Sin City Trip-----The Disaster

So our trip to Vegas didn't go quite as planned. I'll spare you the gory details, but here are the highlights:'

THE GOOD

• Alan and I spent some quality time together sans kiddo!
• Alissa looked beautiful in her gown
• Wedding was great, yes, I cried a bit!
• Meals were overall pretty good
• hit $50 once on a wheel of fortune slot
• did okay at craps for a while (later lost)
• SW Steakhouse was great!
• Minus 5 Ice bar was very cool - drank out of an ice cup!
• VIP section with bottle service courtesy of Alissa's friends (Kimberly and Web) was great
• Had great fun with my friends
• yummy bloody marys!
• got a refund for our cancelled one night hotel
• William learned to say Papa (what we call grandpa) while we were gone
• new pool at Golden Nugget was cool
• cool little book shop at the Palazzo with first editions and rare finds was fun to look around in
• great limo driver drove us out of his way to the Las Vegas sign to get a pic
• nice folks let us 'cut in line' to get our pic at the Las Vegas sign, helps having a bride with you I guess!

THE BAD

• We missed our outbound flight on Friday at 2:15, just missed the checked bag cutoff by a minute
• Couldn't rebook until the next day, everything was booked solid
• Spent countless time on phone with airlines and travelocity, had to cancel one night hotel
• Lost money on everything we played!!! We usually win a little, not to be this trip
• Scary cab drivers and female cabbie that talked our ears off
• Weather- hot, yet humid----ugh!
• Zumanity- because we cancelled one night's hotel, our show tickets for Zumanity were cancelled as well, but we didn't realize that until we went up the Will Call desk all ready to see it. but obviously didn't get to
• American Airlines cancelled our return flight (direct, at 8;30am arriving 1pm)----called us on my cell the night before
• AA couldn't rebook us on a direct flight back- couldn't get us anything early like our original until I finally spoke with a supervisor........and then he got us on a 6:30am flight with a connection. not ideal, but I was just defeated at that point.
• spent an hour on the phone with AA trying to rebook THEIR cancelled flight. i was supposed to be having a nice nap instead!
• we missed our little guy!
• our heating element in our dryer went out the day before leaving
• our verizon lan line phone lines all went dead before leaving- still trying to fix
• our so-called strip view wasn't as great as I hoped, the new city center blocked our view down the strip pretty much. We could see the MGM and that was about it
• never got in any pool time
• guy passed out on bench in Venetian on sat night- security and EMT had to be called. people were sitting down and having their pic made with him while he was passed out......not really that funny.
• Minus 5 lost our friends credit card, she had to call and cancel it
• lots of little babies in strollers with parents trying to gamble in the casino only to be told you can't bring your baby to the slot machine

AND pics!!!

Getting ready on Saturday am before wedding at 11:30am

The happy couple!

The entire group

alan and I at the Venetian on Sat night


Alissa and I at Minus 5 with the crazy penguin stalking her

alan at Serendipity 3 for lunch at Caesar's

the cool new pool at the Golden Nugget with slide going through aquarium

Getting Hitched in Vegas

Okay, no not me (we got married at Mandalay Bay in Vegas 8 years ago!) but my good friend Alissa! She is getting married in sin city this weekend! Originally this was a 30th bday party she had planned, but then suddenly we learned there was going to be a wedding too. Alissa met Chris, a plano cop on match.com a few months back. They have been stuck at the hip ever since and very happy. I think when you know, you know.

So Alan and I are making preparations for our trip. Will is going to be staying with my parents over the weekend. Our flight leaves midday on Friday and we return Monday afternoon- so 3 glorious nights in Vegas sans toddler! Looking forward to it very much!

Now Alissa and Chris sort of decided together to get married in Vegas and they also picked out a ring together. However, he had not yet given it to her. So he planned a great surprise involving the plano police to 'officially' propose and give her the ring. Alan, Will and I hid out with some other friends on the Blue Goose restaurant's patio where we had a clear view of the action in the parking lot. Chris had met her for a movie and staged a 'break in' of her car. He then made up an excuse where he had to leave, leaving her there with a cop taking down the full report for her. Then he has another cop drive up, and Chris poses in different clothing/hat as a suspect. They have Alissa come over to see if this 'suspect' has her stuff (backpack, CDs) etc. She is all set to 'identify' her stuff, when he is there on the curb, faking as a suspect and proposes. Lots of fun and she was totally surprised, but still worried about her car.......which the window was actually rolled down with fake broken glass. Here are a few pics....

Later that evening I partook in the customary bachelorette party activities. I was the DD this time, so I had one drink at dinner and that was it, I am such a lightweight and very anti-drunk driving, so that was it. We had a nice dinner at Mi Cocina, complete with inappropriate gifts and all. I realized shortly after being sat, they had put us in a back corner separate from the main restaurant......they must have realized we were trouble! After a nice dinner, we proceeded to Cape Buffalo to dance the night away. A great band was playing and the girls had a great time, closing down the bar at 2am, way past my normal 10-11pm bedtime! After a stop at whataburger, I finally got the girls home and was in bed at about 4am, only to be waken up by Will at about 9am. Talk about no fun. I think Alissa had a great time though as her last night out as a single woman! She's been looking for Mr. Right for a LONG time and I am so thrilled she found him and can't wait to be a part of her special day! and yeah, it won't hurt if I can win some money on the craps table too!

Our plans for vegas include seeing a show called BITE on Friday at the Stratosphere, wedding on Saturday afternoon, nice lunch (sushi/steak), pool time at the Monte Carlo, then hitting the town on Saturday night for gambling and clubs. Sunday, more pool time and Alan and I are seeing Zumanity (Cirque De Soleil) at New York New York. We will get downtown at some point to play craps at the shoe, our favorite spot. Hopefully we come back winners!

Me, Alissa (yes, she is 6'2) and Jennifer

Beat the Heat!

So how do we beat the heat in July Texas weather? Stay inside mostly! But the few times we venture out are either early morning or around water! We hit the local pool this weekend and Will really enjoyed it. He fell at least 3x though, running and slipping. The kid just runs like a maniac and is hard to catch! He loved the slide and must have gone down it at least 10x.

The other way to keep cool is staying inside of course!
Or early morning walks on the weekend- Will wanted to push his grocery cart around the neighborhood!

And of course there is always a nice summer day nap!!

Jump!!!!

So Will's latest learnings are saying 'bubbles', getting down the stairs by himself by scooting on his butt and trying to jump!

Tonight while reading one of his books, they have jump for the letter J and so he showed us how he tries to jump- too cute!!

Day at the Museum

We took the chance to spend our Friday off at the museum, in the a/c! Will and I met my mom, sister and her two kiddos at fair park at the Science museum. Will had a blast- we spent about 3 hours there. He loved the water table and the slide on the firetruck in the first floor children's museum.

He also loved the bubbles display- and watched me make some huge ones. "bubble" is his latest new word!

Our first stop before bubbles and the kids museum was actually the dino exhibit where they had a fossil dig for the kids. Will was unsure at first, but soon made himself at home, carefully sweeping sand into other kids faces.

After a long day at the museum, Will only took a short nap on the ride home. That night we headed to a parking garage at Willowbend mall to watch the Kaboom Town Addison fireworks- one of the biggest shows in TX. We had a great spot- we could see 3-4 shows- one from a nearby mall and some country clubs as well. it was great. Will enjoyed playing in the back of the truck with his firetruck!

Red, White and too much blue!

Will had a little extra 'blue' this 4th of July. He tripped in our foyer and fell and his his face/eye area on the edge of the step. Good thing our steps are carpeted. Poor guy was finally getting rid of his 'black eye' he got about 3 weeks ago at the bounce house at day care. Now he hit that same eye area and his nose. It is turning black and blue yet again. He cried a bit, but toughed it out.

We spent the actual 4th aqt a friend's lakehouse in the evening. We headed to Lake Tawakoni about 4pm and arrived after 5pm. We enjoyed some cooking out and even took Will for his first boat ride, he even got in the water and swam with me. I rode the tube, which I am regretting today- talk about sore- i am too old for this! lol Will enjoyed playing with Jonah's power wheels which wasn't working, but Jonah pushed him some. I guess it is time to invest in one!













Will was getting a little fussy by the time it was dark, so we watched a few fireworks and headed out. He just wanted to run around, which wasn't safe with all the fire power they had shooting off in the back yard of the lakehouse! So we enjoyed watching lots of fireworks around the lake on our ride out. Will was pretty pooped, he even slept until 9am today! Alan and I both appreciated that!