Vegas: We Have Arrived!!

Even though I’ve flown to Vegas 4 times now, this being my 4th, I am never fully prepared for the plane ride. It gives me major anxiety to where I need to shit a few times throughout the day. Maybe a little TMI?Anyways, we set out the door to head to my moms so she can take our car back home with her so we wouldn’t have to pay ridiculous parking fees for 5 days. We arrive at the airport, pick up our boarding passes and drop off our bags. Head to the security area and take off everything required upon entering their body scan machine. Some new thing they’re doing now, which makes me a bit nervous and creeped out because they can see your private parts. They say they are being removed by the TSA, but why are they still in Portland and Vegas airports?

Once we arrive in Vegas, we hop on the shuttle transport to pick up our car at Enterprise. This was kind of a breeze since we used the kiosk instead of waiting in the line for a half an hour. Although, they seemed to add on some more taxes and shit that weren’t included in our reservation prices. One thing I hate about Vegas is they nickle and dime you for EVERYTHING.

Now’s the time to pick up some booze at Walmart. Yes, Walmart of all places since it’s the cheapest booze place in town. We discovered that on our first trip since most drinks are $10+, even for wells, and you can get a $10 fifth at Walmart and some solo cups and walk around with your own booze. Bad thing is, you have to head to your room every time you want another drink though. But when you’re staying downtown, it’s not too bad. However, on the strip is another story since each hotel is miles and miles long, so you kind of have to get a drink in between trips back to your room.

We always grab a fifth of spiced rum, regular rum (since there’s a million places for slushy drinks and that’s what they mainly use [we bring flasks for this very reason]) and vodka for our 2 night stay downtown at the D.

We start heading downtown because there’s this Mexican place that was really good and inexpensive right across from El Cortez that a friend likes since we were all starving for food. Unfortunately when we got down there, we noticed that it was out of business. So then we park our cars and start walking down Fremont to find food. Normally we go to the place with the big beer mug outside for breakfast, but their service and food has gone down hill since the first time we ate there and so we tried to avoid that place, but then I was like well we can go to the place next door which was a fish house. I think they are owned and operated by the same people because the service and food was subpar still.

A couple of our friends head back to the airport around 9pm to pick up our friends that had to be fashionably late and check them in and hang out until around midnight on the strip where they were staying. After that, they head back downtown to chill with us some.  So there’s 8 of us hanging out in our room, listening to music, drinking booze, and around 2:30, 3:00 am we decided that we were hungry so we start walking down fremont which BTW is dead at that time. You won’t find the strip dead, but maybe that’s a good thing? We end up going into the Fremont hotel and find this 3.99 cafe for the Duece Breakfast, which features 2 pieces of bacon, 2 pieces of sausage, 2 eggs and hash browns. Not bad for the price when there’s nothing else opened!

Once we finished, we were all pretty tired and warn out for our first day, so we decided to head back to our hotels and pass the eff out.

Until the next day.

Bonneville Hot Springs Resort & Spa Review

Since my boyfriends family is from the Columbia gorge area, we knew we wanted to try the Bonneville Hot Springs Resort & Spa at some point as it’s only about a 40 minute drive from where we currently live now. My husbands brother had a free night certificate for working with the resort for business and decided to give it to us as a wedding gift along with a $50 gift card for anything in the resort. Good thing, because I wouldn’t have paid for their ridiculous $200-$250 nightly fee otherwise.

Upon pulling up and walking inside, it looks nice and cozy. Something you imagine a resort to look like in the gorge or mountain area. But the rooms for a resort need quite a bit of updating, especially with the price they charge. To me, it doesn’t feel like a resort, but I guess I have nothing else to compare it to because I’ve never actually been to one. The natural hot springs hot tub on the deck was nice, but the hot tub was far too small to be relaxing with anymore than 2 adults. His brothers and nephews stopped by to use the hot tub after work, which was fine, but there’s no way all of us could have fit.  I like that they don’t use chemicals that cause your skin to dry out and feel tight after sitting in there for a half an hour to an hour. And we got a nice view of the parking lot from our deck, which I figured would ruin any romantic gestures.

The bed was fine and comfortable, and the TV was a regular tube style TV. For a resort, that should be the first thing that’s upgraded. I compare the rooms to a shilo inn, but nothing that qualifies it to be called a resort other than the fact it has a spa room that charges an arm and a leg for a simple massage and beauty applications. We did not partake in that, since we didn’t really need it.

We decided to head down to the restaurant for dinner and noticed that the menu had about 6 things on it, none of which appeared appetizing to my husband. He asked the waitress if that was all they had and they said yes, but there was an additional menu for the bar area. I wouldn’t have minded having the salmon dinner in the dining room but we headed over to the bar after he decided that he’d much rather prefer something on their menu. The waitress kindly told me that I could order the salmon over there, but I didn’t want to make it too difficult for them, so I just stuck with the halibut and fries, which BTW were not cooked at the right temperature in the deep fryer since they were soggy and lacked flavor. My husband ordered the Bonneville bacon burger and he shared a bite with me and I was kicking myself for not ordering that or my salmon as I originally intended. The burger had so much flavor and was mouth watering. Probably one of the best burgers I’ve tasted and I am not even kidding! When we pass through the area to go visit his family, we’ll definitely be stopping there for lunch just to have a burger. YUM!

I didn’t get a chance to try out the pool that’s also filled with natural hot springs because check in time is after 4pm and we didn’t get there until 6, in which we had dinner and then enjoyed the hot tub in our room on the deck. I hear it’s really great, but not exactly big enough to accommodate a busy resort.

I was also hoping that the miniature golf would be under a covered area since it rains in the pacific northwest about 9 months out of the year. You’d think this would be a no brainer, but I guess they wanted it to feel authentic and outdoorsy in a wooded area. So unfortunately, since it was pouring buckets, we didn’t get to play.

Other than that, the experience was fine and I am grateful that I got a chance to try it out even if it didn’t exactly fit my standards of a resort. Guess that’s what happens when you’ve stayed in luxury hotels in Vegas.


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Holy Shit, I’m Married!?

“Good things come to those who wait”

Never in a million years did I think my boyfriend would actually propose, let alone want to get married just from the discussions we’ve had on it. We were not on the same page relationship wise until 6 months ago when he said something just hit him. I’m not going to question it, because I’m grateful that he finally came around.

In fact, he said this on his Facebook status… “you know once i realized i was ready to marry jenn after the other bad stuff when i was young, i wonder why it took so long. she is amazing and compliments me better then anyone could ever hope for. That is all!”

Left me in complete awe,  because I had been waiting to hear those words for SO LONG. December 9th, it will be 7 years of being together. That’s a long time to be with someone without moving forward in the relationship.

And even though he only gave me 1 1/2 weeks notice to get stuff organized for a wedding at Chapel of the Flowers, I let it slide cause I didn’t want him to completely change his mind if I didn’t go through with it on that Vegas trip. I didn’t want a big wedding at all, so having it there with 2 friends was fine with me. It was beautiful. Besides, they let family view it online, so both of our parents were content with that. I, however, was freaking out about that since I didn’t want everyone to view me looking and being awkward on their webcam. (it was public) I knew he would probably blast it on Facebook, so I told him no before he even got it out of his mouth.  But after all was said and done, it was fine. After you do something you’re nervous about, you always think to yourself, “what was the big deal?” I was so focused on the minister and the ceremony that I didn’t even remember the camera was on. Plus, you have photographers in there snapping your photos while it’s going on, so it was kind of hard not to stare at them going paparazzi on your ass.

I was also stressing about finding a dress in that short amount of time. I first started looking for something more casual, but couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I did a Google search for wedding dresses and came across David’s Bridal, so the weekend before we left for Vegas, we stopped by there to see what we could find. None of the actual white weddings dresses appealed to me, so I went with a wine colored bridesmaid dress. The only one that fit me perfectly ended up having a hole in the back where the zipper detached, so they hurried up and fixed that up for me before we purchased it. Whew, dress is out of the way!

The Chapel of Flowers was probably one of the most beautiful places to have a wedding in Vegas. It wasn’t run down, and didn’t look cheesy. Hell, I was wanting to do a drive-through wedding and I’m glad my boyfriend talked me out of it. Now I have these beautiful photos to remind me of that special day, where as the drive-through ones just wouldn’t have compared. However, the required tips for absolutely EVERYTHING shouldn’t have been pushed so hard. It makes the experience feel ruined, or tacky. Yes, I get it. You don’t get paid anything besides the tips you make, but you do about 20 weddings a day, so $60 (the recommended amount) x 20 is $1200 a day. Yes, you’re so hurting for cash. I didn’t want my husband (wow, husband, I have a husband!?) to give them the recommended amount, but he did it anyways. Oh well, it was a one time experience that I will absolutely never forget.

We didn’t get a chance to have a real honeymoon, but maybe one of these years I’ll get to go to an all inclusive resort in Mexico. First, I need to get my name switched over on all documents and accts then get my passport. This is going to be exciting.

How to Make an Alien Brain Hemorrhage Cocktail for Parties

How to Make an Alien Brain Hemorrhage Cocktail

What you will need: Peach Schnapps, Irish Cream, Blue Curacao, & Grenadine Syrup.

  1. Fill a shot glass half full with peach schnapps. 
  2. Gently pour Bailey’s Irish Cream on top until it is almost full.
  3. Carefully add a small amount of blue curacao.
  4. After it settles, add a few drops of grenadine syrup.


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Week 40 on Nutrisystem #NSNation Blogger Program

So I’ve been to numerous places looking for a dress to do this whole marriage in Vegas thing and had finally found one at David’s Bridal a few days before we leave for Vegas – phew!! To my surprise, I am now in a size 14 from an 18!! That was such an amazing feeling trying on dresses and not have to fit into my normal, usual size, and I have Nutrisystem to thank for this.

Today’s the big day in Vegas. We decided to go with Chapel of the Flowers since it was the most elegant place for the $400 price tag (ended up being way more than that with tips, hair, makeup, and photos). I am a little bloated today because we have been eating at some buffets. (Bad idea when you’re dieting and used to small meals) So now I feel like I am up in weight, but thankfully my dress is still fitting, just a little snug. I have no idea what I weigh, since I am still in Vegas and there’s no scales in the suite.

Starting Weight: 5’11” @ 230.8
Current Weight: 193 lbs
Week 1: -6.4lbs
Week 2: -1.8lbs 
Week 3: -1.4lbs 
Week 4: -1.6lbs 
Week 5: -1.4lbs 
Week 6: -1.6lbs
Week 7: -1.2lbs
Week 8: -1.2lbs
Week 9: -.7lbs
Week 10: -2.5lbs
Week 11: -.2lbs
Week 12: -3.2lbs
Week 13: +.6lbs
Week 14: -1.6lbs
Week 15: -3.2lbs
Week 16:  – .8lbs
Week 17:  +1.4lbs
Week 18:  – 3.6lbs
Week 19:  – 2.6lbs
Week 20:  + 1.7lbs
Week 21: + 1.3lbs
Week 22: – 2lbs
Week 23: – .4lbs
Week 24: – 1.6lbs
Week 25: + 1lbs
Week 26: – 1.5lbs
Week 27: – 1.5lbs
Week 28: – 2lbs
Week 29: + 2.8lbs
Week 30: – 2lbs
Week 31: + 2lbs
Week 32: – 2.2lbs
Week 33: + 1.8lbs
Week 34: – 3.2lbs
Week 35: + 2.3lbs
Week 36: – 2.5lbs
Week 37: – .2lbs
Week 38: – 2.8lbs
Week 39: + 3lbs
Week 40: Unknown
Total Loss: 37 lbs

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or by visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free for my review purposes only.  All opinions are 100% my own and were not influenced in any way 


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