30th Birthday- Las Vegas Style

Since I would rather crawl in a hole and die than have a party for my 30th birthday, I asked Caleb if he would be interested going on a trip.  We have not been on a trip alone in almost FOUR years.  I have only left Ivy (who just turned 3) two other times and neither was for 24 hours.  We decided on Las Vegas since neither of us had been there.  We also decided to go in May rather than July due to the weather. 

Ivy stayed at my mom's house.  We booked through Southwest Vacations and flew out of Nashville.

This is a picture of the exact moment I told him we were going to Vegas. (Just kidding!)

                                                He was very excited!
We stayed at The Venetian.  Our package offered a free room upgrade and it looked like a very nice place according to Trip Advisor.
A photo of our room....

It was massive and lovely.  Here is a pic of the grouping above the sofa.

We could have upgraded for a better view but this was what was included.

We arrived around noon on Friday, May 4th and were starving!  We prowled around for somewhere to eat and found Riva's which was poolside. The weather was AMAZING, warm with a gentle breeze.

Chicken Portabella Panini

BBQ Chicken Pizza

We spent the afternoon checking out the hotel and saw that the gym had a rock climbing wall.

And before I knew it... This happened.

Notice, no harness, no guide, no nothing.  Geez!
Friday night was our "fancy" night out.  I had always heard about the Bellagio fountains and wanted to check them out.  We ate supper at Olives on the patio and were able to watch the fountains as we ate.

Instead of an O'Charley's bread bowl you get smashed up olives and crackers.  We were not very fond of this, but it was something new to try.

Lobster Carbonara

Ribeye with some kind of friend potato/cheese/lobster thing

Our view of the fountains during dinner

I read online to eat there early so you could get seated on the patio and that is exactly what we did.  Our reservations were at 5:00 and we walked right out. 

Some after dinner pictures.

We saw the Cirque du Solei show "O" also at the Bellagio.  It was AMAZING!  I can barely put into words what we saw, but it was full of acrobats, syncronized swimmers, and dancers. Here is the "O" trailer.

We tried to take a picture on the theater but they had some kind of red light shining from above.  I assume this is due to copyright issues, anyways all I know is that it made us look like a couple of freaks!

Caleb and I don't party like rock stars or gamble but knew we still wanted to have fun in Las Vegas.  After the show, we found exactly what we were looking for....

AN ARCADE!

Air hockey is the ONLY game I can beat my husband at so I was thrilled to find an empty table.

Unfortunately, I was having a rough night and totally gave him two points, it was a tough loss.

We called it a night after that... ON Saturday, May 5th we woke up early and were picked up by Scoot City Tours at 7:30 to head out on an excursion to Red Rock Canyon.

We thought knew we were so cool.  We were about to explore a canyon in a 3 wheel scooter.  I saw a Groupon for it and it was the best thing we did on this trip. 

I loved EVERYTHING about this excursion! It was so nice to feel like you were out on your own but following someone who actually knew where to go, where the bathrooms were, and where to stop and take photos.  They have tours in Sedona, AZ and we hope to visit there in the future.  We were so TIRED when it was over.  We had had the sun beating down on us for about five hours by the time we got back to the hotel. 

We headed out to MGM Grand that night because we heard there was a little fight going on in town.

We left this line once we read the sign!  The scalpers were selling tickets for no less than $500.  Needless to say, we did not attend the fight but it was fun to walk around all of the excitement.

By the point we were starving and found the Grand Buffet.  This photo was blurry, but you get the idea!  We had crab legs, prime rib, and gelato! YUM!

All in all we had a great trip, but will probably never ever go back.  And Ivy isn't allowed to go until she turns 50 :P.  It was fun to see it all and I am glad that we did.

Ice Cream

Ivy has become obsessed with ice cream cones

The Crib and the Toddler Bed

We purchased this crib from Walmart.com for roughtly $150 a few months before Ivy was born.

We didn't want to spend a fortune on a crib because we were not sure how long we would use it, etc.  We thought that maybe we would move and rather save the cash for that blah blah blah.  In the meantime the recalls for dropside cribs began and terrified us!  We were about to take our family vacation to Disney World and realized that we needed to try something else.  Ivy was climbing like crazy and we were so scared she would crawl out and try to jump.  So, at 14 months old we purchased a toddler bed  for about $50.

We went on our trip to Disney World and stayed at the Polynesian Resort.  On our beds were these HUGE pillow/cushions.  I put them together and made her a little bed on the floor.  So for four nights she slept not in a crib, pack-n-play, but a little bed on the floor.  We had already assembled the toddler bed for when we came back home.  She had NO trouble transitioning and I really think it was because she had slept somewhere "different" and was able to adapt.  We have had no problems and this bed has been wonderful.  Last week I decided to take down the side rail.  I wanted her to get used to staying in the bed and not rolling out. We weren't sure how dependent she was on these rails and thought what the heck.  Her sleeping has TOTALLY changed and for the better!  Ivy's bedtime routine consisted of bath, milk, maybe a book, and rocking until she was nearly or totally asleep.  Now that the rails are off, she is so OVER the rocking and asks to go straight to bed!  We thought this was a one time thing, then she did it again, and again, and now it has been a week and she is literally putting herself to sleep- by her own choice!  We were out of school for a week and she did the same thing at nap time.  Oh, and did I mention that her sleep schedule is back on 6-6(or really close to it!)  Also, she has not had a fall out of the bed.  Crazy!

Snow Days!

YAY!  Ivy is FINALLY feeling better after a bout with the flu (or so we think!)  She had the flu shot but kept a fever of nearly 101 for 4-5 days and just didn't feel good.  She napped a lot and coughed a lot but tested negative for strep and the flu.  Her doc said she could have tested positive for the flu later on.  Anyways, she is MUCH better!  We have had some fun outside but are ready to get OUT!

She was so happy to be pulled around in her wagon through the snow.  I am convinced she would rather be at the beach right about now.

After a while it got old and she was ready to go inside.  

I had to take this picture of her attempting to walk through the snow.  She had on some boots so her skin was never exposed to the chilly snow!  We ended up with 5-6 inches and it doesn't seem to be melting.  We have been out of school for two days and are hoping for one more (but we really want to be able to at least run to town!)