TEN!!!

Last month Matthew and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! We had originally been planning and hoping to go to Hawaii for this milestone, but as the date got closer we realized that due to life's ever changing circumstances we've been through this past year, there was no way we were going to be able to afford it. Could we have put it on credit cards and figured out a way to make it work? Sure. Were we tempted? Yes! But in the end we decided to be more practical and spend within our means. And just because we were giving up our dream vacation didn't mean we still couldn't do something nice and fun. So we looked around at different options and found that through an exchange program with our timeshare we were able to get an amazing deal on a nice resort in Las Vegas for a week. Our parents were very kind and generous and took turns watching the kids while we were gone. The kids were looking as much forward to their "vacation" as we were to ours.

Life was so hectic leading up to our trip we didn't have much of a chance to really "plan" much before we left. But hey, Vegas is a city that you can't really get bored in, so we decided it wasn't that big of a deal. Plus, we figured that even if all we did was sit around and relax we'd be happy.....which is what we truly ended up doing a majority of the time. We did make it out and about to do quite a few things, but mostly we just sat in our room watching movies we rented. We also found other ways to keep ourselves busy. Wink, wink. Hey, it was our anniversary after all!

The room we stayed in was so nice. We had our own full kitchen (recently remodeled), a 52" flatscreen in the living room, a 42" flatscreen in the bedroom, nice king-size bed, a walk-in closet, and a HUGE bathtub. Here are a few pics:

The kitchen

The living room

The bathroom - the tub was huge! This picture doesn't do it justice but it was very large. Matthew and I both fit in there very comfortably.

The view from our deck. This was 1 of 3 pools the resort had.

One of the things we got a chance to do was to go to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. I don't know if it was worth what we paid, but I guess overall it was a pretty cool experience.

I tried to figure out a way to get Angelina out of the picture, but I'm a lot shorter than her so I had to be creative. It didn't really work.

My very own 007.

Here's Matthew and his bald buddy, Patrick Stewart.

I tried to make a face like his....but it didn't quite work out. Matthew never knew that I have such a crush on "The Rock".....er, I mean Dwayne Johnson. Ooh la la!

Don't we make such a great couple?

I felt kind of bad running off and marrying someone else on my anniversary trip, but hey....it was George Clooney, the most unattainable bachelor in Hollywood! I found out later that our marriage wasn't valid because I was still currently married. ;)

We learned that not all the figures are life-size. Matthew is tall, but there's no way he's as tall as Michael Jordan.

I found an adult with smaller hands than me! It turns out that Gloria Estefan has freakishly small hands.

We made friends with a couple that was walking around behind us and we took pictures of each other with the Blue Man Group.

My husband is so presidential. :)

I blend in well with this picture with the flag on my shirt and all. :)

A quick sidenote: There was a statue of Michael Jackson there and I had actually intended to get a picture with it, but got distracted and forgot. After we left the museum we went over to the mall and we were looking at something at one of the kiosks and the employee was on the phone. When he got off he told us it was his mom and she was just calling to tell him that Michael Jackson had just passed away. When we went home and found out what time it was, we realized that we were probably there with his statue at almost the exact time he was pronounced dead. Kind of strange. I kind of wish we'd gotten a picture so we could've seen what it was time-stamped at.

I had to take a picture of this girl because I kept complaining to Matthew that so many of the people in Vegas look like they've rolled out of bed and put on something they've had in their closet for 15 years and headed out without even bothering to check a mirror. This girl was a prime example! Really people?? I don't mean that you have to get all "gussied" up to go out, but come on! Can't we put forth a little more effort....for the rest of us!?!

There were a few different locations amongst the street shops that they were selling these wraps at and I was quite intrigued. They can be transformed like 35 or more different ways. The girl working there was showing me all the different things I could do and it looked so easy and I was so tempted, but it cost a lot and I was sure that even though it LOOKED easy that I was going to be too dumb to figure out how to do any of them once I got home. But she said she had a DVD that showed step-by-step how to do all of the different ways that she would "throw in", and Matthew kept convincing me.....so I bought it. And sure enough I was right, I can't figure out how to do anything with it except wrap it around a couple times to make it a skirt. But hey, it is VERY comfortable!

This was some pretty cool decor they had within the shopping area at The Venetian. I think that's where this one was.

My absolute favorite part of the trip was going to the Las Vegas Temple. It is breathtaking! Funny story though.....we actually tried to go on Monday because we wanted to start the week off on a good note. Before we left people were telling us that it's a pretty slow temple. We arrived on Monday and there were like 5 cars in the parking lot. We thought, "Wow, we heard it was slow, but we had no idea it would be THIS slow!" We got up to the doors and they were locked. It had a sign saying something like, "Please ring doorbell for assistance." We thought that was kind of weird. I just thought that maybe because there are so many crazy people in Vegas that they have to have very tight security at the temple. So we rang the doorbell and waited.....and waited. Finally we looked up and a security guard was walking towards us. Apparently not all temples are like the ones in Utah. In Utah the temples are closed only in the evenings on Mondays, but outside of Utah they are closed the entire day. Oops!!! But we did have a chance to go back ON our actual anniversary and sure enough, it was very slow. The workers assumed we were going through a session and they were so excited because we would bring the total of the group to 14! But we were actually planning on doing sealings. There were only a few other couples there doing sealings and they were in and out so we got to just sit and chat with the sealer. He told us some very cool stories. And then we got to go the Celestial Room. It was absolutely beautiful.....and empty. We were literally the only ones in there besides 2 temple workers. The whole thing was such an awesome experience because at home when you go to the temple it is such a nice, pleasant escape. But when you're in "Sin City" it is that much more of a contrast. I was so glad we were able to go.


I really wanted to get a picture of US in front of the temple, but it's not like in Utah where you have tons of people coming in and out that you can stop and ask if they can take a picture. There was literally no one to ask, so we had to do some creative setting up and use the timer. I actually think it turned out pretty good all things considered!




We had been wanting to go on at least one of the rollercoasters there and finally on the last night we were there we got a chance to. We went on one called "Speed - The Ride". We thought it was the dumbest name....I mean seriously, who came up with that?! It was very cool though. We only wish we'd gotten there an hour or so earlier. To get an unlimited pass where we could ride it and one of the other rollercoasters at that particular place was barely more than we paid for our one-time ride that lasted all of 15 seconds.

This is the loop you go on. It takes you through the ride to a dead end where it stops for about a half-second and then you go backwards through the whole thing.

We used to not be fans of In-N-Out. It seemed like everybody else in the world loved it, and we just didn't understand the hype. But we decided to give it another try and.....um, we are now converts. I think I could've eaten there for dinner every night and been happy. We are now anticipating the opening of not 1, but 2 new franchises near our home. Yum!

We had a thoroughly relaxing and fun time. And the car ride there and back was equally as fun. I enjoy road trips, especially when I don't have to worry about kids crying/fighting/yelling or asking, "How much longer?" I LOVE being able to just sit and talk to Matthew about anything and everything and not be interrupted. We played a lot of the music that we listened to on our honeymoon, stuff that was popular at the time like Red Hot Chili Peppers album "Californication". We also listened to the MiniDisc (old school!) of the songs we played at our reception. It was very nostalgic. We did miss our kids like crazy though and were very excited to see them....and they were very excited to see us!