Sweetheart Soiree!! Oh My...

On Sunday, February 10th Mike had a meeting at the church at 8pm or so. It seemed like a really long meeting but I know John Hammond was going to be at the meeting so the two of them could hang out for hours if Julie and I let them!

At about 10:00 pm the doorbell ran frantically! (Have a mentioned that I don't even appreciate that during the daylight hours!? The dog freaks out and I just assume it's a kid playing a joke on the grumpy lady in the neighborhood.) Whatever...

Anyway, the doorbell rings, Brett and Nate answer it and there's this bouquet of balloons on the porch. hhmmmmmm... Nate's already been invited to the Sweethearts dance at school so what could it be? I shrugged it off figuring that Erica had more plans for their date. so I did what I always do and took his picture. He popped the first balloon and there was a note that gave a date, time, what to wear and that a car would pick him up.

Or would it be picking MMMMEEEEEEEE up!?

The moment I read the note I had a feeling these balloons were not for Nate. Why again was my husband so late coming home from a church meeting?????

Nate was actually a little put out that the balloons weren't for him so he and Brett went downstairs, So Morgan took my picture. Yeah for me!

"Come with me to the Sweetheart Soiree" is what the puzzle; which was extremely hard to figure out, said. HOW CUTE IS THAT! Mike walked through the door with the biggest grin on his face. The men had some plans... that was for sure.
Brett picked the wives up in a lovely black Lexus he brought home, walked us to the car while making "chauffeur" small talk and drove us to Julie's parents home...

where we saw this sign.

As we walked in, there were our husbands in the entry to greet us with a smile and a kiss, took our coats and led us to the family room for hors d'oeuvres. Then, couple by couple we got our pictures taken by Jason...High School Prom style!!! More of which you can look at in the slide show to the right. These are just the group pictures.

We are so hot lookin'!

After pictures we sat down to eat the delicious dinner they took two hours to prepare. We had a salad for starers, then Chicken cordon bleu, rice and vegetables.

We took a few more silly pictures then went off to our home for dessert and games. I was so glad that Chris started feeling better because with or without him I was going to eat the dessert he had brought by the house earlier in the day, because that's just the kind of friend I am. :)

We played pictionary with clay instead of drawing and then we played the Newly Wed Game. Mike and I didn't win; I was afraid to win because both my parents and my brother Matt and his 1st wife won the actual Newly Wed Game TV show years ago and now they're divorced...I don't need any help getting divorced...I've proven time and again that I can do it all by my self thank you.

So, Thank you to my honey Mike, Jason, Jim, John, and Chris. It was so much fun! And with no acception I think I speak for your wives too, It was a night we'll never forget!

And if someone does forget I can always show them the Scrapbook.

I promise,

This is IT for the b day stuff! I just wanted to make sure everyone got their props. We went to the Taylors for the Super bowl; which was obviously played on my 40th Birthday on purpose, since everyone in the US wanted to find a way to celebrate the monumental occasion! So thank you to my good friends and to whoever played in the Super bowl,  for making it a great day to start the next decade! Muuuuaaaaa!  

Now I'm ready to move on.

February 3rd.

Sunday after church we all got comfy and ready to open gifts. Morgan had a surprise for me in the Living-room so I had to keep my eyes closed. That's her making sure they're closed.

Here's the surprise...a white Christmas Tree made out of Paper towel. It even has an angel on top! She knows I'm not a fan of flocked trees so she thought it would be funny. 

It was, she's so creative.

Brett gave me the veggie and vinagar bottles, Nate gave me the Bamboo Cuttling board, and Morgan gave me the black lantern by the cat. In that box I'm unwrapping there is a cookbook and a book on Menopause! I'm still trying to decide if that was a joke or not...i'm 40...not 50. But thank you all the same Ann, it was sweet of you to remember my Bday before you left town. oh, and my Mother had beautiful flowers sent to the house! 

Hoover Dam

This is some of what we saw on the tour inside the Hoover Dam. 

There's a tiny man off to the left of these giant terbines and if you can find him that gives you a pretty good idea how big these things are!
This tube is so big it can hold two Grey Hound buses side by side! I think the color green I picked up is pretty cool too.This is the view from one of the vents in the Dam (Look at the bottom picture of the dam and you'll see a white dot about 1 inch from the bottom of the picture; that's the vent I took this picture from)

One of the hallways we walked through. again, more cool color!

This stator goes inside of one of those turbines in the top picture.

There are two of these bronze sculptures done by Oskar J.W. Hansen that you can see on the Nevada side of the dam symbolizing in Mr Hansens opinion "a collective genius exerting itself in community efforts around a common need or ideal." He compared the dam to such works as the Pyramids of Egypt, and said that while viewing these man made structures, the viewer often asks of their builders, "What manner of men are these?" 

Although I didn't retain much information it was worth the money we spent for the full tour. The Hoover Dam is an awesome sight when you know the story of the hard working men who spent years building  it. (See the slide show for more pictures.)

Shelly's Vegas Birthday

It seems the President of the United States was leaving Vegas as we were trying to catch the shuttle to the car rental area so we stood in line for at least 30 minutes in an exhaust filled tunnel waiting for "the mans" plane to take off! Now that my lungs are destroyed we can move on with our weekend trip. 

Cough cough Wheeezzzz...

Cool stuff in the Mall at Ceasars Palace. Mike and I had Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I've never been there, it really was good. My sister and friends aren't lying after all! 

It really is yummy!

A view from one of the rooms in our suite on the 34th floor of the Marriott Grand Chalet.

I really like this picture of Mike so I didn't mind that I was a little blurry. 

This is what the room looked like. It was soooooo nice and comfy; I really would have been happy to stay in the room all weekend! we had 3 bedrooms, a HUGE tub and a shower with two shower heads and a full kitchen. So we really could have stayed in if  we wanted to .

there was tons of new construction going on