Vegas . . . again!

The reason for our trip was to surprise Cameron's brother Bret (who lives in St. George) for his 50th birthday. Jane wanted all the boys to come down and surprise him. After her accident where she broke her hip (4 weeks ago) she decided to tell him that Cameron and I were coming down with her to help her on the plane, etc. and we'd stay at my parents. But little did Bret know that actually 5 of his 6 brothers would be arriving also for the big surprise! Cameron and I kind of messed up since we got split up on the drive over (some of us rode Harleys) and we (along with Jeff, Kerry and Bonnie) went straight to his house (I knew how to get there). He was very surprised to see us and even more surprised at the restaurant to see everyone else who came. We had an excellent dinner at Red Dog (although we had a very overwhelmed waitress dealing with our large group) . The place served great bbq and everything else homemade and Cameron and I thought it was the kind of place that deserved to be on the Food Network show "Diners, drive-ins and Dives."

Bret with Eric and Corbin (in the back)

Afterwards, Cameron and I stayed at my parents house and stayed up visiting with them. Rain kept us there in the morning so my Dad was able to beat Cameron at pool for a while. Then when it started to clear we went to lunch with them and Kerry, Bonnie, Kellen and Jordan (nephews) at Players.

Then the 6 of us took of for our drive back to Vegas via the Valley of Fire. I'd never been through there and it was beautiful despite the colder weather.

The Harley guys - Cameron, Kerry, Kellen & Jordan

Lots of cool red, rock formations to see all around.

Kellen thinks he's such a stud!

We managed to beat the rain out of there and didn't get hit although it looked like it was coming!

The next day we headed down to Lake Mead with Kerry and Bonnie.

They had been to Vegas many times but had never ventured down this way or to Hoover Dam. Although we'd already been twice in the past 14 months we were happy to ride with them. (I might have been less than happy about it during the ride when we were getting blasted by wind!)
Then we once again we took Route 66 (Kerry and Bonnie had never been on it ether) so we took it to Oatman and back. Fun and beautiful but less enjoyable than our other trips. (Didn't help that I had a horrible cold this trip.)

When we got back to Vegas they treated us to dinner at Texas de Brazil which was a new experience for me - having waiters bring around huge skewers of meat and slicing you off the kinds that you want. Finished off with a great piece of cheesecake with a fudge layer and topped with tons of caramel! This whole trip really was based around eating some great food and riding Harley's. I think Cameron and I each gained 3 pounds (luckily I can just blame mine on being pregnant).
This was the view outside our hotel room at the Vdara. It is the Bellagio lake fountain show (I guess that's what it's called). It's the first time I've really got to watch it since usually we have just driven by when it's happening. I took a picture of our room (we stayed at Vdara 3 nights) but it was not a good picture and unusable but it was an awesome, quiet 5 star hotel that just opened and it doesn't have a casino in it (it's connected to the the Bellagio and Aria both which do) so it was nice not to have a smoky and loud lobby area.

We arrived home to happy kids who had been very well cared for by the babysitter. Mia decided to be extra clingy yesterday but who could blame her! She spent the long weekend playing with Mason over at Kip and Gigi's house.