Vegas Vacation!

Aunt Katie and Ash at Mandalay Bay

Deb and Dave headed out for their date night

Hanging with the boys while Deb and Katie shop!

Ashley helping herself to all the goodies on New Year's Eve

We love Vegas during the winter...60 degrees and blue sky everyday...no winter jackets needed for a whole 6 days...what's not to love!! We drove to Vegas on the night of the 30th and stayed through Sunday the 4th. We spent New Year's Eve shopping at the outlet mall during the day and having a small party at Mike and Katie's that night. Pregnant party pooper Deb only made it to 10pm before collapsing into bed. The next day we ate brunch at the Original Pancake House then the boys took off for a little guy time. On Friday the boys kept Ashley so that Deb and Katie could go shopping at the new Town Square shopping center. It's right by the airport and is a huge outdoor mall. Deb spent some serious time (and money) at Sephora, one of her favorite stores...makeup is so darn much fun!! The big highlight of Friday was the date night for Dave and Deb. Dave gave Deb 4th row seats to see Criss Angel Believe at the Luxor for Christmas....not cheap but SOOO worth it! If you are a Cirque de Soliel fan or Criss Angel fan you won't be disappointed. I'd go back and see it all again if I could! After a quick dinner we saw the show then headed out to Red Rock Casino for a little gambling. They even have a non smoking section for pregnant gals like me who need fresh air!! So cool. Deb played on $20 for about 2 1/2 hours and Dave walked away with an extra hundred in his pocket from the tables...not too bad. On Saturday Katie and Deb took Ashley to Mandalay Bay Aquarium and then over to M&M World and the Coke store. After MUCH sugar we drove home and took a nice nap to end the day!

Christmas

One of Ashley's favorite new toys

Papa, Ashley, Nana and Uncle Craig

Before the Chaos!

Christmas Eve

We had another fun but Crazy 24 hour Christmas! Dave's brother Mike and his wife Katie arrived on the 23rd to stay with us. They live in Vegas and return the favor later in the week when we come down for New Year's Eve! We spent Christmas Eve with Dave's family at their annual dinner. We arrived home around 10pm and did a few last minute preparations before Santa could come to visit. The next morning Ashley woke up around 8:30 and Dave had to meet Deb's family at the bottom of the mountain and bring them up to our house. We had a ton of snow coming down and nobody besides us has a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Once Dave picked them up, they took pity on a pour soul who was stuck and they arrived back at our house drenched from wet snow as they pulled and pushed the stranger out to the road. We didn't open presents until about 10:30am. After a nap for Ash and Deb we headed to Deb's parents house for some fabulous mesquite smoked turkey. For those of you who don't know, Deb's Dad smokes the turkey on a charcoal grill with mesquite for 3 hours and the result is the most moist , yummy turkey you'll ever eat! We then moved to Dave's parents house around 7pm to open presents with his side of the family and play some poker:) We finally drove home..in more snowy conditions... around 11pm and collapsed into bed. We spent the rest of the weekend going to movies and eating out with close friends. Thanks to Nana and Papa for helping babysit so we could have some adult fun!