Viva Las Vegas!

Matt and I were fortunate enough to get away for a long weekend to Las Vegas recently. We received a promotional deal from my Hilton Honors program and went for 4 days and 3 nights in Vegas. I had been there once for a work trip, but it was Mattie's first time.

The spirit behind the trip was our first mini-vacation away just the two of us, post-baby and to celebrate our 30th bdays (mine in Jan. and Matt's in Feb.). We had to cancel the trip the first time around because both Matt and Brinley got sick, but we were excited to actually be going in April.

When we got to the airport and were waiting to board our flight, both Matt and I were wrestling with intense feelings of guilt. We felt bad leaving Brinley with friends and family and sneaking away for time for ourselves. We worried that we were being selfish, but I think this is natural for all parents the first time they are leaving their little one for a few days. We ultimately convinced ourselves that we needed time alone, together too in order to be better parents to Brinley and so we went, all the while praying that nothing bad would happen and we'd get to hug our little boo again very soon!

We had a nice time relaxing, lounging by the pool, going to dinner, a Blue Man group show, visiting the Hoover Dam and even a bit of gambling! We had a pretty strict budget for gambling and actually walked away $300 up! So fun. Matt had a hot hand and won all of the money playing the wheel of fortune game. He keeps talking about a date night to Mystic to try his hand at it again.

And since we were there on a time share promo, we got to learn about the Hilton Grand Vacation time share opportunity and actually do want to purchase it someday. But since we went through the Dave Ramsey program we won't be pre-paying for any vacation ownership without cash in hand :)

I unfortunately got my phone stolen while we were there so we don't have a ton of pictures, but here are a few:

Our hotel was right next to Circus Circus 

Getting our blue on at the Blue Man Group!

At the Bilaggio

Hoover dam

One foot in Nevada and one foot in Arizona

Matt being Matt

Social butteryfly

Since we have been incredibly blessed this year to have Brinley home with Mommy and Daddy in the summer and early Fall and then Daddy and Grandma Ann in the Fall/Winter our little bug hasn't been around that many kiddos. While this also means she's not gotten a lot of flu bugs (which we've been super thankful for!) it means that she doesn't get to interact with little ones her own age a whole lot.

This didn't matter too much when she was super little, but ever since she's been moving around and exploring her world, we've tried to look for some new opportunities for her to have some social time. We started taking her to the nursery at church and she loves playing with the kids. The first time I dropped her off their the staff asked me if I wanted to stay to see how she did and from the moment I set her down on the floor she went straight for the toys and never looked back!

Matt and I have also recently joined a families with young children life group and while Brinley is the youngest little one there, we noticed she has no problem getting right in there with the big kids and playing.

Then last weekend, we had two different play dates on Saturday with some of mommy's friends and their sweet littles and Brinley had a blast! My good friend Taylor from college has a little boy born a week after Brinley and her good friend Jen has a little girl 5 days after that. The kids had a great time playing together, especially Brinley and Levi. They are both little bull dozers and were crawling all over everything, including each other and stealing toys back and forth. The are also right at the same level strength wise and would stand next to each other and hang on to toys, etc. Levi reached over and gave Brinley a hug and they both toppled over, it was so cute! Jen's little girl Ellee wasn't quite crawling yet and I think may have been a bit intimidated by Levi and Brinley, but I'm sure next time we get them all together she'll be in on the action!

Then on Saturday night, we went over to our friend Brad and April's house and Brinley got to play with their little girl Ali. At first I'm not sure if Ali knew what to make of Baby Brinley barging in and playing with all her toys, but by the end of the night they were good buddies.

It's just so cute to see her playing and interacting with other kids! She's definitely not shy and really loves to socialize! I think we will see a lot more of that in her future : )

On the move!

It was a miracle that we got them all looking at the calendar!

Having fun

Brinley and Ali!