Viva Las Vegas!

Kyle and I had a blast in Las Vegas! Our time there went by fast, but we had so much fun. It felt very strange for us to be on our own schedule; sleep in as long as we want, eat where we want, when we wanted to, stay out late... but as fun as it was, we were definitely ready to come home to our munchkin! It was so HOT there, walking the strip at 11:00pm the temperature was still about 90 degrees. Even though it's a dry heat, I still wasn't used to it. Our last full day there we decided to lay out and relax by the pool for a majority of the day, but we eventually had to go back inside because the sun was making me feel a little sick after about 6 hours! Their pool was really cool, they had a large wave pool and a couple smaller pools. They even had a casino on the beach, Kyle and I played a little blackjack there one day.

The view of the wave pool from the casino

The cirque de soleil show we saw was really cool, Kyle and I decided that next time we go we want to see the Beatles one. Some of the stuff they did made us really nervous, we were squirming in our seats! Pretty amazing that they do it every night. We saw that show on our first night, and that day we also went to a really cool Titanic artifacts exhibit that was next door at the Luxor. Our second day there Kyle surprised me with a couples spa day, which was amazing! So relaxing... Then that night we decided to check out most of the hotels on the strip, which was a LOT of walking! We pretty much wiped out the positive effects of the massage we had just had. I was sore!

On the strip!

On our last day, a friend and co-worker of Kyle's and his wife flew in to Vegas and were staying at the same hotel as us, so we had lunch together and that night decided to go to Fremont Street at Old Vegas with another pair of friends. It was fun to hang with a group! Old Vegas was actually really cool, we were pleasantly surprised. Plus the gambling was cheaper! We had pretty much broken even gambling up until that point, but unfortunately lost that night at Old Vegas. But the next morning when we were killing time waiting to go to the airport, we decided to play a little roulette, and ended up winning! Made up for what we lost and then some, which was awesome. It was a great way to end our trip! I didn't take very many pictures actually, sorry... my camera is always out when Payton is around, but when it was just the two of us wandering around I didn't even think about it!

Even though we had a blast (and definitely look forward to going back!), we were excited to come back home. I wish I could say Payton was thrilled to see us, but she acted like it was any other day! She was like "hey guys!" Of course, she was walking the dogs, which she's been pretty obsessed with ever since we visited Gig Harbor for Memorial Day. I've been hinting to Kyle that Payton would really love a dog of her own, but so far I've been shut down pretty quickly :) Payton had such a great time with her grandparents that she didn't really miss us! Which, I suppose, is a good thing.

When I saw mom painting her toenails for her trip, I wanted mine painted too!

While mom and dad were away, I was having fun in the sun with Uncle Tanner!

Riding on Papa Scott's shoulders

Enough about our trip though, you're probably much more interested in Miss P! She's great, talking so much. It's very unusual that we can't figure out what she's saying, she's a great little communicator. We were at a wedding on Sunday, and she stood up and said "we go walk around?" and held out her hand. She walked around looking at all the people, happy as a clam! Kyle and I have been working on her manners lately. She's very polite, but she's also very bossy! She really likes to order us around. She will just say "Mom! Sit down!" or "Come here Daddy!" We keep reminding her that she needs to say please when she wants something, and she only seems to remember when we give her the "look".

My hair is long enough for pigtails!

Side view

Sweetie pie! 

Payton is also pretty possessive these days. The three of us went to visit some friends about a week after they had a new baby, and Payton asked if she could hold her. She was really great with her, very gentle, and was cooing "hi baby, hi" it was so cute! But then the baby spit up so I picked her up so she wasn't lying flat, and Payton freaked out! She was like "my baby, MY BABY!" Kyle and I couldn't believe how upset she got. We hope it's just a phase though, once she has a sibling she will really figure out sharing!

Payton and her baby :)

This week is Payton's last week at her daycare. She gets to spend the month of July off with Kyle, and in August we're starting her at a new preschool at a presbyterian church. I'm excited; it's closer to home and work, and came really highly recommended. I have a few days off next week though, we're going to my parent's lake cabin. Hopefully the weather holds out decent for us! Then the weekend after that Payton starts soccer (that will be a fun post!), and the summer madness will really commence.

Blog again soon!

I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I last blogged! It doesn't seem like that long, so I was taken aback when I checked the date of my last blog, and realized I needed to blog ASAP. I hadn't even blogged about our trip home to Gig Harbor for Memorial Weekend!

We left early Saturday morning, right after breakfast. It was actually a great car ride, we cruised! Made it in only 3 hours and 15 minutes, no stops. We put on the DVD player in the car, and didn't hear a peep out of Payton the whole ride. I felt kind of bad about letting her watch so much TV (I usually am pretty strict on how much she watches), but figured she wouldn't be watching a lot the rest of the weekend, and it wasn't a big deal if it kept her happy on our long road trip. In our opinion, it was totally worth it!

It was so nice to be home! Payton, who had never really noticed the dogs before or taken an interest in them, was ALL about them this time. She wanted to feed them, walk them, boss them around! She would start to cry if she thought my dad was taking them outside without her. She kept saying "this nice puppy" and going "Come on Kimi! Come on Kirby!"It made me kind of want to give her a puppy of her own, but Kyle pretty quickly squashed that idea. He said he would only consider a pet when our kids were old enough to take care of it... so no pet for the Hall house yet!

Soon after we got there Saturday I left Miss P with the boys so that my mom, Chelsea and I could go shopping for Chelsea's wedding dress. It was such a fun shopping trip! Everything she tried on looked amazing, but in the end she picked the one that was my favorite too. It was very exciting that she found the perfect dress on our first shopping trip, and I am so excited to see her walk down the aisle wearing it next summer! She will look a-maz-ing!

Saturday afternoon I got my hair done by my dear friend Elena, and it's always so good to see her. After Payton went to bed Kyle and I went out for some drinks with her and her husband Daniel. We had a blast! Kyle and I really treasure those moments when we get to have "couple time" with friends. We had so much fun!

Speaking of couple time... I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but Kyle and I are leaving this weekend for our first vacay since becoming parents! VEGAS BABY! We decided to take the plunge and book this trip several months ago, and it's just so weird that we leave in 4 days. We are so excited! We'll be gone from Saturday morning until Tuesday afternoon, so about 3 1/2 days. We have a lot to do to get ready! Well, mostly get Payton ready :) She will be staying with Grandma Sue Friday and Saturday night, and my parents are coming down Sunday and will take over until we get home. We feel very blessed to have such generous parents! Kyle's last day of school is this Thursday, so it will be a nice little celebration for his first full year of teaching. Plus neither one of us has been to Vegas as "legal adults", so we're excited to finally experience it. We won't be hitting the clubs or anything, we're too old for that (lol). We're just looking forward to relaxing by the pool, catching a show, eating good food, sleeping in and being lazy. We're staying at the Mandalay Bay, which I actually decided on because of their pool. Kind of random, but their pool is like a beach! I thought that was neat. They import sand from California! We're already booked for one show, on Saturday night; we're seeing Ka, which is the Cirque de Soleil show at the MGM. I've always wanted to see a Cirque show, so I'm really looking forward to it. We don't really have set plans for the rest of the time. We plan on having one nice dinner out, and the rest of the time just exploring and doing whatever we feel like. We've got lists of things we'd like to do, but there's no way we'll get to them all. I will try to take lots of pictures to show all our adventures!

Back to our weekend... Sunday was family day. We got to see almost everyone, which was wonderful. It was nice to just hang out and catch up. I will post pictures from our visit later, sorry about the delay. My computer is freezing on the page where I upload my photos, so as soon as I figure out how to fix that I will post pictures!

Payton is getting SO BIG! She's wearing a 4T in most things, and a size 8 shoe. She is really loving dresses right now. She keeps wanting to wear them to school, and I end up having to wrestle her into a sensible pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair is getting long enough that I can put it all the way up into pigtails or one ponytail! She looks older when her hair is like that, much less like a baby. She is talking so much, and imitates EVERYTHING. There are some moments that are so sweet, like this morning when she was pretending to change her baby's diaper (she informed me that her baby had "poo pooed"), and then there are moments like this afternoon when I hear her reprimand her father by telling him to stop picking his nose :) We all died laughing when she walked into the pantry at my mom's house and said "let's see, what do I have?" I don't even know where she picked that up, although it must have been from us! We are officially done with her high chair, and she is now eating at a booster seat at the table with us. She calls it her "big girl high chair". We found that she kept wanting to climb up there to be with us, and she is actually eating a lot better now too. She is VERY independent, and wants to be a "big girl". She wants to push the cart at the grocery store, sit on the big girl toilet, talk on the phone, put on her own shoes... you get the idea :) She is so much fun though. As much as I'm looking forward to my vacation, there is a part of me that is also dreading it. I hate being away from her for even a day, so I know I will really miss her. But I also think it's important that Kyle and I take the time for just the two of us, to reconnect away from the stresses of everyday life. It makes us better spouses, and also better parents!

I apologize again about the picture uploader, and will try to post some before we leave. Hope you are all having a great week!