A Birthday, Anniversary, and Garth

So Ben's highschool friend turns 30 in July and his wife, Nikki suprised him with a trip to Vegas and wanted us to tag along.  And we always try to take a trip around our anniversary, this year was number 8!  And we had an "Appreciation Dinner" for the Teamates for Kids foundation that we are a part of.  So.....it made perfect sense for us to head on out to Vegas!  It was great to spend some time with Keith and Nikki.  We don't usually get any extended time with them.  We had fun going through all the different casinos, getting some time at the pool, playing beach vollyball, visiting the Pawn Star shop, and just enjoyed hanging out together!  When they had to go home, we had a couple more days left.  First, we rented a Honda Goldwing and road out to Hoover Dam.  It was super fun, however super HOT!  It was 107 degrees that day, but the heat coming from the asphalt had to be double that.  Man, it was hot!  Totally worth it thought to feel the wind in your hair, per my hubby.  Then the next couple of nights we had some dinners to attend for the Teammates for Kids foundation that is run by Garth Brooks that we are a part of.  Each year he has a big thank you dinner/concert, so because he has a show in Vegas right now, that's where it was.  The food and hotel were fabulous, we stayed at The Wynn, but his show, by far was the coolest thing.  It was just him and his guitar, literally nothing else.  The main idea of the show was him telling where he got his musical influences from, what his parents listened to, his siblings, he went through music of the 60s, 70s and 80s.  He sang music from George Jones, Merle Haggard, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel, Bob Segar, Elton John.  And the really cool thing was that he would play a couple lines from say, Bob Segar, and then go right into his own song so you could really hear the connection there.  It was just really neat to hear the stories about his family and his journey of becoming a musician.  We were so grateful to have some time away together.  I'm so blessed to have been married to my BFF for 8 years!  He's the best!  And after almost a week in Vegas we were refreshed and relaxed and ready to get back home to those little girls!

Our ride

Inside the power plant at Hoover Dam.  This little tour made my hubby so happy! :)

Hoover Dam, behind me is an old man, then behind him is the dam, then Lake Mead :)

Down below, the power plant

This was the other direction, looking south, you can see the Colorado River flowing at the bottom.  That bridge is new and bypasses the dam now.  Before you had to cross the actual dam to get to Arizona.  That had to be a transportation nightmare...

Lake Mead.  You can see on the rocks where its lighter.  They've had to lower the lake, it's only at 42% capacity, because they are expecting a record amount of snowmelt to be making its way down soon.  Sometime in the 80s they didn't do that and the lake was only 7 feet from the top of the dam!

Ben's liked the intake towers

This was our view from our room at The Wynn.  I can't even believe how fabulous this room was.  It had remote shades. Super cool. I never have stayed in, and probably will never stay in, such a nice room again.  Thanks Garth!

Heading to dinner and the concert