OK, and I'm back

OK, I promise this will be brief as I have a million things to do and want to get in bed at a decent hour (which probably won't happen b/c I have about 50 pages left in the Patricia Cornwell book I'm reading and I can't wait to finish it).

We had a great trip to Vegas but, before we left, Caleb and I definitely enjoyed the last week of Christmas vacation.

Caleb turned 13 months old on Thursday. The pic at the top of this post is from that day. (Disclaimer: Aaron, King of all Red-Eye Fixing, is still out of town so you're stuck with "devil-eye Caleb this week)

We had a few friends over for New Year's Eve. It was a good time and I really went above and beyond to make sure the house was clean. OK, that's not totally truthful, but I did take off the couch covers and wash them. When I was putting them back on, Caleb figured out that the couch, sans bottom pillows, was just the right size to climb up on. What a big boy!

Caleb was 26 minutes short of making it to midnight on Monday. But he did get his fair share of confetti poppers and blow-horns the next morning :)

He has really enjoyed his zebra this week. I think it's less about riding it, because he doesn't stay on long, and more about his new-found ability to get on and off easily, even when he's naked as a jay bird, like in this picture.

Aaron and I left Caleb in the capable hands of my parents and headed to Vegas early Saturday morning. A word to the wise...make sure your driver's license is current before attempting to get on a plane. (Not that I am speaking from experience or anything. Let's just say this girl I knew might have had to smile her way through the TSA line b/c her license was expired and she didn't have any other photo ID or her SSN card on her).

The stayed at the beautiful Bellagio hotel. Here's a view from our room. Despite waking up to a giant view of Toni Braxton's inner thigh, the hotel was amazing and the night view with the fountains definitely made up for it.

Across from our hotel was the Planet Hollywood hotel and casino, which will host the Miss America pageant at the end of the month. It was SO cool to see our friend Lauren, the current Miss America on several billboards as you came down the strip, as well as on this huge video screen at the front of Planet Hollywood.

You can tell from our pictures that it was unseasonably cold in Vegas, about 20 degrees cooler than it was in Tulsa, in fact. Sunday warmed up quite a bit though.

One of the coolest places in the Bellagio was this chocolate and pastry shop that had a 7 foot chocolate fountain. It had over 500 feet of clear plastic tubing and over 2 tons of white, medium, and dark chocolate coursing through it. Pretty yummy, huh?

Saturday evening we met Aaron's sister and brother-in-law for dinner at this TOTALLY INCREDIBLE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) restaurant called Craftsteak inside MGM Grand. Not that I am some food expert, but I swear I have never eaten food that good before. So if you're ever in Vegas and in the mood for a fabulous (and pricey) dinner, you have to go there!! After dinner, we went to see KA, which is one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. It was fantastic too, though it didn't even start until 9:30. That's 11:30 Tulsa time so Aaron and I were struggling to stay awake after eating a huge dinner and being up until 1:30 the night before to pack.

I arrived home late last night and only got one joke from my Dad about "the stitches went in fine and will be out by Thursday"...ha ha! I do have to say that Aaron and I both kept checking to make sure we didn't walk off and forget the diaper bag or pacifier or bottle or book or toy (or, or, or). I definitely was glad to see our little buddy and 36 hours was just enough time to relax without missing him too much.

Have a great week!