Staying busy! Virginia had a cheer performance at a men’s Huskie’s basketball game at UW at the end of January. For Joe’s birthday we went out to How to Cook a Wolf. It was a very small restaurant, but we liked how it felt inside. Our drinks and food were all good. Rick and Cindy came to visit the first week of February. They hadn’t been out to our house since April, so we got to show off the work we had done on the fireplace and the driveway. I took Rick and Cindy to Pike Place Market because they hadn’t been in many years. The kids loved having them visit for a few days.
I finally made an appointment and had my hair dyed red on the 10th. My hair was lighter, but not as red as I’d hoped. Cat and Jared were in town for the weekend, and it was the super bowl, so we had them over to watch the game and eat a bunch of food. Blake heard they were coming and joined us as well. It was great to see them and hear about wedding plans for this summer. My dad flew in on Monday. We went to Snohomish to check out the antique shops. We went into Lamb and Co just to look around, and ran into Lindsay and Leslie. We had to take a picture to show mom, and the ladies were so nice again! I went back to the salon on Wednesday to have another round at getting my hair more red. It worked, but she did a balayge so it was more of a red highlight than red all over. It was fun, but still not exactly what I’m going for.
I took dad to the airplane museum on Thursday. We arrived as soon as it opened, took a quick break to eat lunch in the museum cafe, and I still had to drag dad out of the museum at 2:30 so we could pick the kids up from school on time. I think he could spend 8 hours in that museum if you let him! I learned a lot too though, it was a good time. Joe and I left Friday evening for our anniversary trip to Vegas. We got to Vegas at 9 pm and headed to the Bellagio.
Our room had a great view of the fountains and the strip. We got up on Saturday and went to Sadelle’s in the Bellagio for breakfast. I had made reservations weeks ahead of time, which was lucky because there was a line for walk ins around the building. I was worried it would be over hyped, but our food was really good. We walked around, played blackjack, played slots, and walked around the shops. I had seen online that there was a Dirt Dogs on the strip, it was right across from our hotel. We were so excited to get our hot dogs and fries that we loved in LA. We went back to our room for a bit to hang out. We had dinner at Bobby Flay’s Italian place Amalfi. It was a nice place. We saw Cirque du Soliel’s Love after dinner. It was so fun! They’d changed the show since mom and I saw it way back when.
Sunday morning we had massage appointments at the Bellagio spa. We had a 50 minute couples massage. Joe had never had a massage before, and I’d only had two prenatal massages from Massage Envy. It was amazing! After the massage we had a private pool, and they’d put out champagne and chocolate covered strawberries for us. It was so great. We felt so spoiled! I’m definitely going to try and get us massages every now and then. We had lunch at a mexican place in Ceaser’s Palace before getting a lyft to Area 51 to do Meowolf. We had timed ticket entry, so we thought it would be a fun chill experience. We were really surprised to find that even with the staff being strict about entry, the place was totally packed. The experience must have been sold out and the place was crowded. It was a neat idea, but there were too many people to really spend any time checking the rooms out. At least now we know.
We had reservations at Delilah’s for our anniversary dinner. Getting reservations was way harder than it should be! I called the hotel’s concierge months in advance to figure out how to get them. Even following instructions, the best I could get was a table at 5:30. We felt kind of lame going so early, but it was totally fine! The restaurant was beautiful, it was a massive room with art deco designs. I was impressed with all the details, the napkins had pretty flowers on them, the water glasses were very pretty. I had a French 75 cocktail, which I’d never tried before, but Joe and I both loved it. Joe had a fancy old fashioned. All of the food we had was amazing. The bread was some of the best bread we’ve ever had. We had pigs in a blanket, pot roast, pasta, and carrot soufflé. I was worried the place would be overhyped, but we were blown away by the whole experience. We will definitely go back next time we’re in Vegas.
We took a Lyft out to Fremont Street and walked around. Joe played blackjack at a cheap table for a while. He was able to keep going for a while, sometimes being up and sometimes losing, but we had fun. We always had fun people around us while we were playing. On Monday we grabbed breakfast in the Bellagio and walked around and played some more slots before it was time to check out. We had a smooth trip home and were happy to see my dad and the kids all in one piece. My dad flew home the next day. The kids were on midwinter break so we got to be lazy and hang out. We went to Chuck E Cheese one day, and Cougar Mountain Zoo. It was cold but we didn’t get any snow. The kids were bummed because they wanted to go sledding.
The kids are so grown up all of a sudden! They are helping me unload the dishwasher, they put their laundry away without me asking, they like to make their own breakfasts. It’s so fun! They can get on each others nerves, but are generally so nice to each other. They are both considerate, kind people. We found out that Luke tested into high capabilities for math, which means he’s above grade level. His reading has really taken off in the last few weeks. We have a lot of fun things planned for the spring, hopefully I manage to get back and update this before too long!
Rachel's Red Kitchen 