Every Day is a New Day: Time away at Lake Las Vegas

Leaving MN

Our vacations together include going back to ND or before it was sold, to the cabin (both with kids of course) and before kids, our honeymoon nine years ago. So we decided to go on vacation just the two of us, what?! It actually took us months to decide where we wanted to go and could afford to go, plus figuring out the logistics of who was watching our kids and how they were getting there. We finally got it all figured out and Derek found Lake Las Vegas, which is about 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas. Derek goes to Vegas every December for a conference, but I had never been. We stayed at the Westin on Lake Las Vegas, it was pretty nice, with two pools, a sandy beach, kayaking, and a yummy brunch on the weekends. It was super great not staying on the Strip, as we don't smoke, gamble or drink...so not really our scene, but we did spend one day there, really interesting and I'm glad I experienced it.

When we flew in, it was 106 degrees, the hottest day we were there. We checked out some stores and napped at our hotel, because we could :) The rest of the days weren't too bad temperature wise, still warm, but bearable.

We did the touristy thing and went to Hoover Dam, which is really crazy interesting. It's just insane how many ingenious things they did way back in 1931 that all just worked. And the fact that it was built in just two years, the thing is ginormous! Lake Mead is right there and a beautiful body of water.

We sat by the pool and read, went swimming and kayaking a bunch, ate good food and even met up with my childhood best friend who lives in Vegas, so fun!

Our favorite part...no schedules. We did what we wanted, when we wanted, it was WONDERFUL! We slept in a little, ate dinner late, watched HGTV (we don't have cable or satellite) and went to bed late :) It was just us, super fun and good for our marriage. Of course we missed our kids like crazy and every time we saw other kids or kid's activities, we would think, "Hakan and Adeline would love this!" They had a blast in ND with Derek's mom and cousins and we face-timed with them almost every day.

We did come to the conclusion that we don't ever think we could live in the desert...like ever. We like the color green too much. Flying back to MN and looking out the window was beautiful. Not that the desert isn't pretty, just a different kind of pretty and maybe not for us.

30 weeks

I really really love this man! And he really doesn't like selfies ;)

At one time the water was as high as the white rock, it's super low right now.

Derek visited Arizona for the first time while at Hoover Dam, and loved me making him take a picture ;)

Lake Mead

First time eating here...have to say I like 5 guys better.

We decided to splurge just one time on a meal and ate at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, Cut...not cheap, but it was good. We were also under dressed and I think our waiter kind of pre-judged us as not heavy spenders, rightly so I guess, but kind of rude.

This pizza! So so good, from Five50 Pizza Bar at the Aria. And one of my favorite things, a frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity (you can actually order your own mix here, it's awesome!)

On the Strip, everyone on the sidewalks we passed stared at this belly, even got some shouts like, "About ready to pop!" "Any day now!" "Whoa!" Yeah, 10 weeks left...