My baby is SO good to me.

As mentioned in my previous post, I have had this sudden urge to get away and do as many fun things as we can together before our baby comes in April. Since I had a four day weekend coming up it seemed the perfect opportunity, so I spent all week last week brainstorming. Some of our really good friends, the Erkelens, from California, happened to be in St. George last week visiting Lindsey's parents, so we definitely wanted to see them. In the meantime, we learned that some good friends of ours here in Utah had discounted tickets for Phantom of the Opera and were heading to Vegas this weekend. Turns out Kyle was able to find a good deal himself, because he bought us tickets for the show and booked what I assumed was one of best deals he could find on a room in Vegas Friday night, and we headed for St. George Friday morning so we could spend the afternoon with our buddies.

I love St. George. Lindsey's parents have a beautiful home that is surrounded by red rock. We had fun catching up and learning about what we have missed out on in Yucaipa. Aside from her new ability to read (she's only 3 years old!) Macy seemed the same, but we couldn't believe how big Carsyn was! Kyle still keeps bringing it up. It has been a few months since we've seen them and sadly she didn't seem to remember us. Breaks my heart a little. Oh how I have missed this family!

The part of the drive just before St. George was always my favorite part when we made the trip from CA to UT, and it was fun to see again. We have to pass through AZ for about 20 minutes, and it is beautiful! As always, the pictures don't do it justice.

As we were driving along the strip in Vegas, I started guessing which hotel was ours. Before he had booked it, Kyle had me help by picking from 5 different letters. I picked "V" (for Vibber of course) but a few minutes later he told me he decided to go with "B" instead. Whatev. So all I knew was that there was a B somewhere in the title, and the only hotel I could think of was the Bellagio. I joked earlier that day that that one must be it. As we continued to drive along the strip and passed no hotels with a "B", I started teasing, "Is it the Bellagio?" "Must be the Bellagio." "Wait I know....the Bellagio!" As I said this, I was snapping pictures of it because the fountains were going off. (The Bellagio is known for it's fountains-they go off every 30 minutes during the day and even 15 minutes at night.) A few seconds later, I was completely shocked as Kyle made a right hand turn and I was suddenly staring at the backside of the fountains. I had told him a few days earlier that this weekend may be our last little hurrah for a while, so he I guess he decided to go all out. Awwwwww. It actually brought tears to my eyes. My mom put it well when she replied to my excited text and said, "You are spoiled rotten!" She meant it lovingly (I think) but it really is true. I don't deserve all the sweet things he does for me.

Nor do I really fit in situations such as these. We were a teeny bit embarrassed handing our little Honda off to the Valet workers who were among Escalades and limos. And 5 minutes after we arrived in our room, housekeeping knocked on the door to ask what time she should come and "turn the bed down". I think my response was, "Huh?" She repeated herself and I still didn't really know what that meant, and the rest of the conversation went something like this:

Her: "I will come back later to turn the bed down, and make sure you have clean towels, and the bathroom is clean"..... etc.

Me: "Oh, we just got here 10 minutes ago so everything is great, but thank you!" (And I thought, I'm pretty sure we can handle pulling the covers back on our bed....)

Her: "Well normally we come and at least turn the bed down and leave chocolates...."

Me: Chocolates? "Oh, we'll be leaving the room in just a few minutes so you can come back whenever you would like!

We left for the show ten minutes later and I was not about to make the long walk in heels, so I threw them in my purse. As we walked off the elevator I told Kyle I hoped that nobody would notice the flip flops underneath my dress pants. About 3 minutes later he whispered to me, "So far I've noticed 4 ladies staring at your feet."

View from our room

Phantom was amazing. The kind of show that gives you goosebumps all during it. I was especially impressed with the set and all of the special effects. It was my first Broadway experience and I'm so glad that we did it. Disneyland has an Aladdin show that's amazing and I didn't know how anything could get much better than that but it sure was. :) I wish I could have taken pictures. It made me want to go to all kinds of shows now. You know how after you go to a concert you have an even greater love for that artist and suddenly their songs seem even better? That's how I feel about this-I'm listening to the soundtrack of the movie as I write this. And we've both been humming it for days.

We arrived back at our hotel just in time to see the fountains again

Everything about the hotel fascinated me. Even the lobby. They have a large room (I guess you would call it a greenhouse) full of gorgeous flowers and trees that they change according to the season. You can't really tell, but the big apple was a work in progress. There was a man poking red roses into the back of it.

The Bellagio also has the world's largest chocolate fountain, which I had to capture for my mom. There was a certificate on the wall that said Guinness World Record proving it.

Saturday morning we went to the Las Vegas temple, a first time for both of us.

A great weekend wouldn't be great without some yummy food, right? Friday night on our way to the show we stopped at Chipotle, which is my #1 for restaurants these days. I can't get enough of it. If there was one in Provo it would be a dangerous thing. Coming home on Saturday, we reached St. George just in time to catch the end of the BYU game so we ate at Wingers (another favorite) where we knew it would be playing on several TVs. We then arrived home in time to watch the last quarter of the MSU game which was a smashing success. Great day.

I was hoping for a fun weekend and this FAR exceeded my expectations. Definitely a trip I will never forget! Have I mentioned how sweet my husband is???