HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MATT!

18 Years and counting! I have now known Matt just as long as I had lived with my childhood family- 20 years!

I am so amazed that Matt and I have been married for 18 years, where has the years gone? I mean man, aren't I still just 18? Nope, how could that be with an almost 17 year old boy?!

I love Matt so much and I count my blessings everyday that He is my husband. He spoils me rotten, he treats me and the kids not only with the respect that we deserve but as if we are his very best friends (which we are!) We have spent a lot of time together lately and I really can say that I don't tire of him being around. Yes, maybe when he is retired and is hanging around 24-7 I will feel different, but right now I love having him home when he is home. We have started talking about what we will do when they kids move out of our house when they step into the lives as they should! I think that we will do some kind of traveling, live somewhere that I or he love to be (he the mountains, me the ocean- can we do both? a Winter home and a Summer home? hum,we'll see!)

Here is where our trip started 18 years ago.


This is where we went again this year, no, not Circus Circus, but to Las Vegas! Matt got tickets to the Phantom of the Opera and a great hotel room so that we could go to other shows the next night. We ended up going to the Knights of the Round Table Tournament and Dinner Show, it was really fun!



Phantom of the Opera even though it wasn't the Broadway version was Phantasmal! I loved the surroundings (in the Venetian,) the stage design, the singing and yes, the Phantom was great! The only thing that I didn't like was the fact that the music from the Orchestra was louder than the singers so sometimes you really had to strain to hear what they were singing!

We loved the shows but not the Vegas experience, it was hot (114*)! it was dirty, it was crowded, I mean it was after all a few days before the 4Th, and last but not least, we are far from being Gamblers and so there wasn't much of an attraction to the lobby of the hotel (except for Starbucks right before turning in!)

Even though the Vegas Experience wasn't that great, I really did enjoy walking around the Venetian- it is so intriguing to me to visit Europe that I really had fun watching the different things going on at this hotel. I thought that the live statue was amazing, how some guy can stand for hours on end not moving and looking so marble like is beyond my realm of thinking. I think after 10 minutes, I would have had to scratch my nose, batted an eye more than every few minutes or maybe having someone standing next to me while some one took our picture I would just have to smile. But this guy stood pan still, never even looked like he was blinking and never showed the pressure! That to me is amazing!



I wanted to go on the Gondola ride, but the first time we went into the Venetian, they were having a wedding and the Bride and Groom were being escorted to their wedding site by gondola. The next time it was just plan busy!!!

We ate at Outback and Denny's- what the heck! Why do we pick stuff that we can go to at home?? Hum, I don't know?! Matt says it is because we are boring. I think it is because it was so crowded and we knew that it would be better to stick with something safe so that we got food that was actually edible. Okay---- we are boring!


I really enjoyed our alone time together and the trip went too fast, but since it was Las Vegas when Tuesday rolled around we were happy to be going home!