Vegas, Baby, VEGAS!!!

Yes, we took a baby to Vegas.  I know it sounds crazy but Tory goes every year for his birthday/March madness and I figured going along for the trip was better than staying home for 5 days with the baby and no help.  So we went!  Overall we had a great time.  We stayed at Vdara, which was luxurious and also family friendly (no casino, no smoking, kitchen in the room).  The sun only came out on the first few days so we took advantage and got some pool time.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures until we were ready to go, and I only knew it was time to leave because someone had just woken up from her nap :(

The weather wasn't great for most of the trip, but we had lots of fun inside anyway.  We played A LOT, as she's getting closer to crawling every day, and I watched the NCAA games while she slept. (I also read The Hunger Games in 2 days!)  I thought it would be challenging feeding Skyla without her trusty high chair, but we made do and she was a happy camper!  Right after are a couple of shots of some of the rough housing we did ;)

As much as we loved having a kitchen in our room we never quite figured out how to use the oven/microwave.  We put an Eggo in for two minutes and the crazy Jetsons microwave shrunk it down to half its size!

By far the best part of the trip for me was my afternoon at the spa!  I got there early so I could use the hot tub and sauna, then I got an amazing facial.  I also got to hang out in the "Relaxation Room" for a while, where I easily could have stayed for hours. (This was the only shot I could get without getting anyone else in the background, but you get an idea of how beautiful the place is).

 One of the other big highlights of the trip was going out to dinner at a fantastic Italian restaurant at Aria.  (For those of you who aren't familiar with this Vdara or Aria, they're part of a newish section of Vegas called City Center.  It's all connected so I just stayed there the whole time like it was a resort and never dared take the baby out onto the strip with all the crowds...)  Our waiter was Italian so we had a little chat and I told him we're raising Skyla bilingual.  The food was awesome and they even brought us a cute little dessert on the house!

  Our one big adventure out on the town was going to the world-famous Hash House A-Go-Go.  Tory learned about it from the show "Man vs. Food" and they have been going there for years.  There is always a line so Skyla and amused ourselves in the car during the long wait.

One of the big draws of the place is the ENORMOUS portions.  I had to snap a few pics because I knew no one would believe me otherwise.  No, I am not about to eat a gigantic burger -- it's a portabella mushroom sandwich.  Skyla always looks adorable (in my eyes) but her outfit was especially cute on this occasion because they have sort of a 50's theme and she reminded us of Rosie the Riveter:

Our other big restaurant adventure was Yard House on Sunday night.  It used to be more exciting for us to go there but now that there's one in San Jose it's not quite as exotic.  The food was great but little Miss Thang decided she didn't want to sleep, so we had to keep her entertained with whatever we could find (toys, spoons, napkins, then eventually straws.)

The final step in our adventure was taking the plane back home.  Amazingly enough I didn't take a single picture of our trip out there, and I could have taken about 5 million with how long we were at the damn airport!  We were delayed for no less than SEVEN hours because of rain in San Fran.  We thought about going back home and coming back later, but decided not to for several reasons: they refused to tell us exactly when our flight would leave; there was a small chance we could fly standby on an earlier flight; and most important of all, the Virgin America terminal at SFO is by far the nicest terminal I've ever been in!  We got to watch the game at a bar that was totally fine with Skyla being there (we could have never done that in the city), they had awesome restaurants from famous chefs, and they even had a Pink Berry!  Skyla literally slept the whole time so we just hung out with Nan and made the best of the situation.  Luckily our flight home was uneventful.  I snapped a few picks of our attempt to distract the little one by playing Bejeweled on Tory's iPad.  That worked for about 5 minutes, and she pretty much ate or slept the rest of the way :)

Even though we had a great time, I can safely say we will not be going back there as a family for a really long time.  If Skyla was walking or even crawling, it wouldn't have been much fun for anybody.  But as it was we had a wonderful time as a family and made lots of great memories.

Hangin with the fam

The fam came over a while back so my mom could get some computer help from Tory and so they could all get some baby time.  Skyla's big cousin Roma was super excited to hang out with her and they had a great time as always!  They got right to work playing with some of the toys Roma had given Skyla as a gift:

 And Grandpa added to the fun by having Skyla try on his hat (as well as a bag...)

 Fun times were had by all :)

Fun times around the house

We've been having lots of fun lately around the house.  Part of that is because we've finally gotten some rain and part of it is that Skyla is so interactive now so I love it!  In the first one she's practicing rolling over/pushing herself up.  I finally got smart and brought out my ginormous preggo pillow because it's perfect for rolling around on.

And here, chillin' like a villain on the Boppy: 

Her new favorite toy is this adorable Winnie the Pooh from her Uncle Nan.  We think she likes it because it's the same size as her!

 A glimpse of our exciting Saturday night: we built a fort and watched a movie -- pretty exciting stuff!

Skyla, Pooh, and Daddy having a great time and making me so happy :)

The other day when I was making the bed in the guest room I asked Skyla to "help" me.  She was happy to oblige.  She looked so adorable and so tiny in the big bed that I had to take some pics.  It will be fun to look back some day when she's much bigger for comparison!

And finally, a few more shots of her with her new best friend Pooh: