Welcome Home Weekend!

We had the most AMAZING weekend!  Drew's best friends from his home town, came for a visit to celebrate his homecoming.  Dave and Jaime and Cody and Nikki, have been close friends of Drew's, as long as I've known him.  And I must say, they are the funnest people in the world.

They drove down Friday morning and arrived in the early afternoon.  At 5pm we headed to the movies and saw "Crazy Stupid Love".  Next it was off to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris.  We love this restaurant and were lucky enough to sit out on the patio to watch the fountain at the Bellagio across the street and do one of my favorite things ever...people watch.  The dinner was FANTASTIC!  Then we just hung out on the strip, checking out the different casinos.

I took all the photos on my iPhone at night, so the quality isn't the best.  Oh well.  Here's the group outside of the Sugar Factory.

The guys played some games and the girls went dancing at Studio 54 for a little while, because ladies always get in free ;)  We stayed up late talking and laughing and didn't get to bed until around 2am , so the next morning was a little crazy, but we managed.  Drew, Cody, and I got up and ran 4 miles (because apparently we are now doing a Ragnar...hmmmm)  Then the guys went golfing and the ladies went shopping for a couple of hours.  We came back to the house and had a BBQ for lunch, then we went to our community pool to go swimming for an hour.  The babysitters came back at 5pm and we headed downtown once again.  This time we went to the Venetian and had dinner at the Grand Lux (one of my favorites).  Dinner was amazing, of course.  Then we walked all over the strip, checking out different casinos.  One of our stops was in Treasure Island at Gillies, a country swing bar.  We didn't do any country dancing, we did have some fun with their mechanical bull though.  Cody was our willing participant and we had a great time watching him.

Drew and I in Treasure Island

We ended the night at Tabu, dancing and having a blast.  I'm so glad that Drew is home again.  We have so much fun together and life just isn't the same when he's away.  

Here are a couple of photos of us old married people, dancing our hearts out at Tabu.  Thanks to our wonderful friends for the best weekend EVER!

Drew's Return!

Drew finished his 3rd deployment and arrived home from Afghanistan at 1:47AM.  Yes... in the middle of the night he called me to tell me that he was in the garage.  I can't believe I didn't hear the garage door open, but I DIDN'T.  Anyway, he didn't have his keys and the door between the garage and the house was locked, so he had no choice but to call me to unlock it.

The kids (and I) thought he was going to arrive today around noon, so they had no idea.  They woke up that morning and went downstairs for breakfast.  That's when we surprised them.  A little groggy, but still thrilled to see their Dad.

We took the kids swimming in the morning, then to Chilis for lunch.  We are so glad to have Drew home again.

Ella on the Slide

Mia taught Ella how to go down the slide at the McDonald's PlayPlace this afternoon.  She can climb the stairs herself, and goes head-first down the slide.  Here's the video.


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Mia's 9th Birthday

Today is Mia's 9th Birthday!  It's been a really crazy and busy summer, so planning a big birthday bash was not something I was looking forward to.  That being said, my wonderful and sweet daughter Mia was kind enough to agree on a smaller celebration, to help Mom out a bit.  It was an impromptu lunch date.  And it ended up being a huge success.

She wanted to invite lots of friends, but I told her that two would have to be the limit.  So she invited her two best friends to join her.  Yesterday we picked up Aspen and Katelyn (and dropped off the little kids in the process) at 11:00am.  We headed to BJ's Restaurant for lunch.  All three girls ordered Fettuccini  Alfredo with a salad and it was wonderful!

The server brought out a Pizookie with a candle in it.  Basically it's a warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top.  So yummy.  We sang happy birthday to her, then all three of the girls shared it.

Mia opened her presents at the restaurant.  She got some wonderful gifts and was really exited!

 Then we headed to the nail salon for pedicures.   This was a first time experience for all three of them and they LOVED it!

 I couldn't stop laughing because the massage chairs were making the girls look like they were having seizures.  It was so funny!

 The end result!  So beautiful!

I took the girls to Target and they picked out a nail polish to take home.  Then we went to the frozen yogurt shop and had dessert.  It was such a fun day.  Happy Birthday my beautiful baby girl!