Las Vegas!!

We came back home on Saturday night after an incredible vacation in Las Vegas!! We had an absolute blast with our friends and enjoyed every minute of our trip.

We had SO many pictures, so I'll try to pick my favorites to share!

We drove down to Bellingham on Tuesday morning. We left home about 6am(thanks SO much mom for coming that early to watch the kids!) and arrived in Belligham about 10am. We stopped at Wal-Mart to get a few things and then went to the Airport to check in. We arrived in Vegas at about 3:30pm. And it was HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

We checked into our hotel and the first room we had smelled like smoke, so we asked to be moved. The second room we had, someone was still staying in!! So...finally we got a room after that. We stayed at the MGM Grand hotel and it was great! We decided to check out the Strip and enjoy the evening! The boys went on the Rollercoaster at the New York New York hotel and then we stopped at a few other hotels.We had dinner at Caesar's Palace and then watched a few fountain shows at the Bellagio. The fountains were one of my favorite things about Vegas...they were just so beautiful!! We headed to bed at about 11:30pm that night and that was a earliest night of the whole trip.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet(we had free vouchers because of the inconvience of our room changes). Then we went to Tix for Tonight to see what we could get for shows tickets! We got tickets for Cirque de Soleil(Mystere) and Phantom of the Opera. Both shows were awesome, but my favorite was Phantom....seriously AMAZING!! Loved every minute of it. Jen and I did a little shopping at ROSS while the boys waited in line at the ticket place. Then we walked around a bit and then went back to our hotel and spent the afternoon at the pools.

I had an ice cream cone for dessert for breakfast...

Our hotel had 5 pools and a lazy river!! It was beautiful and felt so nice since the weather was so HOT. Every day was between 40-42 degrees!!!

It was my birthday that day and we went out to a nice little restaurant for appies before going to our Cirque show. Jeff gave me the best gift...he had video taped messages from the kids for my birthday. They talked and sang to me in the video. And he also gave me a card that the kids had written in. It was so special and I was crying like crazy...it really touched my heart and it made me really miss our kids. I think I have a pretty incredible and thoughtful husband:)

Here we are at the restaurant and I'm opening the card from Jeff and the kids...
We watched our Cirque show and then met up with Kristi and Basil back at the hotel, as they had just arrived. They hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we went to another restaurant. Then we just walked around the Strip again and made our way back to the hotel. The Strip is really long, probably 2 miles and we walked so much on the trip. We definitely got our exercise!!

The next day(Thursday) we all slept in...until 9:00am!!! Then we met for breakfast and then Jeff and us girls headed to the outlet mall for a day of shopping. Isaac and Basil went to the Stratosphere hotel to go on some rides. The outlet mall was great and Jeff got tons of clothes for great deals. I didn't get too much for the myself, but that's okay because Jeff needs clothes WAY more than I do.

We came back to the hotel after shopping and we all got dressed up and ready to go to Phantom of the Opera. It was so fun getting dressed up to go out every night!! The guys had brought along fancy dress clothes too, but we figured it would be torture for them to wear them in the smokin' hot temperatures!
Phantom of the Opera was AMAZING!!! We all loved it. The shows in Vegas are just incredible and there is so much talent there. After dinner, our wonderful friends took us out for dinner for our anniversary!! Seriously, we have the best friends ever:) Friday was our last full day in Vegas and we took a Taxi down to "Old Vegas"!! We walked around there for awhile and the boys played some black jack in one of the casinos. The gambling is cheaper in old Vegas then on the Strip. It was another hot day, so we went back to the hotel and went straight to the pool!!

Just being silly!
A photo with some "Vegas" ladies...
Awww...the beautiful pools!
Me and my honey...

That evening, we all decided to go our separate ways for dinner. We had a free voucher for the buffet, so Jeff and I went there for dinner. We all met up after dinner again and walked the Strip. Kristi and Basil had an early flight the next morning, so they went to bed. Jen, Isaac, Jeff and I went to watch the pirate show at Treasure Island, but it was cancelled because it was windy. So, we headed back up the Strip towards our hotel. We stopped to watch a few more fountain shows at the Bellagio.

Jen and I were so tired after walking most of the day and it was probably midnight by this time. Jeff and Isaac wanted to go back to "Old Vegas" to see the laser light show. They hopped in a taxi and got home about 2am and we were up by 7am to catch our flight back to Bellingham.

We were all tired and just rested and tried to sleep on the flight home, but we were in the back of the plane and it was SO loud:( We stopped at Walmart in Bellingham on the way home to get a few things and then made it home around 6pm that night. We were so excited to see the kids after 5 days away!! And I think they were excited to see us too.

It was an absolutely awesome vacation and a great way to celebrate my birthday and our 10th wedding anniversary!! We are incredibly thankful for our friends for making the trip with us. And we are incredibly thankful for our parents for looking after our kids while we were away. We couldn't have done it without you, we love you...THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! We are so blessed with amazing friends and family in our life...my heart is full:)

Waterpark Adventures...

We've had lots of fun this week playing outside in the hot weather!! I've been bad at taking pictures again this week...but we were at the waterpark yesterday and a took a bunch there. They are the pictures scattered throughout this post!!

Last Friday night, we had some friends over for a "Rock Band"(the video game) Party!! We thought it would be fun to have a no-kids party for something different. We had 3 couples come over and we spent the first 2 hours or so sitting on the deck on a warm summer evening! We just chatted and ate some yummy appies. Jeff made his very delicious cheddar, bacon potato skins. I made a mexican dip and a dessert. Later into the evening we headed inside and played Rock Band for about an hour. We had a great time...lots of fun with great friends!!

Jeff is now into biking, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not! But, he had a mountain bike and now he has his dad's 1973 road bike as well. His dad bought it brand new in 1973 and it's still in great shape. Jeff took it to the bike shop and got new tires, brakes, cables, a seat and new handlebars. He really enjoys riding it!!

On Saturday morning, he rode bikes with 2 other friends and they rode to Penticton. It took them about 2 1/2 hours and then I drove out there and we had brunch together and then went back home for naptime. His 2 friends are training for the IronMan, that is about 2 weeks away. Jeff isn't training for anything special, he just really enjoys biking and running!!

Sunday afternoon, we went swimming at my parents pool again. It's so nice to have a nice pool to go to, to cool down in this heat! Then we had dinner together at their place. It's really quite convenient to swim from 4-5pm and then it just happens to be dinner time!!!!
Water fight...

Jeff's parents took the girls for the day to Tuesday and they always have a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. It was another hot day and they had a water fight and apparently got Grandma soaking wet in her clothes!! Their Grandma days are so special...the girls look forward to it every week and they have a really close relationship with their grandparents and I'm so thankful for that!! I don't even think our kids know how blessed they are...yet:)

We had dinner on Tuesday at Jeff' parents place and it was delicious...chicken, potatoes, greek salad, corn on the cob and yummy peach pie(one of the pies that Jeff and his mom made together!). I still can't believe they made 13 pies in one day!!

We leave for Las Vegas next week and we are getting SO excited!! I know that the kids are in very good hands with their grandparents while we are away, but I know we'll miss them. And then we are just a couple weeks away from Megan starting kindergarten. I just can't believe it's happening so fast. She is going to love it...she loves to learn and she loves friends. I think she will do great!! Gabby is really going to miss her in the days, because they always play together now. But, Gabby will have to learn to play with Marty now, and they will have fun too!

A weekend with Auntie

We had a great weekend with Auntie Kirsten! She came up on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. It was so nice to just have her around and hang out and talk lots!!

We didn't have any special plans for things to do, but we kept busy! Auntie got lots of snuggles from the kids...We went for a stroll to the mall on Friday morning and then got some Tim Horten's and headed to the park to let the kids play...

Marty held on to his timbit for about 10 minutes before he started to eat it...funny boy!He doesn't really like to sit still for pictures!
Jeff did lots of exercising this weekend...Saturday morning, he went for a run and then rode his bike to our friends house and went for another bike ride with him. I think he ran for about 45 minutes and biked for about 2 1/2 hours!! Seriously, I think he is amazing!! Then on Sunday morning, he went for another bike ride. He really enjoys it:) On Saturday morning, Kirsten, I and the kids went to BC Tree Fruits and picked up a bunch of peaches. Kirsten wanted some to take home and Jeff wanted 30 lbs so that he could make 10 pies!! Yes, you read that right...HE can make 10 pies!! I don't really enjoy making pies, they are so much work and time consuming. It was actually really cute, him and his mom make the pies together last night. He rode his bike over to his parents place after work(it's about a 40 min ride) and then he made pies over there from 3:30pm and he got home at 9:30pm!!! They make 13 pies. He can't wait to eat them:)

Three beautiful girls... Kirsten and I played a few games of Ticket to Ride! She is the one who introduced us to that game, so it was fun to play with her again. We went swimming at my parents pool on Friday afternoon and then we had dinner there. After dinner the kids decided they wanted to have a dance party!! On Sunday, Kirsten came to church with us and then she headed home after lunch. It was SO great to see you again Kirsten and we always love having you...come back again soon and bring your hubby with you!! A few weeks ago, our friends moved and were getting rid of their kitchen table set. I really like it and they said we could take it! We sold our old table set yesterday. I think the new set looks so much more modern and I really like the dark wood...

There are 6 chairs with the table and another leaf that can be added. I love that it makes into a big table, so we can have lots of people over for dinners!

And I think that's all for today!