Our Spring Break in Vegas!

I did our taxes this year and with the baby and the pittle money that we make we got a pretty nice tax refund. We decided that we would save most of it but that we would budget some out to go to Vegas. Shaun has been wanting to go for a really long time. He has family and all of his favorite friends that he grew up with live there. Plus, we didn't get to go at Thanksgiving because of Jakey being in the hospital. So as soon as we had that extra money Shaun said, "Let's go to Vegas for Spring Break." I said, "What the heck..!! I have family on my side too and I'm sure everyone wants to see the baby" (even if he's getting so big!) We decided that we would leave as soon as Jakey went to sleep for the night on Monday night. Shaun worked Monday came home and slept until 9:00. I drove for the first three hours while Shaun slept and then I starte falling to sleep so we swapped and he drove all the way to Vegas. We got there around 6:30 just in time for Jakey to wake up. Let me tell you.. I think that if you have little babies and maybe even kids it's so much easier to travel at night.. Because they sleep the whole time, you don't have to feed them, and they don't get bored of sitting in their car seats. It ROCKED!!!
We really didn't do anything crazy amazing.. Mostly we just spent time with our families and friends. We got to meet Spencer (Shaun's cousins new son). He was an absolute doll!!
Highlights of the trip:
1. I got to go shopping with my cousin Amber and we found her some really cute clothes that were much needed. She looked super cute in the stuff we ended up getting after trying on about 100 different things. I felt bad for whomever had to clean up that dressing room!! :-)

2. I tried Chicken Wings for the first time in my life!! and they were delicious!! I have always had a something about eating meat that still has bones so I wasn't going to try them but I figured.. hey what the heck why not.. Plus Shaun's friend, Pam and her boyfriend Kenny, and Shaun were all ready to order and I wasn't.. so.. instead of finding something else I asked the waiter what sauces he recommened. I got Spicy Garlic and Honey BBQ. O were they divine!! I love them!! (In fact, I went back 2 days later after shopping with Amber and we had lunch there again!! I hope that doesn't mean I'm addicted.. but I might need to find a good wing place here in Cali!)

3. Jakey is big enough to play with his cousin Tag (Amber's boy) It's nice to have an independent baby that can play and entertain himself rather than always having to take care of him.. Even though I miss that part a little!)

4. I got help with baby duty this week. Usually because Shaun works so hard and goes to school I'm the one that gets up with Jakey in the mornings or if he wakes up in the middle of the night (which doesn't happen often except when we are on vacation.) But Shaun and I took turns this time taking care of Jakey.. being it in the middle of the night, early morning, or even all through out the day. It was nice to have a little break.. and Shaun finally admitted that taking care of a baby is hard work!! As you can see!

5. We got to meet Spencer. Shaun has a cousin named Jordan and they are like 6 months apart and have always been close. Jordan married Tiffany just a few months after we were married and a few month after we found out we were pregnant they found out they were. So now Jakey has another cousin!! He is so cute and tiny!! It was fun to hold him!

6. We had a fun Easter get-to-gether with Shaun's side of the family! It was fun to play at the park.. I even got to get my football-throwin arm worked out a little!! I forgot that I'm pretty good at throwing it.. I might have to get out and play a little more often! :-)

7. Paige and Haddie, 2 more of Shaun's cousins came home from school  for the weekend.. It was a lot of fun to catch up with them.

8. I played Blockus for the first time and won the first time I ever played.. which thus ensued a battle of trash-talking!! It was fun!

Not so fun parts

1. We had to sleep in separate beds!! :-( I didn't like that very much!!

2. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Shaun because he did a lot of stuff with his friends.. but he needed to spend time with them. It was much needed!!

3. I missed Shaunna's graduation which bummed me out.. But I'm so proud of her.

4. It was pretty hot which I wasn't used to coming from relatively cool temps in Sac.

5. That's it!! I had way more fun than not fun!! :-)

Monterey Trip!!

When we first got in the aquarium.

So on Thursday, my Mom invited us to go with her and Lindsay to Monterey. I was so excited because I was feeling pretty bored that week. I was ready to get out of the house and go somewhere. So our first stop was the Monterey Baby Aquarium. It was really cool. It was my first time and I was so excited to see all the cool animals. Jakey had a good time too. You could just tell that he was taking it all in. I wish I knew what he was thinking. It must be cool to experience animals for the first time. It makes me excited for other stuff that he'll get to experience for teh first time. I can't wait. So here are some pics from our trip..

The cool tidal wave simulation. The loud sound startled Jake. :-)

I can't remember what these are called but I thought they were really cool. They totally look like old fashioned quill pens. It's weird to think that they are living organisms..

Jake loved the Penguins. My Mom bought him a little stuffed penguin and an otter. He of course sucked on them right away.

I thought these were really cool. Leafy dragon seahorses.. I had never even heard of them.

I have to say that the Jelly Fish were my favorite. I thought that they were so cool. I had never seen so many up close before. We probably stood and stared at them for about 20 minutes..

Jake's first time by the ocean~

I thought this was a cool exhibit. This picture totally looks like it could be one of those computer backgrounds.

This penguin totally turned and stared at us as soon as I pulled out the camera. I wonder if they know what we are doing so they look and pose for the picture. ???

I've always loved sea turtles!! So cool!

I thought these Jelly Fish looked pretty cool too!

After the Aquarium we went to this sweet action park. It's called Dennis the Menace Playground and it's a really fun place. I think every city should have a cool park like this. I definitely think they should have one in Sactown. I should have gotten better pictures of the whole playground but I only got pictures of Lindsay taking Jake down the slide. He didn't seem to care about it too much! I can't wait unitl he gets excited about going to the park and playing.

And then right before we went home we stopped at a beach. It was pretty crowded but it was the one that my Mom remembered how to get to. I sat Jake in the sand and he immediately started digging his toes in and leaning over to grab this mysterious substance. :-) Then we went over to help Lindsay with her sand castle and I wasn't paying attention and then into his mouth went his hands. He hand sand all around his mouth and even a little up his nose. So I took him down to the water to rinse off his feet.. O boy was he not happy.. as seen by the picture below.. It was pretty cold and he did not like it. After that everytime I tried to get him to look at the ocean of if he thought that there was even a little chance of me putting him down he would grab onto my shoulder and hold onto my clothes as tight as he could. I guess that his first experience with the water was a little too cold for him. I can't wait to take him back.. :-)

On our way out, the traffic was pretty bad and we were pretty hungry so we decided to stop and get something to eat. Off the exit we took they mostly had a bunch of hole in the wall Mexican joints.  So we chose this one which I was skeptical of because it's call Roger's. I wasn't aware that that was a Spanish/Mexican name but maybe I was wrong because I had one of the best Quesadillas ever. It was delicioso...
We were pretty tired when we got home but overall it was a really fun trip. Can't wait to go back again!!