The Gailey's

The Gailey's

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Better late than never...right?

In January, Keith and I went to Vegas for 5 days. It was a business trip for Keith, but I got to tag along this time and have some fun and relaxation without the kiddos. It was a really good break from everyday life, a chance to catch up on my sleep, be spoiled by going out to eat for every meal and having our room cleaned every day, see my sister-in-law and some friends, and enjoy some quality time with my hubby:) For some reason, Blogger puts the pics in reverse order so the trip is backwards but it will do...

Our last night I was treated to the Beatles Love show by Cirque d'Solei (however you spell that I don't really know). It was a REALLY good show with lots of great Beatles songs telling their story from beginning to end of their career together. It always amazes me the tricks and stunts these talented people do...truly amazing!!!Before the show we went for dinner at Eva Longoria's new restaurant, Beso. It was in the City Center mall, part of our humongous hotel. We didn't see anyone famous, but the food was so delicious:)

Saturday afternoon Keith's friend Mike (college friend and groomsmen in our wedding) took us to race at Pole Position. We definitely have to get one of these in our town! SO much fun and trust me, the cars go FAST!!!

Mike and Jen's little boy, Trent, having a snack while watching the big boys race.
This night we hit the local bar for their well-known half off margaritas. I could not believe the pages and pages of margarita concoctions...too many to choose from! Well, not really:)
Here's Krish and Amber (they came with us to Vegas)
Mike and Jen (live in Vegas and love it)
The boys
The ladies (most of us)

Beth Ann, my favorite sister-in-law:) She lives in Vegas, too.
Our hotel had a pretty fountain that lit up at night. I caught a few good pics

We walked from City Center to MGM Grand, then back the other way all the way down to Fashion Show Mall. Now, if you're not familiar with Las Vegas I'll be the first to tell you...DO NOT walk that far!!! It's a lot further than you realize! I'm so glad we met Beth Ann there and she was able to drive us back down the strip to our hotel...thanks Beth Ann:) We took lots of pics of the different hotels, but just posted a few of the newer ones since our last visit.
When we walked into MGM Grand they were just starting to feed the lions. Talk about perfect timing! It was incredible seeing the lion and lioness so close-up. They're much bigger in person. The trainers threw food up onto the glass so we could see them real close-up and you could hear their teeth hitting the glass. Pretty cool!
This is Aria, the hotel we stayed in which just opened in mid-Dec. It's part of City Center which is absolutely huge! I think there's about 5 different hotels and a mall. It's big enough that it has it's own monorail between hotels!
City Center (some of it anyway)
View from our room...very pretty when all lit up at night:)
Entrance to casino in Aria
A really cool waterfall along the front entrance
The mall in City Center was still being worked on but these stairs were gorgeous! SO fancy!!! I don't think I recognized more than 3 stores in this mall...Tiffany's, Kate Spade, and Luis Vuiton. But I don't even shop in those. It was fun to browse though:)

Look closely at this next pic...glass containers filled with little twisters!

These next pics are actually from our first night in town. Keith and Krish were actually there for CES (the biggest consumer electronics show of the year). At night, companies host their customers to big parties with food, drinks, and desserts, in cool suites or clubs to show their appreciation. There's a real funny story behind this first pic. See the lights on the floor behind me? They're actually under about 4 in of water along the wall. This is supposed to be a hallway of some sort but no one realized there was a little "pool" there and kept tripping and falling into it! So, they put these chairs up to stop the falls. The first few were guys and they just got their shoes wet. Then a girl tripped and fell flat on her face. She was just soaked! Poor thing had to leave to get dry and changed.

This was probably the coolest thing we saw...a pool on the balcony of this huge suite that overlooked the strip. How neat would that be to actually swim there when it's warm outside???

Huge chair beside the pool also with a great view. Our first dinner out. We thought the service was slow because they just opened up, but it was slow everywhere in our hotel! Great food, tho! So glad the kids weren't there. There's no way we could've waited that long.

Well, like I said it was a GREAT break but glad to be home and back in our normal routine:) The kids were so good for the sitters while we were gone. No crying on the phone to us or anything! I'm definitely looking forward to this treat every year!!!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Kassidy's Cheerleading Dance

That's right! The girls performed their dance for the first time last week. It was really cute and they did a great job:) There's still some more to learn so stay tuned...games were cancelled today due to ice but next week they'll be back.




Saturday, January 16, 2010

Christmas 2009

Christmas started off this year with Sarah and Lindsey stopping over. "The girls" as they are often referred to have babysat for us since Kassidy was born and have become like family to us:) The kids are always so excited to see them since we don't see them as often now that they have careers. Anyway...this was the first time Karson has been around presents and it was so funny watching him! He started out just patting his present... Then tried to eat his present...
Then put his fingers in the whole made by big sis...
And finally by ripping a piece of wrapping paper off!!!
Kassidy loved her new baby Ariel
Kaleb, as always, super excited to get more cars!
The kiddos with Sarah (L) and Lindsey (R)...Thanks so much girls:)
The week of Christmas Kaleb made some special reindeer food in therapy. There was a cute little poem explaining that if you sprinkle the food on your lawn on Christmas Eve the reindeer will stop at your house to eat it!
Picking out cookies for Santa...Karson just wanted to grab and eat them!
Ready to see if Santa came..
Checking out the mess left by the reindeer
Santa filled their stockings and brought Kassidy the Santa hat she wanted (I still don't know what made her ask for that, but she did every time you asked her) and Flo from the Cars movie for Kaleb.
A new Christmas lift the flap book from Santa
New wallet for mommy
The kids got new Christmas headbands! Way to go Santa:)
A new bridge for his train table
So happy for a new Tinkerbell game
Kassidy made a boy for Kaleb (did you ever make these when you were little??? A lot of fun! You put the colored beads on the template and then iron it to mold it together...very easy) Just a side note-Don't let your 9 month old get a hold of it or it's head might pop off!
Cool thing for his cars

New sport coat for daddy
Grandpa Gailey and Julie got the kids lots of FUN games:)

Probably his favorite of all presents...Lightning McQueen slippers from Aunt Beth Ann
She was SO excited about this new dress...and of course wanted to wear it the next day Always a hit in our home...Cavs outfit for Karson

Showing off her new sparkly headband
New paints and a cool Handy Manny motorcycle thing you can fix with his tools

Kassidy picked out this shirt for daddy
Kassidy picked this out for me!
Nothing like a nap on Christmas day:)
The final ornament (star) goes on our Jesse Tree. The kids had such a fun time putting on a different ornament every day and learning a little bit about the Christmas story too.
Krish stopped by that night with gifts for the kids...they adore Krish!
As always the kids were super spoiled by the whole family. They got so many great games, clothes, toys, crafts, etc. Kassidy's favorites are the Polly Pocket roller coaster and dolls/clothes, new dresses, curtains for her bedroom, and earrings. Kaleb's favorites are his new cars, Thomas the Train stuff, slippers, and Cavs jersey. The kids also had an ornament exchange with their cousins which they really enjoyed. Kassidy got a cute Cinderella and the carriage ornament, Kaleb's was Thomas the Train, and Karson got one for his 1st Christmas. We can't thank everyone enough for all of the kids (and ours) gifts!!!!! We are blessed to have such caring family and friends. We love you all (and miss you!!!) so much:) Hope you all had just as great a Christmas season as we did!