Surprise of the Century

To some of you, this will be old news. To others, not so much. Troy turned 30 last week Wednesday. Just after our wedding last year, I started to think about what I could do for his 30th birthday - something awesome. I knew I'd have to plan ahead as I wanted to do something really special, and it'd cost more money than I could spend at once, without saving. So I began to save.

About that time, Troy sold his car, and gave me the money he got for selling it, to put towards another bill. I didn't put it towards that bill, but put it in my savings account (which he doesn't really have access to), as my float. Over time, I ended up paying back my float money, and saving up money for our birthday adventure.

I figured I better plan a diversion, as well - in case he was onto the fact that I have a surprise brewing. SO I planned a surprise party, and despite the fact that I called him from our home number, and told him I was out painting pottery - I managed to pull off the surprise, with the help from a few friends.

Finally November 21st came, and I woke Troy up at 4am to tell him that it was time to get up. He asked me if it was ok if he went back to sleep. I told him "nope - we have a plane to catch". He said "no, really?" over and over and over, until I finally managed to get him up - and believe that his co-worker would be by our house at 5am to pick us up, and take us to the airport where we would catch our flight to Vegas.

Despite being very tired, and Troy being sick, we managed to get ready and off to the airport at 5am, and arrived at the airport with loads of time to check in, and catch our 7am flight.

Off to Phoenix (we got to watch Transformers - which Troy's been really looking forward to seeing), and from Phoenix to Vegas. We arrived at our hotel around noon Vegas time, and checked into The Venetian. If you ever get the opportunity to go to Vegas, try to stay here - it was the most fantastic hotel ever. Our room was gorgeous, with a sunken living room, 3 flat screen tv's and at least 3 phones. King sized bed, Marble 6 piece bathroom, with a view of the Las Vegas strip, and 3 of the Venetians 7 pools below. We were on the 10th floor. It was a fantastic hotel. We ordered lots of room-service, and spent a lot of time exploring the huge hotel. There's a mall, with water canal's winding its way through them, with the sky being something quite indescribable. The Venetian is also home to the "Blue Man Group" whom we saw from the 3rd row, as well as Wayne Brady, whom we saw from the 2nd row. Also, as previously mentioned the Venetian has 7 pools. I think they're going for the "Roman Baths" theme, because they all have varying temperatures, so one is warm, then hotter, hotter, hotter. It was fabulous.

Other than our grand hotel, we took a night flight, helicopter ride over the city and had many amazing views. Then we dressed up, and went to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant which is a 1/2 size replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The restaurant is about 1/3 of the way up, and overlooks the fountains of the Bellagio. We had a magnificent meal, while we overlooked the Las Vegas strip as well as the fountains.

We had the pleasure of seeing the Cirque Du Soleil performance "O" which is their water show, only in Vegas. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen, and I spent much of the show with my hand over my mouth in amazement of what was going on. I would go see that show $1000 more times if I could. WOW.

We toured the Las Vegas strip, taking in things like: Siegfried and Roy's Dolphin and Tiger Habitat, The Forum at Caesar's Palace, the Lions at MGM, the Buffets at both the Mirage and Treasure Island, The Museum of Modern Art, Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum (where I nearly killed a stranger in the creepy scary part, and likely made him deaf in at least one ear), The Guggenheim Museum, we took a ride on the roller coaster at New York - (I closed my eyes throughout the entire ride cause I was scared).

We had a fantastic vacation, and it was a blast to give the one I love so much, such a fantastic birthday present. Thanks to all the people who kept the secret, and also those who helped to pull it off.

I'm SO tired!

I know I should just shut this down and go to bed, but I was just entering into a new realization - I think Blogs, are becoming a thing of the past - at least with my blogging friends. Rarely is there a new post. :( BOO. That makes me sad, I love blogs. I read all kinds of them, and when people stop posting it leaves me in a lurch to find out - what are they up to? Oh well.

I guess at the same time its a tragedy that people resort to blogs and facebook, instead of picking up the phone. I've been shocked lately to see how many people interact on facebook, rather than phoning. Offering breakfast invitations, or dinner plans with someone through facebook, hoping they read it before the deadline. That's too bad. Is our society leaving the personal touch of a phone call, after we've already left the personal touch of a handwritten letter. Where will it go next. Although I do think its sad, I'm the worst of them with phones. 9 times out of 10, my cell is turned off, or the batteries are dead. When it is on, I normally leave it behind, or have it somewhere it can't be reached within 4 rings. Our home phone is different - we do answer that when we're home, but honestly, we're out so much, we have more missed phone calls than we ever have received calls...and I don't much enjoy talking on the phone outside of my occupation anyways. I think being in customer service sort of wrecked that for me.

Anyways - if you're a blogger - I will be divorcing your blog soon if you don't write. :) I know, I'm not one to talk, but I love reading what you have to say, and I'm going to have to go and find some new bloggers to suit my reading pleasure at some point.

In other news, we took Jack for the day today and we sure had a blast. We went to the Zoo. As far as I know, it was his first trip to the Zoo, and it was great. I think he loved it. He was so happy and enjoyable all day! It was great to hang out with him, especially when we went to pick him up this morning, and he had a HUGE smile on his cute little face, and lifted his arms informing me he was wanting a big squeeze from his auntie. I love that little boy!

15 Minutes

I have 15 minutes left on my lunch break, and of course, procrastinating studying - so here I am. For those of you who were dying to know, the surprise 30th birthday party for Troy was fantastic! It was a surprise, and I didn't even ruin it, by calling him from our home phone, and telling him I was at the pottery painting place, painting pottery. I figured I'd totally let the ball slip there, but nope - of course my husbands trusts my every word, and didn't even think twice about it. Cute little him.

It was a great party, and loads of people came to wish him well. I think he really enjoyed it. Now only 1 week, and 1 day from his REAL birthday, and the presents and surprises for that day! I love birthday's.

Speaking of Troy, he's written in his blog a couple times lately, so you should definitely check it out.

The weather in Alberta has been amazing, and I was thinking this morning, how ok I would be if it stayed like this all winter. Snowing from time to time lightly, then melting away; still being cold, but not cold enough to get me into a parka. I love this weather. Its beautiufl.

I think I've been fighting off a cold or flu or something, cause I've been exhausted. I wasn't feeling well for several days, until today actually since the party. I don't know if I spent myself in preparations or what, but I'm feeling better, but still pretty tired.

Only 10 minutes till my lunch is over now, and I better clean off my desk and get ready to get back to work. Thanks for reading my blog!

Snow

We woke up to a beautiful covering of Snow. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't happy to see it, however it already is November 4th, and we have only had snow once since then, so there's not much to complain about, but it was beautiful. It still is beautiful. I think it's still snowing. I'm not positive because although it is only 5:40pm, it is totally dark outside. I won't complain about that either, because I got an extra hour of sleep last night.

That one night a year is always so wonderful when you're sitting up talking with an old friend, and so exhausted thinking - I'd love to stay up and catch up, but I'm so tired, I'm forgetting how to talk, and then someone mentions that we get an extra hour of sleep. WOW. How come we don't have more days like that. I'd be fine with it, if we got one of those ever week. Now I know that means, that half the time we would be sleeping in daylight, and working in the dark, but that's fine with me. Get a good set of curtains and we're all set (ours are fabulous by the way - they were included in our house, and we found out after the fact that they're from Pottery Barn, and they're raw silk! Haha! I would NEVER spend that kind of money on curtains. If they cost me more than $30, they're too expensive.

Anyways. Yeah for an extra hour of sleep.

I'm waiting for our chicken legs to cook, and for "The AMAZING Race" to start. It'll be funny when we look back in 20 years, back to the days of reality television, (who knows where we'll have moved on to by then!), and talk about how much time we wasted, watching other people live lives of adventure from our couches...while we got fatter, and lazier, and they got a great adventure and a lot of exercise. That'll be a good joke on all of us fat people (in 20 years!) Ha. Not so much.

Well - my laundry just finished, so I'll go be a good housewife and finish the laundry. You know what I'd like to do? Go on a shopping spree. I need some new clothes like its nobody's business (and really, it is nobody's business - unless of course you're planning on giving me the money for my shopping spree).

Good Night - enjoy the snow!

S