VACATION: Tyler & THE show

Friday night was the most anticipated night of the vacation for me. I was looking forward and very excited to go see Tyler and his band, Nothing with Numbers, perform. This was a First Friday Las Vegas event and they were playing at the Bunkhouse.

We (Heather, Tyler and I) got to the venue a little early which gave us a little time to have a drink and visit before the band had to play. The weather was really nice and we sat outside for a little while waiting for the all the band members. I had not met any of the band members/friends before, just had heard a lot about them.

I was able to meet all the band members before the show started. What nice, stand out guys they are. I was mighty impressed with what a great group of friends Tyler has. I also met several of his friends that came to listen to the band. One of Tyler's clients, from the studio, and her husband (I think they are my age) even came to support Tyler. Heather's parents, Brian and Cindy, also came out to the show.

By the time the band was ready for the "sound check", Tyler had handed out earplugs to Brian, Cindy and myself and Heather had found us stools to sit on at the edge of the dance floor.

Then it was time for the band to take the stage.....and the alter egos of these five guys to emerge.

As I have said before, punk rock music is not my favorite genre of music but I loved this show! These five guys are so musically talented (they write ALL their own music) and they are incredible entertainers. There was never a dull moment during their six song set. They were entertaining and energetic...to say the least. I was also thankful to Tyler for giving me earplugs! :) I may add everyone in the band wears earplugs also. Halfway through the band's set I decided to pull one of the earplugs out (even with earplugs I could hear the band well) after I pulled the earplug out I was amazed at how loud it was....wow I was thankful that Tyler took care of his mom with those earplugs!

After the band played we were able to visit a little more before Heather's parents were kind enough to take me back to the hotel.

I have to tell you all, I am so impressed with what an amazing set of friends that Tyler has surrounded himself with. I can't tell you how many friends (his peers I may add) that I met, that gave me a big hug and said how much they liked, loved and thought the world of Tyler. I heard it time and time again. So many people were genuinely happy to meet me and share with me what a terrific guy Tyler is. Hearing those things does a mom good! I know everyone reading this know that I wholeheartedly agree.....I love that kid!

Just as the band, while on the stage, gave a "shout out" to the parents for coming to the show.....I in-turn would like to give a "shout out" to the guys in the band: Sean, Dave, Brett, Mikey and of course Tyler........thanks for the great time at the show.......thanks for taking the time to meet me....and most of all keep of the great work......I am proud of Nothing with Numbers.

The illness has arrived...........

I wish I could say that our family has dodged the flu bug this season but unfortunately it arrived last week. Never fails the kids start school and here come all the germs marching there way right into OUR home!

Logen was sent home on Friday with a fever, cough and body aches. He battled a 103 fever all weekend. When I called his doctor on Saturday they did not want me to bring him in. All they are advising is to treat at home. They do not want sick kids in the doctors office, HUH??? Isn't that where you are suppose to go when you are sick??? Thankfully, Logen was feeling better by Sunday night, except for the cough, but we made him stay home on Monday from school also. It was back to school yesterday for him and I am hoping he can get over the cough.

We all did a great job at staying away from Logen when he was sick....which I am sure won't get me my "mother of the year" award.....it's true though, your kids get sick, you need to take care of them, but you do not want to get sick either, whats a mom to do?!!

As hard as we tried......Well now it is Colin's turn....... he had a fever in the morning yesterday. We started right away with the ibuprofen and liquids. His fever has not been over 101 but he did start that nasty cough. I am so proud that he has done real good about covering his mouth when he coughs! We invested about $35 into the thermometer that you scan across the forehead....wow......that was definitely worth the money. What an awesome way to take your temperature no matter what age you are and is supposed to be the most accurate. Colin still has energy, which is a good thing.....I think! We all decided that he would not go to pre-school all this week. He just needs to get healthy again!

Dennis and I are so busy with work right now, I am really hoping that we can stay healthy through all of this.........

I guess this explains why I have been absent with the updates on my blog.....I am hoping to get caught up soon.....I still have a lot to share about our vacation to Vegas.

VACATION: The meals

One thing is assured we do not starve when we go to Vegas. And I must admit, we do not eat at fine dining restaurants either, not with a teenager and a little one tagging along!

One of Logen's favorite sandwich shops is Firehouse. Tyler first took us to a Firehouse sandwich shop in Florida when we visited him when he graduated from college. We do not have them here in Idaho and like I said it is Logen's absolute favorite sandwich place to eat. So you can imagine how much he bugged us to go there our very first day in Vegas.

This is only half of the sandwich that Logen ate, The Italian.....it is Logen and Dennis' favorite:

We also ate at a great restaurant, off the strip again, that we actually went to last year when we were in Vegas for Dennis' birthday. BJ's has fantastic food and the atmosphere is pretty cool too. Heather, Tyler's girlfriend, was busy with school on this night too so she was unable to join us again.

Sharing pizza with Uncle Dennis at a "new york" style pizza place in one of the many hotel shopping areas that we visited.

Another "famous" burger place that I have heard a lot about but never ate at is the In and Out. We suggested that we all meet to eat there on Friday night because we had limited amount of time. Friday night was when Tyler and his band, Nothing with Numbers, was performing for First Friday Las Vegas at the Bunkhouse venue. So we all met up together, including Heather this time. I am not a big fan of burgers but I like this place. The menu was super simple but the down fall was it lacked a kids menu. Apparently they have a "secret menu" that only true In and Out Burger fans are aware of. Heather ordered off of the "secret menu", I think it was called the protein burger. It did not have a bun but was wrapped in lettuce instead. The shakes were reasonably priced and they had a Neapolitan shake on the menu--never seen that before.

We only ate at one buffet while in Vegas. Saturday before we left we went to brunch at the Red Rock Hotel buffet. We had eaten here before also, and I will always go back to it. The Red Rock is off the strip and well worth the drive. It is a newer contemporary hotel and the buffet is reasonably priced ($10). This hotel/casino is so clean and beautiful, I would love to be able to stay someday but the rooms are far from reasonably priced. We ate well and enjoyed us all being together again.

VACATION: The Beginning

What a LOOOOONG drive to Las Vegas....When we went to Vegas last year we flew, I didn't realize I would get spoiled so quickly.....but I really did not like the drive this time. It was great to finally get to Vegas after 11 long hours. Have I mentioned what a long drive it was??? :)

Our first stop was the recording studio since it was still the work day for Tyler. He had brought Logen with him and said that Logen was helpful and had a good time. What a great moment to see Tyler and Logen. Logen had only been gone 24 hours but I sure did miss him. We had not seen Tyler since May, so it was so awesome to see him and give him a big hug. I sure love him........he is an incredible young man.....and he makes his mom very proud .

We all went to the hotel (New York, New York Hotel) to check in before we headed off to dinner (Dennis and I were starving)! Tyler had this great idea to valet the car so we would not have to drag our bags through the hotel lobby ourselves. That was the best idea ever! I did not realize until after the valet counted and labeled all our bags that we had 10 suitcases/bags! We checked in with no problem and went to our room on the 34th floor. I had requested a "strip-view" room and thats what we got. It actually looked out over the "Statue of Liberty" at the corner of the strip and Tropicana St.

Logen is pointing to approximately where our room is located on this skyline picture of Las Vegas.

When Colin saw the Excalibur Hotel across the street from the 34th floor view he immediately "recognized" the hotel as being "D World!", translation: Disney World! And this is what we proceeded to hear for the next 10 minutes, "Colin D World", translation: Colin wants to go to Disney World! Ohhh its going to be a long 5 days !

What a great view!

We went to a local restaurant near Tyler's side of town for some hometown cooking. It was a great meal. The food and service was good but most importantly it was wonderful for all of us to sit down for a meal together....its sure nice being with the boys in my life: Dennis, Logen, Colin and Tyler!

We called it a night fairly early because we were pretty tired from the long drive. Our hotel room was roomy and comfortable for us to relax, watch a little TV and have a good nights sleep before our vacation really got started.

Back from our Vegas vacation

We made it back from our vacation to Las Vegas VERY early Sunday morning....approximately 1:45 am! Our plan was that we were going to drive from Vegas to Salt Lake City late Saturday afternoon, spend the night in a hotel, then drive the rest of the way home (about 5 hours) on Sunday. About 1 mile from where we were to turn off to go to SLC, Dennis decided to ask what I thought about changing the plans and just drive all the way home (about 10 hours) right now. Since I had only 1 mile to make up my mind, I let him decide after all he was the one driving. As you can guess he took the highway through Nevada instead of heading up to SLC....hence us getting home at 1:45 am.

We had an absolute wonderful time in Las Vegas. I will update the blog in a day or two and share some pictures.

It was nice to come home but unfortunately the weather in Vegas was so much nicer than what I came home to.....ohhh no has the time arrived already that I start complaining of the cold weather.....its going to be a LONG winter!