Viva Las Vegas

Hey there. Sorry I haven’t blogged in so long, but I have been ultra busy over the last month and it takes a sweet eternity to upload pictures onto this blog, so I had to wait for a time when I had more than 30 minutes to spare.

Anyhoo...we recently returned from yet another trip to Vegas. I know, I know…we go there a lot (this is our 3rd time in the last 10 months…it’s possible we may have a problem). As usual, a good time was had by all (at least, I hope). This time, the party crew included Matt & Kelly Reynolds, Michael and Keri Roper , Heather Reynolds and her boyfriend, Rob, Mike Reynolds, Greg’s cousin Katie and her hubby Brian, and Greg’s uncle Dick and aunt Cindy. Oh yes, it was quite a crew.

We stayed at the Flamingo this time and I’ll admit I was a little wary of it at first because of the outside appearance. However, I was pleasantly surprised by our room (you’ll see pics in a minute). Plus, the location on the strip was great and the pool was pretty decent. And the price was unbeatable.


Here are some pics of our room:


Our bed....

The very large T.V....

And quite possibly the coolest part of the room, the bathroom. Notice the T.V. in the bathroom mirror. Pretty cool, huh?

Our first day there, several of us went to the pool despite some rather chilly temps (under 80 degrees…chilly for Vegas) and soaked up some sun while catching up with everyone. Later in the afternoon, we went over to Greg’s uncle Tom and aunt Carol’s house for a night of delicious dinner, hilarious conversation and, of course, pranks. Here are some pics of the evening.

Greg and I......

Under the "archway" of hollyhocks....

Matt and Kelly.....

Heather and Rob......

Kelly, me, Heather.....

Katie and Brian.....

Dick, Brian, Katie and Cindy.....

Rob and Brian each got to experience the decades-old Reynolds family traditions of the “ferret/chuckwalla” and “funnel” pranks. They can now consider themselves “initiated”. I have never had the pleasure of experiencing the funnel prank, but I did fall victim to the ferret/chuckwalla prank about 12 years ago.

I must say, Tom has the chuckwalla prank down to an art. He builds his victim up for an hour or two, talking about how the chuckwalla gets all “stirred up” around large crowds and how we have to let him settle down for awhile before he lets him out. Then, when the time is right, he puts on this heavy duty glove and takes the caged chuckwalla out into the grassy area of the back yard. The victim steps closer to the cage as Tom slowly opens it. Then, a stuffed monkey that makes a crazy monkey noise comes flying out of the cage directly at the vicitm who usually either screams or jumps back in horror. Rob is a pretty laid back guy so he just took a couple of steps back. It was still pretty funny though.

Below is a picture of Rob experiencing the chuckwalla for the first time.

Greg's dad has the exact same chuckwalla trap/cage at his house. When Greg and I first began dating, I fell victim to the prank as well. Only back then it was supposed to be a ferret in the cage and the thing that came flying out at me looked like an old, ratty raccoon tail.

Brian was the victim of the good old "funnel" prank. It started with Greg challenging Brian to see who could roll a quarter down their nose and into a funnel that was strategically placed in the waistband of their pants. Then, when they started rolling the quarter, Tom poured a cup of warm water into the funnel in Brian's pants. I couldn't get a picture of that one because I was too close to where Brian was standing and I was afraid of giving away the prank. It was really funny though and Brian was a really good sport about the whole thing. Good times.

Here is a picture of the whole crew at Tom and Carol's house....

And everyone saying "chuckwalla"....

Our second night there, we ate dinner at "Nine Fine Irishmen" at New York, New York. Here we are after dinner.....

Greg and I....

Then we went to see dueling pianos at a little bar in New York, New York. If you like music at all, then it's pretty much impossible not to have a good time watching dueling pianos. And these guys were great! The highlight was when all four performers of the night joined together to do "Bohemian Rhapsody". My favorite part was the a cappella section at the beginning of the song. The guys did a great job with it. Here's a good pic of them performing the song.....

One other thing you can always count on while watching dueling pianos is the fact that one or more individuals in the audience will make fools out of themselves to the benefit of everyone else. On this particular night, a couple of those people happened to be a 60-something year old lady and a 20-something year old guy who took turns giving each other lap dances to the song "You Can Leave Your Hat On". In their defense, the piano guys asked for two volunteers to do this. These two really took it seriously though. And, man, was it funny-slash-disturbing. Here is the evidence below....

Oh no she di'int. Oh yes, she did!

Our last night was pretty low key. We went to dinner at the Bellagio buffet and then Matt, Kelly, Keri and Michael went downtown while me, Greg, Mike, Heather and Rob looked around at Planet Hollywood for a bit and then went back to the Flamingo to do some gamblin'. All in all, it was a really fun trip. Can't wait to do it again!

And, apparently, we weren't the only ones who had fun. After I picked Jackson up from the kennel, he was so exhausted that I caught him sleeping while sitting up! And he was sporting a new, edgy scarf with blue and yellow "flame" pattern. Very hip.

And finally, an update on the adoption process. We finally turned in our dossier (i.e. heaps of paperwork) and it is currently in Thailand so we are officially on the waiting list. Woo hoo! That's a huge step and we are thrilled. Now all we do is wait....and wait....and wait :-)

Love to all,

Brooke