Oh, my, goodness. Las Vegas is such a fun place! Thanks to Andrew's job at Haselden Construction, we got to have a blast of a long weekend in Sin City (for we sinners, you know. :) ). We did so much; I don't know where to begin!
Andrew's mom flew from Birmingham last Tuesday to spend some time with us and to watch Taylor and Russell while we went away.
We were overwhelmed with her generosity in coming, as it was a sacrifice for her in many ways--most notably, having to cope with extreme pain in her neck and shoulder (it hasn't gone away since she was in a car accident months ago). And as you can see, life is always an adventure at our house, too! Somehow through it all, this amazing veteran mother of eight managed to keep a smile on her face amidst pain and fatigue and win the hearts of our kids over-and-over again while we were gone. I think they had just as much of a vacation as we did.
On Thursday afternoon, Andrew and I caught a plane to Las Vegas, along with ten other Haselden employees and their vacation buddies of choice (mostly spouses).
Upon arrival, our dashing chauffeur from Bell Transportation was at the LAS baggage claim waiting to take us to our hotel on the Vegas strip. :)
That evening, we met-up with my old room mate and dear friend from my freshman year at BYU-I--Maria Grover, and her hillarious husband Tim at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a perfect beginning to our vacation. After having had a really emotionally tough month in January, these two helped lift my spirits in ways that I desperately needed. I laughed longer and harder than I had since spending time with family for the holidays! Good friends and good laughter truly are some of the best medicine.
On Friday evening, we met with the Haselden clan for dinner at Margaritaville in the Flamingo Hotel. I enjoyed getting to know Andrew's co-workers and their spouses--such nice, down-to-earth people. (And the endless Pina Coladas were pretty good too!)
These two couples in particular were especially inspiring to me. They are such great people--who are now fun friends.
After dinner with our Haselden friends, Andrew and I went exploring together and became mesmerized by the breathtaking fountain shows outside the Bellagio Hotel. We stood outside in the chilly weather and watched show-after-show-after-show (displayed every 15 minutes). It was so soothing and so great to be with just my sweet heart and-- for the moment, without a care in the world.
When we brought ourselves back to reality, we hunted down my uncle John, who lives just outside Las Vegas with his family and who also manages one of the live theaters at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. He showed us behind the scenes of some of the big productions currently showing there and brought us up-to-speed on what's happening with his family. I don't get to see John, Naomi and their family nearly enough. It was really nice to see him.
On Saturday night we went to a Cirque Du Soleil show at the Mirage that I've been itchin' to see for years now: "Beatles: LOVE!" It was as cool as I had been told it was, and better. Ever since, I've been constantly singing Beatles music in the shower, listening to our newly downloaded Beatles LOVE album, even dreaming about The Beatles. I'm sure I must be the newest big Beatles fan. I think I get why they were the cat's pajamas back in the day! (BTW, if you haven't personally seen this show, put it on your bucket list. It's really a must see.)
I've left our most thrilling activities of that weekend for last:
On Saturday morning, the whole Haselden group went to the Las Vegas racetrack and got to drive exotic cars! This has been a dream of Andrew's for a while so he especially was practically drooling on the scene. Andrew drove a brand spankin' new Farrari 458 Italia and I drove a new Lamborghini Gallago. It was super thrilling!
Finally, on Friday morning...we went SKY DIVING!! Just me and Andrew. It was absolutely the most intense adrenaline rush I have ever had. Hands down.
We were shuttled to Boulder City, a 20 minute drive outside of Las Vegas, where we then strapped ourselves to professional sky divers, took a little airplane 15,000 feet into the air, and jumped. Yes, I felt like I was falling! Incredibly quickly too--I'm told we were falling at about 120 mph for the 1 minute before our parachutes were released (did I mention that this was intense?!). After we landed back on solid ground, it took both Andrew and I over an hour just to calm down from the experience. Whew!
That said, it was so much fun. Can I say that again? SO MUCH FUN!! And so beautiful up there. From 15,000 feet, we could see the LV strip, Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam, the California border, and a whole lotta desert. Pretty cool. I've gotta do it again sometime--after our bank account recovers. :)
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Thank you, pro divers Kelly and Len!
Again, for those of you with adventurous spirits, this is a definite must for the bucket list.
After an incredible get away, I'm now suffering from post-vacation disorder! I can't wait 'til we can do a trip like this again.
9 comments:
WOW, you were incredibly lucky to do all of those things!! What a FUN time!! Great photos, Tiff!
That was seriously so cool!! I loved that last video! Wow! How fun!! You guys are awesome!
Wow!! How fun! And great pictures, too! :)
Tifanny! What an awesome trip :) Will served his mission in Vegas so we've been several times but not since we were poor BYU students. We really needs to go back with out the kids and with a few dollars in our pocket. I'm impressed by the sky diving but I jealous of the Beatles show.
I still have a heart attack every time I see you flying through the sky. Help.
Tiffany are you freakin kidding me????!!!! haha Holy cow, you WiLD woman!! I love it! I had no idea that you would do something like that. Sky diving, thats intense. Looks like you had a fabulous time. I cant wait to go there!! Jesse and I are planning on going there for our anniversary.
Ya'll are CRAZY! Really! I was with ya'll until the sky-diving! No WAY! Crazy, I tell ya! Crazy!
Love the video! You've got more guts than me. =) It was awesome to see you guys again, and I'm glad ya'll had such a fun trip!
I'm not sure if I could make myself jump out of a plane, but I can watch ya'll do it again and again! Such an awesome trip!
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