30 30 30!

That's right. As of August 17th, one of our household turned 30. (Ahem, not me.) We went to Las Vegas at the beginning of the month to celebrate that and also our 8th anniversary which was on July 31st. We did some fun Vegas-y things, took in a show, ate at a buffet, drank too much, stayed up way too late, etc. We stayed at The Mirage and spent our last day lounging by the pool in a private cabana. We had a good time pretending we were high rollers and do that sort of thing all the time. Some things we don't want to forget:

• Having a "complimentary" photo taken at dinner..."Yes, that will be 2 for $30"... Um, what?
• $2 "bourbon" shots at the Gold Coast bowling alley... Did I mention they came out of a beverage dispenser and not a bottle? And that the bartender had no idea what it was called?
• Deciding to walk to the afore mentioned Gold Coast bowling alley at 11pm because it was only 1.6 miles away.
• The boys hitting up the pawn shop where Pawn Stars is filmed.
• Peep Show!
• Cabana 8
• My brother thinking he was on a 1st name basis with our cabana host "Ashley! Ashley!"
• 32 oz. cocktails at said cabana
• Mr. Las Vegas at the pool aka a sad, lonely, perhaps foreign young man wearing swim trunks that said "Las Vegas" on them while posing next to the pool and staring into the sun, occasionally splashing water on himself after strutting around, and then 2 of our group trying to find him later to give him a high-five. Ah, good times.

We were pretty bad about taking pictures, and only managed a few off of our phones.

In front of the Bellagio fountains

Cameron and his girl, Holly

Cabana by the pool

On his actual birthday we just spent a nice day at home with the kids. Cameron and Addie made some cupcakes together (yes, I realize it sounds bad that he made his own bday cupcakes...) and I made one of his faves for dinner, ribs, potatoes, and corn on the cob!

Happy Birthday babe! We love you!

Vegas, baby!

We just got home from a taking a long weekend to Las Vegas. We went to attend the wedding of our longtime (since HS for me, and 6th grade for Cam) friend, Quintin, to his beautiful bride, Molly. The wedding wasn't until Saturday so we went a couple of days early to have a little vaca for ourselves. We were so happy to be able to go! Gage has been so under-the-weather that if he didn't start feeling better we were most likely going to have to cancel. But luckily it worked out and we made it!

We drove in late Thursday afternoon, and kicked off the trip with a visit to Margaritaville for dinner and a comedy club afterwards. Dinner was good, but the comedy club was a bit of a disappointment. The 1st comic started his set by playing the banjo while balancing a stool on his head... enough said. The second comic was better, but all in all we had a good time laughing about the silliness of it all.

In our "boat" at Margaritaville

Friday we just hung around, worked out at the fitness center, took a nap, and then went to see the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor. There were a lot of recovered items to look at, bios to read, and recreations of the ship throughout the exhibit. We are total nerds, so naturally, we loved it. We scored a good deal on some (front row!) tickets to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian Friday night.
Ah-maz-ing! I had never seen it live and it was spectacular. It was pared down a bit from the original, but the score was all there. We were running late after the Titanic exhibit and had to run a good portion of the way from Luxor to Venetian with a monorail ride in between and I was wearing new boots that were hurting my feet but we were determined to make it even if my feet started bleeding. :) In the pic below we are outside the theatre after the show. I apologize since most of the pics we took ourselves so they are nice creepy face close-ups.

After the show we did some wandering around, saw the show at TI, the fountains at Bellagio, tried not to punch the annoying porn flyer people always shoving papers in your face, and did some public drinking. Only in Vegas is it acceptable to walk around sipping from a flask while intoxicated.

You thought I was kidding about that flask part, didn't you? Mine was pink and girly! Notice my pinky, that totally classes it up...

Quintin and Molly's wedding was Saturday afternoon with a fun dinner/dance reception after. We were so glad to be there, and they just radiated happiness. I would be lying if I said I didn't tear up during their beautiful self-written vows. Weddings are so romantic, sigh. Here we are with the happy couple.

And silly boys...

Quintin did not know what to think when Cam wanted a turn during the dollar dance...

But they clearly had a good time. Classic.

Congratulations you two! All the best!

Wassat?!

We are in Vegas this weekend for our good friend Quintin's wedding (and a fun getaway of course).  We are having a blast, but alas, we are really missing the kids. They are staying with Grandmama and Happy while we are gone and are getting properly spoiled, no doubt. Anyway, here is a quick list of fun things Gage is doing right now (14 months).

-Pointing at EVERYTHING and saying, "Wassat?!" about 1,000 times a day. I love it. I could listen to that all day. Poor guy has been fighting a miserable sinus and ear infection for the last month and a half and he hasn't been his same bubbly, happy self. But after 4 antibiotics (with an allergy to one, boo) and 2 new allergy meds, he seems to finally be back. :)

-Mimicking words and sounds like crazy. The day we left he repeated "toes" and "chair".

-Finding his tummy. Goes something like "Where's your tummy, Gage?" Followed by his little pat, pat, pat of his belly with a big grin.

-Playing "chase" with Addie. She walks behind him while he looks over his shoulder and tries to get away while they both laugh hysterically. We could listen to that all day.

Oh yeah, and Happy new year by the way! I just realized this will be the 1st post of 2012!