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vegas, baby!

robbie and i took a middle-of-the-week trip to las vegas starting this past tuesday and ending thursday.

on the drive to nevada we saw this mountain and robbie pointed out that there was a face silhouette! we finally determined that it looked like abraham lincoln. can you see him?

when we arrived at the tropicana, we got out of the car and it was SCORCHING hot. i mean uncomfortable, nasty hot, even after the sun went down. thank god for air conditioned hotels.

we headed to a show and then hit the town after.

going through robbie's home (bally's. he's stayed there a couple of times and loves it.)

our first night ended with a couple winning hands at the craps table and a spilled eiffel tower drink. the tops of those suckers pop off like nobody's business.

on wednesday we decided to do as many activities as we could.

first stop: lions at the MGM. they were so cute and curious and spotty on their fur.

next stop: new york, new york for some arcade time.

robbie challenged me to an arcade battle: the one with the most tickets wins.

i clearly was the winner.

favorite, most intense game at the arcade. our case sucked.

we bought a ton of sweet toys with our tickets.

next stop: tropicana pool.

this was my favorite picture of robbie out of the entire trip. he looks like he's 6 years old.

after lounging at the pool for a couple of hours, we headed back to the room to get ready for the night.

rainforest cafe for a lovely (and VERY affordable) dinner.

(robbie really didn't want to take a picture with me next to the gorilla so i took one by myself. after i did that a couple more people took their pictures so robbie changed his mind and decided he wanted a picture too.)

we walked the strip after dinner and checked out city center.

after some more craps tables and roulette we ended the night with the water show at the bellagio.

the next day we went to the orleans and bowled.

next up on the adventure list: the move back to slo. two weeks and counting!

girls trip (plus brett) to laguna

in high school i was obsessed with laguna beach, the mtv show. i mean absolutely, positively steven-obsessed, lc-obsessed and kristin-obsessed.

ridiculous?

you know you were in love with it too.

today bretty, lauren, christina and i headed to laguna today for some steven, lc and kristin stalking. just kidding, we all know they moved to LA. (can you tell i'm obsessed with the hills too?)

the little ones- who, may i mention, are getting so big that i really shouldn't call them little ones... both ladies are taller than i am- played some paddle ball on the beach. a whiffle ball filled in for the lost paddle ball.

everything was going smoothly until the little ones challenged us to beat their 16 paddle rally...

this is what our paddle rally resulted in.

we eventually did beat them with a 17 paddle rally, which they followed up with a 30 paddle rally. needless to say, they kicked our butts.

a little while later, we did some tide pool exploring.

how cute are they?!

sir bretterson basking in the sunlight.

avoided these rocks. too much ow for our bare feet to handle.

found a pretty little lagoon to check out.

my hips > brett's hips

some brotherly/sisterly love.

some pretend sisterly love.

brett being the little mermaid.

my turn getting splashed (waaaay in the back of the photo).

the girls pretending to check out what was in the water while actually checking out the hotties next to them.

smooth, ladies.

i think the whole paddle boarding thing is really cool. if i hadn't watched shark week i think i could consider trying it...

stacking rocks... for a while it looked impossible.

NOTHING is impossible.

way to be persistent, brett!

love these rocks.

lauren found this funny, scared-looking face on one of the rocks.

laguna!

a few things i did but DIDN'T take pictures of (sad!) in the last week or so:

- the little mermaid ballet with becca at the redlands bowl. cutest thing in my entire life. thanks, bec, for always being full of fabulous ideas!

- venturing out on robbie's boat in san diego. i DID bring my camera, but forgot my SD card. daaang it. made friends with a pelican and a couple of fish.

- jon's 21st birthday in san luis obispo and moving robbie and jon into their new apartment. SWEET place, you two. michael, thank you for putting up with my friends references and for moving the heavy stuff.

next adventure: VEGAS!!!! robbie and i are scheduled to see holly's peepshow in a week!

shopping? online?!

p.s. i'm in love with this curtain. even though it's ridiculously over-priced, i'm pretty sure i'll be buying it near the end of summer to put in my new apartment!

who's addicted to online shopping?

i am.

SHARK WEEK!

i headed to san diego once again this week and stupid me- i brought my camera but left my camera memory card at home.

cool.

robbie and i watched a lot of shark week late late tuesday night (who doesn't love shark week?! it's the greatest week of the year!) and decided to take his boat out on wednesday to shark watch.

we saw zero sharks and zero predatory action. we did, however, see some cute sealions, a pelican, a GIANT jellyfish and tons of fish. we had a go at fishing and caught two tiny guys. we used one of the fish for bait to catch something bigger (a shark perhaps...?). something BIG definitely was biting on him. the poor little guy was mangled up by the time we were done using him for bait.

robbie's mom convinced me to stay an extra night and i got to see miss jemi and sir michael while we lit some sparklers and watched a movie.

another lovely stay at the moen's this week. next week, robbie's heading up here for some riverside action.

until then, enjoy shark week!!

presenting the new mrs. douglas!

it's official: page is no longer a schiller. as of last saturday, page is now a douglas!

the wedding week was very successful. page and ryan spent so much time planning their big day to celebrate with everyone and their hard work paid off. everything from uncle carl and kids camping in our backyard to the actual reception was a ton of fun. unfortunately, i was having too good of a time to take pictures (sad.) but i did get this shot of the "welcome y'all" poster that was originally from my parent's wedding. on the other side it says, "just married." so cute.

page was absolutely beautiful on her wedding day. one of the coolest experiences of the day was watching the reveal, when ryan saw page in her dress for the first time. all of the bridesmaids watched while page walked down a private little outside walkway at the mission inn toward ryan. when he turned around you could see it in his face how blown away he was. it was by far the coolest moment of the day.

(photo credit to david blakeman. this is one of my favorites. thanks, david!!)

the day after the wedding, tiffany, luke, robbie and i left the hotel looking like a shitshow. tiff and i were wearing our dresses from the night before and our hair was a complete mess. my wallet and keys were missing. luke put on his sunglasses and one of the lens had popped out and was missing. we were a complete mess. we headed back to my house for a post-wedding brunch.

the entire weekend was beautiful. thanks, page and ryan, for planning such a fun, memorable weekend.

once the excitement was over, i headed to san diego to visit robbie. he loves going to the del mar racetrack so we went there for the day.

before we went i asked him to explain the betting process. he started talking about trifectas, quinellas, win, place show things... i wonder why the bets are called such weird names.

robbie strategizing.

i bet on miss nikki c to win. stupid nikki c lost.

we lost. big time. but a few beers and a $13 margarita later, we were happy campers.