Lessons in Traveling

When we first got our plane tickets it took us a while to realize that Danielle Portela was heading out to Michigan. Hard to do when you don't have much proof of being that person anymore. ha. Lesson one learned: Your expired passport still counts a valid ID as long as it hasn't been over a year. Phew. My office manager coincidently lost her ID on the way home from her vacation and learned that her Costco ID and credit card was good enough to get her home as well.

Lesson Two, The Flint Ariport rocks. Rock my socks right off. Small, clean, the people are NICE, friendly, and SO helpful. Grated I was wheelchair so I think I had some pity points but still, so nice. Pre boarding ain't so bad either.

Third, Ward Families are forever families. We were able to park our car with a family who used to go to go to our same ward in Michigan. Not only did we park out car there, they then drove us to the airport and then dropped our car off the night before we arrived because they were leaving on their own vacation. Above and beyond these people went. Such good people.

Then of course we had to drive back to St. George from Vegas. Night-mare. Of epic proportions. It was over 100 when we got here, which we knew it would be but still doesn't soften the blow when your in leggings and long sleeves for the plane. As soon as we managed to grab our baggage we were off to find the car. We were hot, beyond sweaty, I was attempting to walk so that we could pull all our crazy baggage with us. I was breaking d-o-w-n guys. We started driving down the strip trying to kill some time so we could drive back in weather that wouldn't burn us alive. We finally parked at a Casino and changed in the car. Changing in the car with a hurt back in 100+ heat and a cramped up leg was nothing short of a miracle. It was not done discreetly but hey, when in Vegas right? At that point I was ready to strip naked outside the car to change. Modesty? What's that?

So by the time I waddled into the casino I laid and cried like a true drunk Vegas girl at Ceasars Palace while I made Chad go check out H&M. It was his birthday and I still hadn't/haven't gotten him anything so we weren't leaving until he found a kick ass suit at H&M. He finally made it back to me with a bit of a birthday haul! Success! Until a few days ago when we realized the pieces just weren't going to work. So back to Vegas we will go within the next 30 days to return! Lets see if I can get walking before then because wheelchairs are for rent and not borrow at good 'ol Ceasars. And I don't know if I can mentally handle being a crying Vegas cliché again unless I'm actually seriously intoxicated.

We did eventually make it back home. It did cool down once we left the city, we finally got some food in us, which helped immensely, chugged some Gatorade, which we have been living off of, and Chad got me one of those giant bags of ice for the ride home. We took turns with it. I would lay on in, he would simply hold it in his lap to cool off and then I'd sit on it again. We may not have a/c but bless Chad's heart, that giant bag of ice saved my life on the ride home.

Thank You Girls of Vegas

Sometimes Vegas is just everything you want it to be.

A drunk girl in uncomfortable shoes and a barely there skirt who sits down in the middle of the hallway outside the club so she can do up her 5 inch heels. Chad and I both got a ridiculous crotch shot. Ri-di-cu-lous.

Another drunk girl (OMG so drunk) who could NOT keep her skirt down and over her buns. Seriously, at least the crotch shot girl was wearing underwear. This girl had a thong on at most, we saw all of her buns. ALL of them. Enough to where I can comment on her underwear. Her boyfriend/husband/"dude she was with" was not thrilled that she couldn't keep it under wraps and kept telling her to pull down her skirt. Bless her drunk heart, she tried a couple times but it was just so hard. And her skirt was just so short.

But really, the best pair in Vegas were 2 girls who left everyone in awe as they walked through the Casino. Girls and Guys alike were laughing, gasping, pointing, and whispering. We were all sharing in the ridiculousness together as we would catch one another's eyes and say, "Did you see that?", "Only in Vegas right?", "Take the picture, we did!" All of a sudden we were all friends thanks to these two. We were lucky enough to get to follow them for a ways, and while they were definitely entertaining it was even more fun to watch everyone react to them.

Thanks for the memories girls!

29 and counting

We headed down to Vegas Friday night for a long weekend/birthday extravaganza!

Val and Bill hooked us up with some free hotel rooms as long as we did the whole go to a Time Share Meeting thingy. 2 free nights in Vegas was well worth 3 hours of a hard sell. It wasn't so much a hard sell as it was three hours. Again, worth it.



After our lovely time share adventure we attempted to buy something off craigslist. It was a loooong drive to the McDonalds on the other side of town only to meet a man who refused to come down in price. At one point he offered us $15 off of the $650 camera. We practically laughed at him and then left.

From here we ventured out to Red Rocks. It's a national park right outside of Vegas that is supposed to have spectacular climbing. We thought we would check it out. As soon as we paid and started down the one way scenic loop we realized our gas light was on. Woopee. We didn't think it was a big deal since the loop was only 3 miles... until we realized it was 13 and we didn't know where the closest gas station was.

Sooooo, we turned around, popped on the hazard lights and started going the wrong way back to the beginning of the lovely one way loop. People were less than thrilled. The police officer who pulled us over was also less than thrilled. Fortunately he let us off with a warning and directions to the nearest gas station. Only after telling us repeatedly how lucky we were. We may not have won any money but we did get lucky in Vegas!

So to sum up Saturday, 3 hour meeting where they tried to sell us a $32,000 time share (LOL), driving all over the place to deal with someone who overpriced their camera by about $200 and then got pulled over after freaking out all the other drivers. We were tired and exhausted. So we splurged for dinner on the grossest $5 pizza from Little Caesars we've ever had and then headed out to reclaim our day/night.

Unbelievably tired.

We dressed up, got some (a lot) of caffeine, and spent the rest of the night soaking up Vegas our way. Basically, desserts, window shopping, lots of wandering and even more people watching. Sunday was filled with more of the same, in the best way possible. We finally tried the Cheesecake factory (OMG so good), took more pictures, and found some great art galleries. We finally made it home and into our bed around 4am Monday morning. We stayed put as long as we could and then proceeded to be as lazy as possible the rest of the day and night. Thank you MLK for the recovery day, it was glorious.

 

Vegas time!

Ash and Pat were here with us last week partying hard! Well, Pat and Chad were at the Electronics convention in Las Vegas. They went Wednesday and Thursday and then Ashley and I went down with them and we spent Friday and Saturday morning there.

Yup, the only one who couldn't figure out how to look at the camera while taking the picture. So hard.

 We stayed in the fabulous Treasure Island, we love it there since it's so close to the fancier hotels and the hotels rooms have been renovated pretty recently - super comfy beds and very clean.

We shopped until we couldn't shop anymore Friday night. We didn't stop until we all got something :) At one point Chad and I thought Ash and Pat had been kidnapped, we got a pretty good butt shot of a complete stranger, and we loss $21 total. Then we ate way too much food at dinner and wandered around the strip until way too late.

We slept in and got some of our favorite pastries at the Aria before heading back to St George. It was a quick but fun trip! Chad and I are counting down the days until we can go back... lucky for us we only have to wait 4 days :)

 

Speaking of the Weekend...

Ash and Pat came down to visit last weekend!!!!

We were super excited to hang out with them, keep them up waaaaay too late, and play until we were dead tired.

Friday night they managed to get here just early enough for Chad to take us all rock climbing. Whenever just the two of us go Chad climbs and I belay. That's it. I have little to no interest in climbing up the side of a rock. I can barley climb down the path to get where Chad climbs sometimes. But we all took turns. Patrick got up nice and high, I panicked about 6 feet off the ground and Ashley was the super star of the day. She was nervous at first but then really took off!

That night we took it easy and hung out after dinner and ice cream. Ashley and I went to bed at 1 and let the boys stay up discussing pressing matters into the wee hours of the night. Patrick was a wee bit exhausted the next day... and so was Chad. Too bad though, we were off to Vegas!!!

We had a great time wandering around the shops, getting fancy desserts, gambling (just a little) and people watching. We spent the whole day and night there, finally making it home well after 2am.

Sunday was a recovery day! We filled our bellies with Mexican and Chinesse food and played Munchkins!

3rd times the charm

We love H&M. I love all the basics that I get there and all of the Men's clothing fits Chad like a champ. Whenever we are in Vegas we make a stop there. I usually need to replace a dying tank top and Chad usually needs to replace a dying dress shirt for church.

Last weekend was no different. He picked up a cute striped shirt with great purple buttons. After getting back to our hotel he went to change into in and found a cut in the shirt by the shoulder. Booo.

So we take the shirt back the next day and tell them about the cut. They ignore us, do the return and we are on our way to find one without slashes and holes to take home. We finally find one in his size and buy it.

We immediately go to the bathrooms at Caesars to change, him into his shirt and me into my new tights. Changing into tights in a very dirty, small bathroom stall without a purse hook is quite the feat my friends. I should really have won an award for that one. Anyways....

I come out of the bathroom only to find Chad standing there in the same clothes he went in in, holding the new shirt. There was another giant rip/cut under the collar. So we head back and return it. We tell them this is the second time that this has happened. They, again, ignore what we are saying and just return it.

So now we are looking for the shirt again. Guess what we find? The first shirt out on display with it's rip in it. At this point we are really irritated and take the cut up shirt back up to the cashier and tell them what has happened. Miss Sass at the register didn't care a bit, gave us the stink eye and basically told us to get over it. Nice. Customer service at it's finest.

We were tempted just to leave at that point, but we had already gone to so much freaking work. So finally we found one more shirt in his size, went over it with a fine tooth comb... twice, and bought it. Success!

Definitely more hassle that it was worth, good thing he looks darn cute in it ;)

Surprise, Surprise

Last week I was a lazy bum. While most people seem to be recovering from the flu I was recovering from.... Vegas. Slightly better than the flu. I was also recovering daily from all of the freaking nursing homes we went to. 4 in 2 days my friends. It was as awful as it sounds. Probably more so. On the third day we had a group of 30 mentally challenged 20 somethings come into our office that morning. While they are fun, they are draining. So I'll pick up where I left off... last weekend, the weekend of L-o-v-e... and Vegas ;)

We celebrated Valentine's Day last weekend because celebrating holidays on a weekday is sad and way less fun. And while I already told you we went to Vegas I'm sure you already knew that considering we like to celebrate everything in Vegas. Birthdays, Holidays, "we're bored and have nothing to do" days...

We had work and school until 7:30 last Thursday, Chad had a camp out with the boys from church on Friday and got back Saturday afternoon. That afternoon we had a fun little photo shoot for some kids going to Preference in our ward.

Luckily, I had President's Day off, woot! So Sunday morning we packed up and headed down to our favorite town. We left all of our hanging clothes at home, so that gave us something to do that afternoon :) We found some new fancy clothes to wear that night and then returned them all the next day... I know, we're horrible. But we weren't going out to dinner in our jeans and t-shirts.

Dress: H&M, Tights: old, Shoes: Target

Unfortunately we wandered around a bit too much and by the time we were trying to find somewhere to eat dinner we were outta luck at most restaurants. We finally ate around midnight at the only place that was still open. I got pad thai and Chad got Udon noodles.

That night we wandered around the city, took lots of pictures, got some new eyelashes (well, I did) and made some friends out on the strip! The next day we took it easy and just hung out together. People watching, eating pizza, and dressing up one more time for dinner at our new favorite place at the Encore.

After we were thoroughly exhausted, feet too sore and bellies full we headed back home to St. George. Always kinda a let down after a whirl wind weekend in Vegas. We didn't want to leave our fancy hotel suite :)

'Till next weekend Vegas.

*And while I was joking as I wrote this post last week, we did in fact just get back from Vegas again last night. We have a problem. A big, Vegas sized problem. Someone should really come out here and talk some sense into us, we'll pick you up at the airport... in Vegas....

Slightly obsessed

While we are talking about Vegas....

Once we get back from Vegas what we really want to do is... turn around and go back. Chad was trying to talk me in to going back down on Saturday. He tried all Friday and then again all Saturday. Nikki can vouch for that. I spent all day Friday and Saturday telling him there was no way we were going back down, we were just there! But there's something about being there that makes us want to keep coming back for more. And that something is that it's awesome.

After a Saturday full a whole lot of nothing too exciting and a failed attempt at finding a good Mexican restaurant I was sorely disappointed that I hadn't given in.

While Cafe Rio is delicious it can't replace a good Mexican restaurant with endless chips and salsa. We miss the Sagebrush Cantina and El Patio with all our hearts. This place we tried Saturday had weird chips and really watered down, onion-y, very mild salsa. Chad skipped it, I ate it only because I wanted so badly for it to be good. Our first clue however, was that when I adjusted how I was sitting in the both, the whole thing moved because it wasn't bolted to the floor. Uh-oh. Shoulda left then.

We were a wee bit nervous about we had gotten ourselves into so we played it safe and ordered fajitas to split. It's impossible to mess up fajitas... right? Wrong. Bleh. The steak so bad we couldn't eat it and the onions and peppers weren't even cooked. After complaining we were given 25% off. It was still way too much money for the 3 fajitas we managed to eat.

We were upset about the failed dinner. Then our stomachs became even more upset than we were. We drove around trying to find something to do, failed, then finally just went home. The stomachs were pretty angry at this point. Stupid raw onions.

So instead of hanging in Vegas, people watching and snacking on chocolates, Chad watched Psych while I tried to sleep off my cranky belly. Pretty rockin' Saturday night huh?

Lesson learned: When your hubby wants to take you out.... just say yes.

The most wonderful place on earth...

VEGAS!!!  :)

 We don't gamble, we don't drink, we don't pay ridiculous amounts of money to get into clubs...

But we love it.

It may have something to do with the fact that it's the closest city with anything open after 9pm other than Pizza Hut. Or maybe it's that if we want to shop anywhere other than Target or TJMaxx this is the closest city with any sort of decent shopping. Even better than shopping though is the fantastic people watching, it just can't be beat.

 

 
Last week Tracy and Lincoln flew into Vegas for Lincoln's work, which meant we were headed down to hang out with Tracy while Lincoln worked.

Thanks to the grandparents slipping us 20's all the time we were able to head down Tuesday night and get a cheap hotel. Woot, Treasure Island!!! While the casino part may be pretty janky and the people super sketchy and homeless looking, the hotel part was clean and newly renovated. And the beds! Super comfy, we slept sooo good.

 One of the many highlights included the street magician. Chad and I both had a turn at being his assistant. Lucky us. After saying he needed a lovely assistant he came right for me. I also received a compliment from a drunk homeless person saying my hair was beautiful. Don't be jealous.

My part in the "magic show" (I use that term loosely) included a lot of bowing and waving of a Kleenex, I think everyone was confused. My favorite trick was when he would have a certain number of red balls in his hands and then turn around in a circle and when he was facing us again... tada!... there was another ball!!! It was definitely the worst, yet best, magic show ever.

We ate a lot of delicious food courtesy of Lincoln's work, walked and shopped until we literally dropped, sampled Godiva chocolates, watched the fountain show at the Bellagio and just enjoyed spending time with our family!

 

Side note: Are we the last people on earth to try macaroons? They were the bomb.com. Next time we are down there I'm getting 5... and I'm not sharing either.

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

I'm not gonna lie, I don't quite remember what's going on here. I do know that it's Black Friday and that we were laughing pretty hard.

 

Awkward:

• Seeing a guy washing his car out in his driveway.... in the rain.
• Our reaction to opening a Tupperware container that was full of tuna fish.... and ridiculous amounts of black mold. "Don't touch it!!!", "Don't breathe it!!!". There we were trying to coerce it down the drain, barely touching the container and our shirts over our faces. Over react much?
• Our neighbors always have their bedroom window open and the fan going. Could be 15 degrees and the dead of night or sunny and 70 out. Doesn't matter. So I've taken to yelling at them as I go inside and see it open. Just general crazy lady ramblings directed at a window. Makes me feel better when in all reality it should make me feel more crazy.
• Watching a *slightly* drunk man attempt to cross the road in Vegas. One step forward, two steps back. Two steps forward. Pause. One step back. One more try.... and .... Nope. He shakes his head, decides it's too much and turns around the other way.
• Everyone in Vegas.
• Us in Vegas. Chad makes a pretty entertaining fake drunk.

Awesome:

• Hanging out with Tracy and Lincoln Tuesday night and all Wednesday!
• Godiva chocolates
• The deal we got on a hotel room.
• The bed at our hotel. So comfy. Funny how a queen size bed was perfectly fine when two cats and a dog didn't sneak into bed with us.
• Blackout curtains in said hotel room. Why don't I have these at home? Oh yeah, because then I really would never get up.
• We always take bets as we drive home from Vegas on what time we will make it into St. George. Chad was spot on last night this morning. We were both pretty impressed.
• Our animal's over reaction to us getting home. What can I say, they are pretty attached.... and super needy... and they were pretty thirsty as well.

Have an Awesome Thursday!

Surprise!

Is everyone tired of hearing about my birthday yet? I'm sure by now only my immediate family is reading anything related to this topic.... anywho, I promise to keep it short.... here we go!

Chad had been talking about my "Birthday Surprise" all last week. Saturday was the day and I was stoked!

We started the morning off with breakfast at Kneaders. Mmmmm. Best breakfast, ever. After that we went home and Chad told me to get ready. Without giving anything away he told me what to wear, and what to bring to change into.

Completely unrelated picture of my actual birthday

Soon enough we were heading south. Then we stopped at Walmart. I figured we would turn around from there and head back into town. But we started heading south again. I had no idea where we were going. I thought he was just going south to trick me. Because unless you are headed all the way down to Vegas, there's nothing south of us except desert.

Again, nothing to do with my story,  my super delicious cake that Chad made

Lucky me... I was going to Vegas! We shopped, wandered around, shopped some more and found these beauties. I am in love with my new boots! Chad also found something for him too :)

fancy suit, that we got a killer deal on, for our fancy date

I found two pair of boots I like and couldn't decided so we bought both, went out to the car, got my outfit, changed in the bathroom (difficult), then tried on both boots and pranced around a random store. As soon as I saw these I knew they had to be mine. So we returned the other pair and took these lovelies with us! Thanks Chad :)

Just ignore the fact that my face looks as yellow as my tights

We spent the rest of the evening dressed up and all of a sudden were treated much differently. Normally we are in sneakers and t-shirts because we are walking around a lot and have to drive an hour and a half. We were getting the up and down glances from everyone and people were much more helpful and friendly everywhere we went. Note to self/everyone: dress nice in Vegas, it's much more fun!

Normally in Vegas we eat at gas stations and WalGreens. And then we carry around our goodies in a shopping bag and eat while we wander. Classy people. What can I say, we're super cheap. This was a Birthday surprise though so we went to a fancy shmancy restaurant, inside the Wynn, instead. An added bonus, we sat along the wall that opened up to the casino, so we could still people watch.

After dinner we wandered around until the very wee hours of the morning. It's fun to shop during the day but you just can't beat people watching on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. I had a rockin' birthday, thanks honey! Let's do it again real soon ;)

Meatless Monday: More Muffins

Oh Monday... Why can't you be more like Saturday?

Friday we drove Nikki and Matt back down to Vegas. We walked the strip, looked at things we couldn't afford, gambled away a grand total of $6 between the four of us and then cried all the way home from the airport. Chad and I were hoping we could convince Nikki and Matt to stay forever with all of our sno cone goodness and awesome National Parks. They had three better reasons to go back home :)

Best Picture Ever? I thought so too. Other people take beautiful pictures with their camera phones, I take these.

We got home Saturday around 2am. We slept in and stayed in our pajamas the majority of the day. We used our weekend to relax, grocery shop, do a ton of laundry, watch too much TV, and cook. We were also going through family withdrawal so we called a few people on skype and chatted for a long while. Some days we are bummed we are soooo far away from every one, yesterday was definitely one of those days.

Saturday we also got a Fall Package from my Mom and Dad! Is there anything better than getting surprise boxes in the mail? We put up holiday decorations they sent, ate all of the chocolate, and made Bran Muffins. My mom sent me everything I needed to make these muffins and easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Those are on the list to make tonight! :)

These Bran Muffins are awesome. Not only do they taste great but you can make up the whole recipe and store it in your fridge for up to 6 weeks. Feeling like muffins? Pull out the batter and bake some up! The longer you let it sit the better the batter gets, breaking down all the cereal. I can never wait though and made a half batch on Sunday afternoon with raisins and chocolate chips.

Thanks Mom and Dad! ;)

Refrigerator Bran Muffins

Ingredients:

• 5 t baking soda dissolved in 2 c boiling water
• 1qt. buttermilk (if you don't have any add 4T lemon juice or vinegar to milk, walah!)
• 4 beaten eggs
• 2 c sugar
• 5 c wheat flour
• 1 c shortening
• 1 t salt
• 3 c All Bran
• 2 c Bran Flakes

Directions:

1. In a large bowl sift together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles crumbs.

2. Mix eggs and soda water together and add buttermilk.

3. Stir in the cereals and mix until just moistened.

4. Store in the fridge in a covered container until ready to bake. Will last for 6 weeks.

5. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.