Vegas Take Two

So, remember how the boyfriend surprised me with tickets to Vegas and a suite at the Luxor for Christmas/my birthday?

After I drug him all over that place last time we went cause I'm obsessed with ancient Egypt?

We went and it was awesome.

DAY ONE:
::"Move your little Versa!" "Oh my god would you people just drive."
- Okay, so my boyfriend rarely drives the speed limit. When I say that you assume that means he drives like a crazy person, no, he drives 10 UNDER the speed limit. It's a gas mileage thing, I don't know. However, when he's forced to drive the speed limit cause we're running behind his road rage is hysterical. Excellent way to start off a trip.

::Some planes, no trains, few automobiles
-The first flight was from Omaha to Denver and it was fine, the second flight out of Denver to Vegas was a completely different story. While in the airport I heard this kid screaming and jokingly said something like, "they're gonna be right next to us" and was horrified when I was right. Not only were they close by, they were directly behind us and the screaming kid was bouncing on the tray table the whole ride. Pretty sure the dad heard a few expletives throughout the trip.

::Landing
-So, I learned the best way to fly is to not check your bags because once the flight lands you're free and you don't have to wait for anything. This was beneficial because we landed at six and were going to a concert at seven. Turns out, the doors only opened at seven so even though we landed at six, ran to get a cab at 6:15, arrived at the hotel at 6:30, checked in at 6:45 and made it to the House of Blues by 7 we still had to stand in line for half an hour, and the concert didn't start for another hour after that. All that freaking out about us being late and missing stuff and it was all for nothing.

::Pentatonix
-The concert - once it got started - was awesome. But as mentioned, the line to get into it was huge, almost around the entire outside of the inner hotel. Fortunately we met a nice local who advised us on what to do and what to avoid. They sang some awesome stuff, but my favorite was their cover of Lorde's Royals, scroll, down, it's fantastic.
We got out of there around 10 - apparently if you have kids until 16 at the concert there's some sort of curfew that it can only go so late. Was fine by me, I was exhausted, though not as much as the boyfriend. He had been up for almost 40 hours already.


DAY TWO:
::Hoover Dam
-Originally we were supposed to go on a hot air balloon ride that morning, however it was cancelled that day (and the next because of weather, meaning we're going back in the fall to redeem our tickets) so instead we decided to rent a car and go out to the Hoover Dam. It was awesome, we had the best tour guide who had actually taken men who helped build the dam on a tour so he had a bunch of anecdotes from them as well. And of course, there were the dam jokes. "Did they tell you about the camera policy?" "No." "That's cause we don't have one, take all the dam pictures you want!" Hilarious. After touring the dam we walked all over - I drank some dam water out the fountain - and took a ton of pictures.








::Walmart
-Apparently when driving a rental car this is the appropriate way to park.

Or not. Smooth. But at least we didn't get door dinged. We stopped by cause he needed swimming trunks. While we were there we picked up some snacks - bugels, beer, flavored water, chips and salsa - and then headed back to the hotel.

::Hot Tub
-Did I mention how awesome our room was?



It even had a hot tub. Which was perfect after spending all afternoon walking all over the damn dam. After jamming out in there for a while he konked out on the bed. It was humorous cause it was like 9 and he was dead. But as mentioned, he hadn't exactly gotten a lot of sleep that week.


DAY THREE:
::Buffet
-So, when you're in Vegas, hit up a buffet. They are fantastic. This one wasn't as fantastic as the Wynn buffet - holy crap, read last time's post - but it had a ton of food and I could only eat like half of my plate.

::Walking through the desert in the rain
-Of course the day we decide to walk the strip it rains. In the middle of the desert. But it was okay, we just toured a bunch of the buildings to avoid the major pouring. Although so them pouring is like sprinkling in Nebraska. While we were touring we ran across Big Elvis - he was in fact very big and dressed like Elvis so it was a fitting name - and I drug him in circles around Caesar's just to find this massive mythology fountain.
Ancient Egypt isn't my only obsession, I'm also a Greek Mythology fan as well.

We also hit up the M&M's factory, and the Coke store. Have you been in that M&M's place? It's crazy!

Those are all M&M's in those tubes.

::More Hot Tub
-You can never spend too much time in a hot tub. Well, I guess, once you get all wrinkly then it feels weird, but we decided once we get a house we're getting a hot tub. Okay, I decided, but I'm sure he would support that.

::The Mix
-As part of going to Vegas I wanted him to take me out somewhere fancy. Packed a skirt and everything. Before Vegas he even went shopping to get new clothes - tie included. He picked the Mix which is one of the top 5 restaurants in Vegas (inside the Mandalay Bay hotel). The scenery was incredible,


view included:

I had chicken, he had cod, we agreed it was the best food we've ever eaten. My only complaint was that it was packed super tight in there so we were literally less than a foot away from the people sitting next to us.

::Zombieland/Castle
-After dinner we headed back to the hotel and I crashed because we had an early flight in the morning. He konked out in the hot tub - again, would totally have support in getting one. I turned on Zombieland and made it through like five minutes before I was out. Aside from Zombieland we watched a ton of Castle. It was on during the plane ride out there, then that night after the concert, then the next day when we were in the hot tub, and now the boyfriend is hooked. Or I claim he is anyway. The last one we watched there ended in a cliffhanger - they were stuck in the freezer - so when we got back I put in my DVD and we watched the next episode.


DAY FOUR:
::4AM wakeup
-Flying out earlier in the morning is cheaper, but it sure isn't as fun, however, neither flight involved screaming or jumping children in my vicinity so I was okay with it.

::Home
-As soon as we got back we stopped at Amigos for food, he picked up this model train he was waiting on, and then we just slept the rest of the day. Very relaxing.


So that was Vegas take two. Hopefully take three will happen some time this fall cause hot air ballooning sounds awesome. Lots of fun, though it was nice to be back and not have to put on makeup every morning...


Song of the Trip:

Royals - Pentatonix


awesome harmonies

"It's alphabetical." "What from W to boobs?"

Okay so first off, just gonna throw this out there.

Never leave two little boys alone in a room with a remote and a TV they don't know how to navigate.

They will attempt to buy things that make my brother and I go "oh my god!" and run toward the TV.

We had football on in both rooms and I guess they wanted to watch wrestling instead so they attempted to change the channel and ended up at "Are you sure you want to purchase Boobalicious for $10.95?"

I don't think I've seen my brother move that fast in a long time.

So that pretty much sums up my day: Mass Hysteria.

Set my alarm for 9 but slept in until 10:30.

I was gonna be all good and like get up early and watch the parade and all that but by the time my alarm went off - I went to bed around 2 cause of New Years - I was like screw that so I went back to sleep.

But I did get up in time to watch the Husker game.

And HOLY CRAP that was also madness. Domination, I was so proud, especially that last quarter for defense. Though the endzone to endzone touchdown was pretty cool too.



Actually our favorite part of that touchdown was the guy in the raincoat at the very end.

Yeah. Stare dumbly. That's right.

Anyway, the family - boyfriend included - showed up around halftime. We watched a bit more of the game, ate lunch, and then opened our presents (while having the game on in the background).

I officially passed the passing out baton on to Squirt this year so I got to sit sidelines and get presents instead of handing them out.

Glad to be done.

It's not bad it's just you have 6 kids running at you constantly looking for presents or wanting to take presents to people and there's a system, you have to have piles so that everyone gets one at the same time instead of like 5 for one person and then on to other people, you know?

Anyway, she did good and I enjoyed sitting and being able to watch the game.

Especially cause we were winning.

Got some cool stuff too. Red 2, Burn Notice final season, some books, clothes, cash, a robot vacuum, AND THAT DAMN DANCING BABY.

I know!! I just got rid of that thing, she totally fooled me.

Now I have it for another year!

And it came in the best box too, it was one of those prank boxes that advertises it as something totally weird and then you open it and it's something totally different. Anyway, this box was for a coffee showerhead so that you could take a shower and drink coffee at the same time.

BTW you did read that right, a robot vacuum.

I'm stoked, just have to figure out how to work it. Carter's gonna hate it. Will probably squash it while I'm not around.

After the presents we jammed out for a while watching football, playing pitch and spoons, stole remotes back from tiny children, ate prime rib for supper and all that.

It was fun.

Especially the part when my brother started freaking out about the boyfriend and I getting married in Vegas.

Which was my fault, cause we were joking about it and then he got all paranoid.

See, when they're all in Vegas and we say we want to get married they're all for it. But now that they wouldn't be there with us it's totally different.

And his mother did finally give in to our destination wedding ideas.

Which I want in writing.

Not that we're having one.

But it's nice to have the option.

What else did we joke about? Oh trivia night is coming up.

We're thinking this year's theme should be Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.

With my brother-in-law as Snow White - cause he's tall - and the rest of us as the dwarfs.

It's down to that or Ninja Turtles.

Cause wouldn't that be awesome too?

Today was awesome though.

Carrying everything up the stairs to my apartment was not so fun, but it's done now so it's worth it.

Well, the stuff I brought back with me that is. There's still that giant coffee maker at the farmhouse from Christmas along with some various other things that hopefully Mom will bring up at some point when she comes to visit Grams.

So I'm calling today a success, even though it was filled with much hysteria I am not back to relaxing with my big fat cat.

Tomorrow is back at work so I will soon crash but before that here's some of my favorite music from 2013 plus the song of the day.


Christmas Can Can - Straight No Chaser


that's right, you knew i had to post it at some point.


Alright, here are a couple of my favorites from 2013.

Counting Stars - OneRepublic


Royals - Lorde


more to come this week.

hope you all are rocking the new year away.

Speaking of New Years, did you do anything fun? The boyfriend and I went out to dinner then had a lazy night in watching movies and then musicians we'd never heard of but are apparently popular enough to make national TV.

But I don't listen to the radio so perhaps they are that popular.

Any new resolutions?

Mine for this year are to eat healthier, exercise more and start flossing more than just the month before I go to see the dentist.

I know, boring, but maybe as the year goes on I'll add more.

Legit pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.

Saturday:

So...Saturday morning I was supposed to have a whole group of volunteers come in from 9-12 to clean the lab and do various other stuff....and then they didn't show up.

Superwoman came in special to help and everything....and then they didn't show up. So, I ended up going to the home branch to jam with the Queen of Awesome in the morning then back to the work branch in the afternoon.

After work headed out to see the boyfriend. We watched a bit of the car auction - there was this huge old car auction in Nebraska this weekend that was all over the History Channel. Basically this car dealer kept all these cars from the 50s-90s and most of them had like 1-5 miles on them total.

So I guess technically it was a new old car auction...in 2013.

But it was on History so you knew it was big.

We watched the first few cars but then got tired of it, then went out to Applebee's for appetizers.

Since I had Sunday off I slept over at the farm.

Sunday:

Church this morning, sat with the family. Got dinner afterward, invited Homey G as always.

I was hoping to take a nap in the afternoon but there were 3 screaming children running all over and my father who wanted me to set up his iPod so that didn't happen.

For long anyway.

We got him an iPod for his birthday cause he said he would use it. It all sounds like a grand idea until you're the one who has to set it up and teach him how to use it.

BUT I was successful cause he brought it to the softball game and was listening to it.

So take that world!

He gave me a list of songs to upload by Abba, Rod Stewart, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Carol King, Beach Boys and Duane Eddy. And that's all he wanted.

For now anyway, I'm sure he'll have a new list for me when I go back home.

And I got to teach him how to use it, though I'm guessing Mark will have to give him a refresher course tomorrow.

I didn't get time to figure out the extra speakers cause I was already running late.

FOR OUR LAST GAME OF THE SEASON! except we decided to add another one next week. Which means I'll have to talk Superwoman into letting me leave at 5. We'll see how that goes.

I played like crap - the one time Dad comes - but everyone else did okay, including my brother who pitched and actually got all three outs in a single inning. I really like hitting off this pitcher so I kept reaching for everything.

Cause I refuse to be walked. I've only walked 2 times in the what like 7 years we've been playing? I think it's 6 or 7.

Oh well, we won it 11-4, even after we gave them an extra inning.

And they wanna play again next week so we agreed to take them on. Even though we're up 2-0.

That's okay, we can make it 3-0 and then get ready for next year. I'm bummed there's only 3 games this year. Last year's was great cause we had like 6 cause we played everyone twice. This year we're down to only 2 teams total so that kind of killed that.

We think they're scared of us so that's why they all dropped out. You know, cause we're just that awesome.

When we're all here that is. We were short last week - though still won - and tonight we were still missing some key players but hopefully next week the whole gang will be back together.

After the game G and I went out for ice cream, as usual, and I headed back cause it's more work tomorrow.

Now Carter and I are jamming watching some Iron Chef.

On to the music. 

Bohemian Rhapsody - Muppets


the boyfriend and i heard this at applebees and went what?

oh yeah, forgot they made one of these...

Royals - Lorde


catchy. i can't decide if i like it or not. i'm starting to. i think.

legitimate pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.