VIVA LAS VEGAS

Well I got a surprise Mon Aug 6th when I got a phone call at 7:30 in the morning from Chris saying I am gonna be home in three hours I am in Dallas! WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?
Insert confused look here! SO I get him home and thus begins the whirlwind vacation to Vegas. The 12 hours drive there wasn't so bad it was great till about Hoover Dam. The kids started argueing and I have a fear of heights so the thought of the dam collapsing and surviving only to see all of Lake Mead coming at did nothing to calm my nerves. But we got there and boy the first thing we did was eat IN-N-OUT... BEST BURGERS EVER BABY! Now it has been about 8 years since we went to Vegas and man has that city grown not so much changed but grown. It was alot to take in!

SO we wake up Thursday moring and hung out with Chris' dad (my mom wanted to clean anyway) and went swimming , from there we went to the Forum shops of Caesars Palace we used to love that place but it has gotten so upscale that it really wasn't too fun for the kids though they did enjoy FAO Scwartz. My dad arrived Thursday night so we headed to the mall Fri for some shopping. Ryan got so spoiled it wasn't funny but thats what happens when you don't see your grandparents for a year or so. My aunt and uncle from Cali came in Fri night so we could celebrate a lot of birthdays together. We wound up at Adveturedome at Circus Circus for some family fun and everyone had a great time riding and seeing the kids laugh thier butts off. Sunday was birthday party day. It was so cool mom and dad bought a cake with four differant types in it and bought things to put on top to show what part of the cake was whose. After an interesting rendition of Happy Birthday ( it was my cousin Anthony, Kyla ., Chris , and me celebrating) we opened cards and presents. Then Chris got the visit he was waiting for. We went out to the MGM showcase and had lunch with Kim and her family. We had so much fun catching up with them and then we headed to Coke world for a bit of exploring. Unfortunatly they had to head back to Cali after that so it was short but sweet. Mon was Kylas birthday so we did our birthday pancakes and headed off to Mt Charleston with Chris' dad for some hiking, which was short lived as Ryan forgot his inhaler at home! But we had luch on the mountain and the view was beautiful and they had all these humming bird feeders around hummingbirds were everywhere! Pretty cool. We had decided to stay Tues as well since Ryan wasn't ready to come back so I got another awesome gift from my ex. He bought me tickets to go see Phantom Las Vegas. I have wanted to see Phantom of the Opera since High School and to go and see that it was better then I ever imagined was just amazing. So we drove home weds , another drive over Hoover Dam yea! That drive took forever and we got home late that night only to have to pack up Ryan for his flight back home the next day! SO we are now back at home just chillin out waiting for Chris to go back to Iraq.