Our Vegas Vacation

We decided to take a vacation to Las Vegas for Labor Day weekend and also in celebration of David's 24th birthday. We left Thursday morning and drove to Vegas, the drive wasn't so bad, we stopped a couple times on the way at some outlet malls. We stopped at the Tulare Outlets, David bought some shirts and I came out empty handed. It wasn't a bad 6 hour drive... I got in a pretty nice nap :p

This is my friend Delica and her adorable family! Delicia was one of my good friends from the 8th grade, and then moved her Freshman year to Manteca, CA. We lost touch after that and then years later found each other on Myspace (who would have thought!). She lives in Henderson, NV - which is only 15 from Las Vegas. Our first night in we went to her place to visit and got to spend time and meet her husband and adorable little girls. Regan, the older one LOVED David, she ran to him almost right away to pick her up. Delicia says she loves tall men, but I love how children just flock to David all the time, he'll make a great Daddy one day!

We stayed at Planet Hollywood, we got an awesome deal on a Suite facing the Strip. It had a round bath tub in the middle of the bathroom that was so big I could lay lengthwise inside. There were 2 big flat screen TV's, on by the bed and the other in the sitting area. The best part was the view, we had an amazing view where we could see the fountain show at the Bellagio perfectly. When we came back from our first day walking the strip, we were surprised with a delicious fruit tray, and a cheese tray with an assortment of all kinds of cheeses and crackers, and some chocolate covered strawberries. We definitely were treated well.

Our first day we walked around the Strip, it's SOOO much longer than it looks! The hotels are so huge and elaborate. I couldn't imagine working in a hotel similar to these.



The fountain show at the Bellagio was by far my favorite part of visiting Vegas. I could sit and watch the show forever. Since our hotel room had a perfect view of the show, at night we just sat by the window and watched, a different one played every 15 minutes... it was so amazing watching it at night with the lights.

The main highlight of our trip was we went to see The Phantom of the Opera, in the theatre built especially for this performance. It was amazing! I had seen it before in San Francisco and it was David's first time. I have to say this show was way better, the feel of the theatre and the stunts in the place were unbelievable. To make it worth seeing, this is the place to see it at.

Our last night we met up with Delicia and John and they treated us to dinner at a really nice seafood restaurant.
We really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with them, we are so glad we were able to see them twice on our trip! Even though Delicia and I lost touch after Jr. High, we seemed to pick up right where we left off, it's a shame we don't live closer to each other. We are excited that they might come and visit us on their way up to the Bay Area to visit family.

Before we left Vegas for good we had to take a trip to see the Las Vegas Temple. It was beautiful as they always are.

David's sister Jenna's house is halfway between Vegas and home, so we stopped to spend the night on Sunday night and BBQ for Labor Day. We had a lot of fun visiting them as we always do and getting to spend some time with the kids.

Calvin is getting so big!

My Last Day at the Sheraton...

On Thursday, August 21st was my official last day at the Sheraton Pleasanton. I am going to start working for the Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Clovis. I had worked at the Sheraton hotel a little over 7 years! I started right when I turned 17 as a Junior in High School. I started working the Front Desk on weekends, to the Sales Admin, to the Revenue Manager. My last day happened to be on the Annual Kick Off Party for the Goodguys Car Show, the best time of year to work.

This is my amazing team (missing a couple people...) but many people here have seen me graduate high school, graduate college & get married. You can say I grew up here and some of these people have been there the whole time. I am truly going to miss being with these people on a daily basis!

We were graced with the presence of Elvis, my boss got a special song dedicated to her... she loves Elvis and is always singing his songs.

David stayed for my last day, I love him so much!! He was even helping out making and serving some popcorn to the guests.

This is the most amazing boss in the world! Debbie has taught me so much, and is the one who gave me the opportunity to get where I am today. She has such a big heart and leaving her is the hardest part of leaving the hotel.

Aunt Sandy's 60th Birthday

We had a great weekend visiting the Bay Area. On Sunday we went to our old ward in Dublin and got to see some old friends and faces. After that, we got ready to celebrate my Aunt Sandy's 60th birthday! There were a ton of family and friends that came, it was good to see everyone there. We were missing some key players, but we still enjoyed the time we spent with everyone.

My Aunt Sandy, Uncle Bob and Uncle Eloy with us kids :)

We missed my Mom, Aunt Kathy, Elizabeth, Jill and Donna and her kids - who weren't able to make it.

Grandma Lena, Karrie and Marissa. (3 generations in this picture)

Auntie Mimi and little Marissa - she is a little over 1 month old now. She is starting to fling her head around as she is getting curious to what's going on around her. She is so adorable!

Adam looks forward to going to Aunt Sandy's house every year for her birthday. She lives in the Castro Valley hills and there are tons of lizards. His thrill is to catch one, well, at least to have someone catch one.....Neil caught it for him this time. This is a picture of Adam with his new friend Fireball. (Don't worry - Fireball survives)

Uncle David and Adam horsing around, as usual. :)

Celebration for Janelle & Steve's Wedding

On Saturday, August 9th we had the opportunity to celebrate Janelle & Steve's marriage! They got married last year right before they moved to Texas, so they decided to do a reception in the nice weather. It was a lot of fun to see many old faces and to spend some time with our friends (now that we have moved!). It's rare that all of us get together so it made it a little more special.

The Greenes

All my girls together (minus Nikki).

We both owe lots to Janelle ~ she is the one who introduced the two of us almost 10 years ago!

After the reception everyone was going out, since Janelle had a babysitter she took full advantage of everyone being together. We went to this place in downtown Hayward and it turned out to be karaoke night. Being that we all used to be in the Mt. Eden Choir we rocked the place.

Molly sang to "White Wedding" in dedication to Janelle & Steve. Molly is so awesome, I love how she just goes for it! (And that she reads our blog!) It came out pretty dark, but I wanted to keep it up here anyway!

David and I sang a song for Sarah that she picked out. This was a first for the both of us to karaoke, we didn't do too bad!

Our First Date....in Clovis

The picture is a little blurry but I asked my husband out for date night. I chose to go to Old Town Clovis. Every Friday night in the summer they have a Farmers Market - but it's more like a Street Fair. There was tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, a lot of weird ones as well as all the good ones. We got a free sample of a Pluot, its an apricot and a plum mixed together. It was pretty good! We bought lots of fruit that David promised to eat before it goes bad, i will help too of course.

We enjoyed our first date out here, but David felt like he got gyped. I asked him out on a date --but didn't bring any cash, so he was nice enough to treat. =)

They had a pole vaulting show right in the middle. The University got a new coach so I guess they were showing off for the beginning of the school year. This guy cleared 17 feet.... it was pretty amazing to watch these guys and girls do this stuff.

Our first visitors!

The Moala's came to visit us for the weekend! It was a lot of fun, we are so glad they came. We rocked out on the Wii on Saturday morning playing Rockband. Jenna, David and I got pretty darn good on one of the songs. We swam, went to an awesome candy store and they got to see the model for our home!

It was a beautiful weekend in Fresno, it wasn't to hot and there was a nice breeze. As we were waiting for Vita to get there with Peni and Neveah, the four of us went swimming and litlte Calvin enjoyed the nice weather by the pool.

We were trying to teach David how to float... we didn't get it down yet...but we will!

Goodbye Dublin.......Hello Fresno!

We moved EVERYTHING out of our first apartment on Friday, July 12th.... we are really going to miss living in Dublin and being close to our family and friends, but we enjoyed the time we spent in our first place together. It's amazing how much stuff David and I have for only being married less than 4 months. We filled a 14' U-haul, David's mustang, my trunk and backseat, a Tundra, and the back cab of David's Tacoma full of stuff!

Here is the outside of our new place. A group of men from our new ward came out to help us unload - which was a huge help! It only took a half hour to unload everything it took us a half day to load up. But our new apartment isn't bad, its 2 bedrooms, has 2 bathrooms and lots of storage space -- and we're saving about $500/month in rent!. The only bad thing is the kitchen cabinets are to high, and I cant reach much..... so I have most our food stored in a pantry that I think is meant for the linens. We are excited to get settled so we can finally relax.