Weekend Update: Viva Las Vegas!

Jay and I celebrated our July 4th weekend in Las Vegas. Shawn, Jay's best friend from college, and his girlfriend Juvy were celebrating Shawn's birthday and we were happy to join the festivities! 

Jay wanted to get there early, so we were out the door at 4am and on the road. I tried to get back to sleep a bit before the sun came up with no luck, but did enjoy the beautiful sunrise over the desert!

We arrived at the Palms Las Vegas a little after 9. Juvy's old high school friend Thomas has VIP status at the resort, so we started the weekend off right with reserved chairs by the pool for Ditch Friday. If you have ever seen the MTV show "Rehab" it's pretty much the same thing - a big pool party for adults. Chairs/seating is in high demand for this, so we were thrilled to have our own piece of real estate with front-row seating (prime for some serious people-watching!).

Jay cooling off. 

The pool was packed! 

DJ AM (Adam Goldstein) was the DJ for Ditch Fridays. For those of you who aren't familiar with him - he was the one that survived the plane crash last summer. He was rockin'!

Me and the birthday boy Shawn.

After a full day at the pool (nearly 9 hours!), we headed back to the hotel for a nap. We ended up sleeping for 5 hours and woke up at 11pm! We showered and headed back to the Palms for a night at Moon. Again, Thomas' VIP status was awesome! I swear he knew everyone that worked at the resort! We walked right to the front of the lines, got escorted by a special concierge in the VIP elevator, and had a reserved table all night. Just like at Ditch Fridays, tables (i.e. real estate) are precious and hard to get! I didn't bring my camera on Friday night, so sorry, no pictures.

Saturday morning, we got up around 10 and headed back to the Palms pool. This time we had a cabana and can I tell you that I am so glad we did! Somehow I managed to get a sunburn on Friday (even with SPF 50), so I stayed "inside" most of the day while everyone else continued to work on their tans. 

View (up) from the cabana

Our home for the day - refrigerator, flat-panel tv, misters and a fan...we were in style for sure!

Me & my man

After the day at the pool we headed to Hooters for some wings. Jay had mentioned getting wings on Friday night and we all were still craving them by Saturday! After that, a quick nap, then back to the Palms! Thomas had a little tour planned for us, so we started at N9NE Steakhouse for a cocktail before heading up to GhostBar. 

Juvy & Shawn at N9NE

Jay and I

Thomas and Juvy 

View from GhostBar

On the patio at GhostBar (it's open air and on the 55th floor overlooking the strip)

Then, we headed to Rain and Moon. 

Rain

Thomas talking with our VIP concierge while Juvy, Shawn, Jay and I wait for the elevator to Moon. 

Our table at Moon

The 4 of us at Moon

Wow! I'm exhausted just reliving this weekend while writing this post. It was a lot of sun, a lot of late late late night partying, and a lot of junk food eating! Such a great time had by all. And once again, we are back in Phoenix and back to work planning another weekend away. This time we're thinking somewhere a bit cooler...stay tuned for the continuation of Davis Travels 2009!

Weekend Update: WY Wyoming!

This past weekend took us to Wyoming. The company I work for sells ranch land up there and I was in charge of planning a BBQ/Sales Event in Laramie. I was so happy that Jay was able to come with me on another business trip!

Wyoming is a beautiful place. It's hard to even put in words how much I loved it! Pictures barely do it justice, but until you have a chance to explore yourself, pictures will have to do! All I can say is that standing out there in the middle of this 23,000 acre ranch made me speechless! So, in an effort to not take away from it's beauty, here is our weekend in *mostly* pictures (lots and lots of pictures):

Our transportation from Phoenix to Laramie. My boss has a share in this beautiful King Air 300.

My view for the flight

Jay acted as co-pilot for the flight. That's Captain Bill in the left seat. I knew we were in good hands!

Bill was awesome and let me "fly" with Jay for over 30 minutes. I must admit that I got a little weepy up there. I miss flying so much!

Laramie welcomed us with this awesome storm! We landed right before it came through. The wind was whistling and it poured!

Driving to the ranch (following my boss in the truck ahead). It's ahead on the left.

Ranch entrance

Now we're on the ranch. You can see the Snowy Range in the distance (you can see it better if you click on the photo to enlarge).

Little Laramie River

Antelope checking us out

Aspen Cottage - where Jay and I stayed

The sales office is 6.2 miles in from the entrance. On the left is the tent for the BBQ, then the bunkhouse, then the sales office (red roof), and the barn on the far right.

Sales office

There are over 300 wild horses that roam the ranch.

Baby horse - Jay insists I call it a colt. Regardless, very cute!

Beautiful Wyoming

Lake Hattie

The sun setting over the ranch. It was so nice to have it light so late up there! Us Arizonans are used to it being dark by 7:30ish and it was light here until well after 9!

Saturday morning this is what I woke up to. Jay found a gun and was hunting prairie dogs from the front porch.

Jay was so helpful! We drove along the road and tied balloons on the signs to direct people to the BBQ. It was quite a challenge due to some serious winds that day!

I had arranged ponies and goats to be there for the kids to enjoy. I enjoyed them too :)

Baby goat JuJu

Another thing I arranged was old time photos for guests to take home with them as souvenirs. This is one of my favorites.

While I was working at the BBQ, Jay hung out at the welcome center (off the main road) to direct guests to the right place. Doesn't he look so stressed out?

More horses

Sunday morning, Jay was back outside hunting for critters.

Look what I had for breakfast on Sunday - S'mores and coffee. Can't beat that!

THIS is the life. It was a beautiful morning. When we grow up, I want a porch so I can enjoy my coffee like this. Pure heaven.

I grabbed a picture on Sunday of the BBQ setup before people arrived.

Before we headed to the airport, we took a quick drive to Centennial, WY. Notice the population is 100, hence the name. It was a very cute little town.

Back to Arizona

We both just loved Wyoming and look forward to more adventures there in the future. My company has ranches in Casper and Cheyenne, so perhaps we'll go there next!

UPDATED Weekend Update: Kansas City

Due to popular request, I have updated this post with a couple photos of Jay and I dressed up for the wedding. I had to "steal" them from Jay's cousin's Facebook account because the pics on my camera came out too dark. Thanks Bryan!!

Last night, Jay and I returned from a wonderful trip to Kansas City. We travelled there for his cousin Kyle's wedding, but were lucky to also have a very nice visit with his parents, Todd, May, and the boys. We arrived Friday afternoon and were greeted with smiling faces as they woke up from their naps:

Saturday morning while May was at work, the rest of us headed to the park. Check out the cowlicks on the boys - so cute!
We all got fancied up and grabbed a family photo before the wedding:
It was a beautiful candlelit ceremony:
During the Unity Candle ceremony, they had everyone in the church hold a candle as well. It was very unique and a very nice touch!
The reception was at a 4-level bar called The Cashew. Luckily that was just the name & no actual nuts were served :)
Thanks to Jay's cousin Bryan, we got a few great pictures of us :) I can't help but say how handsome my husband is!! I mean, seriously, isn't he?

Photo Courtesy of Bryan Bruner

Photo Courtesy of Bryan Bruner

Beautiful view of downtown from the reception. It was all open-air which, despite the humidity was nice!

On Sunday, Father's Day, we enjoyed some time in the pool. This was the first time the boys had been in the pool, so it was fun to experience this milestone with them! Overall, it was a success!
Check out Liam in his hat. He really didn't like it at first, but eventually decided to keep it on.
Xander found a comfortable place to chill out and watch tv!
Of course it was a whirlwind but we enjoyed every minute! We are leaving again on Friday for another adventure. Stay tuned for more fun!

I couldn't resist...

...and had to bring home these beauties from the market yesterday. Aren't they beautiful? They remind me of our wedding weekend last year where we had these decorating our tables at our rehearsal dinner: 

*smile*