Vegas Weekend

This past Monday my Mom texted me and asked if I wanted to go to Vegas that weekend.  She said James was invited too but she understood if he was too busy with school.  I was a little hesitant to go at first because I really like spending time with my husband and I didn't want to be a bother.  I did want to go visit my sister and her family for one last time before they move away.  Josh's graduation ceremonies were scheduled for Friday and Saturday so we drove down Thursday afternoon and headed home Sunday morning.

The bright lights of Vegas

It was really fun to spend time with the kids, who doesn't love Parker?

Seriously.  Just try.  He'll melt your heart in second.

Avery took this self portrait on the way to her dad's graduation.  She loves taking pictures.

She also loves taking pictures of her shoes.

And more of herself.

By this time she was pretty tired of the graduation ceremony...

A very blurry picture of Josh receiving his hood and medallion (or necklace as Avery dubbed it)

Congratulations Dr. Armstrong!

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The Armstrong Family

On Saturday afternoon/evening we went to the park so Avery could see the surprise my parents brought from Utah.  While we were walking she handed me this tiny flower.  Here is what she said,

"This flower is for Mina because Mina likes flowers."

I thought it was really sweet of her to give her unborn cousin a flower.

And Avery's surprise: paper lanterns!  Just like in Tangled!  She was pretty excited to see the lantern take flight. My Mom found them at Hallmark but you can also buy them on-line.

We were kind of hesitant to let another one go (we had a total of SIX) but we decided to do another one.  By that time we had started to attract a crowd.

A pretty good sized crowd.

One last lantern for Vegas.  We're saving the other three for next month when they visit before they move.

Up

Up

and away...

We headed back to Kaysville after a delicious breakfast of cinnamon french toast (thanks Dad!)  We stopped ONCE for bathroom breaks and to top off the tank.  Not too bad for a girl who is 6 months pregnant!

I love this picture of my parents.

We needed to get home so we could Skype with Elder Keller.  He's doing great! It was really nice to see him and talk to him.  Hilary and her family even joined in from Vegas via Facetime on Lauren's phone.  Technology is so crazy and great.

One last thing!

We went to dinner at this great place called Firefly to celebrate Josh's accomplishments.  It was really good!  It's a tapas kitchen which apparently means they serve appetizers and you share a bunch as a table.  The bacon wrapped dates were amazing.  Not so amazing was the time I tried to eat a toothpick when I was eating some salad.  I had left the toothpick from the bacon wrapped date on my plate and put salad on top.  Oops.

For dessert we got takeout from The Cheesecake Factory.  We shared three pieces between the five of us. We saw one of the Sister Wives.  I wasn't sure which one so I looked it up.  Apparently it was Meri.  I had to look it up afterwards.  She was just hanging out with friends and we aren't really the kind to approach people.  Unless we know them personally.  But that's just a normal thing to do.