Viva Las Vegas

Robert and I decided to get take a winter escape to Las Vegas this past weekend! Neither of us had ever been to Vegas, so we thought we better go while we still can before we move far away. We left for our trip on Thursday evening after I got off work and drove to Cedar City where we stayed at my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Shari’s house for the night. The next day, Friday, we made the other leg of the trip to Vegas arriving just around noon! We stayed at Caesar’s Palace, and we loved it. We would definitely recommend it! We checked in and found that we could get a great deal if we upgraded, so we did since we got our original room for cheap anyways. We were so glad we did! We loved our room; I loved it mainly because it had a jacuzzi tub! We were in the center of the strip (so great location and close to everything), and we were on one of the highest floors, which gave us a great view of the strip.

Here are some photos from our trip:

Our drive down.

Beautiful Utah

Almost there...

The views from our hotel room.

Showing off our nice hotel room.

The jacuzzi tub, it was well worth it after walking all day!

Outside in front of the Bellagio.

The fountain show.

The first day we were there we decided to just walk the strip and visit all of the neat hotels. Our favorite hotels were the Venetian, Ceasar's Palace, the Palazzo, and of course the Bellagio.

The lion exhibit at the MGM Grand. It was awesome! You were able to get so close to the lions because the glass is sound proof. This is a tunnel that we are standing in, and they are laying on top of us. Never thought I would be able to see a lion like this before. This was one of Robert's favorite things we did.

Just relaxing next to a lion.

Our dinner in the Venetian Hotel in "Venice."

Our hotel room from the Strip.

FAO Schwarz

Another one of Robert's highlights from the trip was getting to see Pete Rose in person.

Trying to win the jackpot :)

While at a classic car show, we ran into Brad Garrett from the TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond.

We got tickets for free in our hotel coupon book to attend this car show, and loved it. It was fun to see all the unique classics. Some of these cars were selling for 1.8 million.

Another highlight of the trip was when I found a nice semi formal dress while shopping in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

Eating at Sensi, a fancy restaurant in the Bellagio before going to the Cirque du Soleil "O" Show.

The beautiful ceiling in the theatre at the "O" show.

The show was unbelievable! The stage was a hard stage at times and a pool at other moments, so we were able to see divers, acrobats, and synchronized swimming. We had a fabulous trip to Vegas. The weather was perfect and sunny. On Sunday, we drove back home, but we stopped again in Cedar City where we went to church and ate dinner with my Uncle Kevin. It is always hard coming back.

Intramural Champions!

Robert and I played in a mixed doubles league at BYU and won the tournament just last night! When you win a sporting event at BYU you get a t-shirt that only champions of intramurals can get. You cannot get these t-shirts any other way, unless you steal one. Thus, it is known around campus as the "coveted" shirt, and we won another one! Here we are showing them off! We both have 3 now. We were so happy to end our last year at BYU with winning another tournament! Our last match was a lot of fun and a battle to win! We won 8-6.

Robert had a great match with a lot of winners at the net! I love playing with Robert. We have so much fun together.

Just so happy to have another championship t-shirt!

For it is in giving that we receive...

So, everyday I have the same UPS guy, Frank, drop packages off at my work. He is a real nice guy, and we usually make small talk about the weather, BYU sports, his family, the Utah Jazz, etc. Well, Frank always comes by our office before 10 am, so I was surprised to see him for a second time one afternoon around 3 pm without a package to deliver. Interesting I thought...Well Frank came by to ask me if I already had scheduled plans for that night because he has Utah Jazz season tickets and could not use them for the game that night, and he wanted to know if Robert and I wanted his seats! Of course I said yes! He said he thought of everyone on his route who would want his tickets, and he thought of me! How awesome! Only one problem, Robert had a paper to write that night, which was due before midnight. I hurried and called him and told him to write his paper as fast as he could. Lucky for us, the game against the Mavericks did not start until 8:30 pm. Robert finished his paper just in time, and we made it to the game! Frank gave me all 4 tickets, so we tried to invite some friends but no one could come at the last minute. We decided to continue the circle of giving and handed them to a farther and son who were at the ticket booth about to purchase tickets. It was an awesome night! I couldn't believe he came back to my office just to give me Jazz tickets! It seriously made my day. I am glad that there are people out there that show me how to be a kinder and unselfish person. Robert and I had been trying to go to one last Jazz game before we move, but the tickets had been so expensive that we decided it probably wasn't worth the money to go. Just that week we were looking for tickets. It was such a coincidence that we happened to get free tickets! I guess it "pays off" to stick to a budget. We felt so blessed!

This is my favorite Jazz player Paul Milsap taking a free throw.

We had a blast! Thanks Frank for making our night!

My newest blogging adventure...Jodaisy Design

Recently, I decided I wanted to create a blog where I could explore and demonstrate more of my creative side. This blog site has food recipes, craft ideas, photographs I have taken, and more. I have just barely started it, so there is not a lot on it right now, but I hope to keep adding to it more and more. One thing about me that you may not know is that I love making crafts and cooking. For me, these types of activities are refreshing and stress relieving. I feel like I am in a whole other world when I am working. I love it! Well, I hope you visit the site and enjoy it!

Here is the link:

http://jodaisydesign.blogspot.com/

What have we been up to this month? Here are some of January's highlights in a nutshell...

Well, first off we took about a week to recover from all of the holiday festivities. We put away the Christmas Tree and decorations, and we got the apartment back in order. Robert started his final semester at BYU. He will be graduating in April with Jeff. Lately, we have been going to the BYU men's basketball games. One of the best games we went to was the Wake Forest game at home. It was a close game the whole time, but Wake pulled away with it in the last 2 minutes of the game. We had fun even though we lost because, as you may know, Wake Forest is an unbelievably great basketball team, so they were fun to watch. Robert and I signed up again this semester for BYU intramurals. We are playing mixed doubles in the second highest division. Our first tournament match is this Saturday. In order to get in the mindset of playing tennis again, we have been watching a lot of the Australian Open. I am rooting for my favorite tennis player Nadal to take it all the way. Robert still loves Federer, so we will see who wins that match up. My favorite TV show American Idol started up again. I am starting to work on internship (child life specialist) applications for the summer/fall for the areas where Robert applied to law school. We decided to move up with our "sunbeam" class at church, so now we sit on the second row in primary :) We love teaching the 4 and 5 year old class. Our class is full of fun, silliness, and excitement. They keep us very busy on Sundays, but we love them. Tonight we are giving two of the kids' (in our class) parents a night out, so we are tending 5 kids tonight! Wish us luck! They are all under the age of 8, so it will be an adventure keeping all 4 boys and one girl entertained. Well that about sums it up for the month of January! I can't believe February is already here!

One More Law School Acceptance

Robert found out on Saturday January 24, 2009 that he was accepted into Samford's Law School. Samford is located in Birmingham, Alabama. We did not think that he actually got in because when we opened the mailbox there was only a small envelope. In our experience so far, acceptance letters come in a big envelope with a packet of information; where as, rejection letters come in your normal sized envelope. Thus, to our surprise we opened an acceptance letter in such a small envelope! Now our whole schema is thrown off! Oh well, I guess it makes for a better surprise! Also, Robert did not get into the University of Georgia, so we are not moving to Athens. Atleast that is one option we do not have to consider now. Robert has gotten into 3 out of 4 schools he has heard back from! I am so proud of him!

Christmas in Nashville Highlights

The entire family came to Nashville and stayed at my sister's house. Yep all of us under one roof! It was a lot of fun and we crammed in a lot of activities into one week. As you can see from most of the pictures, we went to the Opryland Hotel, The Rockettes at the Grand 'Ole Opry, Downtown Nashville, played video games (Ben got the Wii for Christmas), shopped till we dropped, painted pottery, went bowling, played monopoly (Robert is addicted), and we ate ate ate!

My Grandpa and I. I don't know if he will ever want to travel again. We had a very eventful plane trip out to Nashville! It was supposed to snow so bad we wouldn't get out, but luckily the weather held off. However, they had to change our plane's tire, which set us back about an hour behind schedule. Well we only had an hour until our next flight, so Robert ran off the plane when we finally landed and held up our connection for us. My Grandpa, my mom, and I sped through the Houston airport on a golf cart trying to catch up to him. Well as the story would have it, we made our connection barely and made it on time to Nashville. It was a Christmas miracle!

The boys

Our matching Christmas socks my mom bought us! Notice how the guys are showing off their legs. Haha

Mamma T and her girls

Aunt JoJo with Tyler and Kayla

My brothers and their wives

The most delicious pancakes you can imagine - we stood in line for over an hour!

The Opryland Hotel

Beautiful

Absolutely stunning! The Hotel is built with all the rooms on the outside with an enclosed arboretum in the entire center.

Robert underneath the waterfall

The whole gang

Rocking out on the street inside the Opryland Hotel

Kayla and I were two peas in a pod this trip.

The girls

Standing in the middle of the Opryland Hotel

Merry Christmas!

We were tired from all the walking we were doing! That hotel is huge!

My mom took all of us girls out for our Christmas present to see the Radio City Rockettes!

Lunch at the Rainforest Cafe

The entire ceiling and restaurant looked like this. It was a very entertaining place to eat. The kids loved it!

Jeff and Laura, who will be moving soon to Dallas, TX.

Still at the Rainforest Cafe. We loved it!

The biggest chair I have ever sat in.

All the girls went out one afternoon and painted pottery. It was one of Kayla's Christmas presents from my mom.

I am showing off my ornament I painted.

Downtown Nashville

Robert walking down Broadway Street

Must be a nice place :)

We had a fun trip to Nashville, seeing everything.

Elvis was everywhere

We obviously were having too much fun! This ones for you mom ;)

Parthenon in Nashville, TN? I found it very strange, but nonetheless it was fun to see!

The columns were massive!

We drove around star sighting - we found Alan Jackson's house from a book my sister bought in one of the country & honky tonk stores for $10.00. It was a lot of fun!

I caught a cold while I was there and ended the trip feeling a bit sick. As a result, Robert is now sick. I am waiting for the rest of my family to tell me they are all sick now too. Thankfully, Keaton was trying to make me feel better here.