Vegas, Car Accidents, Chicago & Sadness!!!

VEGAS BABY!!! What happens in Vegas does NOT stay in Vegas...Well the trip to Vegas was really fun and as with every other trip...it went by way too fast. Hopefully I can remember all that happened.
Thursday was a blur. The flight was good. Nate and I were sitting a couple rows up from mom, dad, Lisa, Matt and Rachel. Rachel had neve flown before so we were excited to see how she did. We heard more laughing than anything from the back of the plane, so apparantly she did ok. Vegas has a new rental car center and Mike and Karen were going to pick Nate and I up there. I forgot to call them once we landed...so they were just waiting and wondering where we were. Then when I told them where to pick up up Mike acted like he was teasing me and didn't know where we were. I just kept telling him sure...whatever. Needless to say, they really did not know where the new center was. They had to ask for directions. They made it and we were very appreciative that they picked us up and let us stay at their house. Thanks Mike, Karen and Kate!!!!



The next day we prepared for Mike's birthday party. THE BIG 30!!! It was fun looking at old pictures and getting the house all decorated and all. Kate was cute and kept saying it was daddy's birthday. The night went well and I think Mike had a great time. Karen taught a really great recipe for Baja Enchiladas. They were scrumptious!
Time just really went by fast after this. We honestly just really hung out at the house and played games and Guitar Hero. (I ROCK!!!)




Here are just a ouuple of the funny highlights from the trip....some good, some bad.
1. Kate TV What is this you ask? Kate loves watching herself. She is ssssooo adorable. Every morning and sometimes during the day she would express that she wanted to watch Kate TV. In would pop old videos of when Kate was little. She was so cute and she even came up with the saying also.
2. Mom's New "Talent" We all found out that mom has a new talent. I think the picture says it all though. The people in the tram were looking at us all weird since we were laughing so hard.



3. Mom's New Son We were riding the tram between Luxor and Excaliber. A guy probably around my age was sitting next to mom and Kate. The guy was talking to someone on his phone. All of a sudden the guy leans over to Kate and says "Don't talk like me. It's bad." Apparantly he said crap or something like that. It made us laugh. Then the guy asks mom to tell the person on the other end of the phone to stop studying and come party. She takes the phone and her "motherly tone" instructs the person to come and play. She went on for a little bit and made everyone laugh. Not sure if the guy came to play, but she gave it her best. MAN....why wasn't she like that when it came to our homework? j/k mommy
4. Easter Egg Hunt??? The kids all wanted to play outside in the back yard. Well....this seems like an easy thing to accomidate...but Kramer owns the backyard and takes care of business there. Mike convinced the kids that they could earn a little money if they helped "clean up" back there.... and then they could play back there also. The kids all fell for it and within minutes they were doning rubber gloves and plastic bags. Andrew even expressed that it was "Better than an Easter Egg Hunt." How bout that.... try that on your kids :)They were all quickly board and decided they were done. I think they all got $2 or $3 for their work. It was hilarious to watch though.




5. Lisa, Lisa, Lisa Where to even begin. Here how bout this....My life flashed before my eyes. Yeah, thats good. The night before we were leaving Nate and I wanted to finish up our gambling itch that we had. Mom, dad and Lisa picked us up and we headed to Circus Circus (where they stayed). We had our fun and we headed back to the house. Lisa was driving and seemed extremely normal when we left. After a couple minutes of driving though....not so much. She missed a stop light and when she realized it and stopped, we were it the middle of the iintersection. Luckily there were not any cars. She made her right turn and continued driving. The she started tailing people and really getting on their butts. Mom was like slow down Lisa. Then she was driving in and out of the lines. All along the way, we were all getting extremely nervous and really wondering what was wrong. Mom asked if she had a headache and if she was feeling ok. Lisa of course responded that she was fine. The funny thing is that she had a diet coke and she just kept picking it up and drinking it really weirdly. We then joked that maybe someone slipped something into her coke. She started slurring her speech. By now I was white as a ghost in the back seat wanting mom to force her to pull over. We were close to the house, so she kept going. She got to the u-turn that we have to do to get to their house and she totally hit the curb and we thought she broke the hub cap. Now we are in the neighborhood and she is barely missing parked cars and such. Mom at this point had her hands on the wheel and was helping and telling her when to brake and such. It was extremely scary. Once we got in the house we really started grilling her and trying to honestly find out what was wrong. She finally admitted that she took an Ambien before leaving the hotel. WE LOVE YOU LISA!!!!



6. Gambling I had been bugging dad the entire time to come and gamble a little with us. If you don't know my dad we have to force him, buy once he does it he has fun. He particularily loves to play I love Jeanie game. He likes it because it says "yes, master". Ha ha. Funny guy. Anyway, I told him that I had scoped them out and found the perfect one. So he decided to come. I led him to the machine, sat him down, mom gave him his $20 and he started playing. I decided to play a machine right behind him. I turned around like a minute later and he had gotten to the bonus round. I had Nate watch my machine and I ran over and told him good job and expressed I told you this was the right one. I went back to my machine. Then maybe a minute more, mom, dad and Lisa come to my machine with grins stretching ear to ear. Dad showed me his ticket and he had won $225. Mom expressed that he cashed it out and gave her back her $20.... and a $5 tip... and pushed the rest into his pockets extremely quickly. He was done and went up to the room for the rest of the night. I am still waiting for my share of the winnings though since I was the one that convinced him to play and for directing him to the winning machine.... guess I will keep waiting :(

I think that pretty much sums up Vegas. It was really fun! The weather was great and felt so good compared to our snow in Idaho. Thanks again for a fun time Mike and Karen. We hope to see you in June for Matt's graduation!

Until next time Vegas.....
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Car Accident
Nate was in a car accident last week. He was coming out of McDonalds on Broadway and the guy in front of him who had turned onto Broadway.... decided to back up...on top of Nate! The guys kid had spilled some food and so he was trying to get out of traffic and did not see Nate. This is the end result. The big hole is from the guys Ford F150 being on top of Nate's car. The gapping hole is from his hitch. Nice huh....so we are now dealing with that. The car will most likely be considered totalled since it will be more to fix it than what the car is worth. Who knows what will happen.



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Chicago....Here we come!!!
We have decided to fly to Chicago and then drive back with Chris and Maryanne. Nate's parents will fly both ways. We booked out tickets last night becuase they are extremely low priced. It is costing us the same as it would for getting the 2 nights worth of hotel rooms driving out there....so it will work out a lot better and give us more time in Chicago. We are looking at tickets to go watch a baseball game and who knows what else....it will be fun and I will finally get to meet Chris's parents. Chris and Maryanne will be moving to Portland, OR so it will be nice to have them closer and give a new place to visit in the future.
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Sadness
We went to one of my favorite places to eat on Friday night.... BAJIO'S. Love this place and it has proved to be a cheap date night cause you can get the movie tickets and dinner for under $30.00. Anyway, we went and we noticed that the menu had changed. Ok....whatever... looked nice. Well then they started making it and they changed what was included in our usuals. I always get the Salad. Needless to say, the food was not good. The meat was gross and the entire thing tasted different. I am not sure if this was a fluke or if it is for real. All I know is that I am sad.... We will have to try Cafe Rio when it opens soon and it may become our new favorite.
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Here are just a bunch of ramdom pictures from the trip to Vegas. Enjoy :)