St. George, Vegas, and Jay's 26th birthday!

This past weekend, we decided to head to St. George for the weather and to see Jayson and Kassi. The boys and I had a four-day weekend, so Greg decided to take some vacation time too. We had parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday and Thursday night, and Friday was a furlough day for all district personnel for budget cut reasons, then Monday was Human Rights' Day. We got to St. George and the sun was shining! I didn't want to go inside Jay and Kassi's house to visit, because I didn't want to waste the sunshine! When the sun went down, we headed to the Washington Community Center where Jayson works for the boys to go swimming. Kassi and I ran an errand and then came back. Afterward, we decided to head to the Brick Oven for dinner. It was just getting ready to open last time we were there, and we were excited to check it out. Here is Tyson being a goofball while we were waiting to be seated. Greg decided to inform our waitress that we were celebrating Jayson's birthday, so he was sung to and received a dessert. Saturday morning we got up and headed to Las Vegas (Greg loves that place for some reason). We headed first to the new "City Center" that recently opened. The buildings kind of lean to the side...don't know if you can tell from these pictures. Jayson and Kassi at the City Center. We weren't really that impressed with this place....especially since some of the reviews that had been heard were that it was so awesome. As we left we did see this great sculpture made out of different types of canoes, kayaks, and other types of boats though. We made Kassi get in the picture to pretty it up! Wandering the strip. My favorite thing to do in Vegas is to go and watch the fountains at the Bellagio....they never cease to amaze me.....waiting for the show to begin. Jayson and Kassi waiting..... And it begins! It was awesome as usual! As we were headed to go and see the gardens at the Flamingo....I saw this incredible HUGE sign...Donny Osmond! Woo-Hoo! Here are the boys wandering around the gardens at the Flamingo. And behind us are.....flamingos!!! A closer up shot of the flamingos.....flamingos are pink because of all the shrimp that they eat.....FYI....that was a Jayson fact that he shared. In the water at the gardens were all of these amazing fish! We were all quite impressed by them. And as we went to leave.....I saw another sign of "Donny"! Kassi said I had to throw my leg over his....but I think I just look a little spastic! Greg did go to check and see if we could get tickets to see them....but they don't begin their show until the end of January! As we walked down the strip, we saw these Star Wars characters (we thought of you Dave!). We also saw these police officers, and Greg, being the nice dad that he is, took Kaden over to meet them and have his picture taken. We also saw Yoda (he is the one on the right).... And Kaden met some more police officers.... We stopped in front of the Harley Davidson restaurant... Tyson getting ready to roll.... Kaden looking tough.... Kassi being the tough guy biker...while Jayson is the hot biker mama! When we got to the Coca-Cola store, we found out that the Coke Bear was there for pictures... What cute boys we have.... Can you tell the difference between their pictures and ours?....they had a green screen that they imported a picture of the snow and ice onto. Then we headed to M&M World...the boys' favorite place in Vegas.....Kaden liked the race car... Tyson liked the M&M's! Across the street at M&M world. Inside M&M world they had a Vegas skyline to take pictures in front of..... The guys wanted to eat at ESPN....but there was an important (ha!) football game going on....so we couldn't get in there. Instead we headed across the street and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. This board the boys are standing in front of is an interactive computer screen that shows you the different relics the business owns. After eating, the little boys went and talked to our server and Jayson got another round of birthday wishes and dessert! As it got dark we headed to Fremont Street to watch the light show. If you have been there, you know how fun it is to watch the show overhead while you walk. Jayson and Kassi found some awesome hats while there! Sunday, Jayson and Kassi made us a yummy dinner and cake to celebrate Jayson's birthday (third day in a row...and his birthday isn't until Thursday!). As he blew out his candles, the little boys blasted him with silly string! We headed home late Sunday afternoon. Greg's aunt, Sherry Criddle, passed away and we attended her funeral on Monday. It cut our mini vacation short, but it was an amazing service for a wonderful lady.