Draper Temple

Sorry guys- I haven't been trying to ignore you guys. There just hasn't been much to say lately. Although it seems liek I have lots to say today. :)

Last night Dave and I went to the Draper Temple Open House. That was pretty awesome. It was my first time inside a temple. After the LDS Temples are built and before they are dedicated, there is usually an open house. This allows anyone to tour through and see the new temples and all of the detail that goes into them. It just makes me that much more excited for when it is my turn to go through a temple and get sealed to Dave. :) (The following link is a news article that has some pictures of the Temple if you are interested: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=5322959&nid=148)

The other big thing is that Dave and I are going to start looking into buying a house! Well, at least seriously start thinking about it. We'll see.... :) It would be nice to have enough room for people to stay with us when they visit and having a yard for Pookie and for our kids would be so wonderful. We'll see what is in store for us!

And we're back...

Dave and I in front of the Eiffel Tower (at the Paris Casino)

So Vegas was a success. :) It was good to get out of town and enjoy ourselves for the weekend. We did a lot of walking and I did a lot of eating. :) We didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, but oh well.

Let's see... the drive down was pretty uneventful. We had good/clear weather on the way down- lots of sun. It was fun to see the temperatures rise the further south we went. :) We left 30 degree weather and arrived in 70 degree weather. The other fun part of the drive down was watching all the cars that went speeding by us get pulled over. :)

We stayed in the Venetian- we had a nice, big room and we could actually see the Mirage's Volcano from our window. We saw the tail end of one of the eruptions. Saturday was pretty quiet for us... we walked over to the Planet Hollywood Casino and got dinner at the buffet there (it was recommended to us by one of Dave's friends). There were so many people on the streets that it was hard to walk anywhere quickly. The casinos themselves were also pretty packed. Dave and I opted for a quiet night in our room to relax. We did catch the Bellagio Fountain show- that was just amazing! I wish I had taken pictures, but I don't think it would have come out very well.... The guy next to us proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted, so that was kind of cool. :)

Sunday we walked the entire length of the strip and got breakfast at the Luxor. This gave us a good chance to really see the casinos in the day light (Vegas looks so different during the day versus night!). It was nice because there weren't nearly as many people on the sidewalks so it made it easier to walk and see everything. We headed back to the Venetian and started gambling. :) Dave and I played the slots the most but we really had fun with the video poker. The table minimums were a bit expensive, so we stuck to the machines. :) Dave is quite the poker player and won a fantastic amount of money in a very short amount of time. Good for him! We then walked back down the strip to play at the New York (just for something different) and finished with dinner at the Bellagio Buffet (I was just loving that!). We then finished our night back at the Venetian. On our way up to the room Dave convinced me to stop and play a few rounds of Roulette and I ended up winning about $50! Whoo hoo!

Sunday Dave and I were out the door pretty early- we wanted to get back to Salt Lake. The best part about trips like these is seeing another town and then realizing how much we love home. :) We were happy to be on our way back to Salt Lake.

Over all it was a good time. :) We're looking forward to visiting Vegas again- sometime. Probably not any time soon, but one of these days. I'm not sure where the next place we'll try to vacation is, but I want to try to go Yellowstone, Disneyland, Portland, and some of the National Parks in Southern Utah. Maybe the Grand Canyon too.

Slacker

Sorry guys- I keep meaning to post an update but I don't have much to say!

The 2nd appointment was last week. I still haven't met the doctor. I was supposed to last week, but she ran out for a delivery at the last minute. Oh well- maybe next time. We listened to the heartbeat again! I love that. :) All is well for now.

Tomorrow Dave and I head to Las Vegas. I am so excited about that. This week has gone by so SLOWLY! because we are both so ready for a mini vacation. :) Dave's mom is going to be staying at our place to take care of Pookie (what a relief!). Other than that... a long week is behind us and a 3 day weekend is ahead!

End of Week

I told myself I wasn't going to make any new year resolutions this year. But in the back of my mind I was thinking that maybe this year I would try harder to send out at least a card to my siblings/nieces/nephews/etc. But this is incredibly hard! And I've already fouled up (sorry Kenny- your birthday totally snuck up on me). I wish I could send out one massive blast of cards at the beginning (or middle- or end for that matter) of the year and just send everyone's card all at once. It's not that I am not thinking about a person- generally I know when everyone's birthday is, I just fail to follow through. Anyway... if you get birthday cards at random points in the year, that's me trying to let you know I am thinking of you. I guess I could just forego the birthday card and go with a "I'm thinking of you" card randomly throughout the year.

Anyway... this weekend is going to be short and sweet. We're going to be hanging out with Dave's brother Chris tomorrow. That kid cracks me up. :) Other than that, it will be a quiet weekend (isn't that what I usually say?).

I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon. That's going to be the highlight of the day. It feels like this appointment came a lot faster than the first one. I have a feeling that the following will be the same. By my calculations, I think we'll be finding out what the baby is in March. So you'll just have to wait until then. Although it would be interesting to see what you guys think we'll have. :)

Next week Dave starts a Kung Fu class in the evenings. I figure that this is the last time (at least for a while) that he'll be able to take a class like this, in the evenings, so I encouraged him to do it. Plus he's always talking about how he wants to take one. But between that and soccer I won't be seeing him as much (I'm spoiled rotten, and selfish to boot, and I don't care).

Middle of the Week Ho-Hums

Well, the good news is that it is the middle of the week. The bad news- there is just not much going on out here. We've been getting wave after wave of snow storms here (which I'm okay with because at least it seems like there is a purpose for the cold weather). I've already got Spring Fever... I'm excited for Easter and mild temperatures and budding trees, etc.

Wish I had something fun to tell you guys, but really, there is nothing going on around here. The next doctor's appointment is on Friday- I'll be able to listen to the heartbeat again. I think my baby bump is growing. It looks like I have a beer belly (after all my work to get rid of the original). I am looking forward to looking more and more pregnant- I love the bellys. :)

We also got notice that Dave's oldest brother is getting married on the 17th (of January). Congratulations to him and his fiance! Dave and I are actually going to be out of town that week so that is kind of a bummer. But I am excited for them!

2009

Well, a new year has arrived. (Sorry guys- I don't do internet on the weekends which is why it has taken me so long to wish you all a happy new year). Dave and I managed to stay awake until midnight, but I couldn't stay up much later than that. We have had 2 consecutive four day weekends and this is our first full week of work in a while. It's going to be rough. But at least we only have to do it for a few weeks before we get another 3 day weekend and mini vacation to Vegas. :)

It's been a quiet start to our new year so far. Unfortunately Dave and I were involved in a fender bender on Friday. That was no fun- but we did discover that our Subaru is a tank. :) The car behind Dave and I failed to stop (perhaps even failed to brake?), pushing our car into the car in front of us. The back bumper on the car in front of us was cracked, the front bumper on the car behind us was snapped/destroyed. Our bumpers? A scratch on the back bumper and the little license plate holder on our front bumper snapped. Yup, I love our little tank. :)

Wish that I had more to say, but it has been a quiet start to the year. It's going to be an exciting year though. Dave and I have lots planned for this year- including the birth of our first baby, getting sealed, lots and lots of traveling (both before and after baby arrives), and fixing up the house.

OH YEAH! Dave and I started our first house projects! We put a ceiling fan in our living room (getting rid of this nasty/horrible chandelier), a new faucet on our kitchen sink, and this next weekend we're going to put another ceiling fan in the baby's room (I am still working out how that room is going to look in my head). Next up: I'm going to learn how to tile and redo our bathroom. :)

Anyway, I wish you all the bestest in 2009- it's going to be a good year!