Vegas and More

What a great trip we had!! I really don't want to make this long so here's my short version of the trip....Matt woke up with pink eye the day before we left which HE thought would be a big deal but I think he made the best of it. We left for Shreveport Thursday morning to run some essential errands and then headed to the airport for our 12:55 direct flight to Vegas. After we arrived and got the rental car we headed to the Vegas strip and then checked into our room at the Venetian. It was very nice and we decided to eat at Tao that night. The restaurant was in the Venetian and it was REALLY good. Definitely recommend it. Afterwards Matt and Lou headed to check out the casino and I headed to check out the room...aka I was exhausted.
Friday morning we went down to Gold and Silver Pawn shop to check out our friends from Pawn Stars that we watch religiously every week. We love it!! Yes we saw the "old man" and his son but no I didn't get any pictures. They had just finished filming when we got there and I really wanted to ask for a picture with the owners but figured I'd get turned down:(.

SO here is most exciting part about our trip. While driving down the strip on Friday we saw a sign at the Encore that Garth was in town. We had no idea he was playing that weekend and Matt made a call. Turns out that you can only buy tickets through the Encore casino and not Ticketmaster due to Garth trying to cut down on ticket scalping. He announced Feb. 27th that he was doing minimal shows at this casino and the tickets sold out within an hour. I researched his site when we got back and found all this out. So anyway his Friday night show was sold out and we already had tickets on Saturday night at 7:30. Matt asked the hostess about his 10:30 show and she could get us 3 tickets but not sitting together. We decided to go for it!I have ALWAYS wanted to see Garth Brooks and remember when he retired in '98 how disappointed I was not to have had a chance to see him. More about that later. And yes I am trying to make this short. Sorry.

That afternoon I hung out by one of the pools and then we went to eat at Battista's that night. It's a hole in the wall Italian restaurant and another that I highly recommend. My parents ate there on their trip in February and it didn't disappoint.
So Saturday we basically hung out...we had to go and get our Garth tickets after lunch, show our ID and get wrist bands plus a stamp. All of this to cut down on scalping. Good for him!! Plus you could buy no more than 4 tickets at a time. I layed out by the pool again(enjoyed this tremendously as it won't happen again for a while) and then went to the room as I knew it would be a long night and then early morning as we had a 7:30 flight back to Shreveport.

We went to see Cher that night and all I can say is her concert 7 years ago was much better than her show in Vegas. I love that she is all about the glamour but it took about 5 minutes for her to change costumes between each song. She's still got it but for some reason I was less than satisfied with her performance.
We had plenty of time to get to the Encore to see Garth and hung out for a bit before getting to our seats. The theatre he performed in only seated 1,100 people so it was pretty small, all things considered. We were in the balcony but the seats were still pretty good. I noticed before he came out the only items on the stage were a stool with a bottle of water on it and a guitar. Then Garth came out with only a hooded sweatshirt on and baseball cap. No frills or thrills...just Garth. And let me tell you he put on A GREAT SHOW. Seriously, I had chills the entire concert. He was SO GOOD. He did some talking and started with the year he was born and what type of music was popular at the time: Haggard and Jones. He played some music by those men on his guitar. He had no band. Then he sang Here's to you Mrs. Robinson, Bye Bye Miss American Pie, some George Straight and Randy Travis among other songs as he went through the years and decades of popular music. His wife Trisha Yearwood came out with him and they sang a duet and then she sang She's in Love With the Boy and Walk Away Joe. Then Garth started singing his songs: Friends in Low Places, Shameless, The Thunder Rolls, The River, Calling Baton Rouge, To Feel Your Love(from Hope Floats), Papa Loves Mama..Mama loves Men, The Dance, and some more I may have forgotten. He was SO GOOD. I can't stop talking about it. We didn't leave the concert until 1 am. It was worth the entire trip. Really.

Our flight the next morning was early but we made it to the plane and were back in Shreveport by 12:00. We went straight to GiGi's to pick up Landry Grace and after visiting a bit made it to Ruston. Jake stayed with my parents last weekend and had a ball with them. OK...sorry for the typos and so forth. I am done. Finished. Hope I explained as much as i could.

Didn't take many great pics. You get the idea.

Matt and Lou getting on the plane in Shreveport. He was still nursing his pink eye.




Not a great picture at all but here is the pawn shop where they film "Pawn Stars". This was my only photo op there. Not the best but oh well.
Matt and Lou when we ate at Tao on Thursday night.

Saturday morning when we were headed out to see some Vegas sites.

Friday night at Battista's...good food!

If you go this man will come and serenade you. Warning: Have your money ready;)! He was so cute.
Couldn't bring my camera to the concerts so this was before we went to Cher and Garth.

Landry Grace and Jake love their shirts Lou bought them in Vegas. Thanks Aunt Lou! Flower beds are still being worked on....don't judge:)!!
Broke out the pool tonight. Still a little cool in the shade for sweet LG. Took her to the dr. for a quick check on her face today an she is up to 25 pounds. We're working on it! Jake still outweighed her at a year old(he was 26 pounds) but she's dainty and that's fine!

Had to include this picture. If you drive by our house between 3 and 6:30 on any given day, you will more than likely see my 2 driving their car in the front yard:

Love it! They are growing up too fast and it makes me sad that I don't have babies anymore. BUT not sad enough to have more!! Hope you are having a great week!