a digital scrapbook

This last week my parents, brother, and I were in Vegas for a couple days on a little family vacation. I love Vegas and all, but it was weird being back only having been there just a little more than a month ago–making it my third trip in only 12 months! But it was good times and a different kind of vacation since I was traveling with family, something we haven’t really done together in a while.

Although my brother and I did stay at our usual Flamingo Hilton Hotel for a few nights, we mostly were at Caesar’s Palace where our parents had a room. It was my first time staying at Caesar’s and it was really nice. Everything from the pool area, to the rooms and spa was pretty over the top. It was neat to see a different side of the hotel than just the casino and Forum Shops I usually go to there.

Over the week, Frankie and I saw two shows (my parents saw five). The first was “Le Reve” showing at the Wynn and it was pretty spectacular. Probably one of the best shows I’ve seen. It was very similiar to Cirque’s “O” at the Bellagio, both being water-themed and produced by Dragone, the biggest difference being “Le Reve” was more sensual whereas “O” was more “scary-clown-dream”. As weird as that sounds, both are amazing to watch. When in Vegas next, I’d highly recommend seeing either. Read more

Last Thursday Ryan and I left to Minnesota to visit his family and attend his cousin’s wedding. It was a really great trip and it’s weird to be back already since it seemed to fly by. Most of the time was spent hanging out with family, eating really good food, and doing things outside.

The first day we were there (after thoroughly sleeping in) we went out to Famous Dave’s BBQ, so that was tasty. And then it was off to the real venture of the day: The Minnesota Zoo. My favorite animal was this ape. Ryan’s were the prairie dogs. (We somehow missed the giraffes though.) Then later that night I got to meet a bunch of Ryan’s family at Wildfire where we had dinner with the whole gang.

Saturday was AJ’s wedding day, so besides a quick Target run (they’re everywhere over there), the day was spent at that. It was a really nice wedding and lots of ATD in the decor. It was a general good time and I think that was the first time dancing with Ryan (after two years) so that was nice. :) Later that night we went out to a casino with his brother Kyle where I won $15 in blackjack. Yeah, hard core.

Sunday was a pretty chill day where we woke up to go to church and then had brunch at a place where you get a complimentary caramel cinnamon roll. Needless to say, pretty awesome. The rest of the day was loafing around the house and napping (what Sundays are made for) followed by a dinner with more relatives.

Monday was our final full day there so after breakfast we went out to Fort Snelling. I’m a sucker for anything historical and it looked interesting so we went despite the fact that Ryan’s been there a half dozen times. After watching a canon demonstration and making our way around there, we left to Minehaha Falls State Park–to go geocaching!

That was pretty awesome, it was multi-cache with 9 coordinates and a bit of math to find it, climbing up and down the park’s stairs for two hours. (Well, we did have a Dairy Queen break in between.) It was a good cache and we later went to grab one at a park by his parents’ house which wasn’t as enjoyable and involved me getting lots of bug bites. Then it was dinner with the family and off to the airport! Talk about a flurry.

It was a good trip and am already looking forward to the next time we’re out there.

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