Thursday, August 29, 2019

Viva Las Vegas - the finale!

A few more pictures from the Bellagio

We wandered around there several times


It's a beautiful hotel - we want to stay there next time!

And the reason we went to Vegas in the hottest part of the year - we went to see Donny (and Marie) Osmond! It was a great show. They didn't allow photos during the show so we stopped and asked someone to take a pic of us with Donny's suit and mirror ball trophy from Dancing with the Stars.
My very first concert was The Osmond's in Little Rock, Arkansas - I'm guessing 1974. They showed some film clips from that time frame (think white, bedazzled jumpsuits) and Donny can still make all those moves!

Last ride down this elevator

The secret to a short TSA line - arrive at the airport at 2:30am. We weren't the first people there though - look closely, over by the window/pole - there is someone asleep on the floor over there!

We had a 5:00am flight and decided it would be easier to pack up and head for the airport than it would be to go to bed for 2 hours and try to sleep.

Snapped this out of the window as we approached LAX. I have no idea why we went to LA before coming back to Texas but now I can say I've been to California. I didn't step outside the secure area of the airport but I did have breakfast there!

That's it. It was a short trip but we had a great time. We definitely want to go again - just not in August!

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Viva Las Vegas part two

After we caught our breath and had a snack we headed across the street to the Bellagio. The inside of this place is awesome. The displays are changed seasonally - I bet it is absolutely beautiful at Christmas!


We wandered around, in and out of shops and did a lot of window shopping. (can you say Tiffanys?)

This is chocolate! 
It was at a little patisserie inside the Bellagio. 

Looking back across the pond? Lake? Whatever you call the water feature in front of the Bellagio, towards the Flamingo, which is where we stayed. We were waiting for the fountain show.

I could not find a place to get good pictures.

We didn't get there early enough to get a 'front row seat' and we were too tired to wait for the next show.

The next day, we walked around some of the other hotels/casinos - this was inside Caesars Palace

This was also inside Caesars - it was a little shop that wasn't open yet, so I stuck my camera through the gate to get the photo - wouldn't you love to get your hands on some of those machines! 

We took the opportunity to get out of the heat for a bit and went to see a show. We bought tickets in the back but when we went in, they put us right in front of the stage! (our knees were basically touching the stage) 

If you get the chance to see this show, do it! It was hysterical! Laughed through the whole thing!

More walking around, (did 16,898 steps that day!) window shopping and had dinner before heading back to the hotel for the night.


Sunday, August 25, 2019

Viva Las Vegas part 1

My sister and I took a girls trip to Vegas! We have never taken a trip together 'just for fun' and we had a blast! 
I didn't take a ton of pictures but there are still too many to share in one post so I'll split them up over the next few posts. (if you are looking for stitching, you might want to skip the next few posts - I did take something but I didn't put in a single stitch)

We had a 6:00am flight out of Houston.  We drove to Houston Sunday night but neither of us slept well and we got up at 3:45 to head to the airport. We thought we might be a little early (better early than late) but the airport was already busy. We made our way to our gate and after a stop in Phoenix to change planes we were on our way to Vegas.

We arrived too early to check in to our hotel so we rented a car (Jeep) and drove out to Hoover Dam. We took a tour of the power plant. I'm always amazed when I see huge building projects that were built before 'modern technology'.


This place is huge. 

A definite must-see but might I suggest you not do it in August!



Just a note before you see this next photo. It's August, we are in the desert, if we had put on makeup when we got up at 3:45am it would have melted off by now. We both had already taken our hats off before we decided to jump out and take a selfie with the Jeep.

I warned you ahead of time!

We weren't going to need the Jeep again so we returned it and headed to our hotel.

The view from our room.


By the time we got checked in it was mid-afternoon and only having had a snack at the airport for breakfast we were tired and hungry so we headed downstairs and found a place to sit in the a/c and catch our breath before heading back out in the heat.

More later!

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Updates

 I try to keep my posts here positive and somewhat stitching/crafting/fun related (and there is some of that farther down if you want to skip this first part) but for the third time in as many months, we have lost a family member. My mother and my niece, Heather, both in April and last weekend, my sister-in-law (Heather's mother - my brother's wife). She had been fighting cancer for quite awhile but the end came sooner than any of us anticipated. She was at home and my brother was with her. Those of you that know me outside of this blog already know this and I debated whether to post about it or not but I have 10+ years of life documented here so here I am.

While I'm at it,  I have shared so many moments with Jason and Ashley, I might as well share this. After a lengthy separation, they have decided to end their marriage. Ashley has moved back to Texas and Jason remains in New York. They remain friends and while it changes the dynamic of our family, Ashley is, and always will be, a part of it.

Now that we have that out of the way, lets move on to some fun stuff!

When we had the fence rebuilt we moved it back a bit and went across the top of the retainer wall which exposed this block that would not budge so I planted some flowers in it. They seem to like it there!

I put the patriotic decor away and this is my rooster for the next month or so - whenever I get around to putting out fall stuff. It's way too hot to think about fall decor yet!

With that said, here is my first fall decor! LOL This was a birthday gift - isn't she cute! The pumpkins can be changed out for other seasons but I couldn't find anything summery so she will be wearing pumpkins for now. Just couldn't bring myself to put it away until fall. 

My sister gave me this tote bag - excuse the wrinkles.

That round tray was in the tote bag. I tried to get a picture where you could read it but without dragging out a ladder this was the best I could do. (There's no place like home)

I also was gifted this scissor fob - haven't decided what pair of scissors to use it on yet.

Put out my August monthly pieces 

And yes, I did center this one after I took the photo - I didn't realize it was too far to the right until after.

That's it for now. I do hope my next post is all about fun.