Thursday, November 05, 2009

the Visit, reVamping, and Vegas - part 1: INTRO

we have been waiting for nearly two months for my parents to come out and see our new home. they kept offering to come out with us when we moved and help us unpack and all that, but they have always done all the hard work for us everywhere we have moved that we decided to give them a well-deserved break this time. besides, they had already done all the hard work in pennsylvania packing us up to move out here. it really wouldn't be fair to make them do double work, now would it? additionally, I figured it would also be a good opportunity to get bobby's family in on the action and to get to know our new church family during the unpacking process. well, neither really happened due to miscommunication, and we did almost all of the unpacking on our own. haha. oh well, it was probably good for us.

but ANYway... we tried to work really hard to get the majority of stuff unpacked and settled for when my parents could come down. and that day finally came the afternoon of thursday, october 22nd. we really were so proud to show them our very own house, nestled in our little cul de sac, in our cute little neighborhood, in the great town of norman. I think they really liked it and were proud of our accomplishments so far, but right after dinner, we began discussing what projects we were going to work on while we had the time & talent of my super handy dad. bobby went to a meeting at church and we went to lowe's. that was our first of at least 9 or 10 trips there.

work began friday morning (I don't even remember eating breakfast.) the projects on the slate were: replacing the awful plastic accordion door that was taped onto the doorway going into the office with a real door (I can not figure out why they didn't do that in the first place), replacing the mirrored closet doors in our bedroom (not only were they mirrors, but the trim was brass, and the track was broken so it was like lifting a ton just to open them), fixing (which turned into replacing) the glass & trim in the back door, changing out 5 light fixtures, several switches and outlets, and repairing the hole in the attic floor.

it was so great to get all of that done, and really I can't believe we did it all in that short amount of time. we worked most of friday, saturday, and a little sunday, but then we started packing for las vegas! a little explanation in case you have a problem with vacationing in vegas (hopefully you don't) - my parents purchased a thing that is sort of like a timeshare at Tahiti Village in Las Vegas which includes a free vacation there every other year. so we picked this week and off we went. the three of us (mom dad & I) had already been to LV several times, but it was bobby's first time. you can explain vegas all you want to someone, but you really have to be there to fully experience it. I was starting to worry that maybe we had hyped it up a bit too much, but he was not at all disappointed.

We arrived Monday afternoon and it was sunny, but the wind was chilly and we couldn't believe it. we were in the dessert for heaven's sake, it's supposed to be hot all the time, right?!!? we were mostly disappointed because Tahiti Village has an amazing pool area and lazy river, and we had hoped to spend some quality time there. We tried it out for a little while the first day because that was supposed to be the warmest, but the chill was too much and we headed back up to the condo. After getting ready, we headed to the strip for the first time. Fortunately it was just getting dark so we got the full effect of the lights. And thus began the walking... I had warned bobby of the amount of walking we would do and he responded by wearing very comfortable shoes. Did I take my own advice? no. I wanted to look cute so I wore my tall black boots. and yes, I was in a lot of discomfort at the end of the night. oh well.

Since we couldn't go to the pool, we spent the rest of our vacation driving to and walking around the strip mostly. We even ventured to Freemont Street once because bobby really wanted to see the old part town, but it was just too windy and cold, (I had on 4 layers!) so we didn't stay long. Driving around in the rental car was probably my favorite thing to do because it was nice & warm and didn't hurt my feet. haha. Finally by the next to last day I got smart and ditched the fashion sense and went for comfort by wearing tennis shoes. it was so nice.

One of the perks of being an owner at TV is that you get coupons and show tickets, so we went to see the Fab Four Live - a Beatles tribute show. We really weren't too excited about it, and especially after we discovered that we were the only ones under the age of 50 there, but it turned out to be really fun. and the guys were really good. Then we ate at this amazing restaurant called Pampas. It is a Brazilian steakhouse where they bring the meat to your table on a skewer and carve it for you. I really can't explain much more than that so you just have to go to their website.

Bobby and I had a few hours to ourselves one day because my parents had to go to a meeting for all the TV owners so we went to Tropicana, New York New York, and Monte Carlo. We went all the way down one side, then walked all the way back. I'm not sure why. When my parents were done, they picked us up and we went to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. Yum! Then that night, our last night, we got all dressed up (well, my mom & I did) and hit the town again, visiting the Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and the Venetian. It was a great way to end our trip because the next morning we had to fly back to OKC to finish our projects before my parents had to fly back home.

Coming soon...

Part 2 - "vegas pictures"

Part 3 - "the revamping pictures"

1 comment:

Erik Swanson said...

Sounds like a fun trip.