Vegas Day Three - Thursday !!!

Still walking, man if it weren't for all the yummy food in Vegas, with all the walking golly, I should have lost sooooooo much weight !!!

Anyway so you know the Bellagio has a different theme in the conservatory every time I go there, this time it was patriotic as you walked in but then just pretty through the rest of it, see for yourself, keeping in mind that all the flowers you see are all fresh and very real !!!

Loved that the year year we became citizens we experienced all this patriotism in Vegas, very cool :-)



All the detail is so amazing, Jade would have loved this carousel and well Amber would have loved the balloons !!!



This one from the other side, amazing and the smell in there, well you can imagine.



The first time we went was the best coz this little glass house on the left was full of butterflies, can't even remember what it was last time, I would need to look but it was birds this time. Loved to stand though and watch people walk across the little bridge and not believing those streams of water going over them were real so they would touch them and obviously get very wet, too funny. And the bear family on the right were very cute.



This picture was really cool too, blow a close up to see all the flower detail.





Cool right :-)



This is why I love this place so much, isn't that just beautiful, similar in so many ways to the Venetian which is my favorite but this is The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.



One of the many fountains I passed in the Forum Shops area, amazing. Sorry if I am boring you guys but just wanted to share so much of the beauty I saw.



One of the newer fashion stores there that I thought looked really cool the way they had it set up :-)



Just loved all the clocks with all the different time zones and some of the time across the world.



These shopping areas are so beautifully done, that's water at the bottom, and statues all around and the ceiling which you can't see too well just is painted so beautifully too, I know you can't appreciate it through these pictures but believe me, anyone want to go see, I will play tour guide :-)



This too is amazing, going from shopping in an area above to a flea market kind of setting below, too cool.



Well I don't need to tell you how many bars there are in Vegas that goes without saying but this one was casual and cool but you can't see it too well coz it was really hot that day and they had this fine mist spraying all over the show but the entertainment was funny and I wish I had more time to sit here and just enjoy and take it all in but I was on my way back to the hotel to meet Dave. Gavin I would love to be here with you, most of all :-)



After meeting Dave we walked to the Wynn Hotel which was next door and had the most expensive meal I have ever had in my life but oh my gosh well ... what's done is done and it was good but so not worth the money but an experience all the same.

Look how magical it looks as you walk through the foyer area.



Can't see this too well but there is this big artificial, as everything is in Vegas, mountain with these awesome waterfalls just as you walk out the hotel.



Another one.



After the Wynn we caught the Deuce which is the hop on hop off bus on the strip to the MGM Grand, here I am just showing my African roots at the Rainforest Store.



Tonight was a big night, it was Daves first Cirque Show and my first with him which was so cool for us both. I saw 'O' last year when I went which was mind blowing, this night we saw 'Ka' which was so so so very different but just as amazing, omg how amazing was it ? Sadly you can't take any picture in there and it's so hard to explain, maybe if you google it there will be some video footage or something but yeah, totally mind blowing and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to my loving hubby for this great treat :-) That was the end of day three for us.

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Vegas Day Two - Wednesday !!!

Just going to add a bunch of pics here ... my first full day of walking around by myself.

Again my morning walk through the Venetian, golly I loved this hotel, I think if we can stay there or in the Palazzo next time I am here, it will be my first choice !!! It's so pretty and tranquil, loved it, sorry if I am saying that a bunch of times but it really was amazing there.



I saw this guy every day and he is just amazing, how can someone stand so still for so long and in that outfit, although it's very cool in the shopping area. He is so funny, people will walk right up to him to see if he is real and he would give them a fright, or people would be staring and he would wink. There was a yogurt store close buy that I would do lunch at most days and just sit there and watch the people walk by him while I enjoyed what has to be some of the best yogurt in the world :-)



The Venetian from outside, right on the strip.





I am trying not to put stuff up that you guys have seen already and apologize to those that have done Vegas already this might all bore you to death. Anyway this is in the MGM Grand, it's a new restaurant which is very cool, you sit in it with all these huge fish tanks around you and animals that make sounds all the time like you are in the jungle, and there is water dripping all over like you are in the rain forest, can't explain it, you will just have to all come and see, I will volunteer to play tour guide :-)



How cool is Tracy Tree and she talks and has eyes and mouth that move, really cool, wished my kids were with me in this store !!!



Look at those cool chairs people are sitting on and the bar is one big fish tank, super cool !!!



You have seen pics of these lions before but I can't remember ever seeing them play with those balls which are really hard and they bite into them with no problem. Also never seen their handlers playing with them as much as these guys that day, very cool to see but yeah, rather them than me.



Yeah this guy was less than two feet from me but with a nice thick glass wall between us but still, I don't think I have ever been that close to them. Close enough that they look you in the eye.



Oh this guy was such a jerk but he has the best costume on the strip, well maybe not now that I think of all the people dressed up at night but you know what I mean. They stand at the one end of the strip and you can have pics taken with them for a tip of course but some just let you take pics even if you don't tip them, I mean they apparently are not allowed to ask for tips, it's illegal but this guy every time I pointed, or anyone pointed a camera at him, he turned around so you couldn't take the picture or took his head piece off, thank God for my nice new lens Dave bought me, (hehehe) I could take it from far and he didn't know. So there JERK !!!



Not sure I have seen these anywhere else but Vegas and they are all over there, Oxygen Bars, so weird to see people there with these things up their noses getting flavored oxygen to what, give them energy, another money making gimmick I think.



Managed to catch this little show on the walk to my hotel room through the Venetian, they had a couple a day but I only managed to catch two of them.



Just some more night time shots.









This was very weird, never seen it there before so it must be something new, it was just so out of place in this city of sin, oh well, my Asian flash mob I am sure enjoyed it.



I was alone so much of the time there I think there is less than a handful of pics of me, sorry mom.



And just a picture of the fountains without me ruining them, this was outside the Forum Shops at Ceasers Palace.



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Day One In Vegas

As excited as I was for this trip, it was hard to leave the kids and know I was going to be so far away, especially after the Amber incident the week before. Anyway thankfully I knew they were in good hands, South African friends of ours Deon and Estelle were going to stay with them, they would commute between our and their house which was about 10 mins away but sleep at our house, that was easier for Jades school and for Amber still being in the crib. Thank God all went well ... Thank you so very much Deon and Estelle, words cannot express how thankful Dave and I are to have had this opportunity to spend this time together kid free :-)

Since you guys have heard so much about Vegas before, I am just going to post some pics that you might not have seen before :-)

We stayed at the Palazzo Hotel which is part of the Venetian which I think is my absolute favorite hotel. This is a picture of the hotel taken one of the nights.




The room was so nice and big it was hard to get a view of the whole room but here you can see part of the bedroom that leads into a lounge area, we had three TV's which was crazy, one in front of the bed which you can see, one in the lounge area and one in the bathroom, yeah I was in Heaven. Between the garden tub that I never used :-( and the massaging show heads, yeah I was in Heaven :-) Lovely hotel room and Hotel in general.



I think we got lucky just having become Americans :-) that this was the week before the Memorial Weekend and they entire Vegas had a Patriotic Theme, I know many would not have appreciated it but I think it finally rang home to Dave and I and even at the Bellagio Fountains, some of the music was Patriotic, I need to add the video sometime but it had me in tears :-) Here are three pics of what they had done in our hotel, I had to walk past this every day, LOVED IT !!!



There was actually a wall of water running behind this, but you can hardly tell by the pictures.



Oh my gosh did I say how much I LOVED the Venetian, I had to walk by this canal every day and some mornings I would just sit there and watch the condalas go by and listen to all the operah singing, LOVED IT !!! This picture was taken on that first day but more later.



We also got to watch the Sirens of TI show that night which was great, only there were so many people from the East that I felt like I was being flash mobbed by a large Easter country half the time. Just one or two pics of the show, I am sure Dave was happy she took his glasses. I wish we had a better vantage point to see the guys boat as well but having seen their show before, although it had changed some, I knew the story line so didn't miss anything much.





I really need to post videos when I get a chance.

Just one of the strip that night :-) I love how this place comes alive at night, not that it is alive 24/7 but at night it is just so sureal, CAN YOU TELL HOW MUCH I LOVE
VEGAS ???



I know that doesn't look like we saw too much on Day 1 but we just walked and checked out as much as we could but I didn't take pics of everything since I knew most of you had seen so much of it already on my two previous trips to Vegas ... OMG I LOVE VEGAS and can't wait to go again :-)

Day 2 on another day and it might not be tomorrow since it is Jades last day of school and there is so much on, huge water fight as she gets off the school bus and graduation party later that night and probably something at the pool the afternoon so big day, let's hope Amber plays along since she had NO NAP today, yep I said NO NAP today and mommy is not thrilled.

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Medal Testing ... Last Time At ISC !!!

This was Jades last medal test at the International Sports Center, I really don't feel she has improved much this year even though I spoke to both the coach and owner of the gym several times so I have decided after years of loving it there, it's time for a move and closer to home would be great too !!!

I am looking into a couple of places but there is one really close by that people seem to like, she would be starting in a starter cheerleading squad where she would train twice a week and would cheer basketball team on a Saturday morning, man that is going to take a lot of getting used to but any sport here that you do seriously takes up a lot of time, including weekend time and travel time. She will not compete this year but if all goes well she will go into a competition squad next year, we will see how it goes. There is a tree day camp there the end of June that I have signed up to do ... we will go on from there.

This was her class this year.



The next trophy she will have to work a lot harder to get :-)



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Ambers Trip To The Emergency !!!

It was Thursday afternoon and I had just started packing for my exciting trip to Vegas with Dave when Amber stood on my scale in the bathroom and it toppled over, she didn't fall hard or anything just put her hands out behind her to break her fall and on her backside, she didn't even hit her head, in fact she didn't even cry till a few minutes later and then I knew something was wrong.

She was sitting there holding her arm in a weird way and point to it saying 'ouch ouch mommy' I picked her up and held her tight till she stopped crying which would usually mean whatever was over with but as soon and I released her little body some, she started screaming and putting my hand back on her arm so I lay down on the bed with her, put the Tv on and tried to give her some water which she refused which is weird also for her.

Then I tried to see if she would move the arm and she wouldn't and when I asked her where it was sort she pointed to the area between her elbow and wrist but I couldn't see anything not a red mark or anything so I didn't know what to do. I then thought I needed to get her shirt off to see if I could see something anywhere else but that wasn't going to happen and when I tried she screamed murder which had me really upset.

I called Dave which was in a meeting but asked him please to come home, something was seriously wrong and I thought she must have broken something, we needed to go to the emergency, thank God for Pam, I called her coz she is in the medical field and knew she would knew exactly where to send me. Shame she pulled off the road coz she was driving to try and calm me down which she did, thanks so much Pam :-) Then phoned around and told me don't go to general emergency or to her Pediatrician go directly to Ortho Carolina which is what we did.

The whole way there she was out of sorts but wasn't screaming anymore but she was sore for sure, that I could still see but the moment we were checked in and ready to go for xrays, she was running around like nothing was wrong, climbing up on stuff and playing with the other kids there, oh my gosh now what ? Dave questioned if we should xray or not but since we were going away the following week I thought it better to be safe than sorry.

Thank God nothing was wrong she was completely fine but the doctor said that is a very common way to break an arm and it probably was sore but thankfully she was ok. My nerves, I was a wreck and now questioning completely whether I should be flying 5 hours away from my kids for like 5 days !!!

Thank God she was ok but yeah, that was our first trip to the emergency and pray God our last !!!

Some Deck Playtime !!!

This was one weekend afternoon and we were playing out on the deck with the new slide that Nana and Oupa bought Amber for her birthday. Yeah Yeah, I know I need a bigger splash pool, I need to go get one but just haven't had the time yet and this one works just fine for now :-) but daddy needs to put the sprayer up that is for sure, more fun will be had that way.

This is a little bathing suit that I bought Amber the end of last year and it is too cute, only she wore it this day and for the life of me, do you think we can find it again, I am so annoyed I have no idea what has happened to it, I have turned the house upside down looking for it without any luck :-( I really hope it turns up before the end of Summer.



Daddy only had to help her once or twice and she wanted to do it on her own. I was freaking a little that she would fall over backwards on the top onto the deck and would hurt herself, especially after our trip to the emergency room last week but she managed just fine, thank God.



This was her face when she hit the bottom :-)



Both my girls having fun ... funny thing is that Jade might be 8 and growing up in so many ways but when playing with her sister, she doesn't get when I tell her, 'baby the slide is for little kids so be gentle so you don't break it ok' I always seem to get a bad look of 'are you calling me fat' (hehehe).



Look at that cute little butt, don't you just want to squeeze it :-)



Oh I love this one, it is so Amber and well you can tell how much fun she is having.



Just chilling :-)





Thank you Nana and Oupa, this was great fun :-) I am sure we will have lots of fun on here this Summer.

Been A While But Going To Try And Catch Up ...

Been a while and there is a lot to catch up on so I am sorry there will be very little text and I will just try and post as many pictures as I can.

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This was the beginning of May, I had a South African get together at our house and this picture is for my brother ... see we have good pies here too but I had to make these myself. It's the first time I have made the individual ones and they turned out really well :-)



We had loads of food as usual, homemade pies, bobotie, bbq chicken, pampoen cookies, veggies, bbq beans, bread rolls, oh and how could I forget, boerewors from one of the SA stores :-) Dessert was melva (spelling ) pudding and homemade custard and peppermind crisp pie and ice cream. All being very yummy.



Thank you to all who attended and contributed to this great spread, we try and do this at least once a year but we should to it more often, it was fun.