Birthday Shenanigans in the Mitten

As son as Val, Bill and the gang left we had 2 days to pack and do a little cleaning before heading home. HOME. Wonderful, beautiful, green Michigan filled with tons of family and friends that we miss so dearly. We celebrated Chad's birthday on Saturday along with Jared as well. It' become an amazing tradition that we are all determined to keep alive. In addition to celebrating together matching shirts have also snuck their way in as well. I love it. LOVE it.

I also love that we were able to celebrate not only with my parents, Taylor, Jared (duh), Chad's parents, Nikki, Matt and the gang, Tracy, Lincoln and their whole crew as well. It was so fun to be able to celebrate with so much of our family! Happy Birthday Chad!!! Especially since I was passed out for a while (ok, it was longer than a while) due to some drugas for my whole SI joint issue. Glad to have some birthday support otherwise it wouldn't have been quite so fun with just me!

It was so nice to see everyone, everyone! I slept on the couch (are you sensing a theme) while my mom and the boys made the birthday cake, everyone brought yummy salads and sides while we ate fried chicken. We hung out all afternoon and it was awesome. I couldn't be more thankful for my wonderful family, immediate and extended, they are the absolute best around. And while it is technically "Chared's" birthday, I can't wait to see how we celebrate it all next year :)

In addition to the birthday festivities there was a ridiculous amount of Mexican food consumed, just enough sugar cookies eaten and not enough frozen custard, lol. We were able to stop in at our old ward briefly to basically just say "hi" and harass our old primary class, I stopped by my old work, Chad fit in a little climbing, we managed a double date with Jared and helped pick out a new tv for the parents, and just generally did a lot of hanging out with a lot of the people that we dearly love and miss.  Somehow we were out there for so long but it all went by in a flash.

 

 

(Chad took an actual group photo, and I think some overall better ones in general, imagine that. So as soon as I'm not feeling lazy I'll get some real photos up here to add the amazing amount of selfies that I took all week :) )

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!