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:)