Family Trip to Vegas

We spent this past week in Las Vegas. It has become my home away from home. This was the second time I've been there in the last three months. This time it was a family vacation. We flew out last Monday night on a direct Allegiant flight. Amelia was super excited to ride on an airplane. She is a pro at spotting them flying in the sky and always makes sure to point them out. She loved seeing them up close at the airport.

Amelia has always been an awesome traveler, and this was no exception. Within 5 minutes of taking off she was asleep and she was out the entire way. She did wake up crying when we started to land. I think the pressure in her ears scared her. She cried and whined for about 5 minutes then was back asleep.

She slept all the way through the airport, then finally woke up at baggage claim. She was excited to see her stroller and carseat again. She was pretty upset when we had to check them in. We got to skip the entire taxi line and jump right in a cab and be on our way. We took our carseat just for the ride to and from the airport, and we are glad we did. It was a bit of a pain to carry through the airport, but we didn't have to go far with it. We weren't required to have it. The cab driver said most people just hold their kids in the car. We all know how risk-averse I am, so it was worth it to have the peace of mind. You never know when you could have a car accident.

Aside... I am so risk-averse that this is my second consecutive trip to Las Vegas where I didn't gamble a single cent. The closest I got to gambling was trying to win a stuffed animal for Amelia out of the claw machine at Denney's. (I didn't get it.) There is no way we were riding in a taxi without a car seat. We thought maybe there were certain taxis that had car seats in them. Then I thought about my daughter sitting in a communal taxi cab carseat and that was out of the question. We were taking our own even though we only used for about 30 minutes the entire week.

We made it to our condo about 11:00pm Vegas time. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Niece, and Nephew had come in the day before, so they were waiting for us. Amelia had been pretty sleepy, but when we got into the condo she was wired. She ran around with her cousins for an hour or so, but then we made her go to sleep.

We had a busy week of playing at the pool and going all over Vegas. We went to see Mystére, visited the shark reef at Mandalay Bay, made a trip to Fremont Street, and ate out several times. There was lots of riding in shuttle busses and waiting around, and Amelia did great through all of it. I am always amazed at how good she does when we are carting her around all over the place and getting her out of her routine.

We flew back Friday afternoon. We left Vegas at 4pm, and got back to Arkansas around 9. That time difference is killer. It is nice to have a weekend to recover from our trip. I was able to get all the yard work done yesterday and today we'll catch up on laundry. Yesterday was hot, but not miserable. Perfect day to go get a snow cone.

I haven't gone through our pictures from Vegas yet, but here are a few Instagram shots from my phone. 

New York New York on our way back
from the shark reef at Mandalay Bay.

The iconic cowboy down from the
Golden Nugget on Fremont street

The cowboy's girlfriend. 

I won't smile, but I will point at you daddy. 

Our Brief Voyage North

This past weekend we decided to have a very mini vacation and make the 12 hour drive home.  I took Friday and Monday off of work.  I was really wanting to take a couple days off of work.  The weekends weren't cutting it anymore.  So, the long weekend came with good timing.

We packed up our duffel bags last Thursday evening, then got to bed early.  Friday morning we were up by 4am.  We loaded up the dogs in the car and were on our way before 5.  We sailed through Missouri and Illinois only to get slowed down by afternoon traffic in Indy .  Our goal was to make it to Ft. Wayne around 5:30pm, and we just barely missed it.

While it was nice for me to get a couple extra days off of work, the main purpose of the trip was to meet Mr. Ethan Nathaniel Roy Miller.  Ethan is one of Ft. Wayne Indiana's newest residents, and subsequently the offspring of my best friend since 1988; one Justin Miller.  I am Justin's elder by 9 months.  Ethan will be roughly 7 months older than my developing child.  Undoubtedly, they will be best friends.  It was imperative that we introduce them to one another even though Baby Bidwell is still in utero.

We spent Friday evening hanging out with the Miller clan.  Saturday we attended a baby shower slash welcome-to-the-world celebration. The rest of the day we visited with family, and had dinner.  On Sunday we went to church, then grilled out for lunch at the Bidwell farmstead, then had dinner with the Pelfreys.  Monday morning it was once again time to hit the road and follow our still-fresh breadcrumbs back to Arkansas.  We drove about 26 hours in the matter of roughly 84 hours. Assuming we slept 7 hours each night that left us with 37 waking hours that were pretty special.  It also left us exhausted on a Monday night, with the knowledge we had to get up the next morning and return to work.

Overall it was a great weekend.  Not something we would want to repeat very often, but definitely glad we did it.  You can see lot of pictures from our weekend over at my wife's blog.  Yes, I am so lazy that I am not even going to post any of them here, but I don't see the point in duplicating efforts.

Back From Vacation

Each year I get two weeks of vacation.  A couple weeks ago I used one of them.  In normal fashion, Amanda and I made the 12 hour drive up to Indiana to spend the week with friends and family.  It was a good time; a nice relaxing week.

The week started out on Sunday with the high school graduation of my nephew Nick.  It was so weird being back at East Noble.  We grilled out that evening and had a bonfire.  It can't be a trip home without having an evening bonfire.  The week flew by, but we got in pretty much everything we wanted to do.  I got to hang out with Justin and Steph a couple times and see their great new house.  We went up to Amish-land and got some good food at the flea market.  Mainly I got to relax and spend time with family.