Vegas, baby!

As many of you know, David and I recently had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas, NV for an optometry conference. The office paid for David's whole trip and if I wanted to join him, we just had to pay for my plane ticket. We decided to go ahead and splurge on that so that we could go together and have a little fun! David's dad drove down to our house and stayed with the girls Thurs - Sun and did a GREAT job taking care of them and getting them to the various places they needed to be. Thanks Bruce!!!

David only had 4 classes he had to go to (continuing education stuff) and the rest of the time we could do whatever we wanted! There was a party sponsored by Marchon (one of the big optometry companies that supplies all sorts of things and wants the doctors to spend lots of money buying their stuff) that the staff said was really fun to go to, but otherwise we were free as birds!

Day 1: We got there mid afternoon on Thursday and checked into our room at the Harrah's Hotel Resort and Casino. We even got a room with a king sized bed! We don't even have one of those at HOME! :) After we dropped our things off at our room and changed, we grabbed a quick bite to eat (just fast food) and headed over to the Flamingo to see the Blue Man Group. They're those guys with the blue heads and no expressions that bang on pipes to make music...anyway, it was a cool show and we had a great time.

We wandered around the casino a little after the show and then went to Denny's to get a treat. David had a root beer float and I had a chocolate shake. MMMMMmmmm! Then we were exhausted so we went back to our room. Aren't we so exciting?! I took a bath in the tiny, uncomfortable tub and we watched tv and then went to sleep.

Day 2: David had signed up before the conference for the classes he wanted and then found out when we got there that all his classes but 1 were already full. He got up early and went to check in and find out what other classes he could get into for the weekend and I slept! He came back having registered for some new classes and we went over to Denny's again for breakfast. David's boss, Dr. Thorsen, also brought his wife and she and I had planned on going shopping for a bit while our guys were in classes. David ended up spending some time alone since his schedule changed, but he said he didn't mind! So, Andrea and I got into their rental car and drove down the strip to the Miracle Mile Mall in the Planet Hollywood Hotel. We had a great time shopping, talking, and eating! My favorite things! I got some souviners and when we got tired we headed back to our hotel to lay by the pool and read. How many hours had I gone at that point without somebody whining, "mooooommmmmmyyyyy"! Not nearly enough. ;o)

David met us by the pool when he was done and we went back up to the room to change for dinner (fast food again!) and get ready for the Marchon party. I got all "Vegased Up" (that just means sequins for me!) and we headed over to the party at the Flamingo. It was really something! They had free drinks (alcoholic or non) and a buffet and live music - sung by real Vegas celebrity impersonators! It was all in the pool area in back of the casino and was this meandering pathway of trees and flowers and pools here and there. It was really cool. There were these acrobat girls inside these huge clear inflatable balls floating on the water doing amazing poses and somersaults and stuff. We stayed for a few hours and socialized with the office staff and with the Thorsens and then excused ourselves at around 11 to go to bed. MAN we're LAME!

Day 3: David had his last couple of classes first thing in the morning and so I just slept until I felt like waking up. Ahhhhh...heaven! I got ready and he finished and came by the room to get me and we just went exploring. We had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville Cafe and drank REAL (virgin) margaritas! :) We went shopping and saw all the amazing high end stores by designers that I like to read about in People Magazine. I drooled over Tiffany's and Van Cleef and Arpels and tried on $800 shoes in the Christian Louboutin store - OH YES I DID!!!!!! It was SO much fun! And thank you David for being so patient and letting me look and whine!

Then we got on the monorail and went to the other end of the strip to the Luxor. We decided to go see the BODY exhibit that's there right now. It's been traveling all over for several years, but we hadn't seen it yet. It was fascinating. It's all cadavers - some put together, some taken apart - that have been preserved without formaldehyde so that you can see what your body looks like on the inside and how everything works. It really was interesting. Then we just kinda walked from one casino to the next looking at everything and trying to comprehend why some many people come here and just throw their money away. Whatever. If I'm going to put my money into a machine and never see it again, that machine had better at LEAST spit out a candy bar in return! ;o) We took lots of pix and just had fun walking and talking and holding hands and not trying to interpret toddler-talk!

We thought we'd stay up late this night since it was our last night in Vegas, but exhaustion once again took over and we were in bed before midnight! We had to fly home the next day and so we packed all our stuff and tried to get one last, uninterrupted, good night's sleep before heading back to reality!

It was a great trip. Everything went well at home and we were, of course, thrilled to see the girls when we got back. Grandpa was even still alive! :) We had a such a good time and look forward to doing something similar next year!



Here is the pretend Arc d'triumph. I got a picture of the pretend Eiffel Tower, too, but since it was night they didn't turn out very well.

For those who may not already know, my VERY favorite "candy bar" type snack is M&M's. Dark M&M's. Love them. Eat them all the time. And now I am roly-poly like an M&M. I will continue to eat them. Did I mention I love them?!

Here is a shot from a couple blocks away of the FOUR STORY M&M store they have in Vegas. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, FOUR STORIES!!!! I thought I'd died and gone to heaven!

Lady me holding Lady Liberty in front of the New York New York.

Crossing the bridge into New York.

Usually you can't get the whole New York skyline in one shot but I have mad skills! ;o)

There are lions living in the MGM Grand and they have a place where you can go underneath their lair and look up through plexi-glass to see them. They were sleeping. Poor lions - I bet they'd rather be taking a nap somewhere in Africa instead.

Hey my friends in Memphis! Did you see Elvis in town while I was gone? No? That's cuz he was in VEGAS BABY!!! Dealing poker, too.

Enjoying my yummy raspberry (virgin) margarita. I ate some AWESOME shrimp creole, too.

Look who's playing at the Flamingo! Those Mormons are everywhere...even Las Vegas! ;o)

Cher is there right now, too. Some of her famous Bob Mackie "barely there" costumes were on display. Lots of beads, but not much else!

Here I am poolside with Andrea Thorsen. Holla, girlfriend!!!

Here is where we stayed. What is that guy supposed to be doing?

This is a restaurant I saw in one of the hotels. David's middle name really is Burke for those who aren't in on that little joke...

It's a blue man. And he's...you guessed it: BLUE!!! And it's a little creepy that thing they do with their eyes...

Waiting for the Blue Men to start. I love you baby!

Hope you enjoyed the post and the pix. Stay tuned for our big, exciting news coming soon... ;o)