Vegas and Big Bear

I know it seems like we're always going somewhere (and while that may be true) but our trips are very cost conscious!! The hubby gets free cabins in Big Bear so we've decided to take full advantage of it. We've gone 4 times now and we're already planning our next 2 trips. Our Vegas trip was cost conscious since our room at the Paris was free and we used a coupon for our fancy dinner thanks to Restaurant.com.

Anyway, here's our Vegas trip recap:
Hubby is back on nights (Boo!!) so we had to do a little napping before we left for Vegas. Think we left around noonish or so? Maybe 2ish? See, I can't remember sh*t. Uneventful drive, I tried to sleep but it wasn't working. Got to Vegas and walked around the mall inside the Planet Hollywood hotel. I'm partial to this place since we got hitched there. Had dinner at Cheeseburger. Very yummy burgers and pulled pork sammiches. Then we walked around the Paris for a bit and checked out one of the bars in the casino that had everyone dancing. Even some fool that gave us a few laughs. Next day was walking the Strip (in the blazing heat no less) and our fancy dinner at Aureole in the Mandalay Bay hotel. Super fancy and expensive but don't worry, we used our trusty coupon!! We left there stuffed and headed to the Hard Rock Hotel for our reason for the Vegas trip. We saw Corey Taylor of Slipknot put on an acoustic show. Pretty cool show in a small venue.



Our last day in Vegas ended at Serendipity at Caesars Palace for some breakfast/lunch and of course, dessert. Hubby had the breakfast burger which was a burger with a fried egg on it and I had the breakfast sandwich. Pretty basic sandwich but it was so good. The best part was our dessert! It was called Audrey's Can't Get Enough sundae. It had ice cream, a peanut butter pie, bananas, hot fudge, peanuts, jeez what else?? We should have just had the dessert.

Not much to say about our Big Bear trip this last weekend except it was totally relaxing. We spent the weekend at the pool, grilling yummy food, sitting out by the lake, playing pool and watching movies. Can it get any more relaxing than that?

We've been using the hubby's phone to take pics lately so I don't have any pics to share of our adventures. Maybe Santa will get me a new point & shoot this year. Hint hint!

bapatism

FYI, I do know how to spell baptism. Brandon kept pronouncing it "bapatism." He does that a lot. Anyway, I think I've blogged just about everything from my brother's visit a few months ago. If I've forgotten anything, I work nights. That's my excuse for everything. We headed out towards LA (can't remember exactly what city it was) for Spencer's baptism. It's the same church his mom and sister were baptized in. I'm not very religious so I'm always uncomfortable in a church but that day wasn't bad at all. I usually get super awkward when everyone is reciting after the priest and I'm just standing there but there wasn't a lot of that during the baptism. Maybe there was and I just can't remember. :/

Drew was just a few seconds too late so he missed Spencer getting baptized. He did fine, didn't cry at all when the priest poured the water on him.

"gimme that thing!!"

My sister-in-law's brother, her mom, the priest, my sister-in-law Sylvia, Spencer and his dad, my brother David

Kaelyn and Wylie...Wylie was so cute in her pretty dress. She stood on the kneelers.

It made me giggle. Like I said, I'm not religious so I'm not sure if kneelers is the correct term. Google it.

definitely not awkwardfamilyphotos.com

ours isn't too bad either although I think I always look like I'm trying to be taller...for some reason my head is always trying to gain some height...I swear it's subconscious

"dude, get that camera outta my face"

r
We had a yummy Mexican lunch after the baptism. We were starving! Can't remember what we did after. It's that nightshift thing again.

grads

This year we had a few graduates in the family. Kaelyn and Brandon promoted from 6th grade and will be going into Jr. High. Drew was the real graduate this year though. He finally graduated from high school!! I swear, there were several times during the last 4 years that I didn't think he'd make it. The kid is so damn smart but so damn lazy. He HATES doing homework. With a passion. I swear there have been times that I've felt so stupid when having a conversation with him so I could never understand why his grades didn't reflect his intelligence. Thank the sweet baby Jesus that he finally realized that you have to do homework to get good grades. It didn't happen until his senior year but at least it happened. He graduated with a 3.33 grade point average!! This is after failing several classes, taking summer school a couple times, getting several Ds, trying to pass off a fake report card, having to take ROP, etc. Ugh!! It's hard to believe that it's over. It went by so fast.

KK and her BFF Gaby (I can't tell you how much drama comes with girls this age and I know it's only gonna get worse next year.) :/

getting a hug from her teacher, Mrs. U

Mama needed to get to bed so we took a couple quick pictures after the ceremony...I thought about switching my schedule so I didn't have to work the night before but it wasn't in the cards for me. I needed the next night off for the real graduation.

she looks so grown up here

and now for the real graduation!!

taking some pics while waiting for Drew to get us our tickets....the school doesn't give the kids their tickets until the day of the graduation. Think they do that to try to avoid people making fake tickets. I worked the night before and was sleeping all day and Drew hung out with his friends so I didn't see him to get the tickets until after 5pm. I was getting a little nervous that our seats would suck since time was a factor.

Brandon didn't come to the graduation since he had his last baseball game the same day and he didn't want to miss it.

we were waiting for Drew outside the theater where the graduates had to meet before the ceremony....the parking situation was a nightmare so I'm glad we got there early....couldn't believe what some of the girls were wearing...some of them looked a little, uh, cheap if you know what I mean...and a special thanks to my husband for helping me deal with high school drama...guess what babe, we get to do it 3 more times!!

KK is wearing Grandma Bea's pearls

some of the graduating class

The school has a pretty good system for getting thru the graduation pretty quick. They split the graduates in half and put A-whatever on the north side and whatever-Z on the south side of the stadium and you only hear your side graduate. Much better than having to sit thru all 700 and something kids but it's a bummer that we didn't get to hear most of Drew's friends graduate since they were on the other side. I was half paying attention to Drew when he told me to get in the "north" line as he handed me the tickets and ran off. I didn't realize their were 2 lines until we started to get in line. Our line was soooooooooo long!! Didn't matter though, our seats were awesome! Some lady got in another lady's face trying to get to a seat. She was acting like her kid was the only one graduating. Didn't bother me though, nothing was going to ruin this day for me.

here they come!! I swear, I was a nervous wreck the entire day. I didn't think I'd be able to sleep. Just sitting there waiting for the ceremony to start made my stomach do flips.

There are those damn red shoes! Least it made it easy to spot him in the crowd.

his tassel was a little wonky...it was hanging more in the back and not on the side like the kid to the far right

someone probably paid big bucks for that balloon arrangement

getting ready to graduate

so close!! I knew I would get teary eyed, but I didn't think I would get as emotional as I did. I forgot to bring tissue with me so I tried my best to control myself. Didn't work very good. ;-P

there he goes! I was afraid they were going to say, "oops, we made a mistake, you actually failed one of your classes and can't walk." hahaha

WOOOHOOOO!!

one of Drew's good buddies Katrina....oddly enough, we sat right next to her parents...for the record her mom was crying too

beautiful skies overlooking the field....it was freezing that night

about to make it official

that's all folks, they graduated!!

after the ceremony there was a rush of people trying to get onto the field to take pictures. I wanted to take pics of Drew with his friends but he told me not to bother since it was going to be jam packed with people. Since I had to carry his phone (and iPod, earphones, wallet, etc.) I thought we'd never find him but he came up to the bleachers and found us. He was so happy that he hugged everyone. This is a rare occurrence people, he hugs no one.

damn you kid, making me get choked up all over again! A week or so after he graduated he told me that seeing me cry was adorable. Think he was just trying to get more cash out of me.

Love this picture. Poor kid was starving so we had to take some photos quickly so we could get to the restaurant. We tried Olive Garden but the wait was like an hour so we called Panda Inn and only had to wait a couple minutes. He said Del Taco would have been fine too since he hadn't eaten all day.

if only Hayley wasn't making that face...

aaaannnndd back to texting

gifts!! don't worry, thank you cards will be making their way soon

after our yummy meal

sadly, this is the only picture from Brandon's ceremony. Dad forgot the camera!! His ceremony was out in the sun which wasn't too pleasant. I won't mention how crabby I was after working the night before. I only skimp out on sleep for the kids. They better appreciate it some day. ;-)

So now we get to enjoy our summer! This may sound totally corny but I feel such a sense of relief now that Drew graduated. No more fighting about homework, tests and studying. From now on, what happens is totally on him. I think he realizes that too and it seems like we've been getting along so much better. I guess I must have done something right over the last 17 years.