Last week, the four of us took a little road trip to Las Vegas. Andy's favorite band, Phish, was playing at the Sphere, so Andy bought tickets for himself for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. He thought it would be fun if the girls and I came with him to Vegas and did our own thing while he was at the concerts. We thought that sounded like a great idea! 

The girls were very excited for our road trip. They went to a the grocery store a few days before and STOCKED UP on snacks!

And they did eye masks while they watched a movie. These girls are always prepared! 

Ever since our last time in Las Vegas, Ellie in particular had really wanted to stay at the Trump Hotel. She said she wanted to be a "real American." Ha! All of her American dreams came true! 

When we got to the hotel, the security was crazy! Our car was fully inspected, and then we had to go through metal detectors to get into the hotel.

When we got into the lobby, there were people just standing around looking like they were waiting for something. I finally asked them what they were waiting for, and they said, "Donald Trump!" Apparently he had just landed in Vegas. We had no idea he was supposed to be there, but all of a sudden all of the security made a lot more sense. The girls and Andy went to the pool, and I decided to wait in the lobby just in case Trump showed up. 

Eventually Andy and the girls joined me, and we waited for about an hour. Andy ended up finding a local news station that had a Livestream of an event that Trump was supposed to be speaking at in Las Vegas. When he arrived at the event we knew he wasn't coming to the hotel anytime soon so we left for dinner. Later we found out that Trump went through a back entrance so no one got to see him anyway. We were glad we didn't miss out.

For dinner, we walked down towards the strip and came across this cute little Mexican restaurant that was having Happy Hour. Oh my goodness, we had a delicious meal!

Right after dinner, Andy walked over to the Sphere.

The concert was pretty amazing in the Sphere. Andy loved it! He said that right when the concert started, the whole room looked like it was turning upside down. I wouldn't have lasted a minute! 

While Andy was at the concert, the girls and I walked down to Caesar's Palace where one of the girls' favorite stores, Altar'd State, is. The girls each got one dress from there.

The next day, we got up and drove about 30 minutes away to Red Rock Canyon.

It was chillier and breezier than we expected, but thankfully we spent the first part of our time driving around the scenic loop and just getting out briefly.

It was a very pretty area,

 and we even saw some petroglyphs.

When we were ready to go on our longer hike, the breeze had died down and it wasn't too cold anymore.

It was really perfect weather for a hike.

We did a hike called Pine Creek Trail.

It had some beautiful views.

We were in the desert of course, but our hike took us by a pretty line of pine trees along a mostly dry creek bed.

That night we walked back to the strip and had dinner at a delicious barbecue place.

Then Andy went to his second Phish concert, and he bought the girls and I tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld.

I showed the girls an old Jerry Seinfeld stand up set before we left home to prep them, but it's so old that they didn't get a lot of the references. This show was obviously much more current and very funny!

Andy really enjoyed the second Phish concert. So many cool graphics and videos. This one made it look like they were in a video game.

As we walked back to the hotel after seeing Seinfeld, we stopped and took a picture with the Sphere.

Saturday morning we got up and had a late breakfast at the Silverton Casino, which is about a 15 minute drive away. I had heard that they had the best breakfast in Vegas. That might have been a stretch, but they were next door to a MASSIVE Bass Pro Shop, so we shopped there for quite a while. Then we came back to the Casino at noon because that's when they have mermaids swimming in their big aquarium. It turns out it was just one mermaid, but it was still pretty cool to see.

That afternoon, Andy got us all tickets to see "Paranormal-The Mind Reading Magic Show." It was a very small venue, and we were a little nervous about what it was going to be like. There was a lot of audience participation, and at one point I got called up. The show is hard to explain, but it was really good and we still have no idea how he did what he did. You can watch a lot of his stuff on YouTube. 

After the show, we got to do a little meet and greet with him.

We thought we were just going to be able to take a picture with him, but he ended up doing some of his "mind reading magic" on us. Again, no clue how he randomly knew our cats' name!

After the show, we went to Gordon Ramsey's burger place. Then Andy headed to his third and last concert, while the girls and I headed back for an early night in the hotel.

We left early the next morning to beat the traffic and ended up getting home in exactly four hours. It was such a great trip with good food, fun shows and a lot of laughing!

 

Last year we were flying home from Spain on Easter Sunday, so this felt like our first Easter at our new house.

And our first Easter without Joey.

For Easter dinner we invited a few couples and single guys from the seminary over. Hannah made these beautiful cupcakes. We got the free printable cupcake toppers here.

Meanwhile, Joey went to his girlfriend Sarah's house for Easter in upstate New York. They had a great time hanging out with her family for the long weekend.