Las Vegas | 2019

Craw and I went on a much needed vacation at the beginning of July to Las Vegas. His parents purchased a timeshare last year and they asked Craw and I to join them on their trip along with both of Craws brothers and their significant others. Craws oldest brother and his wife were unable to go so it ended up being just the six of us (his parents, Cooper, and Allie).

Craw and I brilliantly decided to pull an all nighter the night before and we left our house at 2 AM headed for Waffle House. We flew out of RDU at 6:20 AM on Monday headed for LAX for what was supposed to be a 3.5 hour layover that turned in to 8 hours. We didn't think we would ever make it to Vegas but we finally landed around 8 pm Monday night. We lost an entire half day in Vegas because of flight delays so that was a big time bummer.
Once we got checked in to the hotel, we headed over to Caesar's Palace and ate at Gordan Ramsay's Pub & Grill (Hell's Kitchen). The burger was delicious and Craw got the shepherds pie and said that it was delicious as well. After dinner, we hit up the casino for a little bit before going back to the hotel and crashing since we had been up since 6:30 AM Sunday morning (36 hours).
Tuesday morning I was up bright and early thanks to the 3 hour time difference. I woke Craw up and we made a grocery run and then crashed at the pool for a couple of hours. The pool was extremely nice and the food was AMAZING! I also enjoyed my FAVORITE frozen cocktail, a Miami vice, which is a strawberry daiquiri and pina coloda mix. After the pool, Craw and I took an AMAZING 1 hour nap. It was seriously the best nap ever and then we headed over to the Rio Grande. The coolest part about Rio is the World Series of Poker was happening live and ESPN was covering it so we were able to walk through and see people that were on live TV playing poker.
After Rio, we ventured to Top Golf Las Vegas and had a BLAST! We had to wait about 1.5 hours for a bay to open up but they had plenty to do while we waited. We had so much fun and will definitely play again. After Top Golf we took an Uber to the Bellagio because we wanted to see the Fountain Light Show. It was beautiful and definitely a really neat FREE thing to do in Vegas. By this point, it was 10:30 and we realized we never ate dinner. We snacked at Top Golf so none of us were starving but we ended up going back to the hotel and eating pizza rolls courtesy of the grocery run Craw and I made earlier in the day.



Wednesday we woke up and went down to the pool again. I could literally sit out there all day. It was by far the highlight of the trip for me. That afternoon, we went with Allie and Coop to the New York, New York hotel to ride the roller coaster. That was a lot of fun! Then we went and ate the infamous In-N-Out and that was delicious. We spent time exploring more of the strip and toured the Flamingo hotel/casino. Craw and I enjoyed playing a little bit of 25 cent poker before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the night. We are not gamblers at all but did enjoy playing a few of the games here and there. You can't go to Vegas and not play at least once.



Wednesday night we had buffet meal vouchers at the Rio so we went there for dinner. After that, Craw and I headed back to Caesar's Palace to explore. It is such a HUGE hotel/casino and we still only saw a small portion of it. We ended up going back to the hotel and hanging out before calling it a night.
Thursday we had to check out of the hotel by 11 AM but our flight didn't leave until 11 PM that night. The hotel let us leave our bags while we explored more of Vegas. We went to eat lunch at the Hard Rock Las Vegas and went back to the New York, New York because that's a really neat hotel.  Craw and I also went and toured the MGM Grande. We headed back to the hotel around 5 and got our bags and headed to the airport.
It was a great, but fast, trip so we definitely want to go back.  We didn't get to do everything we would have liked but it was nice to slow down and relax for a bit and spend time with Craw. Next time, we plan to see some shows and eat at a few more well known restaurants.
 
We are so incredibly thankful for Craw's parents allowing us to go on this trip. We love every minute we get to spend with family and this was another memory we created together.
 
 
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Camden Ivey | 18 Months

This has been a crazy fast summer. I have so many things to catch up on but I wanted to get his 18 month post published before he turns 19 months. (LOL)
 
I have to say...18 months has been my FAVORITE age so far. I feel like he grew up over night and while I miss the baby stage so much, I love the fact he can talk to me and wrap his little arms around my neck for a hug. His personality and love for life is infectious and his smile instantly brightens my day.
 
Weight
 
He probably weighs close to 26 pounds now. He will get his 18 month shots next week but we had to take him to the doctor last month and he was so close to 26 pounds. I am interested to see what his height is because he is really shooting up.
 
Eat
 
Camden loves to snack and would snack all day if we let him. His favorite snacks are goldfish, apple sauce, and powder donuts. He would eat donuts every day if we let him so we try to only let him have them as a reward. He loves to drink as well so we try to give him mostly water but will let him have some juice every now and then. He has become a little picky with certain foods and he currently does not like rice, sweet potato, or chocolate. His dislike for chocolate caught us by surprise but he will instantly spit out a cookie if it has chocolate in it. I'm hoping he will outgrow this.
 
Sleep
 
Our boy loves to sleep and we are blessed! The only time he wakes up in the middle of the night is if he is sick with a fever which is completely understandable. When he gets tired at night, he will go and find his doggy and paci and walk to his crib holding up his arms because he is ready for us to lay him down. He also does great with naps. At daycare, he takes one nap a day from 12-2:30. On the weekends, we struggle keeping him up until 12 so we let him lead when he gets tired. He will take one long nap but occasionally will take 2 shorter naps if he is really tired. He is still an early riser and will usually wake up between 6-6:30. We leave him in his crib for a while but we have to watch him carefully because he will take his pants and diaper off.
 
Side note: He climbed out of his crib last week for the first time ever. We still had a crib wedge under his mattress because it helped when he was a baby and I think that is how he was able to do it. I have taken the crib wedge out but he still tries to climb up. We are monitoring him closely because I am NOT ready to change him to his toddler bed yet. If he continues to climb, we will be laying his mattress on the floor inside of the crib and see if that helps.
 
Milestones
 
Cam loves to talk. We have really noticed a big difference in his talking the last month. Most of the time, it is hard to figure out what he is saying but we are slowly figuring out his lingo. He does a great job at repeating words after us so I have a feeling he will be stringing words together very soon. He also loves animals and does a great job at making the correct animal sounds. His favorite sounds to make are lion, dog, cat, duck, elephant, lizard, and monkey. He has become much more independent in the last few months and he often times boycotts his high chair. He likes to sit at the table with us but refuses to sit on the seat cushion so he always throws them on floor before he climbs in the seat. Lastly, he has started sleeping with a pillow. We tried it one day for his nap because he was obsessed with laying on our pillows and he will not go to sleep without his pillow now.  
 
Likes
 
He LOVES Hank! In fact, he loves all dogs and gets so excited when he sees one. He is still obsessed with balls and I know for a fact he is going to be an amazing athlete one day. He even watches golf with his daddy and loves to take his plastic golf clubs and pretend to swing them like the pros do. He loves riding the lawn mower with daddy and swimming is still his favorite. In fact, we have to watch him carefully when he is outside because that little booger is fast and will go jump in his kiddie pool fully clothed when we are not looking. He's done that several times and thinks its hilarious. He loves any type of sing-a-long tv show and gets mad when we try to turn on something that doesn't sing.
 
Dislikes
 
He still hates having his diaper changed/getting dressed. It is a constant battle. He also gets mad any time we take something from him. Usually he will throw his head back and jump up and down throwing a temper tantrum but we just laugh and let him be because he gets over it super fast.
 
Clothes
 
Our skinny boy is growing. He is in mostly 18 month pants now and wearing 2T shirts. He is also in a size 6 shoe and I just bought him 3 new pairs of shoes this weekend. He is still in a size 4 diaper but I think we will be moving up to size 5 very soon.
 
Camden Ivey, you are something special. I tell your daddy every single day that we are so blessed that God chose you to be our son. I have started asking you how much your mama and daddy love you and you respond by holding out your arms and saying "this big." I want you to grow up knowing how special you are to us and know that we love you THIS BIG! Every morning you run in to our room to wake me up (because you know your mama is NOT a morning person)and you smile and say "MAMA" and it is the joy of a lifetime to hear you say that word. You are precious to me, sweet boy.
 








 
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