I Love the Desert

We (The Husband, Myself, Mom, Dad, and Baby Sis) went to Vegas almost a month ago and I don't think I ever posted any photos!  I realized once I got home that I didn't take near as many as I usually do, but perhaps that was because I was having so much fun!  If you are ever headed to Sin City, let me know and I can give you a great heads up on places to check out. Here is a rundown of our week(mostly from an eating perspective)H!

Monday:

We got into town around 4pm Vegas time and checked into our rooms at the Signature @ MGM Grand. The Signature consists of apartment style suites located in 3 gold towers behind the MGM itself.  If you book at the right time, you can get suite for the same price as any regular room on the strip! We were pretty hungry to we walked (hiked) up the the new Cosmopolitan hotel and casino for dinner at Holstein's Shakes and Buns.  Dinner was fantastic and not overly priced as you would normally expect in a restaurant on the Strip.  I highly recommend the Rising Sun burger or the Big Fat Greek burger. From there we went straight to Fat Tuesday in Caesar's Palace.  This is a frozen drink chain in town and the drinks are good and inexpensive. Fantastic for those hot desert days.  We also did some sight seeing because this was my sisters first trip out to Vegas.  They had the conservatory gardens at the Bellagio decorated with a Memorial Day theme and it was beautiful!  The photo below was also a part of the gardens where everything is made out of flowers (think Rose Bowl parade).



All flowers and seeds!



There was also a train of marshmallows at the Jean Philippe Patisserie (sweets shop).

Tuesday:

We woke up Tuesday and had breakfast at the MGM buffet.  Decent food, nothing spectacular.  Later on that afternoon we stopped in Diego for happy hour to have some pork tacos, chips, salsa, guac, and sangria!  It was a great way to get the night started.  Later we met up with the husband's cousin Levi and his girlfriend Melissa.  We had a few drinks and people watched on the Strip. 

Melissa and I thought it would be classy to split a bottle of Moscato even though we didn't have cups or an opener (check out the cork floating INSIDE the bottle).

Wednesday:

Wednesday was my rest day.  I spent some time using the jacuzzi in the room and went to the pool for a while.  That evening, everyone went downtown to Old Las Vegas on Fremont Street.  We met up with Levi and Melissa at Sidebar which is a bar just off the main street downtown.  We had a few happy hour apps that were delicious!

Thursday:

On our last day in Vegas, the husband and I woke up early and walked up the the Paris to eat breakfast at Mon Ami Gabi.  It is a French restaurant (at the Paris, who would've thought) and has outdoor seating right on the Strip!  Jeff had a turkey eggs benedict and I had a chicken, apple and brie crepe.  Heavenly!  The funny thing was when we received our bill, we realized it was only about $10.00 more than what we normally pay at Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel around here!  After breakfast we kept walking up to the Wynn to have a drink (I promise it was almost noon by this point, we did a few stops in between) at Parasol Up, Parasol Down.  It is a small bar with an outdoor patio overlooking a waterfall and garden.  It was relaxing to sit in the sun and just talk for a while.  Apparently at night, there is a light/water show that runs every half hour or so as well!

The husband chilling at Parasol.

The famous MGM lions are always fun to watch whenever we walk by. This trip we found out they had cubs on exhibit too!  Look how tiny!

The little cub was as small as my dog!  Adorable!

So there you have it.  Las Vegas is perhaps one of my favorite places to visit.  I always take a list of things I want to do and never seem to get to all of them, so I guess that means I will just have to go back again soon!  Like I said, let me know if you want some tips and tricks for the city!  Also check out http://www.yelp.com/ for awesome local reviews (where do you think I find these places?)

PS. There is a new post on the cooking page! Click on the page for a new soup/stew and pasta recipe! Yum!

Almost a 'Royal' Day...

We're back from the ballgame!  It was a great (toasty) day!  The husband and I decided to get up super early and be down in St. Louis by about 10:00 am. We met up with our wonderful friends Beth and Kelly at the casino and played around for a bit till our favorite restaurant opened, Morgan Street Brewery!

A wonderful restaurant on the Landing downtown.  I highly recommend their Beef Melt Sandwich and BBQ Chicken Pizza!

 We all made it to the ballpark around 12:30 and found our seats. They just so happened to be right behind home plate about 20 rows up!  I've never had better. Shout out to Beth for bidding on them in a silent auction and winning them at an EXCELLENT price.

 

A little warm, but we finally found shade in the 5th inning.

  

The view from our seats. Perfection!

 

 Jeff had a few adult beverages at the game and I played DD for the day.  Just a tip for those of you who go to a game in St. Louis: they have a Designated Driver program  that you can sign up for and they give you a coupon for a free soda while you are at the game!  That's over a $5.00 savings. Check it out!



This is the husband's first empty glass. These are the new bottoms up glasses at the ballpark.  As you can see, there is a hole in the bottom of the glass with a magnet placed over the top.  There is a machine that fills the glasses quickly from the bottom and the magnet seals the liquid inside.  Check out the link above to see it in action!  The husband learned the hard way, though, not to mess with the magnet while the drink was still full! :)

Maybe I should have taken this glass with me to the game.  The husband and I are Cubs fans, but Beth and Kelly are Cards fans. 

The Royals were the visiting team yesterday and held their own until the 9th inning when the Cardinals took the game with a home run.  It was a pretty exciting game to watch and can't wait to go back (which will be next weekend again actually!).  PS. Check out the crafting blog for a new tutorial!!!  Learn how to make a fun loopy ribbon wreath for your front door!

Monkey Business

Just a quick hello! Check out the cooking page for the classic recipe: Monkey Bread!  YUM!  Have a great weekend!

Take me out to the ball game!

I couldn't be happier.  I will be seeing my first baseball game of the season (live of course) this weekend!  Now, it isn't a Cubs game, but St. Louis is so much easier to get to!  Any baseball game this late in the season will be just fine. After all that excitement, I get to turn around the next weekend and go right back. Maybe I should learn how to space out my plans a bit?

I just noticed that I haven't posted on the food blog in almost a month!  I was on such a good roll for a while.  I have a few recipes with photos ready to go but none of them 'look' tasty when I go to post them.  They are fantastic recipes, but I want to get some colorful photos to go with them.  If you hold on with me, I promise I have some still on my camera that will be around soon.

Otherwise it has been pretty quiet around here.  I've been busy painting glasses for my first show this weekend at Woofstock.  If you haven't seen my work, or want your own personalized glassware (shameless plug) check out www.facebook.com/whimsyglass.  Be sure to 'like' the page to be entered into the drawing for a free glass when it reaches 100 fans.  I've been in the 90's for quite a while now and need your help! THANKS!

You Don't Need a Green Thumb...

To grow your own herbs!  I just finished the second part of the Indoor Herb Garden tutorial on the craft page.  Check it out and let me know if you plan to plant your own! 

Crowdtap and Free Pants!

OK, so I have a lot of time while I'm at work some days to surf the web.  I participate in a few legit survey sites and they are fantastic. Who doesn't love free money?  Well, I recently found Crowdtap.com and am in love.  I've had to do quite a few surveys before I actually qualified for a product review, but it finally happened.  Last week I was sent 4 gift certificates (1 for me and 3 for friends) for FREE workout pants from Old Navy. The only catch is that I had to review the product after I received them.

Awesome, right? If you want to participate follow this link to get started! As for the pants themselves, they were super comfy and will be perfect for working out.  I got ones similar to the photo above and my friends got the long pant variety!  Thanks to Crowdtap and Old Navy!  I will be sure to let everyone know when more samples come around!

On another note, I forgot to upload the rest of the herb garden photos onto my flash drive so hopefully I will get to that tomorrow!  Be on the lookout for a new cooking post soon though!

Sorry, Friends!

It's been a few days... or weeks.  Did you miss me? I hope so!  Well, I'm happy to say that I have been on vacation (only last week, I have no excuse for the week before)! The husband and I went to Vegas with my baby sis and parents to celebrate her 21st birthday (which was in September, but this was her first break from school/work).

I promise I will update with some photos soon even though I didn't take nearly as many as I usually do :( . It was a great week though. We stayed at the Signature at The MGM and I highly recommend it.  The husband and I stayed there on our honeymoon and had to go back!  We had a junior suite room complete with a small kitchen and a bathroom the size of my bedroom at home.  My parents had the one bedroom suite which was bigger than the main floor of my own house!  No, we are not rolling in money these days. The Signature was originally built as 3 towers of condos/timeshares right around the time the economy went South.  This is a plus for anyone wanting a nice hotel room now because they book them for around the same price as a regular room if you know where/when to look!

Anyway, we did venture out of our rooms and did plenty of sight seeing and lounging by the pool. We also spent two evenings with the husband's cousin and his wonderful girlfriend.  We don't see them often so it was nice to catch up a bit. So there you have it, my pathetic excuse for not posting for two weeks.  To redeem myself I am going to start posting a tutorial for a little indoor herb garden on the crafting page.  Head over there to check it out!