Cross Country Road trip (with a few other trips wedged in between)

Let's start at the very beginning; My sister and brother in law just moved to Colorado.

 We wanted to visit them sometime and see their amazing house and their, like 40 acres of land.  So we did. (I know, its so hard to follow...)

Then,

Jeff's work needed something in Lubbock on thursday, which turned out perfect because he didn't have to take a vacation day and they paid for our gas and hotel if we stayed in lubbock wed night!! Win win win!!

We were so excited to go back to the hub city.

So we drove to LBK and it was really a dream.  I am so super sentimental and was just so excited to be back and relive the memories of everything we did there...SO, we ate at Rosas, we drove by our old house (that aves didn't even recognize at first!), I stayed at Celeste's til late wednesday night, and thursday we woke up, drove around and reminisced, and left when Jeff was done (and ate at chipotle for the second time in 24 hrs) to get on the open highway.
We drove for 8 more hrs thursday.
When we were driving up toward their house we could just not get over the amazing beauty of everything.  The mountains were incredible and their house was breathtaking.  We were so so glad to be there.





Sassy and ben could not get over their backyard.  It had water, trees, a playhouse and so many acres of gorgeousness.  Love CO.

We had a blast with everyone the next day and went to the North Pole ( a little amusement park for kids)

and then ate tons of pizza at Sarah and Paul's for supper with all of their family friends that they have had since Sarah and Jeff were born who all live in CO.  Now that Sarah and Jeff (and I) have kids and their kids have kids, it's like 3 generations of friends.  I just love that.  They were all so much fun and all of the their kids were just so smart and fun.  We had a blast.


oh, and gracie came with us and got some star treatment.

Then, Friday, Jeff's parents (who are in colorado on vacation) took over our parental duties and we headed off to one of our favorite places on earth- VEGAS!!!

(Linds has a way better run down of the vegas part and I am really just stealing all of her pics, so just go look at her post for more info)
Y'all know how we love vegas and a show!  Jeff bought me, last year for my bday, tickets to celine dion, and guys, I was so excited  (Say what you want about my music choices- maybe I do love country music and ballads, but sometimes I also love some cool music...I realize Celine is not a prime example of that.)   My brothers, and a few cousins hopped on the trip and met us up there, which made it even better.

We were in Vegas Sat, Sun and Mon and just had the time of our lives.
We checked in and looked out our window at an amazing view outside (which I only have pics of the pool area for some reason)

and then we were off.
We ate,

(for the record, Linds did not love mesa, but I really did. We both clearly have good taste, so I guess we will just have to agree to disagree...)


Danced,




(Austin and I were the fun non-couple that hung out for the after party with Shannon, Patrick, Lindsey and Andrew.  Let's just say, the club was rocking' and we maybe never go to clubs, but we were ready to dance. and I made us walk home after.  Hard core people.)
Toasted,





chilled,

and gambled.
We came home up so we were excited about that.
It was just so much fun.
We all went to Celine except for Linds and Andrew and it was really out of this world.   I could't help it- I cried the whole first half!  She was amazing.  She sang Michael Jackson in a sequined jacket and it rained when she sang My Heart Will Go On.  UH mazing.  I could cry thinking about it now.
Thanks again, Jeff.  Awesome bday/anniversary present.

I wish I had the pics that we took beside the Celine Dion wax figure, but suffice it to say, I hope its our christmas card and will post it AS SOON as they email me.
While we were gone the kids were not missing us.

They were going to the zoo, feeding giraffes, going to dinosaur museums and loving their lives.

Just want to say thank you to my amazing in laws for taking care of my kids and for my sister and brother in law for housing us, our kids and just being so amazing about it.
Clearly I am someone who holds friends and family very close- sometimes too close and they probably want to be free of me and my constant calling and visiting.  My cousins and our family have been close all our lives and truly mean so much to me.  It also makes me so very happy to see my kids with their cousins, aunts and uncles and to see that circle keep going.  It is truly such a blessing to have people around who know about your bad hair, skin, lack of athletic (or any) abilities, back in the "good old days" and still love you today.
We got on the road after our flight in on monday and drove til amarillo.

We drove the rest of the 7 hrs home on Tuesday and couldn't have been happier to see the tyler sign.
The kids were so great and I really did not know what to expect.  I hope we do it every year!! (Sarah and Paul probably dont!!)
And we meet the teacher tomorrow for Aves and Friday for the twins...As you guys know, I am not very good at this whole sending your kids to school thing.  And this year will probably not be any better.  I am going to try to hold back my emotions on the blog, but I will def let y'all know how monday goes...