VIVA LAS VEGAS

It has been a week since we returned from Vegas, and I'm so excited to finally post the pics!  Everyone had such a great time, and it was so nice to have the family all together.  The boys ended up enjoying it more than I had even expected! 

Joshua, the boys and I drove in on Saturday the 3rd with Tasha, Frank and Isaac.  We rented a van and were all able to ride together.  The drive went well except for a little fit by Evie right before lunch.  But that's expected with a 6 hour drive, and really not bad considering we had three kids in one car for such a long period of time.  Gene and Donna were already at the MGM Grand when we arrived, and the boys were so happy to see them.  Donna took a flight in from San Diego because she was staying with Tasha that week to watch Isaac, and Gene flew in from New Orleans. 

That first night, we took a tour of the hotel and casino, and brought the boys to see the lions.  They really loved the Rainforest Cafe where they got to see robotic animals and pretend thunder and lightning. 

The second day, we walked the strip and checked out several of the casinos. 

That night was me and Joshie's date night! The gang took the boys swimming and out to dinner while Joshua and I roamed the streets. We had dinner at New York New York which was our favorite casino, and then we spent a couple hours playing there. Joshua played Black Jack and I played video poker. I'm sooooooo not into throwing money away into gambling, but we were in Vegas! We had to play a little. And really, I'm so proud of us... that night with two people playing for two hours, we only spent $40. Woo hoo! After, we got some daiquiris and did some more walking.  It was a pretty fantastic night with my hubby.

The following morning included breakfast at the buffet with no children, and more swimming.  Then we all went to The Venetian together.  It was just as beautiful as I remembered it.  It is definitely a place that everyone should see if they're ever in Vegas. 

That night was Frank and Tasha's date night.  Gene and Donna took Isaac and we met them at New York New York for dinner.  Then after parting with them, Joshua and I took the boys to the M&M Store and the Coca Cola Store.  Yes, we filled their tummies with candy and coke floats.... and poor Donna had to pay the price later that night.  I'll get to that soon!  But the boys loved it!  Beckham kept yelling, "Viva Las Vegas!" all night long.  He was putting smiles on everyone's faces... as always!

Vegas was full of some of Beckham's favorite characters.  He got to take pictures with them, and he was in heaven.  We ran into a ton of Buzz and Woodys which happen to be his absolute favorites, and his face lit up every time he saw one.  Here are some shots we took on our night out with the boys along with some Gene took on me and Joshua's date night.

Below are pics of Joshua with some of his favorite characters in Disney back in 1985.  Check out the shot of him hugging Mickey Mouse just like Beckham's pic above!

The trip was so much fun but it had to end.  We all flew out on Tuesday, September 6th.  Gene and Donna flew to New Orleans with Beckham Boo, and the rest of us caught a flight back to San Diego.  Beckham stayed with Gene and Donna in their hotel room Monday night because they had to wake up at 3am to catch their flight on time.  Beckham was wired!!  I think it was a combination of a late nap, M&Ms and a coke float, but the boy was jumping off the walls when he went to their room that night.  Donna said that he could not keep still.  He would try to lie down to watch a movie, and then he would jump up and run around, and then flip the light switch on and off.  She asked him if he was going to go to sleep, and he said "I already went to sleep last night!". 

Sept 6th was both of the boys' first plane rides.  I'm bummed that I didn't get to be with Beckham for his first flight but I know he was equally happy to experience it with his Nonna and Papa' as he would have been to experience it with us.  I heard that he slept through most of his flights. 

Our flight back home was really short, thankfully!  Everett was a handful.  He didn't want to sit still so he kept climbing all over me and Joshua.  There was a little girl his age sitting in front of us so the two kids did a lot of baby talk over the seats.  Everett was really trying to tell her something.  He kept pointing out the window while saying the same gibberish over and over.  It was so darn cute. 

It's been a week since I've seen my baby, and I'm seriously missing him like crazy.  It has been wonderful being able to spend time alone with Everett, but those first few days were hard to make it through without Beckham.  He returns home on Friday and he's bringing Gene and Donna back with him.  I'm really looking forward to squeezing and kissing my baby boy, and it will be another great weekend of the whole family together again. 

I'll be updating next week with pics of Beckham's trip to NOLA, Evie's time alone with Mommy and Daddy and Gene and Donna's trip to CA!