50th Birthday Recap and Pictures~!

It was a wonderful, exhausting time! We drove up to Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea's home in Phx. on Tuesday night. THe picture of the sunset is one that I took on I-10 going 80 (ish) m.p.h. I was alone because Sparky was driving a small U-Haul, having loaded it with the last of the furniture and stuff from Sweet Pea's old life at home with her mum and pop. :-) Little L, of course, wanted to ride in the U-Haul.

When we got there, Sweet Pea had grilled some chicken and asparagus. I ate all of her grilled asparagus. YUMMY! She has promised to make me some when I come up for my birthday in a few weeks. We finally all settled in for the night with plans to get up EARLY! and get on the road!

Yeah, right. So when we got on the road at 10 (ish) we drove through Hoover Dam. The water was that wonderful green that I love. When Sparky's parents came for Sweet Pea's wedding we took them to the Dam and I was SO disappointed that the water was a dark grey/blue that day. THIS is the color green I wanted them to see! Oh well. So we stopped to take a few pictures (like we don't have a gazillion already) and our cell phone rings. Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea (who were driving to Vegas in their own car) were ahead of us now and SAW OUR SILOUHETTE up on the ridge of the dam. That is just plain FREAKY. So she calls us and we look down on the road and sure enough, she is waving out of their moon roof. What a riot! I love when stuff like that happens! We ran into each other at the Dam!!!

Back to driving and we arrive in Vegas. We check into Paris ( a hilton hotel in Vegas) and have a view of the Arc de Triumphe. I hope I spelled that right because I don't feel like looking it up. We also had a view of parts of the strip and the city. Very nice updated room. We showered and got ready for dinner at the Paris buffet. Sparky loves this buffet because they have odd meats like duck and lamb that I refuse to cook. He had a wonderful birthday dinner and then Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea took him to see Spamalot. Little L and I took a walk down the strip and went to see the Lions at MGM. They were not on display for some reason and we took a picture of her by the sign. Next we walked over to N.Y.N.Y. and played in the arcade for a bit and then to the Coke store. We were so tired so we walked back to the room.

Soon we met up with everyone. Little L wanted to just read and go to sleep. Hello? So we triple locked her in the room (she is 18 after all so it's ok! but feels weird to me still) and the four of us went down to gamble. We finally went to bed about 2:30 am.

The next day we had a chocolate croissant for breakfast and Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea took Little L for several hours. They took her to lunch at Rainforest Cafe and to the Gameworks. Sparky and I ran around the strip. We stopped to pick up tickets to see Phantom of the Opera. The little bets that we placed were good to us. No major wins or loses until I tried to play roulette (lost), craps (lost), and blackjack (wanna guess? lost) and people say the table games are better than the slots! I guess it helps if you actually know how to play the table games! So anyway - we ended up a few bucks.

That night we all met up. Sweet Pea and Mr. Sweet Pea had tickets for Penn and Teller and we went off to the Phantom of the Opera. OH.MY.WORD. It was awesome!!! SO incredible with the live orchestra. So beautiful with the chandelier and opera house. It was just amazing. We only felt that it seemed a touch rushed because we are used to the movie (which is terrible to compare it to) but I mean the music and parts of the story obviously had to be condensed compared to the film. But we were so happy to see it and I would see it again!

Again we won on a penny machine that night ($100.00) and now had all the money we came with plus some. We went to bed about 1:30 but not before I enjoyed half of an eclair from the french bakery downstairs! Heaven on earth.

The next day we were soooo tired. We walked around a bit and hit a few stores but we were very tired. We were HOT too! The weather was getting warmer and warmer. We wanted to get back to Sweet Pea's and visit for a bit. We drove and as the sun set and twilight kicked in, we saw the most amazing moon rising over the mountains, full and pink. I couldn't get great pictures but it was truly beautiful.

The picture of Sparky with the hookers - I mean showgirls - was a lucky coincidence. He happened to be in the lobby and saw the girls. He was wondering if it would be polite to take a picture from a distance to "show them at work" (yeah right) and I said forget that! You are 50 today! I marched over and asked the girls to pose with the old man and they loved it.

It was a great memory and I hope Sparky enjoyed his Glen Livet even if the hookers were only his dreams. Hey, there is always his 60th birthday!