost us 80 cents to get extra frosting. I looked at her and said, "Really?" I was all, "did you see this thing? There is barely any frosting on it!" So she looked at it and grabbed it and squirted more frosting on it and handed it back. I told her thanks and left. I was sure glad a made a little fuss because even with that extra squirt there was still not as much frosting on it as there should have been. By the time we were eating the middle there was no more frosting. It was basically just cinnamon and bread we were eating. So I was so glad that I got her to put more on it without charging us 80 cents. 

The Golden Arches. It was not the best breakfast for our last morning of freedom but we really didn't have many options. haha

Our last stops before heading to the airport was going to Mandalay Bay and the Lux right next to it. We should have drove to Mandalay Bay the day before and gone through the aquarium but we didn't really think about all the stuff we could have done if we had just driven more instead of trying to walk the strip as many times as possible. haha 

It was cool to see the other hotels. It made me realize how much nicer the Mirage and Belagio are compared to the other hotels farther down the strip. If we were to stay in Vegas again I would probably try out the Belagio. Although the Mirage did have a pretty cool pool that we never got to swim in. haha 

Our last meal before heading back to Colorado. We got to the airport and through security with plenty of time to spare. So we grabbed some lunch even though we were not very hungry yet and sat and played farkle on my phone for a little while. Thankfully we were able to sit next to each other still on the flight home even though we were boarding in the C group. So we got on the plane and plugged in our headphones and watched some T.V on our way back home and just relaxed. As soon as we arrived in Colorado we went to get our bag. After getting our bag we made our way outside to catch the shuttle to our car. As we were heading out of the airport Brandon saw the shuttle we were supposed to take back to the car driving off. He mentioned as it passed us that we should have ran it down and just got on that one. By the time he said that it was too late. We figured there would be another one coming soon so we didn't think it was a big deal. Ya.... it took probably 15- 20 minutes before the next shuttle came. We had to stand out in the cold weather waiting for the dang shuttle to come. We couldn't believe it was taking so long for it to come back. By the time it did come we were super ready to get on and super grateful that we did because there were a lot of people waiting for that shuttle and not everyone was able to get on it. I would have been a little upset if we missed that one too because there was no room for us. So I was sure glad to be in the warm shuttle bus and heading to our car so we could get back home and pick up our boys. We arrived home a little after 7 and picked up the boys. They were happy to see us but not as happy as I was hoping. haha Emmett gave us a hug and Ethan came and gave us a hug and then there was Wyatt. Our tired little Wyatt and started crying because he wanted to watch the movie "George of the Jungle". I guess they had just turned it on for the boys to watch and then we showed up. So instead of Wyatt being happy to see us he was sad and pouting because he wanted to watch the movie. He kept asking if he could watch it when we got home. When we told him no because it was late and bed time he was even more sad. I asked him if he was even happy that we were home because he sure didn't seem like it. He said he was but he really wanted to watch that movie. haha We could tell he was exhausted. He always gets more whiny and wanting to watch movies when he is tired. haha When we got home we showed them the cool M&M's dispenser we got for them and their personalized M&M's. I was so excited to give it to them but they were not as excited about it because Brandon and built it up telling the boys that we had a present for them and that it was super cool. So they were thinking that each of them were getting something and probably thinking it was a toy. So it was a little bit of a let down for me and Brandon that they were not as excited about it as we had been to give it to them. That is the last time we say anything about getting them something on a trip until we hand it to them. haha 

Anyways, all of us had a great weekend that weekend. Jordan Gleave sent me some pictures of the kids and their activities that weekend while we were gone. Here are the pictures that she sent us. 

She sent me this saying that Emmett is just the sweetest. haha 

They also played at the park. Thankfully the weather was nice while we were gone so they could get outside. 

It looked like they had a lot of fun at the park. 

Wyatt also invited Jason to go to Dad's and Donut's with him. It was supposed to happen the week after our trip but then they had to change the date. Brandon was pretty bummed to find out that he wouldn't be able to go with Wyatt and that Wyatt wanted to invite someone else's Dad to go with him. When I was talking to Wyatt's teacher about how bummed Brandon was and that Brandon had said, "It's like he is ok with replacing me with someone else's dad." Wyatt heard me and was all concerned with how it made his Dad feel. Wyatt said, "Dad really said that?" I said that he did because he was sad he had to miss it and that he wanted to go with a different Dad. Wyatt was all, "Well I just said it because I thought Dad couldn't come." I told him that he couldn't so it is fine but that his Dad didn't think he would be so quick to wanting someone else to go with him. I told him that he and Daddy would just have to go out on a one on one when we got back. He agreed! haha 

She also sent us a picture of them all fast asleep. 

Lastly, on Saturday morning they took the kids to the Windsor Rec center to go swimming. They swam for almost 4 hours. 

It looked like they had so much fun with the Gleave's. We were glad they had fun and were all safe while we were gone. It was a good weekend for all of us. The bad part about coming back from a vacation is when we get hit with reality. That night Emmett kept waking up in the middle of the night and they were all up at 6:30 that next morning. I was not ready to be up early especially after being up in the middle of the night a couple of times and especially after we had just had a couple of mornings of being able to sleep in. So I was pretty grumpy that Sunday morning when they were all up so early. I woke up with my back hurting me and being super tired so it was a bad morning. haha Welcome back home to the chaos!! haha I took a nap that afternoon and then felt much better. So begins normal life!! haha