Vegas - Day 2

Welcome back for day two of Vegas!

The second day we walked around the other end of the strip that we missed the day before. That’s when we saw the lions at MGM Grand, New York New York, The Cosmopolitan and Planet Hollywood Hotel.

My shirt for the morning!

We had a forgettable lunch at the buffet in the Planet Hollywood Hotel/Casino, but it was good enough. We raced back to our hotel next door after lunch to get ready for our vow renewal.

Our clothes 

Our vows were renewed by none other than Las Vegas legend Elvis Presley. I knew that Elvis had to hold our service because he has special importance in our relationship. Our first trip ever was to Memphis to see Gracelandwhen Matt and I started dating. There was a group of us that went on that trip and we stayed at the Heartbreak hotel campground one night, kind of fun huh? Our wedding song was also an Elvis hit, Can't help falling in love. So we have a small love for him and knew that he had to renew our vows. We went through "A Elvis Chapel", and were really happy with the company. Our Elvis was really sweet and fun. He was also genuine and didn’t try to rush us through. Our package included a photographer, photos on a cd, and a limo ride to and from our hotel, which ended up being a blessing. I only wish it was in a pink cadillac instead, but hey I'm just glad we didn't have to take an expensive taxi. We also paid to have the renewals live on the web and got a dvd of the service as well. So all of you lucky readers will get a chance to relive our 5 year anniversary vow renewals as if you were there with us. Some of you will even feel like you are flashing back to our original wedding day, either way, we are glad you can be here with us ; )

Us singing "viva las vegas"

Us in the limo on our way back to the hotel.

That night we walked around Cesar's Palace and the Forum Shops. I got to see a three story H&M (drool), and a Christian Louboutin shoe store (more drool).

But there wasn't much time or money in the budget to shop, so we forged on and decided to eat at P.J. Clarke's. It was a great ‘lil place to sit and people watch as we ate. Our next stop was the Bellagio to see "O". I bought tickets for the show 1-2 months before our trip and the tickets were practically sold out. I did find a discount ticket section on their website and was able to find tickets on row F, stage left on the aisle. It was either there or ALL the way on the back row at the top of the auditorium. I figured we might enjoy the show a little more if we could actually see and it would be neat to view everything so up close. We weren't disappointed. We did miss a few unimportant things that happened on the side, but for most part, we had great seats. The fact that everything was done in water, over water, and under water, was amazing. The costumes were unbelievable and had to withstand being wet and dry and still move like they needed them to. On your way in and out of the show you had to walk past an art gallery of sculptures done by an artist Richard MacDonald. He worked with the Cirque du Soleil performers to make these beautiful pieces of art. The reason I tell you this is because it will come up later in another post, so note to self, remember the Cirque du Soleil sculptures.

Tomorrow there will be the last installment of the Vegas pictures. It will cover our last 1.5 days there and tons of pictues to show.

Viva Las Vegas...We got hitched!

I am finally posting on our Vegas trip! It has taken me a while to write it, then get Matt go over it and make sure I didnt forget anything. So after much anticipation, here's the trip! Enjoy!

For our 5 year anniversary this past year, we decided to take a big trip to renew our vows. Ever since day one of our marriage, I couldn't wait to get married to Matt again. I wanted to get married everywhere, on the beach, in the Mountains, anywhere really on God's beautiful green earth, even in Las Vegas. Earlier in the summer our company held an auction to raise money for one of our coworkers whose daughter was going through cancer treatments.(Check out more about Faye’s fight here. She is a wonderful and brave little girl). One of the auction items was a trip to Las Vegas, which included airfare and hotel. Matt and I had been making plans to go to Vegas the previous year, but plans had fallen through, so this time we jumped at the chance and beat out others to win this trip and all for a good cause. After we won the trip, I couldn't decide when we should go. There was a Photoshop conference in Sept that I had free tickets to attend, but I just couldn't make up my mind and ended up not going. Then a few people from work were going to a trade show and I thought about meeting them there so we could all go out after the trade shows had ended and hang out. After I talked to Matt about it, he decided he wanted a trip that just the two of us could go on since we hadn't done that in a while. So after that decision, I thought it would be a great idea to just go for our anniversary. This would mark our 5 year anniversary. Big milestone right? We're practically not Newlyweds anymore.

 Us at the Dallas airport waiting on or flight out to Vegas.

I talked to everyone I knew that had gone to Vegas to get ideas on what all to do and not to do. Scarlett let me know about free stuff to do that included the Lions at MGM Grand. Co-workers let me know about last minute ticket places and buffets. My mom told me about the zipline on Freemont St. and how she wished she could have done it. And others gave me their opinions on where to stay.

The view from our room.

In the end we stayed at the Paris Hotel. We had a little problem with our check in, but upgraded to a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower, and all was made better. The upgrade was totally worth it because our view was amazing. We had a view of the strip, the Eiffel tower and the Bellagio as well as most of the famous fountains.

Looking a lil rough but excited to be in a room! Especially this room.

Our outdated but spectaucular room. Our other window to the right of the room (not in the picture) was facing Bally's and the strip.

We got to see a lot of the fountain shows but didn't get to hear the music that went along with it for most of them. Along with our upgrade we received free breakfast in the morning and free cocktails and hor d’ourves in the evening. This really rocked our socks off since we wouldn't have to worry about getting breakfast every morning. We had planned on getting our free drinks and snacks in the evening and then head out to sight see then grab a dinner at a great place. However the snacks would always fill us up, so I think we only ate dinner out once which happened to be the night of our anniversary.

From Paris with Love!

View from the club where we had free breakfast and hor d’ourves.

The first day/afternoon there we just walked around the strip going in and out of the casino/hotels to check them all out and see what all there was to do at each of them. We saw the awful show at TI, where the best part is the whole ship sinking thing. We rode the gondola at the Venetian where we were serenaded by our boat captain. It was a pretty slow night, so we got the whole boat to ourselves for the cheap rate, which was pretty awesome.

The Venetian where we had our gondola ride.

At the TI sirens show

 The Volcano at the Mirage

The strip

 Eiffel tower at Paris, I am a lil obsessed with the Eiffel for some of you that don't know me.

The balloon at Paris

 I have three more days to write about, but it will be condinsed down to two posts. I hope you come back to see what we did. You won't want to miss Monday's post, it's when Matt and I renewed our vows! It will be so worth it because we even have a video.

Building "A" frame

How did everyone's Valentines day go? Ours wasn't quite as planned. Bowling didn't work out which really upset me because I was really looking forward to it. So luckily there was a plan B in which we got a free rental from the Redbox, picked up some Micky D's, then headed home to hang out with the pup. Mac was pretty excited our date night didn't work out.  Oh and last night when we got home from work I was sitting in our living room folding clothes when I realized that my bottom felt wet. I thought that maybe Mac had an accident. I wish Mac had an accident because come to find out something is leaking in our walls again and the laundry room was soaked and half of our living room carpet is soaked. We had to move our TV and cabinet along with all our stuff that was along two of our walls. So our house is in a disarray at the moment. We were supposed to have my Best Friend Lori and her family come this weekend to visit, but now I'm not to sure if that will happen. Hopefully this leak can be fixed ASAP, but considering how long it took last time we had a leak, it might take weeks. I'll keep everyone posted. Now on to the real post! 

When we brought Mac to the vet when he was little puppy for all his checkups, they let us know that most small dogs are prone to a symptom called Luxating Patella. It is where their knees can slip and get stuck out of place. It usually goes back in place after a short while and when we lived in the top floor apartment, running up and down stairs was good for him. Now that we have moved, we no longer have stairs for him to climb. Back in the fall, Mac played a little too hard with his fur-uncle Zeke and when he got home he had a hard time using his back right leg. Like I said earlier it usually falls back in place after a little activity or us massaging it, but it had been a few days and he still looked pitiful. We brought him into the doctor and they gave him an anti inflammatory and that seemed to do the trick along with some rest. After that though, we felt we needed to give him some kind of exercise course that he could use to build up his muscles again and keep that knee moving. We had just finished our table and chair renovation and Matt and I  we were in the "lets get things done" mode, so we decided to build an A frame. After we got the obstacle course for Matt's birthday we thought it would we could make a big competition course for him to play on. It will help him exercise and be fun at the same time. 

Matt found plans online at this site. They had really good instructions and photos that were easy to follow. 

Matt building the frames

The painting process.

The rungs for traction before we sanded and painted them. 

Trial run: 

It ended up being a little slippery for Mac and he would get nervous about going up and down. 

After this we decided to add some sand to the paint so that he wouldn't slip anymore. It added a nice grip to it.  We also added blue to the top. It was more official looking to be two toned and it helped us to know how far he needed to run down it before he could jump off. 

Here are the pictures of it completed and Mac's official run on them. 

(See his pool, he LOVED it this summer. When we would let him out to go to the bathroom, we would often find him just chilling in his pool because he was so hot.) 

We hold his treat in front of him and he just follows it up and down. 

He got a little side tracked here and heard our neighbors dogs. Now he can keep an eye on them. 

Me testing it out with him.

The frame in all its glory. 

 A close up of the hinge.

 We put a piece of foam across the middle so that Mac's paws don't get stuck in the hinge. We just used plumbing foam since pool noodles were out of season.

Here is  picture of how the chain connects underneath so that the frame doesn't slip out when Mac (or an eager human) runs across the top. 

King of the backyard!!!

Linking with the DIY showoff party: