Anniversary Weekend

On Dec. 20th, Mr. J and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Due to the proximity to Christmas and Miss O's birthday, we have only been able to "get away" on one other anniversary. This year, thanks to my wonderful sis and bro, we had another opportunity to. We didn't want to drive too far, but we did want to get out of Vegas, so we chose a smaller city in southern Utah called St. George. It's north of the base about an hour and a half and there is no bad traffic to drive though (if we would of picked some place south of us, it would have taken a good hour to get all the way through Vegas traffic)! We left around 11 am on Friday

We drove Deanna's car so they could have the van and they had it stocked with snacks and our favorite beverages... chocolate milk and starbucks.

We had lunch at Olive Garden and then did a little Christmas shopping for the kids at the outlets and Target before checking in to our hotel room. We stayed at the Hampton Inn and it was super nice. For some reason, our reservations got bumped up to the King Honeymoon Suite!! They also discounted out original room rate (maybe because we are military?) so we ended up spending 50 dollars less and getting a really nice room. The customer service was great and we would definitely stay there again.

View of our room from the kitchen area.

Our huge bed, and behind the glass to the left was a huge whirlpool tub!

We drove around a bit to see the beautiful snowy mountains. We also enjoyed a delicious dinner at Red Lobster in St. George. We found the people of St. George that we encountered thought it was kind of funny that we would leave Vegas to come there to get away and do some shopping, because they usually go to Vegas to do that.

The red rock mountains with snow on them were very beautiful.

On Saturday, the 20th, we had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (their pancakes are delicious!) and then went to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum where we got to see "over 300 species over a quarter mile indoor mountain." It was actually really interesting and educational.

When we got home that afternoon, I received a special delivery... roses

Here is an ornament on our tree we got on our first Christmas that we were dating in 1999.

We had a great weekend and I am so happy to be married to such a wonderful man. I pray God gives us 10 times this many years together!

Mom gets married in Vegas

Last week my mom and Mike came to Vegas to get married. They stayed at the Excalibur (the cool castle hotel where Miss M thinks princesses live). My little brother and his wife Emily made a surprise trip in from ENGLAND for the wedding. We all got to go swimming in the pool which the kids loved. Also, Mom, Emily and Deanna and went to a yummy Tapas (spanish appetizers) bar called Firefly for an early dinner and then to Ka - a cirque de soleil show at the MGM the night before the wedding. The wedding was also at the Excalibur, but Mom and Mike chose not to wear the knight and princess costumes. We had great wedding cake - cupcakes from The Cupcakery and they were delicious! Thanks Deanna for posting these pics on facebook. I will probably post more on here after Emily posts hers because our camera is broke... the flash doesnt work so everything is blurry. We need to by a new one.. if anyone has any suggestions on what kind to get, please let me know!

This picture is from Ka, this was before they made us put the cameras away
Deanna and Tom looking all snazzy for the wedding
My handsome bros
The laughing wedding picture

Mom, Mike and Andy, Mikes bro
Deliciousness
After the wedding, all us kids went to the Bass Pro shop. The girls love to see the big giraffes and lions. Well this was the visit where Miss M learned that all the animals were all alive at one time, roaming the earth and they had been hunted and stuffed.. and put on display at Bass Pro.... Well she thought a lot about this, and then we found her hugging this mannequin kid and talking to him... turns out she thought the mannequins were all once alive and had been stuffed to model clothing. I explained to her that they had always been pretend, and she was very happy about that.

Jim and Em
The little copycat