Keeping Up With the Kocubinskis: Vegas, Baby!

For Max's second birthday, we decided to go to Las Vegas to visit my parents. My dad got a promotion with the state and has to move to Carson City (Nevada's capitol) in June. We wanted to get one last Vegas visit in before my parents make their big move, and figured Max's birthday was a great time to do it. Our friend Skip once again was able to dog/house sit for us while we were gone, which was incredibly sweet considering Jackson was on 4 different medications to be taken at different times of the day. Thanks Skip!

This was Max's SEVENTH time flying before he turned two. He is quite an amazing little traveler. And Evelyn is turning out to be a champ too. I'm always a little nervous when flying with little ones, but both kids did great! Evelyn surprised me by being a great sleeper when we travel. Max always had a hard time sleeping in new places, but not our gal! We got in on a Wednesday and spent a wonderful afternoon and evening with my parents. They haven't seen us since January, so they had 3 months worth of love and attention saved up to shower on Max and Evelyn. Matt's parents and sister Julia showed up on Thursday and we began a long weekend of fun, fun, fun!

We started with a trip to the Bellagio casino to check out the beautiful flower displays. They also had a greenhouse full of butterflies, which Max loved. Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. It's full of aquariums and is designed to look like a rainforest full of plants and animals. We had a great dinner and Max had a blast checking everything out. In spite of being up past her bedtime, Evelyn was a sweetheart and was very cooperative the whole evening.

The next day was filled with playing at the park and a visit to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay! Max just loves fish and once again had a fantastic time. We also went to the Statosphere so Matt could go on one of their "rides". Basically he jumped off the top and fell 106 stories. Not my idea of a good time, but Matt had soooo much fun. We all know where Max's fearlessness came from. On Saturday we had Max's birthday party, which was so much fun for everyone. My cousin Aaron even came to see the birthday boy. We had a Yo Gabba Gabba cake (the boy LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba), balloons, bubbles, pizza and presents. I don't think Max fully knew exactly what was going on, but knew it was all about him and had a great time playing with all of his new toys. It was a great day for everyone.

While we all had fun with the kids, it was also a great weekend for Matt and I since we each got some "grown up" time. Matt played at the Casinos at night and got to play some live poker, which he loves and doesn't get to do in Oregon. I got a whole afternoon of shopping and girl time with Julia, which was much needed. It was so nice to get out and just be an adult. I love, love, love spending time with my kiddos, but need to have a break every once in a while, and this was a great one. Plus, that night Matt and I got to go on a date! I had no idea how much I missed that time alone with my husband. It was a perfect evening. It worked out well for everyone since the kids had so much fun spending time with all of their grandparents while Matt and I were out.

Our last day there was Max's actual birthday, so we took him to the big park one last time and then took him to watch the water show at the Bellagio on our way to the airport. As Julia said, our kids are so lucky that pretty much everything we do is to show them a good time and make them happy. And we are of course happy to do it. We got home late Monday night with our content and exhausted children. It was one of our best trips yet. :)