A Birthday & Bocce Ball

We had my family over to celebrate my mom's birthday on Friday night.  Drinks, dessert and games.  Never a dull moment with my family.  That's why I love 'em. 

They're a bunch of competitive, game loving, loud and perfect people. 

I purchased glow in the dark bocce ball a few weeks back, thinking that our new yard is perfect for this game.  And it was.

However, little did I know how my mom and her sister would flip this family oriented game toward the dark side.  I should have known...

Happy Birthday Mom!  Here's to next year maybe getting the real things!! :)

Poem

Here's my sweet grandpa's poem for my birthday.  He does it for everyone's birthday and it's my favorite part of any family get together.  My poem's usually consist of booze and this one is no different.

Thanks Grandpa!!

And thanks to the rest of my family for celebrating with me last night.  I'm so blessed to have an amazing family!

Veg Post

Almost a month ago (I know), we headed to Vegas for my cousin's 21st bday with the girls of the family.  I feel like I was just there for my 21st.  It's only been about 8 years.  Yikes!

When I think about Vegas, I think about sun, drinks, and roulette.  When we got there, it was 55 degrees and rainy.  Ew. 

But here's how we arrived in Vegas...

After we headed to our hotel to drop off our bags, we stopped at a slot machine and then went straight to the Bingo parlor.  If you've never played Bingo in Vegas, please do so ASAP.  It's one of my favorite things to do.  Partly because of the people watching, fanny packs, and lucky trolls, but also because of the free drinks and the evil looks we always get.  Bingo regulars are not fond of new comers who find the whole thing absolutely hilarious. 



Gma won $400!





Mom and I

Mother of bday girl, Bday girl & Gma

The aftermath....

We ended up playing 3 rounds of Bingo with some gambling in between before we headed back to the hotel to eat pizza and get ready.  My aunt found out that Bridget was wearing a sequin dress and ended up buying sequin dresses in different colors for everyone else.  So here's what you get on your 21st when you go out with my family....

Getting carded.  Ignore the super creeper in the back.

Where else can you play beer pong in sparkly dresses besides Vegas?

Bridget and I ended up beating a team of boys who were distraught about it.  Don't mess with Kansas girls.

 The next day it was a lot warmer out and we all headed to the pool and shopping.  We stayed at the Flamingo and they have an amazing pool!  Highly recommended.

Here's the wasted couple in front of us.  Well, I'm not even sure they were a couple... the wasted make out partners in front of us.  That is a bucket on his head and she is straddling him, in case you can't get a good look.



Bar outside our hotel



This was taken after my aunt kept yelling, 'get a picture with the big balls!!'

$1 Margs



Some roulette at O'Shays.  Please notice our chips in front of us...we were all doing very well



Thanks to this that kept hitting!



Wedding chapel.  I swear it was the same one on Friends.





Martini bar at our hotel after a long day of walking around



Out for the last night... wish we would have had one more day/night.  Always such a fun trip with the girls I love!!

Muah!

Shake It Like A Salt Shaker

Hello, It's May.  Just realized that I only blogged once in April.  Oops! 

My excuse is that April was busy.  I went to Hutch for Easter, Vegas for my cousin's birthday, and Chicago for my friend's bachlorette party.  That's a lot of traveling in one month. 

So I have lots of pictures and stories to share. 

I'll start with Easter and my adventure.  Hutch is crazy, they have things like the Cosmosphere and the Underground Salt Museum.  I've been to the Cosmosphere multiple times, but I've wanted to check out this underground museum for a long time.  Knowing my husband wouldn't go with me because he is a scaredy cat, the opportunity had never come up.  Until my awesome father-in-law asked me if I wanted to go.  Um, yesss!! 

Apparently salt mines have a certain temp/humidity that prevents things from deteriorating.  The awesome part was that nothing that goes down comes back up.  So there was lots of trash from 50-60 years ago that looked new.  They also store famous/important material in the salt mine for safe keeping.  I'll get to that later...

We had to wear hard hats and emergency air packets.  I think this would be the point Tony would have turned around :) 
I think they are stylish...

Here's the pics I took from underground:

Guy from dirty jobs - the salt mine was on the show.

Trash pile from 1945.  Lots of coke bottles and cigarette boxes.

 The coolest part of the whole thing was seeing the memorabilia from movies.

Fighting gloves from Ali

Men in Black glasses - worn by Tommy Lee Jones

Men in Black guns - used by Will Smith

Original Batman Costume - worn by George Clooney

Mr. Freeze Costume -

Superman Costume-

Wonka bars from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Fighting Shield from Troy- used by Brad Pitt

An original newspaper from the day President Lincoln was assasinated

Dorothy II from Twister

All of the original film reels from most of the movies made

Loved every minute of it.  And loved getting to share it with someone so special.

P.S. they do wedding receptions down there... how hilarious is that? 

'everyone strap on your hard hat for the macarana...'