Where have I been and what have I been doing?

I am finally back to check-in and load some pictures. (I've had some complaints about how long I've been gone. Can you believe it? Somebody actually reads this thing!!!) lol
I hope you had a nice Labor Day weekend. We had a trip planned so I just did laundry and packing and spent some time sorting out junk in our storage shed. The girls have been on a yard sale kick lately so we thought it was time to get some stuff sorted out. Boy, that seems so long ago. Where does the time go anyway? And the trip...this is what my wallet looks like...

HA HA....can you guess where we went?
My husband's birthday is September 9th. And this man.....he loves to gamble. He has been planning his birthday trip to Las Vegas since last year!! He can't help it. It's in his blood. His mama and daddy were gamblers. His sister loves to play too so when we go to a casino together, they sit at the blackjack table together. Me? I want something for my money so when he sits to play, I find something else to do. A casino gift shop excites me more than playing slots or 21. Or a lobby or bathroom as you will see if you read farther on. :o)

So starting his LAST birthday, all I have been hearing is "My next birthday is 09-09-09 so we're going to Las Vegas." He even made the reservation, which is pretty big. He usually gives those tasks to me.

But it was actually a really nice trip. He knows how I feel about Vegas so he made it a nice little vacation for both of us. (He's kind of like that, that hubby of mine.) We left Tuesday morning for our four hour drive and stopped at the Nevada state line to stretch our legs. I shopped at the Williams Sonoma outlet while he "played". I got some really cute glasses that I don't have a picture of (yet) and a red bowl/pitcher for mixing up small batches of pancakes or cookie dough. I'll try and post pics later. From there, we headed to the Marriot Grand Chateau to check in. It was a pretty nice place but it is a time share so there is no casino there. Nice for me, not so nice for hubby. We were right on the strip though so it was easy to get around.

Here is the birthday boy on one of our adventures after getting to Vegas. Silverton Hotel has a HUGE fishtank at the entry to the big Bass store that is there. On the weekends they have mermaids swimming around but the only thing we saw were lots of fishies. :o)

We went to the Bellagio Hotel while we were out walking around. Hubby "played" while I went to the botanical garden. If you'd like to see more pictures of that, you can go to my webshots album.

Here's a teaser shot to show you how pretty it was. They have themes for different seasons. They have a little video peek at the Bellagio website here. Click on the lower right corner that says "video tour".

We went to see a show at the Wynn and while there, we walked around to see the ins and outs of the casino. This place is so pretty. Very hoity-toity. I doubt I could ever afford to stay there. This....THIS is the entrance to the bathroom!!! lol

We saw the show, La Réve. Kind of a Cirque du Soleil show but not an official MGM show. You couldn't take pictures during the performance so this is a shot of after it was over. The center is the stage and the entire show is either on the water, in the water or on a platform that pops up. It was expensive (to me) but so worth it. We would spend the money to see it again.

We visited a quilt shop called Quiltique. They are in the BH&G Quilt Sampler magazine that's for sale right now. It's a nice size shop with a nice variety of fabrics and lots of samples all over. And cute little nooks like this one!

After checking out of the hotel on Friday, we went to the Hoover Dam. We had done the tour several years ago so this time we just went to see it on our way home. It's a wonderful thing to see if you are in the area. It's not that far from Las Vegas. Maybe a twenty minute drive.

This is a bridge that is the process of being built. It's going to be amazing when it's done. Heck, it's amazing now!
Now I have some housework and laundry to do.....then to some good sewing! Hope you have been busy playing with your fabric.