Retro post: Happy Thanksgiving

I hosted Thanksgiving Dinner this year and made my FIRST turkey!

I love hosting holiday meals...why you may ask? Well I have all this beautiful china and a lovely dining room and I love when I get to put it all to good use. I also enjoy having everyone over.

We hosted Thanksgiving with my parents, Anna and Chris, Chris's mom and the Bilbreys.

It was a festive turkey day and I had much to be thankful for...including a delicious turkey!

Just look at my bird!

I got a new table linens for the occasion!

Everyone ready to dig in...love you all!

The photos above were taken with instagram as I was cooking and preparing...

below are the photos we had fun taking after dinner with my real camera, haha.

Hanging out

Escapades trying to take a photo with the little one...SMILE REAGAN!

We all got a good laugh out of it!

The evening was made complete when Samson made a new friend...he was really good with Reagan for the most part...in fact they were both quite hilarious.

This photo (above) makes me laugh.

Samson really was a gentleman...

He was very good with her even when she had his ball and was trying to play keep away.

The night wrapped up with a kiss for Reagan and goodbyes for everyone else.

Happy Thanksgiving...I am so thankful and blessed!

Las Vegas Vacations!

For our vacation this year, Adam and I headed to Las Vegas for a new adventure.

My parents were also headed there with Anna and Chris to celebrate her 21st birthday.

We stayed at Excalibur.

The first night in town, we got acquainted with the area and headed out to celebrate with Anna since her birthday began at midnight.

We checked out the strip.

Us four kids

A cool chocolate fountain

The hotels had so many beautiful areas.

My favorite hotel was Paris...surprised?

The fountains at Belagio...beautiful.

Then we headed to Paris for it's club The Chateau.

Anna getting IDed

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Anna and Chris...he bought the cute crown.

Sisters

Just the girls

The view where Anna rang in her birthday.

It was a fun filled night that wrapped up with Anna finding her room completely decorated!

The next day my parents rented a cabana by the pool and it was fabulous!

A definite highlight from the trip. The pool at the hotel was great and Adam and I soaked in lots of sun throughout the week.

That night we went to our first show, Criss Angel's Believe for a little magic.

After the show we had Anna's birthday dinner at a yummy Asian fusion restaurant called Rice.

Then the next morning, we had an amazing breakfast at Hash House a Go Go...AMAZING!

Mom and Brad ordered the chicken and waffles, which the restaurant is known for and it was AMAZING!

Anna also got to blow out her candles at breakfast with a biscuit...talk about a birthday week!

(Adam and I went back again at the end of our trip and enjoyed the chicken and waffles a second time.)

That night we went to see my favorite show from the week...Cirque Du Soleil's KA...it was really good and I would even see it again.

The next day, we took the car and drove out to the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.

On the way we stopped for a helicopter ride from my parents. The views were spectacular!

At the Hoover Dam

(Views from the helicopter...wow!)

Lake Meade

From the Hoover Dam, we headed to the Grand Canyon.

The colors were beautiful and so unexpected!

To wrap up our dessert adventure, we got a little lost coming back from the Grand Canyon. At first I was all laughs, joking about surviving in the dessert and how Man vs. Wild would have me prepared, but then as the thought started to sink in it kind of scared me, but I just kept laughing. Well the more lost we got, the more nervous I became...for some reason my brain thought we were going to run out of gas and wind up stranded in the dessert...and we literally drove to the END of the road (which was unpaved) and the next thing I knew I was hyperventilating, crying and laughing all at the same time. That's right a panic attack and my sister and Adam were looking at me wondering what in the world was happening. It was pretty hilarious looking back at it even as I took deep breaths from a brown paper bag, which my mom was oh so prepared with.

See the road ended at a river...so we had to turn around and backtrack a bit, but we finally made it back to Vegas all in one piece.

My parents laughing as we reached the end of the road.

The bright side of getting lost was great memories of this adventure and some fabulous photo ops.

We spent a couple more days in Vegas exploring the hotels and chilling by the pool and Adam and I even enjoyed some spa time. It was a great vacation!